Alliance criticises DfE blog on early years expansion
Please find below a comment from the Early Years Alliance in reaction to a blog post published by the Department of Education called
When explaining why the upcoming expansion of the 30 "fee hours" will make early years places "cheaper" the blog said:
"Nurseries are not allowed to charge top-up fees when providing free hours offers, and that won't change as these are expanded.
"By making sure the government is properly covering the cost of providing the free places, there will be no need for nurseries to charge inflated fees for additional hours parents want to pay for."
Commenting, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said:
"The suggestion that early鈥痽ears鈥痵ettings charge 鈥榠nflated fees鈥 is a gross鈥痠nsult to providers who have done their very best to keep fees as low as鈥痶hey鈥痗an in the face of years of government underfunding.
"What鈥檚鈥痬ore,鈥痶he claim鈥痶hat the government is now 鈥榩roperly covering the costs鈥欌痮f early years provision 鈥 aside from being an implicit admission that this wasn鈥檛 previously the case 鈥 is simply not true, with modelling from the Women鈥檚 Budget Group clearly showing that despite the recent increase in investment, there is still a significant gap between funding rates and the cost of delivering places, particularly for three- and four-year-olds.
鈥淭he government needs the sector on side if it is to have any chance of fulfilling the huge promise it has made to families. Publishing such offensive and misleading information is likely to achieve the exact opposite.鈥