Alliance comments on new Department for Education childcare survey

Responding to the survey's findings Neil Leitch, the Pre-school Learning Alliance's chief executive, said:

"The Department for Education's parent survey once again highlights how important childcare is to children and families across the country, with 96% of four -year-olds and 93% of three-year-olds now in receipt of government funded early education.

"However, the fact that only 44% of families earning below £10,000 per year are receiving formal childcare, compared to 69% of families earning £45,000 or more, shows that much more needs to be done to ensure that those children from lower income families have equal access to affordable, quality care and education.

"It is disappointing, therefore, that instead of looking to address this trend, the government chose to introduce a 30 hours policy which entrenches, rather than tackles, inequality within the childcare system. Not only does the policy exclude families on the lowest end of the income scale completely, while allowing working families earning up to £100,000 to benefit from the scheme, but chronic underfunding means that many childcare providers are unable to offer 30 hours funded places without asking families to subsidise the funding shortfall, forcing them to give priority to parents who are able to afford to pay for additional good and services.

"As a result, we risk creating a situation where an even greater number of disadvantaged children – arguably, those who have most to gain from early years education – are unable to access it. Given the government's recent renewed commitment to improving social mobility, we hope it will take note of these findings and ensuring that it invests what's needed to ensure that quality childcare and early education is available to all families that need it."  â€‹



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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.