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.
Raising Standards and
Skills:
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.
