Early Years and Childcare Workforce

Early years and childcare workforce review, February 2025

Introduction

The link between high quality, inclusive early years education and childcare provided by a well-qualified workforce is long established, and the positive impact it has on children’s outcomes is widely recognised. But we know that the early years and childcare sector is experiencing a national recruitment and retention crisis.

Right from the Start: West Sussex Early Years and Childcare Strategy 2024-2027 makes support for the sector to maintain a highly qualified workforce with desirable career pathways a priority. This commitment includes supporting the sector with recruitment and retention.

We have designed this review to help us understand what you need and how we can support you. The information that you share will feed into and influence our early years and childcare workforce development plan.

Managers / owners, please complete this review on behalf of your setting.

All settings completing a review will be entered into a prize draw. The first 3 entries drawn will win a free place on ‘Rethinking the recruitment and retention of staff’ from Linden Learning (Tuesday 25 March 9:30-12:30, online) and a free login for the NDNA eLearning course Safer Recruitment, Selection, and Induction. These courses can be completed by you or any member of your team.

The deadline is 14 March 2025 at 5pm so to have your voice heard why not complete it today … before time runs away! It will take approximately 10 minutes to complete.

For any questions during this process, please contact family.info.service@westsussex.gov.uk

Privacy Statement

West Sussex County Council will use this review to collect data on recruitment and retention strengths and challenges in early years and childcare settings across the county. This data will be used to shape our early years and childcare workforce development plan. This data will be processed in accordance with the 2018 Data Protection Act, the UK General Data Protection Regulations and any subsequent relevant data and will only be used for the purpose stated. The data we collect will be held securely on computer for a period of up to seven years before being appropriately destroyed. We will not use the data for any other purpose. West Sussex County Council is registered as Data Controller (Reg. No. Z6413427). For further information, please see the West Sussex County Council Privacy Policy (opens in new window).

Accessibility and alternate formats

If you require any of this information in an alternative format, then please contact us by phone 01243 777807 or via email at family.info.service@westsussex.gov.uk and we will assist you.

If you are deaf or hard of hearing and have an NGT texting app installed on your computer, laptop or smartphone, you can contact us on 18001 01243 777807.

For more information about the accessibility of this website, please see our Accessibility tab (opens in new window) at the foot of the page.

Terms and Conditions of prize draw

1) The closing date is 14 March 2025 at 5pm 2) Late entries will not be accepted. 3) There are 3 prizes of a free place on Re-thinking the recruitment and retention of staff’ from Linden Learning (Tuesday 25 March 9:30-12:30, online) and a free login for the NDNA eLearning course Safer Recruitment, Selection, and Induction. 4) Only one entry per person. 5) The winner will be drawn at random within one month of the closing date of the draw and notified by the contact details provided. 6) We will attempt to contact the winner by phone three times and, if on record, by email two times. If contact is not made within seven working days, we reserve the right to draw a new winner at random. 7) The winner will receive their prize within 3 weeks of the draw being held. 8) The decision of West Sussex County Council is final and no correspondence will be entered into. 9) The draw is being administered by the Early Years Team, West Sussex County Council.