Among the conclusions of a report commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills are 'Could do better' and 'Should try to be more imaginative', after it delved into the twin problems dogging the early years sector: recruitment and retention.
The study, by a team from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), argues that managers rely heavily on word-of- mouth when filling vacancies. So they tap into a diminishing workforce pool (generally young, white women), excluding those outside the early years network - men, older people, minority ethnic groups and people with disabilities.
'Many young women who work in the sector have low educational qualifications. A reliance on this section of the labour force is problematic, because girls are achieving higher academic results and therefore have a wider range of career options than in the past,' says the report.
Even when Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships and providers spend time on recruitment, to meet Government targets for expanding the sector and to maintain ratios, they expend less effort on retention. So staff leave.
'Basically, they are fire-fighting,' says Dr Heather Rolfe, a research fellow at NIESR who led the study. 'When they have a vacancy, they recruit.
They are not putting enough effort into retaining the existing staff because they regard high turnover as inevitable.'
While managers in all types of settings favour increasing the diversity of the workforce, their motive is to enrich the quality of children's experience, rather than recruitment. They see increasing diversity as a task for Government through advertising, careers education and guidance, and not a job for them as employers.
'Many providers did not even have basic practices in place, such as monitoring of applicants. Therefore, as a first step, providers need to be made aware of the important role they can play in increasing diversity within the sector,' says the report.
Dr Rolfe adds, 'We are saying childcare providers should be more imaginative in their recruitment. They tend to have a stereotype they look for: a young mother with children at primary school. There are a lot of people they do not often consider who are fantastic with children, such as the 50- plus age group.
'Providers often have stereotyped views of older workers, as do a lot of employers. Older workers have something they can bring to childcare settings because they have been parents and maybe are grandparents. For example, they are often very patient with the children. Managers worry that they do not have enough stamina but I don't really accept that. It is a stereotype.'
Unimaginative schemes
The report criticises early years partnerships' recruitment schemes for the over-40 age group as 'unimaginative, consisting largely of features on local "solid gold" radio stations. The potential of groups such as parents of children at secondary school, those caring informally for grandchildren and people taking early retirement had not been fully considered or investigated.'
However, the Bright Horizons Family Solutions chain has used the journals of professional associations to target mature employees. Group human resources manager Sharon Williams says, 'We wanted to target retired professional people who would love to work with children part-time. We advertised in the PANN journal for retired nannies and in police magazines for retired policemen.'
Rachel Ashford, human resources manager of the Leapfrog nursery chain, says, 'One of the problems for recruitment is that childcare has a low status and has been seen as "only a job for women". We are trying to move away from that.'
The chain has targeted men and mature employees, as well as running a series of advertisements in ethnic papers such as The Voice, the Caribbean Times and the Asian Times. Recently it collaborated with Remploy and Rathbone Training, which work with people who have physical disabilities and those with moderate learning difficulties, and took on three people in its nurseries.
Dr Rolfe says that providers advertise in their immediate locality because 'they think staff want a short walk to work. Nursery managers faced with recruitment lower their horizons and limit their expectations. They seem to lack confidence in the attractiveness of their setting for staff, but in our survey the childcare workers say there is a lot about the job that is very positive.'
Research team member Pamela Meadows, a visiting fellow at NIESR, says providers can also miss out by not offering enough part-time work. 'They think only mothers want to work part-time but students thinking of teaching as a career would greatly value the experience of working part time in after-school clubs.'
Everyday realities
The report's proposals for easing recruitment and retention problems do not match up to everyday realities, says Rosemary Murphy, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association. It lists increasing pay; reducing hours in private day nurseries; improving career structures; encouraging training; providing training during working hours; offering family-friendly policies, such as free or subsidised places for staff's children; and improved status, possibly through a change in job title to practitioner.
Mrs Murphy argues, 'We absolutely all agree that pay and status should be increased, in an ideal world. What we need are practical solutions. I am tired of listening to people saying what is wrong and how we should make it better, without looking at the practicalities.
'In an average nursery of ten to 15 female staff, you can have six of them pregnant in a year. How are you going to offer them all free or subsidised places for their children?'
But Dr Rolfe says, 'If managers improved their current practice they would retain more staff. The key issues are training and development, and not taking advantage of the goodwill of staff. Staff are sometimes expected to attend staff meetings after work, unpaid, or to take planning home.
'A lot of staff in the sector are very committed, but nursery managers can sometimes take advantage of them - not in some cruel way, but staff are often very willing. In the end, it takes its toll.
'I spoke to somebody who was a single parent. She was paying for childcare when she was going on training courses at evenings and weekends. That does not seem to be fair. Her employer was benefiting directly from her new skills and knowledge.'
The study says that while many managers were aware of the role that good human resources practices can play in retaining staff, their own practices were poor, particularly in relation to induction, staff appraisal and development.
The Bright Horizons chain has made efforts to create a work-life balance culture with flexible working options. Mrs Williams explains, 'We are now trying to implement a retention strategy. We are reviewing our induction process throughout the organisation. When people join a nursery they hit the ground running. We are trying to address the issue. If people do not get settled in and do not feel comfortable within a few days, they can have negative feelings about the job and will move on. We have had an unofficial 'buddy' system which we are trying to formalise, to give the buddies support and training.'
Ms Meadows has written best practice guides, to be published by the DfES later this summer, giving both partnerships and providers ideas on addressing recruitment and retention problems and listing sources of information and help. 'Managers know they can go to their accountant for financial advice, or to a lawyer for legal advice, but they do not necessarily know there are sources of help and advice on how to deal with people.'
More information
* Recruitment and Retention of Childcare, Early Years and Play Workers: Research Study (Brief No: 409) by Helen Rolfe, Hilary Metcalf, Tracy Anderson and Pamela Meadows of the National Institute of Economics and Social Research www.dfes.gov.uk/research