95% of councils struggle to recruit female educators – despite Hunt's flagship commitment to build workforce

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Recruiting crisis in childcare industry threatens Jeremy Hunt's commitment to expand free offer and boost workforce work as new figures show the scale of the struggles across England.

The Chancellor announced in the budget a £4billion extension to free childcare for all pre-school children from 2025 – arguing that preventing parents from working was “harmful to our economy”.

But every English region is struggling to achieve this. recruit female childminders, according to new analysis from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) using data from the Coram Family and Childcare survey.

Nearly all (95%) of English city councils said childcare providers childcare providers in their area find it difficult to recruit educators with the skills and experience to do the job – and eight in 10 (80%) local authorities describe it as “very difficult”.

The analysis suggests that the recruitment crisis in child care is most acute. in the East of England, the West Midlands and the North East – where 100% of councils said providers found it “very difficult” to recruit enough staff.

The TUC said low pay was holding back the push to expand childcare - calling on Mr Hunt to stop ignoring the 'Cinderella sector' and introduce a minimum wage of £15 an hour for staff .

The Chancellor's March budget encouraged non-working mothers to re-enter the labor market during the crisis. cost-of-living crisis, allowing some families with children as young as nine months in England to benefit from 30 hours of free childcare a week.

But MPs on the Select Committee of Education warned in July that expanding state-funded child care ‘won’t work’ unless more is done to address sluggish funding and recruitment crisis which is hitting the profession.

While Mr Hunt's funding package will nearly double government spending on early childhood education by 2025, the committee said the sector is still faced a "serious recruitment challenge" and many providers had been forced to close.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced a major expansion of childcare services at Budget

(PA Wire)

The latest Coram survey shows that almost half (48%) of local authorities in England say that a or more pr...