New childcare workers in Salford will be offered a £1,000 cash bonus to work with small children. The tax-free payment will be given to new starters as well as returners shortly after they begin their roles. Salford City Council was one of the town halls invited to take part in the £4.9 million pilot which begins in April. The scheme from the Department for Education (DfE) will be launched to get more staff into nurseries and early years providers ahead of an expasion of free childcare this year. From April, working parents of two-year-olds will be able to claim 15 hours of free childcare. The plan will be expanded to all children from the age of 9 months in September this year, and widen to 30 hours for working parents of children under the age of five in September 2025. The DfE said that numbers of childcare workers have “risen year-on-year” and that the £1,000 scheme was set up in “anticipation of an influx of children entering the system.” Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, said: “Parents shouldn’t have to choose between a career and a family and our expanded childcare offer is going to make sure of that. “From April, hundreds of thousands of parents of two year olds will get 15 funded hours. This is good for families and good for the wider economy – ultimately putting more money in parents’ pockets at the end of the month. “The fantastic nurseries, childminders and professionals across the childcare sector are central to the success of this rollout and our new recruitment campaign will support them in continuing to deliver the flexible and high-quality childcare parents need.” Data from the DfE has showed that 102,480 children have been registered for the free childcare scheme so far. The rollout is set to save working parents using the full 30-hour entitlements up to £6,500 a year. In October last year, the government offered local authorities a share of £289m to support the expansion of wraparound childcare, with the aim of helping every parent of a primary school-aged child to access childcare from 8am to 6pm by September 2026. The £1k bonus scheme in April will follow a new recruitment campaign for early years workers which launched on Friday, February 2 across TV, cinema, online, radio and out of home advertising.
