Another day, another ‘ludicrous’ half-baked electioneering stunt from the desperate Tories

The Conservative Party has launched yet another policy to prop up a mess of its own creation – this time, with experts slamming it as “ludicrous”.

Throwing (hardly any) money at childcare

As the Department for Education (DfE) wrote, it’s launched a “major new national recruitment campaign” for childcare workers. It said:

The campaign will look to boost recruitment across the sector by highlighting the vast array of childcare career routes and progression opportunities offering on-the-job training, flexible hours, and, most importantly, the chance to shape and support young lives.

A £1,000 sign-on bonus for childcare workers is also being launched today to increase capacity, tackle unemployment, and offer more childcare places.

The trial – which will cover 20 local authorities across the UK – will give new-starters and returners a tax-free cash payment shortly after they take up post.

So, the Tories want to recruit more childcare workers – by bunging each new one £1,000. What could possibly go wrong? Well, X (formerly Twitter) knew:

You sometimes get the impression that the Conservative Party believe that a really flash advertising campaign is the way to deal with most labour market problems or a quick £1k bung. https://t.co/dP8uRQlBmW

— Gavin Simpson (@MrGSimpson) February 2, 2024

One user noted how much a grand actually is in terms of pay:

You sometimes get the impression that the Conservative Party believe that a really flash advertising campaign is the way to deal with most labour market problems or a quick £1k bung. https://t.co/dP8uRQlBmW

— Gavin Simpson (@MrGSimpson) February 2, 2024

The “ludicrous” Tories strike again

Plus, people were rightly skeptical whether or not this would change anything in the childcare sector:

Modelling we did for the @CoalitionEdCare with @UniversityLeeds found up to 50,000 new staff could be needed this year and the same again in 2025. So efforts to recruit staff are welcome, but we echo sector concerns about today's @educationgovuk campaign. https://t.co/UjnX76SbsJ

— Women's Budget Group (@WomensBudgetGrp) February 2, 2024

Moreover, one childcare industry expert told BBC News:

Any suggestion that this campaign alone will be enough to drive up educator numbers in time to meet rising demand is ludicrous… [It] does little to retain both new and existing staff in the long-term.

Trades Union Congress (TUC) analysis published in August 2023 found every English region was struggling to recruit childcare workers.

Nearly all (95%) of English councils who responded to a Coram survey said that providers in their area were having difficulty recruiting childcare workers – and eight in 10 (80%) local authorities described it as “very difficult”.

Childcare policy on the hoof

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak hit back. He said:

This is too little, too late. It does nothing to address the retention crisis in childcare, or this Tory government’s chronic underfunding of the childcare sector over the last 13 years.

Caring for and educating young children is skilled work, and the overwhelmingly female workforce deserves decent pay and conditions.

Ministers must introduce a £15 an hour minimum wage for childcare workers, and work with unions to upskill staff and stop the race to the bottom on pay and conditions. And they should require childcare employers to end the use of zero-hours contracts and pay decent sick pay to all workers.

Of course, none of this addresses the two main reasons the Tories are rolling out this performative nonsense:

1. It’s a general election year.
2. They’re increasing how much childcare people on Universal Credit get – firstly up to 15 hours in April this year – but it’s suddenly dawned on them there aren’t the workers to support this.

So, more ‘policy on the hoof’ from the floundering government is unveiled. If you were wondering what desperation smells like – well, it’s this.

Featured image via UK Parliament/Maria Unger