The headline changes in average annual salaries since the pay survey 2004, with previous figures in brackets, are:
Average annual salary
17,038 (15,172) (+12%)
Private sector nursery
15,394 (14,040) (+9.6%)
State sector school
20,566 (17,439) (+18%)
Nursery manager/leader
18,900 (17,485) (+8%)
Nursery nurse/officer13,179 (12,680) (+4%)
Part-time hourly rate 6.90 (6.70) (+3%)
The average annual pay of full-time early years practitioners has risen by 12 per cent over the past 12 months to 17,038, according to the Nursery World pay survey.
But staff, their employers and trade union representatives in the private sector are not seeing individual pay awards running at this rate. 'Our members are not reporting anything like these sort of awards,' says Tricia Pritchard, professional officer with the Professional Association of Nursery Nurses.
Analysis of the figures indicates that generally the pay rises in private settings have been between 8 and 10 per cent, and the higher rate of pay awards reported in the survey is because of the influence on the average from the enhanced salary scales enjoyed in the maintained sector, particularly among the Sure Start projects and children's centres, and because of a steep jump in the pay levels declared by the survey's home-based childcare respondents such as nannies.
The average pay in private nurseries and nursery schools has risen to Pounds 15,400 from last year's level of just over 14,000, a rise of 10 per cent, compared with a reported rise of 18 per cent in the average pay for staff at local authority primary and nursery schools from 17,400 to Pounds 20,500.
However, this big average pay increase in the maintained sector seems to be due in large measure to the job roles of the individual respondents.
Proportionally more teachers contributed to the survey this year than 12 months ago and practitioners with teaching qualifications report that they earn on average 23,000.
At first glance it would seem that the average pay rises in the private sector of around 10 per cent are quite generous as, according to the Office of National Statistics in the year to June 2005, pay growth in the private sector, excluding bonuses, was 3.8 per cent compared with 4.8 per cent in the public sector, while inflation, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index, rose by 2.3 per cent in July.
Obviously, a percentage rise, however generous, depends upon the initial sum from which it is calculated. As Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, says, 'The pay increases indicated in this survey are positive, but overall pay is still at an unacceptably low level for day nursery staff. In addition to this, the private and voluntary sectors face the problem of losing staff to maintained nurseries, which are able to provide higher salaries.'
They also lose staff to jobs in supermarkets, says Tricia Pritchard. 'Over the years PANN has surveyed members when they resign from the union to make sure that they have been happy with the services provided by the organisation. Nowadays we ask more in-depth questions to find out why people are leaving the profession.
'Every single time it is pay that is causing them to leave and the massive hike they can get elsewhere. A member who spoke to me yesterday is going to be earning over 7 more an hour working shifts at Tesco than she is in early years.'
Practitioners and their employers alike wish the Government would acknowledge the financial pressures on the private sector. 'While parents continue to pay the majority of childcare costs, nursery fees will be capped by parents' ability to pay. This in turn forces the sector to pay low wages and the nursery workers in effect to subsidise the true cost to parents,' says Mrs Tanuku.
A nursery owner in north-west England who responded to the survey and put her salary at 6,500-8,500, says, 'There is no funding for private day nurseries and now that children go into the Foundation Stage the term after they are three, and not the September, we have struggled this year, as you can see from my salary.'
Another proprietor from the south-west says, 'I would like the Government to truly value the smaller day nurseries by direct funding for salaries, which remain appallingly low considering the enormous responsibilities.'
Tricia Pritchard says, 'If some of the smaller nurseries disappear during the next couple of years, then you have to wonder how the Government is going to deliver on all its commitments to children's centres and wraparound care. When these established nurseries fold we lose good, well qualified and experienced staff.'
The Government's family-friendly policies have also impacted on the sector's ability to remain sustainable, says Karen Walker, director of the Yorkshire-based Children's Place nursery chain.
'Nurseries are operating at lower levels of capacity,' she says. 'Whereas you used to be working on being well over 85 per cent full, some places are having to operate on about 70 to 80 per cent capacity. There are variations in capacity during the week. The reason is not just the number of places available - it is also the impact of family-friendly policies such as flexible working. I have noticed more mothers returning to work these days try to negotiate that they will work Tuesday to Thursday and not Monday to Friday. It can be a problem for nurseries trying to ensure you organise staff to cope with these patterns as more and more parents are opting to work flexible hours.'
Although the Government is committed to developing the quality of early education through its children's workforce strategy, Jane Haywood, chief executive of the Children's Workforce Development Council, says there is still a long way to go before that vision is realised.
'CWDC welcomes this survey by Nursery World,' says Mrs Haywood. 'As the responses to the Children's Workforce Strategy show, there is still much more work to be done to ensure the sector can attract and retain skilled staff to improve the lives of children and young people. CWDC will continue to work with the Government to secure resources that ensure childcare is both an attractive and viable career choice for individuals and is affordable to parents.'
The conundrum facing the early years sector is the old 'which came first, the chicken or the egg?' Which comes first, the highly qualified and motivated staff, or good salaries?
The Daycare Trust says, in its response to the consultation of the Children's Workforce Strategy, 'More funds are needed for the development of a truly ambitious workforce strategy and to address the strategic objectives of increasing the number of the staff, improving their qualifications and retaining them in the workforce.'
Tricia Tolley, proprietor of the Bright Kids nursery chain, says, 'Neighbourhood nurseries, Sure Start and children's centres are paying huge wages which we cannot possibly match. I am already worried about next year's increase in the minimum wage. I have put up my fees by 8 per cent to cover the latest increase in the minimum wage (the adult rate goes up from 4.85 to 5.05 next month.) But if I put them up any more, I'll be pricing myself out of the market.
'I do know of nurseries that pay all their staff the minimum wage regardless of their experience or qualifications, but I have a pay scale which gives them something to work towards as they develop and become more ambitious.'
Motivating staff is not the real problem, says Karen Walker. 'People do want to do training, gain qualifications and progress, but there is just not a pool of well qualified, experienced staff. In an area like West Yorkshire where we are surrounded by big conglomerations, there are so many other jobs to choose from. I just don't think this has filtered through to the training agencies.'
The low pay and long hours culture permeates every branch of the early years workforce. Individuals reported meagre pay rates, with more than a quarter of them earning less than 5 an hour.
The replies from childminders do appear to show a dramatic pay rise from Pounds 10,300 to 12,700. However, a spokeswoman for the National Childminding Association says, 'You have to remember someone charging people 2.50 an hour for a child could be caring for three children and so earning 7.50 an hour.
'When members renew we ask them to complete a pay and conditions survey.
According to the survey in 2003-2004, full- timers charged on average Pounds 2.66 per child per hour, and part-timers charged 2.79 per child per hour.'
Home-based carers, whom we listed as a separate grouping from childminders, also scored a pay rise year on year from 11,970 to 14,191, but this19 per cent increase seems to have been influenced by the participation of some nannies in the over 20,000 wage bands.
It says a lot about the sector that 20,000 can be regarded as a really good salary. As the husband of a teaching assistant, appalled at his wife's low wages, says, 'We have a Government that bleats on about minimum wage, fair pay and human rights, but at the most fundamental point in a child's development, this does not seem to matter. There is little incentive to attract competent people to become a teaching assistant, gain qualifications and progress in a true career when the reward is less than the wage of a cleaner.'