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Please find a comment from the Early Years Alliance in response to the Children's Commissioner's 'Vision for Childcare' report.

The report calls for a new 'transformative' model for childcare and early education and argues that with early years providers becoming increasingly unsustainable, the government should look to 'open up schools to provide more early education'. It also argues that early years funding should be 'spread more evenly' across different ages ranges to ensure greater support for families with children aged two and under.

Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said:

"Over recent days, we have seen a whole range of seemingly random, ill-thought-out and in many cases, completely unworkable proposals for early years reform from government. As such, we share the Children's Commissioner's view that what both the sector and families need is a long-term, ambitious vision for childcare and early education in this country, and not more tinkering around the edges.

"That said, it is disappointing that while this report rightly recognises that the currently early years funding system isn't working, it fails to acknowledge that the only way to solve this problem is by substantially increasing investment into our vital sector. Extending existing offers across more age groups without tackling this fundamental issue will only exacerbate an already-dire situation.

"What's more, with private and voluntary providers currently delivering the vast majority of early years places in this country, the suggestion that we should simply accept that those settings that are struggling are likely to become unsustainable in the long term and look to schools to deliver early years places in their place, is one we find deeply concerning. Those working in our sector have a wealth of very specific knowledge and expertise built up over years of experience supporting early learning and development and the suggestion that this could be so easily replaced is incredibly misguided."