Government’s £1,000 Bonus Failed to Boost Early Years Recruitment

Government’s £1,000 Bonus Failed to Boost Early Years Recruitment

Newly published data has revealed that the Department for Education's financial incentive pilot scheme did not achieve its intended outcome of encouraging more people to join or return to the early education and childcare sector.

The pilot scheme which was launched in January 2024 and extended a year later offered a £1,000 tax-free bonus for new starters to the sector. However, the findings from the DfE’s evaluation report revealed that there had been ‘‘no measurable increase in either the number of applicants per vacancy, or the speed of application processing’’.

Indeed, although the report highlighted that some providers saw a slight increase in applicants, many of those candidates lacked the right skills or qualifications, and some were actually disinterested in the work required for the childcare roles.

The scheme was introduced by the Conservative government, and it was intended to increase the number of staff working in early years settings to meet the increased demand of an estimated 35,000 workers to deliver the expansion of the funded offer. It was piloted across 40 local authorities with high levels of deprivation or low workforce sufficiency in early years from April 2024 to March 2025 as part of the Government’s ‘Do Something Big’ recruitment campaign.

A total of 3,421 providers were invited to take part and 586 (17%) engaged. Data from the evaluation showed that £913,719 (37%) of the £2.7m funding pot was allocated across 512 participants.

In the evaluation, among those who received the payout, some reported that their desire to work with children was the primary influence on their decision to apply and most newly recruited staff said they did not know about the £1,000 incentive when they applied.

The findings also highlighted the feeling among providers that the bonus didn’t address the underlying cause of persistent vacancies, that being the shortage of qualified applicants and low interest in working in the sector.  

This was just one among several concerns expressed by providers. Most expressed concern about using financial incentives as a tool for supporting recruitment, feeling its effectiveness would be limited by structural challenges in the sector such as workload and low pay. Some expressed concerns that the incentives would not attract the high-quality practitioners they needed and there was also a common perception among providers that offering incentives to new recruits was unfair to existing staff with long service who were out of scope because they did not meet the eligibility criteria. 

Some were concerned it could damage retention, but the evaluation found no such impact had occurred. Indeed, there was no evidence that the pilot led to negative unintended consequences, such as providers in treatment areas recruiting from neighbouring local authorities. 

A further rollout of financial incentives began in July 2025, with the aim of resolving issues raised in this evaluation.

Sources and more information:

1. https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/content/news/dfe-s-1k-golden-hello-bonus-failed-to-boost-early-years-recruitment
2. https://www.eyalliance.org.uk/news-events/news/dfe-evaluation-finds-early-years-recruitment-bonus-scheme-failed-to-boost-sector-applications/
3. https://www.twinkl.co.uk/news/dfes-1000-bonus-fails-to-attract-more-early-years-staff
4. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6902261e71b575684c3cf813/Early_years_financial_incentives_evaluation_final_report_October_2025.pdf