Ben Black, founder and director of emergencychildcare.co.uk, said, 'Wehad more than 150 advance bookings - double the normal number duringterm time. There has also been a lot of interest in the service withquite a lot of regional variation. Cheshire was quite busy, along withthe West Midlands and East Anglia.'
Mr Black added that bookings for the service, which can be taken asclose as one hour before the childcare is required, rose considerably asthe strike approached. While the service does direct parents tonursery-based care, most of the bookings were for nannies orchildminders, as they involved school-aged children.
Many nursery schools across the country were drawn into the stoppage,which resulted from the National Union of Teachers' rejection of a 2.45per cent pay offer on the grounds that it is below the retail priceindex, currently running at an average yearly rate of 4.1 per cent.
Outlining the principal reasons for the strike, acting NUT generalsecretary Christine Blower said that young teachers in particular faced'real term pay cuts', compounded by high housing costs, rising fuel andfood bills and the burden of paying back often substantial studentloans.
John Bangs, head of education at the NUT, was not able to say how manyteachers in early years took part in the industrial action but welcomedtheir participation, as it symbolised the union's desire for 'a properlyresourced early years phase'.
He told Nursery World that the union had 'consistently argued' forchildren's centres and nurseries to have qualified teachers as part oftheir team.
Mr Bangs revealed that the NUT's recent collaboration with the mainSwedish teachers' union, Laraforbundet, and the country's municipalworkers' union, Kommunal, on how to resolve 'the various areas ofresponsibility between qualified teachers and other professionals inearly years settings' had proved 'extremely useful'.
The NUT demanded in a briefing last autumn that the Government shouldclarify the relationship between qualified teachers and the new role ofEarly Years Professional. Mr Bangs said the NUT did not have any EYPmembers, adding that they are being represented by Unison and otherorganisations.
Philip Parkin, general secretary of the Professional TeachersAssociation, which was recently rebranded as Voice, and which has ano-strike policy, said, 'I do agree that the pay award of 2.45 per centis disappointing. It is a concern that teachers are being offered wageincreases that are not in line with inflation'.