Gavin bids to buck child care trend

Gavin Woodward is bidding to alter the trend in child care workers.

Middleton teen Gavin Woodward is determined to end a national trend by becoming a fully-fledged child carer.

Recent figures revealed that there were only 56 men working in state nurseries in the whole of England, with none aged under 25.

Amongst the reasons given for the lack of male child carers was that the profession was seen as “a woman’s job” and that parents were suspicious of men looking after their child.

But Gavin has encountered nothing but support from staff and mums and dads at the Kids Are Us nursery school in Chadderton and Rathbone, the training charity that helped him, believe his gentle manner could be massively beneficial to the children for years to come.

Rugby mad Gavin was unsure which career he would like to tackle when he left school but friends and family noticed how good he was with kids when he babysat his cousin’s children and suggested he check out a career in Childcare.

“I went to the careers service Connexions to see how they could help me – and ended up at Rathbone” said Gavin. “They placed me at Kids Are Us and even though I have to take two buses to work each day, I am really enjoying it.”

Paul Dean, Centre Manager for Rathbone, said: “The reason why some young people struggle is that they don’t have any positive male role model to look up to. Within moments of watching Gavin, you can see he has a natural rapport with children and is able to make a positive difference to their day.”

Despite the lack of men in the profession, Gavin has been lucky enough to work with Coppice lad Adnan Rahman – who is currently studying for an Apprenticeship. The two have become good friends.

“Both lads are real team players who show initiative and are reliable” said Michelle Iqbal, Manager at “Kids Are Us”.

“These are the first two males we’ve had working with us since we opened in 2002 and they’ve done brilliantly. People should realise that the world has changed and that if girls can be mechanics, lads should be able to look after children.”