Alliance comments on new ‘Monitoring social mobility’ report

Commenting on the report, which examines government progress in delivering recommendations made by the Social Mobility Commission between 2013-2020, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Alliance, said:

“This report by the Social Mobility Commission is rightly critical of government progress in improving outcomes for the least advantaged in the early years. 

“It is particularly concerning that on the question of developing a long-term strategy focused on improving outcomes for disadvantaged children, the report found that the government had taken ‘little or no action’ in the past seven years.

"All children, regardless of their background, should be able to have the best possible start in life, and yet we know that children from less affluent backgrounds often arrive at school already at a disadvantage compared to their peers. Clearly, tackling this issue must be a priority for government going forward.

“It is disappointing, however, that while the Commission calls for the eligibility criteria for the 30-hours funded childcare offer to be widened to include more families on lower incomes, it fails to acknowledge the impact of the sustained underfunding of so-called 'free entitlement’ offers on the ability of childcare providers to deliver affordable and sustainable care and education.

“The fact is that a wholesale overhaul of the early years funding system is required to ensure that those families most in need of support are able to access quality provision that is truly free at the point of use. Anything else is just tinkering around the edges.”

 

Editor notes 

  • The Early Years 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 members 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 programmes and campaign to influence early years policy and practice.
  • The Alliance website is