Meaning HALF the Government’s target of recruiting 35,000 more people, would be met
Tuesday 19 November, 2024: To beat the shortage of childcare workers the time has come for a flexible working drive to expand part-time roles and flexible working options in the early years, says the social enterprise Timewise, following a two-year study.
‘Timewise Childcare Pioneers’ saw Timewise work with two major childcare providers to improve the availability of high-quality flexible jobs and help tackle the early years recruitment and retention crisis. The two-year action-research project was supported by JPMorganChase.
The final report: ‘Building the Early Education and Childcare Workforce of the Future’, published today, confirms levels of part-time work across the early education and childcare sector have fallen across the majority of settings since 2018-192, making it harder for childcare educators who have caring responsibilities of their own to combine work and care.
In the UK, early years staff are working longer hours than people in comparable occupations like retail and hospitality – which offer higher pay and less physically and emotionally demanding work. On top of this, 78 per cent of childcare providers say they are struggling to recruit new workers3. The sector is in the midst of a dual recruitment and retention crisis.
Yet, the government recently stated that 35,000 extra staff need to be recruited4 just to deliver the first phase of its expansion of 30 hours of ‘free childcare’ to eligible parents of nine-month-olds by September 2025.
The vast majority (98 per cent) of early education and childcare educators are female – making it one of the most important sectors for women’s employment in the UK. The largest proportion of staff (45 per cent in private and voluntary nurseries) are aged 25 to 395 so a large number need flexibility to work around children and other caring responsibilities.
Timewise is calling for a recruitment drive based around part-time and flexible working to help attract new talent to sector – as well as stemming the existing talent drain. Timewise also argues this should be a central pillar of a new national workforce strategy if the sector is to be competitive and sustainable over the long-term.
Latest available estimates suggest that 93 per cent6 of non-workers would prefer to get a part-time or flexible job than a full-time role. New Timewise analysis of official data finds that even returning to levels of part-time work that existed in the childcare sector in group settings five years ago (in 2018-19) would fill 17,850 of the 35,000 vacancies needed. This would help deliver the new entitlement and help meet high unmet demand for part-time work in the population1.
Doing so would help attract more experienced, knowledgeable staff and help improve the image of the sector as being compatible with raising a family of your own.
Ellie from Storkway Nursery, based in Greenwich, took part in the Timewise study. She says her new flexible working pattern has made her less likely to leave the sector (please see notes to eds for full case study7):
“When my manager recently proposed the flexible working pattern of compressed hours – four long days instead of five – I jumped at the chance. With this new arrangement I get to spend an extra day with my son before he starts at school next September. It’s a very precious time.”
“The way I see it, it’s positive all-round. If we can find a working pattern that suits our needs, we’re more likely to want to stay in our setting, which in the long run is really beneficial to the children. If we leave, the nursery becomes more reliant on bank staff which means lots of different people and the children can become very distressed.”
Timewise Director of Policy, Clare McNeil says:
“Even in time and resource-constrained nurseries, we have shown it is possible to create flexibility for staff which boosts morale and wellbeing. It is clear we need to increase part-time and flexible work to make the sector more competitive and to meet the staffing shortfall for the new entitlement. We are calling for flexible working to be placed front and centre of a new workforce strategy to attract more people into the early years sector and see early years professionals receive the conditions and respect they deserve.”
Sarah Ronan is the Director of the Early Education and Childcare Coalition (EECC) and says:
“As a society, we often expect people in early years to deprioritise their own lives and families in order to care for ours, but early educators have needs just like the rest of us – they have families, sports days, and health conditions. If we’re going to attract 35,000 more people into the sector and, critically, encourage them to stay, we need to innovate and take urgent action. Working with children is a hugely rewarding profession, but we can’t rely on the joy of that alone to build a workforce. We must offer pay and conditions that ensure the early years sector can compete with the rest of the labour market. Greater flexible working is one way of doing that and could be key in meeting the demand created by the expansion of funded childcare.”
