Jayne Bryant MS, Minister for Mental Health and Early Years
Today, I am publishing a review and refresh of our 10 year childcare, play and early years workforce plan.
Published in 2017, the plan sets out our ambition for children from all backgrounds to have the best start in life, to ensure they can reach their full potential and lead a healthy, prosperous, and fulfilling life. Ensuring we have a highly skilled, qualified and supported workforce is central to achieving this.
The actions in the plan were developed in recognition of the many challenges the sector was facing in 2017 and to support roll out of the Childcare Offer for Wales. I’m pleased we have made progress to deliver many of these under the plan’s key themes, including:
Attracting high-quality new recruits:
- Funded Social Care Wales to develop the WeCare Wales attraction and recruitment framework.
- Worked with employability colleagues to promote entry into childcare via Working Wales, Skills Gateway and ReAct+.
- Established a dedicated Anti-Racist Wales Childcare and Play Governance Group to take the actions of the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan forward.
- Reviewed and updated the National Minimum Standards to ensure the standards and requirements of staff and settings are fit for purpose.
- Introduced a new suite of bilingual childcare qualifications from Level 2 to 5.
- Worked with Play Wales and PETC Wales to develop key playwork qualifications.
Investing in building capacity and capability:
- Provided all registered full day care premises with 100% business rate relief exemption. Originally for three years (2019-22), the exemption has been extended for a further three years to March 2025 following a review.
- Worked with Business Wales to provide two business support grants between 2019 and 2022 to support new childminder start-ups and enable existing childcare providers to expand their businesses by taking on new staff.
- Aligned hourly funding rates for Foundation Learning Nursery and Childcare Offer to ensure consistency and equity across the sector.
The refreshed 10-year workforce plan is supportive of and builds on the principles, values and actions set out in the Early Childhood Play Learning and Care (ECPLC) in Wales Plan published on 15 March. It provides further detail on the actions we will take to develop a valued and diverse childcare and playwork workforce and reflects the current Programme for Government commitments and Anti-racist Wales Action Plan. The refresh also allows us to highlight the crucial role the workforce plays in supporting both children and their families.
Our vision for our workforce is unchanged; our policy intention has not wavered – we are committed to taking forward actions focused on attracting high-quality new recruits, raising standards and skills and building capacity and capability.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all key stakeholders who continue to be committed to working collaboratively with us to ensure the actions we take over the remainder of the plan’s life recognise the vital contribution the workforce makes to children and families across Wales.