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Section 5: Recruitment and Retention

The profile of the sector needs to be raised and professional identity established.

The Issues

5.1 Over recent years the early years and childcare sector has seen a significant level of expansion but employers in the sector, like those in other sectors, are having to compete to recruit and retain workers in an increasingly difficult, and contracting, market. As we know, the number of working age people and children in Scotland are set to fall over the coming years. Whilst in the short term this is an issue affecting recruitment and retention, in the medium/long term it is a serious issue for workforce planning. The issues around recruitment and retention and workforce planning are closely linked.

5.2 Some level of staff turnover is inevitable, indeed necessary, to keep renewing the workforce with fresh talent. However, other occupations and related professions where demand is also increasing will want to attract workers from the same traditional "pool" as the early years and childcare sector. These are general issues affecting all areas of employment, but, in addition, the early years and childcare sector faces particular challenges outlined below.

5.3 Recent statistics ⁴ about movement into and out of the workforce show that 6,500 staff were recruited between January 2003 and January 2004 and over 5,400 left in that year - a significant proportion of whom joined another childcare provider. Vacancy rates are currently 4.4% of all posts, which is higher than in the economy as a whole (3%). However, the rate may be inflated by the number of new childcare providers. Vacancy rates are highest in private providers and in rural areas.

5.4 The early years and childcare workforce has a distinctive profile. It is relatively young, qualification levels of recruits to the workforce are generally low and it is overwhelmingly female. This profile may well be unsustainable, let alone desirable, particularly in an increasingly competitive recruitment market.

The Proposals

Principles Underpinning Recruitment & Retention

5.5 We identified a number of straightforward principles that should underpin all recruitment and retention practice:

• profile of the sector needs to be raised and professional identity established;
  • With parents, who should be offered ready access to information to help them understand and value the benefits of early years and childcare provision, thus helping them to recognise and to demand high quality services
  • With other professionals to enable better integrated and collaborative working
  • With potential recruits who need to see a career in the sector as an attractive choice, whether leaving school or changing career
• need to attract the right workers to the profession;
  • candidates with the right potential and attitude.
  • competing with other professions for the right candidates in a declining pool of workers may mean that employers need to look at the pay and conditions they attach to posts.
• need to retain experienced, well-qualified staff;
  • Many staff who have been working in the sector for a while who have invaluable experience
  • Rewards for increasing responsibilities and skills would help keep staff and avoid costly recruitment exercises and discontinuity of services
  • Providing opportunities for professional development to workers
• need a workforce that reflects the diversity of the Scottish population.
  • with Scotland's declining population we need to ensure the sector is attractive to as wide a range of people as possible.
  • men are severely under-represented in the sector and also provide a positive role model to children and young people.

5.6 Raising the profile of the sector also needs action by a number of key organisations across Scotland. Careers advice agencies, local employers, central and local government all have a role to play. Different methods will need to be employed to reach our target groups. Careers advice agencies have a crucial role in providing information to potential new recruits. Other professionals need to fully understand the role that early years and childcare workers have in child development. Parents need to understand the benefits of early years and childcare provision to be able to identify and choose the best quality services for their child.

Sharing good practicein recruitment and retention across childcare partnerships. We know that there is already good practice in recruitment and retention around the country. Other sectors such as social work meet to share good practice. Scotland wide sharing of good practice could be facilitated by greater co-operation between employers.

A Profile raising campaignto project positive and consistent key messages about the sector to parents, other professionals and potential new recruits.

5.7 We identified two key areas where specific actions could improve recruitment to the sector:

5.8 Developing a professional identity and the status that comes with it, and the introduction of a qualifications structure that supports development, progression and career flexibility should increase the attraction of the sector to many potential recruits. However, we also need to ensure that the increasing professionalism and qualification requirements do not become barriers to attracting workers who have the potential to carry out the roles and responsibilities effectively.