Neil Leitch is the chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, which represents 14,000 members. He says:
“We know that flexible working helps support mental health which in turn builds a happier, more sustainable workforce. That said, there’s no doubt that making it work in the early years, where continuity of education and care is so vital and staffing pressures on settings are already so acute, presents unique challenges.
“What the work of Timewise does make clear, however, is that flexible working isn’t – and shouldn’t be – only for those behind desks. With flexible working becoming increasingly common across other frontline sectors, such as nursing, it’s vital that early years providers get the support they need to make this new way of working a reality, so that our hard working education professionals can reap the many benefits that flexible working can bring.”
June O’Sullivan OBE, CEO of the UK’s largest children’s charitable social enterprise, the London Early Years Foundation (LEYF) says:
“The Early Years sector needs fresh talent – and flexibility is the key to unlocking it. To remain competitive and sustainable, part-time and flexible roles must be a cornerstone of a new national workforce strategy. We’ve adapted to meet parents’ changing needs. Now it’s time to rebalance and build a future-ready workforce. Passionate people enter this field because they love children, but many are driven away by burnout and a lack of personal flexibility. Let’s give them the support they need to stay and thrive.”
For more information, interviews or case studies please contact Jo Burkill
jo.burkill@timewise.co.uk / 07960 472097
About Timewise
Dedicated to creating stronger, healthier, and more inclusive workplaces powered by flexible working and better wellbeing, Timewise is a unique social enterprise that brings together award-winning HR experts, researchers and psychologists to collaborate with employers, policymakers, and influencers. www.timewise.co.uk
* 1 Analysis is based on DfE estimates of 35,000 additional staff to enable the expansion of the childcare offer to September 2025. The calculations assume that the DfE latest estimate continues to be based on a full-time equivalent calculation of 35 hours per week. This need could be met by people working a range of hours per week. The ranges of hours per week used have been based on the 2022 Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers, which includes a table of working hours and proportions working part-time by type of provider, for several dates. The latest survey (2023) does not include this table.
2 Recruitment, retention and business planning (Frontier Economics 2022)
Levels of part-time work have fallen in the majority of settings since 2018:
Private providers 23% – 2018 22%- 2019 21% – 2021
Voluntary providers 51% – 2018 51% – 2019 48% – 2021
All group-based providers 31% – 2018 31% – 2019 28% – 2021
Nursery classes Levels are unchanged at 29%
Maintained Nursery Settings Slight increase from 25% to 27% from 2018-2021
All school-based providers Levels are unchanged at 29%
Levels of part-time work are higher in settings with fewer than 75 places, and lower in urban compared with rural areas.
3 Online survey conducted by the EYA of their membership in July 2024, with 880 responses.
4 Gov.co.uk, 17 October 2024. DFE estimates that: “…around 35,000 additional staff (headcount) are needed above the 31 December 2023 baseline for autumn 2025.”
5 ‘The early years workforce: recruitment, retention, and business planning’. Haux T et al (2022) Department for Education.
6 Timewise, A Talent Imperative, 2017. ComRes interviewed 3,001 UK adults online between 13th and 26th June 2017. Within these sub-samples: 1,250 full-time employees; 750 part-time employees; 500 self-employed people; 501 people who were not working but wanted to work. All participants were aged 18+. The data for full-time employees and for part time employees was weighted to be representative of the UK working population for those employment types; other data were unweighted.
7 Case studies The following are all nursery workers at Storkway Nursery in Greenwich, which is part of the Early Years Alliance (EYA):
Ellie: When my manager recently proposed the flexible working pattern of compressed hours – four long days instead of five – I jumped at the chance. With this new arrangement I get to spend an extra day with my son before he starts at school next September. It’s a very precious time. When I worked five days a week I barely saw him. Even with an ‘early’ early finish it was 5.30 by the time I was home and in winter this meant you could forget about having any sort of outdoors fun.
I have to think about my team too and the potential repercussions it has on them. This needs to be an arrangement that works for all parties. My room is the busiest room, so it’s just a case of being mindful of scheduling my day off when the least children are in. I don’t want to be at home leaving my team under immense pressure with loads of children. I would rather come in and be there to support with that.
