Alliance comments on new DfE research report on childminders

18th December 2014

Commenting on the newly published DfE-commissioned report on childminder views and experiences, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said:

“This study echoes many of the concerns that have long been raised by the sector. Despite the government’s dismissal of our recent report on free entitlement funding, its own commissioned study has also highlighted the detrimental impact that inadequate funding, particularly for three- and four-year-old places, is having on the financial viability of childcare providers. While less concern has been raised over two-year-old funding, it’s important to note that our research also found that a third of local authorities are currently funding the two-year-old offer at a higher rate than they themselves receive from central government, a situation that is clearly unsustainable in the long term.

“In addition, while the government continues to champion childminder agencies, there remains little information on how they will operate in practice and, crucially, how they will ensure that child safety and wellbeing is protected, despite being implemented for more than three months now. As such, as highlighted by this report, the vast majority of childminders remain rightly sceptical about the initiative, and are unlikely to opt to join agencies, despite a sustained decline in alternative sources of local support and guidance.

“As the study acknowledges, childminders play an important role in the delivery of early education and childcare, and yet they continued to be overlooked and undervalued by government. Given that the number of registered childminders has fallen by more than 3500 over the past year alone, it’s clear that the government must to more to address the ongoing lack of practical and financial support for this vital part of the early years sector.”

For further information, please

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Notes for editors

- The report,
- The Counting the cost study, commissioned by the Alliance and carried out by independent research agency Ceeda, tracked the resources expended in delivering 186,712 hours of early years education and childcare for 5,635 funded and non-funded children over a two week period: 23 June to 4 July 2014. Profile data collected in anonymised staff and child registers was linked with detailed records of activity in daily room diaries, completed over this period. The study found that:

  • The average hourly cost of providing a funded childcare place for a three or four-year-old was £4.53, compared to an average funding rate of £3.88 - a funding shortfall of 18%, rising to 21% when the cost of unpaid staff hours was taken into account.
  • The average hourly cost of providing a funded childcare place for a two-year-old was £5.97, compared to an average funding rate of £5.19 - a funding shortfall of 15%, rising to 18% when the cost of unpaid staff hours was taken into account.

- The Alliance’s Early Years Agenda survey of 1270 childcare professionals revealed that:

  • only 3% of childminders are planning to join a childminder agency
  • 85% of childcare professionals oppose current agency inspection plans

ABOUT THE ALLIANCE

  1. The Pre-school Learning Alliance is the largest voluntary sector provider of quality affordable childcare and education in England.
  2. Through direct provision and its membership of 14,000 nurseries, sessional pre-schools and parent and toddler groups, the Alliance supports over 800,000 children and their families in England. The Alliance also develops and runs family learning programmes, offers information and advice, runs acclaimed training and accreditation programmes and campaigns to influence early years policy and practice.
  3. For information about the Pre-school Learning Alliance, visit our website:

More press releases