Gaby Hinsliff, chief political correspondent
Sunday March 9, 2003
The Observer
Move over Mary Poppins: a £4 million drive for more male childcarers will be
launched this week to shatter the myth that it is a career for wimps.
Male nannies have become increasingly fashionable, with Liz Hurley said to have
been seeking one last year. Working mothers want someone who can play football
with their sons, while single mothers are seeking masculine role models for
their children.
But just 2 per cent of those in the childcare industry - nursery nurses, childminders, out-of-school club workers and nannies - are men.
With up to 180,000 new childcare workers needed in the next three years, Ministers argue that the industry cannot afford to exclude men. 'Childcare is a demanding and rewarding career with real opportunities, and we need to draw on a wider pool of talent,' said Baroness Ashton, the Minister for Early Years Education.
The campaign will target men and other under-represented groups, including ethnic minorities and women aged 19 to 40.
The Daycare Trust, a childcare charity, will launch a campaign in June under the SAS-style slogan 'He Who Cares Wins', arguing that men can be just as good at the job as women.
Rosemary Murphy of the National Day Nurseries Association said the campaign should target boys before their career plans become set, while parents are worried about the risk of child abuse. 'Parents are probably overly concerned,' she says. 'People seem to question the reason for a man to want to work there.'
Low wages deter many men: nursery nurses earn £8,000-£12,000 a year, childminders around £107.50 a week and a London nanny up to £24,000 plus perks.
One boom area has been in au pairs - usually foreign students combining childcare with travel and learning English. Men were barred from being au pairs in Britain until 1993, but now represent up to 13 per cent of those in the job.
'A lot of working women are absolutely up for male au pairs, but the husbands can get very territorial - they don't want another bloke in the house,' said Maggie Dyer, who has 10 men out of 300 au pairs on the books of her London Au Pair and Nanny Agency.
'If someone nasty rings the doorbell or there is a crisis with the plumbing, a male au pair is more likely to be able to cope. Whenever a family has a successful male au pair, when he leaves they won't hear of having a girl.'
Dyer has a male nanny from New Zealand on her books who is instantly snapped up whenever he becomes available, but says few men apply. 'It's really sad, when male teachers in primary schools are now common.'
Chris Meeks agrees. A sheetmetal worker who was made redundant nine years ago, he is now a childminder, working with his wife - a childminder for nearly two decades - at their home in Hertfordshire.
'I never think about going back now,' said Meeks, a member of the National Childminders Association. 'Before, I was making pieces for airplanes and you never saw where they went. Now I can see how the children come on. At the end of the day, you feel worth while.'
A father of seven grown-up children, he is trained in first aid and child development and a dab hand at nappy changing. He hates being the only man on training courses, but there are now enough fathers at the school gates for him to blend in.
He feels that more men would be attracted if childcare was recognised as a career. 'Younger fathers will stay at home and look after their own children now, but not somebody else's. But I think as the years go by that will probably change.'