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Parents in England continue to face huge regional disparities in the availability of 30-hours funded childcare places, leading early years organisation the Pre-school Learning Alliance has warned following the publication of new government statistics on the take-up of places.

According to government statistics, 90% of parents who had been issued a 30-hours eligibility code in the autumn term had secured a place during the term, meaning that 22,000 of parents did not take up a 30-hours place.

Today’s local authority level figures also reveal that:

In 66 out of 152 (43%) local authorities, the proportion of children taking up 30 hours places who had been issued eligibility codes was lower than the national average.

12 local authorities, less than three-quarters of children who had been issue 30-hour codes had taken up places.

Commenting on the statistics, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said:

“While it is undoubtedly positive to see that 30-hour take up figures have continued to rise as the term has progressed, the fact that more than 20,000 parents ended the term having applied for the scheme but without having secured a place should be a real cause for concern. 

“Equally worrying is the continued disparity in the numbers of parents able to access 30-hours places across the country. 

"It cannot be right that parents in certain areas of the country are facing such a struggle to access places, as these figures suggest. Given that the autumn term is always the quietest for childcare providers, the pressure on places is only going to get worse, and so many parents looking forward to accessing the scheme next term may well be left disappointed next year.

“What's more, what these figures don’t reveal is how many parents with validated codes are receiving genuinely ‘free’ childcare, and how many are having to subsidise their places by paying for ‘voluntary’ extras. The government knows full well that inadequate sector funding has forced many childcare providers to rely on additional fees and charges to stay afloat, and yet it continues to promote this offer as free, ignoring the fact that it is parents and providers who are having to fill this funding gap.  

"Without adequate funding, childcare providers, who are rightly concerned that providing 30 hours will leave them struggling to break even, will have no choice but to increase fees, limit places or opt out of the scheme altogether - especially with government set to freeze funding until 2020 despite rising business costs. 

"This is simply unsustainable. The government must act now by raising funding levels to ensure that all those parents who have been promised 'free childcare' are actually able to access it.

ENDS

ABOUT THE ALLIANCE 

• The Pre-school Learning Alliance is the largest and most representative early years membership organisation in England. A registered educational charity, it also provides high-quality affordable childcare and education to support children and families in areas of deprivation throughout the country. 
• The Alliance represents 14,000 member settings and supports them to deliver care and learning to more than 800,000 families every year. We deliver family learning projects, offer information and advice, produce specialist publications, run acclaimed training and accreditation schemes and campaign to influence early years policy and practice. 
• The Alliance website is   
• The Alliance is running the Fair Future Funding campaign, which calls on the government to ensure that early years funding meets the rising cost of providing 'free entitlement' places. The campaign has 5000 supporters to date