Childcare: Recruitment

(asked on 22nd November 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education on 23 October 2023, Official Report, column 585, what the budget will be of the childcare staff recruitment campaign in each of the next three financial years.


Answered by
David Johnston Portrait
David Johnston
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This question was answered on 27th November 2023

The campaign budget for the 2023/24 financial year is £6.5 million. The budget for future years is still to be confirmed. The department intends to measure the awareness amongst its target audience of the following: the opportunities available in early years, positive perceptions of careers in the sector and consideration of applying for early years roles. The department also intends to measure visits to a dedicated website where people will be able to find out more about early years, and the number who go on to take action on the site, for example in accessing the Find a Job platform, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/find-a-job.

The departmental campaign strategy is based on in depth analysis of the target audience and has been reviewed by a variety of key early years stakeholders and setting managers and staff.

Overall, the number of paid early years staff has remained stable in recent years. Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey 2022 data shows that between 2021 and 2022, the total number of early years staff increased by 5,900 (or 2 per cent), from 328,500 to 334,400. The survey data is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/childcare-and-early-years-provider-survey/2022.

The Provider Survey publication included estimates for the number of staff that were recruited by group-based and school-based providers in the last twelve months, as well as estimates of the number of number of staff who have left these providers in the last twelve months. However, these estimates do not distinguish between those who have joined or left from other early years providers, and those who joined or left from outside the sector. The department will publish updated estimates for the above in December, as well as new data on the destination of leaving staff members. The estimates of the approximate number of additional staff, required to meet demand from the new entitlements will be published in due course.

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