Childcare is not a dumping ground for the unemployable

You'd think at least liking children should be a prerequisite. I'd hate the thought of children being cared for by people who are disinterested in them, it can't be good for their development either. Hopefully this won't be a continuing trend, as then all the decent ones will leave. Disturbing of they can't even read a book!

Yes this, when I worked at a college all the school dropouts could only access childcare/social care and hair/beauty courses. It is an easily accessible course for someone without gcses.

You realise that there isn’t £23 billion sitting there waiting to be claimed. If it was claimed, it would have to be cut from something else. Everything else has already been cut which is why people get frustrated because their kids are in unsuitable schools, they can’t see a doctor and they are still waiting for their rapist to be sentenced. Apparently they are being selfish though and don’t know how lucky they are.

It could be argued that if it isn’t being claimed then it maybe it isn’t needed.

I’m confused… what is your point? That SAHPs work harder than other parents?

Twice 🤣

Guess Sahms will be doomed to be Sahms forever if people keep moaning about "some who haven't worked since their early twenties but are now being placed in jobs"

Now we can see why its so hard to get back into the workplace after having a few years out for the kids 😒

Do you not need any qualifications to work in Early Years in the UK?

Having been on both sides you never ever can tell unless you have eyes inside the nursery and work there or have someone you trust working in there.

Working with babies and small children is grueling, relentless and incredibly hard work especially when they're not your own.

Imagine some nursery today in this heat without air cooling systems.

The government wanted children in nursery and there is a huge early year's push and getting staff teaching early year's . It's an excellent course and covers a lot but if your student has no compassion or empathy that's not going to make them a good person to be around children.

Re the person OP describes as a work colleague I can imagine that would be frustrating. As a parent I wouldn't mind as long as they were gentle and kind toward my child

Whatever that was.

Thanks for proving my point 🫣😆

No mention of the attitudes I read from SAHMs to other mums though?

I know the council run nurseries have staff with BSc degrees in childcare studies equivalent qualifications employed there. Others have lower qualifications but still need to be able to cope with the demands of caring for preschool children.

Interesting, maybe SAHP will get the credit they deserve if more people have to start doing this themselves. It's not surprising since so many on here anyway seem to think it's such an easy "job", I can't believe some of the attitudes I read on here from other mothers

YANBU.

I know someone who hates spending time
with their own kids let alone other peoples kids, when they did a TA placement and appiled for a job afterwards the school quickly declined as they spent most of the time moaning about the kids.
Yet now works in a nursery. childcare is like the new retail.

It is the same in the care industry and due to the incoming benefit changes and rhetoric I imagine it will only get worse.

I've seen situations where the care staff are almost as disabled as the people they are caring for, but because they don't score highly enough in PIP descriptor they are forced to work. And the care industry is where they will be thrown in to.

It's an awful situation. If we as a society can't support these people who are often unemployable through no fault of their own, then we will just have to accept substandard and potentiallly dangerous care for our children, elderly and disabled adults.

I love this post - and totally agree.
Children know the good ones and gravitate towards them.
They do an amazing job and we absolutely know and see who the good ones are, as do the children. Xx

This obviously due to the DWP drive to get people off benefits and back into work but if I had a child in a nursery under those circumstances I would have concerns for my child’s well being. Are these people properly qualified, are the DBS checked, have they any knowledge of paediatric first aid?
I think OP needs to express their concerns to management and the sooner the better.

I think possibly the public don’t realise how complex childcare is now. We do a lot of the work that other teams once did such as speech and language assessments, EHCP’s, autism awareness, social work, all while being up to date on the newest guidelines on how children learn while jumping through ofsfed hoops. You need to be capable of learning and training and doing the extras as well as dealing with toilet accidents, behavioural issues and just giving children enriching experiences. It isn’t like play group where you did some songs and gave them watered down squash.

With more parents needing to work younger and younger children need care and staff must be capable of keeping them safe and engaged.

No one wants the job.
Its crap pay, very stressful and the increasing task of ofsted standards and the unlimited paperwork is making the job awful.

our local nursery closed down recently because they couldn’t hire enough staff.

True its hard getting back into work after a few years out with the kids, you can see why when people are saying "haven't worked since their early twenties" as a reason not to hire someone

My friend’s nursery had an elderly woman who could barely walk and was expected to manage toddlers — it’s just not practical.

Everyone here seems appalled that disabled people are being forced to work, but on every thread about pensions the majority think elderly people should keep working and shouldn’t be claiming pension their state they can still work. So this is what will happen surely? There are many jobs that physically will not be able to be done well in older age. But yet large numbers of people on here think older people should keep working. So, what jobs will be available to older people who cannot do their previous jobs anymore?

I just don’t understand why everyone thinks disabled people should always stay on benefits as there isn’t any suitable work as every job is too complicated or not suitable, but older pension age people should be made to stay in work no matter what.

Individual nurseries can do what they like, they are private businesses. It's not a legal requirement and many nurseries don't require it for all staff. Just google it.

Then how come every nursery in my town requires a level 2 or level 3 qualification in childcare to work there?

I think some of the staff are working towards the qualification round here.

No, you can become a nursery assistant without a qualification.

If they required qualifications for everyone there would be so few staff the whole system would collapse.