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Recruitment vexes providers

Recruiting and retaining quality staff was the main concern of delegates attending the Children's Workforce and Quality Services Conference last week, organised by 4Children. Children's minister Beverley Hughes addressed the conference and was challenged afterwards on training issues by delegates. Louise Huckerby from Sure Start Saltley and Ward End, Birmingham, said that many inexperienced students were coming into jobs straight from college, yet were supposed to deliver quality childcare straightaway. 'Some providers are just interested in bums on seats,' she said.

Children's minister Beverley Hughes addressed the conference and was challenged afterwards on training issues by delegates. Louise Huckerby from Sure Start Saltley and Ward End, Birmingham, said that many inexperienced students were coming into jobs straight from college, yet were supposed to deliver quality childcare straightaway. 'Some providers are just interested in bums on seats,' she said.

Bernadette Caffery, programme manager for Pen Green Children's Centre in Northamptonshire, said she was finding retaining quality staff impossible amid dramatic reductions in Sure Start funding. She predicted further redundancies in her area. However, Ms Hughes insisted that, in general, funding to Sure Start children's centres and early years was not reducing but continuing to grow.

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