The report by the Early Childhood Unit, which was carried out on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills, said that there were problems in getting staff 'with appropriate skills and knowledge' and that teachers found it hard to move out of their traditional role, where they enjoyed higher professional status.
The latest planning guidance from the DfES on phase two of the children's centre programme suggested that 'co-location with primary schools could lead to better ways of using existing teachers which would solve this problem'.
Sue Owen, head of the Early Childhood Unit, said that teachers' concerns over pay and conditions and the entirely different work offered by children's centres may be deterring them. Many local authorities have yet to encounter this shortage, as they are converting existing maintained day nurseries into children's centres and already have teachers on site.
However, Diane Tinklin, children's centre support officer in Nottinghamshire, said that recruiting teachers for the county's children's centres in the first phase 'wasn't an easy task at all' and added, 'We have had a couple of false starts'. She attributed the difficulties to 'the relatively small pool' of potential candidates as the county council stipulated in its recruitment advertising that they should have had a minimum of two years in the profession and experience of early years.
'It is quite a challenging new role,' said Ms Tinklin. 'We want people prepared to get down on the floor of the day nursery, to be hands-on with the children and able to work alongside childcare professionals.'
She said she believed that a further deterrent to teachers joining may be because the posts are not full-time at this stage, with teachers expected to work for around three-quarters of the time.
John Thorn, head of early years and childcare in Nottinghamshire, said that teachers working in children's centres in the county receive an extra responsibility point which enhances their earnings. But he suggested that any hesitation among teachers to work in the new integrated centres could be because moving from a school classroom represented a major career move and required them to acquire inter-agency working skills.
Lucy Collinge-Hill, children's centre project manager in Birmingham, said that teachers had been recruited for the city's first eight children's centres, but she added that she could 'foresee problems' as the programme unfolded.
In Nottinghamshire and many other areas, teachers in children's centres are being paid according to standard teachers' pay and conditions, but there is agreement to negotiate with individuals on not taking their holidays as a block but distributing them throughout the year.
Gwen Ibbotson, a qualified teacher and deputy head of the Canterbury Children's Centre in Bradford, said she has four weeks holiday instead of six during the summer and makes sure that she and head of centre Sharon Hogan are not absent at the same time, 'because we feel that's beneficial for the service'.
The NCB report stated that during its consultation, there were suggestions that the children's centres programme could be used to change initial teacher training to fill gaps in teachers' skills, such as child development and working with the under-threes. The National Union of Teachers said that the Government could provide 'conversion courses' to help teachers make the switch from school-based teaching to working in an integrated centre.
