Alliance comments on University of Oxford/Nuffield Foundation report on the quality of early years provision

28th May 2014

Commenting on new research undertaken by Oxford University and published by the Nuffield Foundation, which argued that disadvantaged three- and four-year-olds are missing out on good quality early years provision, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said:

The PVI sector is wholly supportive of plans to increase the number of graduates in the sector, but ongoing funding shortfalls mean that most providers simply cannot afford to pay graduate-level salaries. The reality is that supporting disadvantaged children requires significant funding, something that this government has so far failed to provide.

PVI settings provide a nurturing, caring and age-appropriate environment for young children, and supply the vast majority of childcare places in this country, and yet the government continues to focus almost exclusively on school-based provision. The solution to the issues raised in this report isn’t to dismiss the huge existing network of PVI providers and push young children into schools because it’s the cheaper option, but rather, to tackle the current funding imbalance in the sector and ensure that PVI setting are properly supported in providing high quality care and education to the children who need it the most.

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Notes for editors

  2. The Pre-school Learning Alliance is the largest voluntary sector provider of quality affordable childcare and education in England.
  3. 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.
  4. For information about the Pre-school Learning Alliance, visit our website:

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