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The Early Years Alliance has issued a comment on a new government consultation on how funding for the early entitlement offers for one- and two-year-olds should be distributed.

Commenting on a new consultation on the distribution of funding for the extended early entitlement offers for one- and two-year-olds, Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said:

“While we welcome further detail on how the entitlement offers for under-threes will be funded, the fact is if the central pot of early years funding is insufficient, then no matter how well it is distributed, those on the front line are likely to lose out.

“With estimates from the Women’s Budget Group suggesting that the government has significantly underestimated the level of funding needed for both the new and existing offers, we remain deeply concerned that, regardless of what funding formula is used, the decision to extend the early entitlement scheme will only serve to place even greater pressure on an already-struggling sector.

“It is also incredibly worrying that in the face of sharply rising delivery costs, under the government’s proposals, the introduction of this new formula will result in some local authorities seeing their funding rates for two-year-olds actually fall in April 2024 compared to September 2023. At a time when the government is trying to encourage as many providers as possible to take on more two-year-olds, this is completely counterproductive and so we urge the government to rethink this short-sighted approach."