Early years providers are increasingly relying on unpaid volunteers, an analysis of the childcare workforce by the Education Policy Institute has concluded. Researchers examining data on the early years workforce in England and found evidence of increased use of unpaid staff in all childcare settings. The heaviest use of volunteers was found to be in reception classes, where volunteers accounted for 15.5 per cent of the workforce. In nurseries 10.8 per cent of staff were volunteers and in non-school settings the figure was 7.8 per cent. The report warned that the use of unpaid staff could be damaging. “The increasing reliance of the sector on these staff raises questions about how they are deployed, their skills and qualifications, and their effect on the quality of provision for children,” it states. Read more.
You may also like
BAME Britons more likely to face higher living costs, study finds
Britons from black and ethnic minority backgrounds are among several groups facing disproportionately high living costs because of the likelihood of being hit by the “poverty premium”, academics have said. Read the full article on this link to The...
February 23, 2021
UK homeless deaths rise by more than a third in a year, study finds
Deaths among homeless people have risen by more than a third in a year, according to an analysis by a social justice group that found that almost 1,000 unhoused people had died across the UK in 2020. Read the full article on this link to The...
February 22, 2021
One in six new universal credit claimants forced to skip meals
Many people claiming universal credit for the first time during the pandemic were unable to put aside enough cash to save £10 a month, eat healthily or regularly, or pay bills because the benefit payment was inadequate to meet basic living costs, a...
February 19, 2021