Is the Government's childcare recruitment campaign really just a carrot on a stick until it tackles the issue of pay? Annette Rawstrone investigates
Margaret Hodge, employment and equal opportunities minister, is following Kitchener's World War One battle cry with an equally rousing recruitment campaign declaring that our nurseries need you. She has pledged to recruit 83,000 childcarers into the profession by 2003. It is two months since the launch but it is still uncertain whether her campaign is just fighting talk or will succeed in successfully rallying the childcare troops.
The campaign started in June with flash television adverts and glossy brochures quickly generating a substantial response. So far, more than 25,000 callers to the Government's recruitment hotline have wanted to know more about a career in childcare and more are expected to show an interest once the newspaper campaign gets under way.
Childcare organisations have also been receiving calls. The Pre-school Learning Alliance (PLA) reports a steady flow of interest. The Early Years National Training Organisation says that it is now receiving up to 100 calls a day for information, compared with around 25 before the campaign started (News, 10 August 2000), and the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) is also getting an unprecedented number of enquiries.
'When the campaign went live we had a huge flurry of activity,' says NDNA network co-ordinator Karen Walker. 'Nurseries are still worrying about where they can recruit good quality staff, but at least we are now getting calls asking about recruitment. People want to know where they can find jobs in childcare. We were not receiving such calls three to four months ago, so I hope this rise in public awareness will ultimately be good for our nurseries.'
But, as PLA chief executive Margaret Lochrie says, 'The success of the campaign should not be judged only by how much initial interest the Government is able to generate in childcare, but instead on how many people are able to realise this particular ambition to find affordable training and substantial employment.'
The carrot is dangling. But are willing recruits going to be able to enter the rewarding career they perceive? There is concern that the campaign is deceiving potential childcarers by portraying the job as pure fun and not highlighting other factors.
'I do not want to be pessimistic but unless the real issues are addressed, it is not going to be a success,' says Ms Walker. 'We should be looking at recruiting people of a high calibre into training programmes. But with some of the people who have been phoning up I've been worried about whether they have thought it through. Some of the enquirers have not given a thought to training but just want to start working now.'
Sue Husbands, managing director of Leapfrog nursery chain, believes the television advertisements portray childcare as an easy option. 'I can see they are offensive to childcarers because it is a very demanding job,' she says.
'The wrong message is getting across and, unfortunately, people are going to be entering childcare for the wrong reasons. I wish the DfEE had talked more to professionals before they launched the campaign. They would have come up with something much better and more accurate.'
Tricia Pritchard, professional officer at the Professional Association of Nursery Nurses, also believes the campaign has the negative effect of demeaning childcare. 'All our efforts to upgrade the profession and get it recognised, with a salary worthy of the work childcarers do, has gone. The campaign has fuelled the belief that anyone can do the job,' she says.
'The Government should be investing in training, further training and keeping the childcarers we have already got. More money should be spent on developing a career ladder, making the salary more realistic, tightening procedures and attracting more people back into childcare.'
With the Government's aim of recruiting 83,000 people, Ms Pritchard also expresses concern about where these people will be lured from and of what quality they will be. 'It does not seem right to be targeting parents. Having children does not make you a better carer,' she says. 'You have to want to be with children and have an appropriate way with them. Paedophiles also love children, and it is not just men who abuse. The Government has reassured us that recruits will go into registered childcare and be fully police vetted, so that is good. But who it attracts remains to be seen.'
Collette Kelleher, director of the Daycare Trust, defends the recruitment campaign as an important step in the right direction because it tackles expansion in the sector. 'It is early days for a campaign like this, but combined with other resources, it is another piece of the jigsaw that will enable childcare expansion to happen,' she says. 'The campaign is helping people to think of childcare as an avenue. It is a growth industry and people who won't have considered it before may now do that.
'What happens after all the people are recruited is down to other parts of the Childcare Strategy. There need to be good employers who are investing in training, pay appraisals and long-term prospects. To ask one campaign to do all of that is a little naive.'
But to have a fighting chance of success, many argue, the campaign must address the issue of pay, and the only sure way to boost and maintain the number of childcare professionals is to make the wage match the dedicated work they do.
One local authority nursery nurse from Lancashire believes that trained childcarers will continue to leave the profession unless salaries are increased. 'I have now been a qualified NNEB for nine years and have also worked very hard to gain an ADCE,' she says. 'I had to pay for my further training myself and, although it enhances the work I do, it does not make any difference to my low salary.'
She earns 11,000 and lives off a tight budget. Becoming a home owner was not possible while she was single. Now, once the joint mortgage and bills are paid, she has about 15 a week left over. 'Nursery nursing is a vocation, but it is also extremely hard work which demands a living wage,' she says. 'Until we receive that, capable, well-trained nursery nurses are going to continue moving to other careers where their skills are more rewarded.'
But extra money for childcarers' wages does not seem to be on the Government's agenda. NDNA's Karen Walker says, 'We were horrified to hear Margaret Hodge saying it was not a question of pay. Money is the issue, but unfortunately in private nurseries, to get a reasonable salary means that parents have to be charged so much more.'
Child Base managing director Michael Thompson thinks it will be necessary to persuade parents that the cost of childcare has to increase to employ quality staff. The NDNA suggests that reducing nurseries' business rates or tackling the issue of VAT would be other ways of enabling nursery owners to pay staff more.
While acknowledging the dire shortage of childcarers, Mr Thompson asks, 'If we expand the number of people working in the childcare sector by dumbing down quality and entry levels, then is that what we want? The answer is no.
'I applaud the effort to try to recruit more and make the job more attractive, but it has to be acknowledged that it is not going to be easy. Recruitment is just one of a number of issues which need tackling.'
It seems that Margaret Hodge still has a long way to go before she reaches her target in the workforce. To 'Be someone to look up to', as the campaign proclaims, is not enough. Childcarers want to feel valued by the Government as well as by the children they care for and educate.