To fulfil the expansion of free early education and childcare entitlements pledged under the previous Conservative government, the Department for Education has estimated that an extra 40,000 workers will be needed by September 2025 - an increase of 11.5 per cent on the number in the workforce in 2023.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that a 2024 report by the National Audit Office described this recruitment target as “ambitious”, noting that the sector only saw a 5 per cent growth in staff numbers between 2018 and 2023.

With responsibility for rolling out the policy now falling to the new Labour government, here we consider the recruitment and retention challenges and explore the impact on three Early Years Special Initiative (EYSI) programmes and their potential to address the situation.

Recruitment and retention in the early years

In 2020 the Social Mobility Commission reviewed workforce stability in England’s early education and childcare sector, finding six key obstacles:

• Low income.
• High workload and responsibilities.
• Over-reliance on female practitioners.
• Insufficient training and opportunities for progression.
• Low status and reputation.
• A negative organisational culture and climate.

Working conditions in the early years are often demanding, with employees facing long hours - 11 per cent of them work more than 42 hours a week. Just 3 per cent of staff in retail work these hours and 6 per cent of women in employment.

Opportunities for career growth are also scarce, with only 17 per cent of staff receiving job-related training post-entry. Low wages were highlighted as a “major cause of instability” because many staff struggled financially and then left for better-paid roles in retail or hospitality.

This is perhaps why, before the Covid-19 crisis, around 45 per cent of early education and childcare workers claimed state benefits or tax credits - higher than the national average for the broader female workforce (34 per cent).

These factors combine to create a challenging work environment in the early childhood education and care sector.

Impact of the staffing crisis on care

There is a growing crisis in the retention of qualified staff. The proportion of unqualified staff in nurseries and pre-schools has risen from 17 per cent in 2020 to 22 per cent in 2024.

This trend indicates a shift towards a less qualified workforce - a real concern when research shows that settings with highly qualified staff tend to achieve higher quality scores and their children typically make greater developmental progress.

With less well-qualified staff available, providers are forced to use agency staff and apprentices to maintain staff-child ratios, meaning that children may not have a consistent key person.

Parents acknowledge this issue. In a summary of evidence submitted to the Commons Education Select Committee, many emphasised that “children need consistency in their care”.

Three EYSI programmes

Efforts to address these issues are underway through the EYSI, whose programmes are equally subject to the impact of the pandemic on staffing levels, as we noted in our interim report in 2023.

The programmes’ efforts demonstrate how education providers are developing strategies to address current challenges.

1. Enhanced investment in recruitment

Ark Start is delivering an integrated early years education programme to help close the disadvantage-related attainment gap. It designed bespoke training to integrate new staff quickly. Training is ongoing, with regular CPD opportunities focusing on age-specific planning meetings, weekly supervisions and coaching.

These methods have produced impressive retention metrics, with no staff turnover this year (compared with a 28 per cent industry benchmark). A staff survey shows that 80 per cent of the team of 17 expect to stay for at least two years. While the EYSI funding has ended for Ark Start, it is continuing this work and assessing its impact.

2. Additional training sessions

The National Children’s Bureau’s (NCB) literacy-based home-learning environment programme, Making it REAL (Raising Early Attainment in Literacy), trains early years practitioners and teachers to support parents in developing their children’s communication and early literacy skills.

For the EYSI programme, the NCB tracks when trained practitioners leave a setting so that additional training sessions can be offered. Approximately 10 per cent of trained practitioners have left, but this approach effectively dedicated resources and ongoing support to settings, ensuring that the impact of staff turnover on programme delivery was minimised.

3. Streamlining flexible training

Peeple aims to nurture science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) skills in young children through its Exploring Together programme. Peeple’s training uses a modularised approach that combines pre-recorded and live online sessions, increasing retention by improving accessibility for busy staff.

Peeple’s scalable design shows the potential for improving participation in training. The seven practitioners recruited have maintained full participation with no dropouts during training or delivery.

Hope of improvement

Recruiting and retaining qualified staff is a challenge with far-reaching consequences for the quality and consistency of early education and childcare.

Yet with numerous EYSI programmes looking at ways to manage this impact, there is hope that things can improve.

However, only by stabilising and professionalising the workforce can we hope to provide the quality of education necessary for children’s optimal development and to meet the ambitious early education and childcare expansion goals.

Joni Kelly is a research assistant in the early years, inequalities and wellbeing team at the Education Policy Institute

The EYSI projects are funded by the Charity of Sir Richard Whittington, of which the Mercers’ Company is corporate trustee. The EPI is supporting it as a learning partner

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