5.9 Although pay and conditions are matters for individual employers, we recognise that increasing expectations about the roles and responsibilities of the workforce, coupled with increased expectations about qualification levels will understandably generate expectations of increased pay. Indeed, market forces may dictate that pay has to increase in order for the sector to compete for the workers it needs. Whilst many in the workforce currently have concerns about their pay levels, we are aware that there are also issues about consistency, the gap in pay, across the different areas of the sector (e.g. nurseries and out of school care) and across the different employers in the sector (private, voluntary and public). This Review highlights the common elements across the workforce, for example a roles and responsibilities framework is proposed, as well as existing common qualification requirements for registration with the SSSC, common inspection and regulatory requirements. There was one view that an implication of this could be national pay levels.

5.10 Clearly there are resource implications of increasing pay to attract and retain the more professionalised workforce proposed. This Review sets out an ambitious and optimistic vision for the kinds of services we want for children and the kind of workforce we want to deliver it. If this is what we want in Scotland, it is something we need to resource.

5.11 Many of the issues affecting retention of staff are the same as for recruitment - status of the workforce, career pathways, pay and conditions. A career pathway that allows movement between parts of the sector and across related sectors - vertically and laterally -will be attractive to workers by providing them with opportunities to continue to develop their skills and, where they want to, to take on greater responsibility. However, if routes from early years and childcare into other related professions are easier, there is a danger that we could lose some of the very experienced and well qualified staff to other sectors, particularly if we do not address the status and the related pay and conditions of this sector. Investing in staff training and professional development also plays a significant part in retaining more experienced workers by recognising the value that their experience brings to a service and by assisting them to continue to be challenged in their role and progress.

5.12 The most striking aspect of the current workforce is that it is almost entirely made up of women - only 2% are men. Improving the profile of the sector as a profession, and moving away from the perception that working in the sector is "just caring" or "women's work" will help address this. In addition, however, we believe that it will also be necessary to develop specific recruitment campaigns targeting men. This is an approach which has already been shown to be effective by the group Men in Childcare. Men in Childcare is a project that originated in Edinburgh in 2000 and is designed to attract and support men through childcare training with a view to them gaining employment in the sector. So far it has attracted hundreds of men into some form of training and has expanded to many other areas of Scotland. More childcare partnerships are looking at how they can mainstream this approach in their areas.

5.13 It is also important that the workforce reflects the diversity of the communities it serves. In particular, we need to ensure that black and minority ethnic workers continue to be included in the early years and childcare workforce, especially in communities with a high proportion of black and minority ethnic families.

5.14 We need to make sure that the culture of the workplace is one where all workers are comfortable. Often there might be a single man working in an otherwise female workforce. Part of the success of the Men in Childcare project is that it provides peer support for recruits and this approach could be used at a local level.

Status

5.15 As with the other aspects of this Review, the inescapable issue that underlies recruitment and retention is the status of working in early years and childcare. The status currently afforded this workforce does not, in our view, accurately reflect the level of responsibility and importance that workers can have in child development. There were a number of small consultation events around the country during the Review process. At those events, staff made it clear that one of the main factors they are seeking from the Review is a commitment to help raise the status of the sector. Staff want to feel valued for the important job they do.

5.16 The status of an occupation can be based on a number of factors. Firstly the occupation needs to be a large enough group to be noticed, and it needs to be readily identified as a distinct occupation or profession. Other factors contributing to status could include: competition to enter the occupation; high qualification requirements; a long period of occupational training; high pay; or work perceived as being of high social value. Many of the proposals already advanced in this report are intended to address these issues.

5.17 Changing the status of this workforce cannot happen overnight. We need to approach it from several angles. Crucially, we need to present how the workforce is becoming increasingly professional. So, we need to publicise the developing professional basis of the sector. We need to make it clear that working in early years and childcare is not work that anybody could do - it involves skill and knowledge. Improving status will take time and will depend on progress being made on the proposals to improve career pathways, develop a new qualifications structure, and the consequences that these changes are likely to have on pay expectations. In the shorter term, we have set out proposals for an awareness-raising campaign about working in the early years and childcare sector. Equally importantly, all those working in the sector should share their understanding of the importance of their work with parents and with the other professionals with whom they come into contact.

Consultation Questions

This section makes a case for improving the status of working in early years and childcare as the fundamental step to improving recruitment and retention of staff.

The Review proposes a number of ways to improve the status of the workforce e.g. increasing professionalisation of the workforce (more coherent identity to the workforce, increased qualification expectations), and awareness raising about the value of working in the sector and the skill involved.

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