It works well for building relationships with parents. I get to see them at drop off and home time most days which gives us time for a decent handover, I hear how their children’s evenings were, and I fill them in on the events of the day. All of this helps to build rapport and trust between us.
Me being here all day is great for the children too. Seeing the same people regularly, and having stability and consistency helps children settle, improves their emotional well-being and overall development. The way I see it, it’s positive all round. If we can find a working pattern that suits our needs, we’re more likely to want to stay in our setting which in the long run is really beneficial to the children. If we leave, the nursery becomes more reliant on bank staff which means lots of different people and the children can become very distressed.
Luke: Working 40 hours across 5 full days started to become challenging for me when I needed eye surgery. Often, I was using up 1/2 days of annual leave each time I had a hospital appointment, and I started thinking ‘is this really the best way?’
It prompted a conversation with my manager who at the time was also looking for someone to cover longer hours. We chatted and began to explore other working pattern options. We arrived at a trial of compressed hours – whereby I’d still do my 40 hours (getting my usual pay) but I’d spread it across four longer days (ten hours a day) leaving me with a full day to myself each week.
It worked well for me, immediately giving me windows in which I could have my hospital appointments and get on with all the other bits of life admin that are hard to do when you’re in a nursery setting (unlike some jobs it’s not OK for us to have our phones on us). I also significantly reduced my outgoings on travel and spent way less time on trains. It’s not a well-paid job. That’s not why people do it. You’ve got to want to do it and we don’t get loads of thanks so to be offered this kind of flexibility feels very rewarding, like a little something in return.
Importantly it also works well for the nursery’s staffing needs which is great. It means there’s always a qualified person which helps with ratios. However, I’m open to discussing things again should their needs change and with a baby on the way my working patterns may also need to shift again.
I think even more crucially it’s beneficial for the parents and children I work with. For me and my colleagues, making sure children get the best care they can is the main driver behind our work. Me being there from start to finish means children are getting good continuity of care, I’m able to observe them in their learning environment throughout the day and I’m able to build stronger bonds with parents – which is useful in certain scenarios, eg new parents who might feel uneasy at first – it can be helpful for them to have a familiar face each day.
In this sector I think people often think, ‘oh flexible working, that wouldn’t work’ but if you can I’d say sit down, discuss it, try something out, it might work, and it could even be more beneficial for everyone involved. Don’t overcomplicate it. Just make sure that you at least ask and try something because you don’t know what might come of it.
Ruth: Ruth reflects on a flexible working pattern she had for around five years that enabled her to deal with the demanding process of getting guardianship of her granddaughter.
When my nursery announced that they were looking for someone to be there at the start and the finish of each day I very quickly offered to switch up my hours. Instead of one 8.5 hour shift I swapped to a split shift doing 7.45 -1.45 then back again 4-6.15. This worked well for the nursery because it meant there was always someone to open up in the morning and shut up at night.
At that time, it worked very well for me on a personal level. I was in the process of getting guardianship of my baby granddaughter – which came with very complex and demanding schedules. Having two hours off in the middle of my day meant I had the time to focus on getting her to the contact centre and then bring her back to the nursery with me. It brought a certain peace of mind.
Like many babies, my granddaughter didn’t always sleep well, and as someone in my late 50s this took its toll! Occasionally I managed to grab a restorative nap in between shifts which meant I’d return to my second shift with a renewed sense of energy and enthusiasm – really important given the nature of my job.
Having that kind of flex also helps you get on top of your life a bit more. With the split shift arrangement I never had to book time off work to get a health appointment, to go to the hairdressers, deal with pets or all the other little bits of life that just add up and become tricky when they’re ignored.
It worked well for a specific moment in time but there did come a point where it became less helpful to the nursery. New team members and other people’s patterns meant they had the early and late sections covered, so we changed it up again. Right now, I’m back on one shift a day but I’ll soon be exploring the option of doing compressed hours. I’m happy to be flexible to suit the nursery’s needs as well. It has to work for everyone.
I do think one of the issues in this sector is that there’s not enough knowledge about the availability of different shifts. We need to talk more to each other about it. If we don’t know, we don’t ask.
