The Datum Report

Occupation 6111 · Caring, leisure and other service occupations

Early education and childcare assistants

Half of full-time early education and childcare assistants in the UK earn more than £24,742 a year, and half earn less.

Early education and childcare assistants assist in the care of children from birth up to seven years of age in day or residential nurseries, children’s homes, maternity units and similar establishments.

How people enter it

Entry is most common with GCSEs/S grades followed by the award of a certificate from the Council for Awards in Children’s Care and Education. An NVQ/SVQ in Child Care and Education or equivalent qualification up to level 3 may be required to work in this role. A DBS check is mandatory.

What the work involves

• may work under the supervision of more experienced practitioners
• baths, dresses, prepares feed for and feeds babies, changes babies clothing whenever necessary
• supervises young children at mealtimes
• plans and organises games and other activities and supervises children’s play
• reads stories, organises counting games to help develop language and number skills
• communicates with parents and colleagues on children’s development and well-being

Also called

Child care assistant · Crèche assistant · Nursery assistant · Nursery nurse · Playgroup assistant · Pre-school assistant

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for early education and childcare assistants, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 10 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Childminders · Educational support assistants · Nannies and au pairs · Playworkers · Teaching assistants