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The Early Years Alliance has filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request to every local authority in England amid concerns of inconsistencies in the way early years providers are set to be funded during the upcoming autumn term. 

On 20 July 2020, the Department for Education confirmed that it would be funding councils in England based on the January 2020 census – rather than the January 2021 count as would have been normal practice – to reflect the fact that “the number of children attending childcare may not have returned to normal levels by early January”. 

It also stated that “local authorities should continue to fund providers which are open at broadly the levels they would have expected to see in the 2020 autumn term had there been no coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak”, and suggested that “local authorities might, for example, use the numbers of children in places in the previous autumn to inform funding levels this autumn”. 

However, over recent weeks, the Alliance has received numerous reports of local councils not adhering to the Department for Education’s recommendations, resulting in providers receiving far less funding in the autumn term than they had been led to expect. 

One provider, Colette Fairfax, chair of Rixton-with-Glazebrook Pre-School, said: “We have received the funding arrangements for the 2020 autumn term from our local authority, and they have informed us that they are not funding us based on our 2019 estimates as they cannot afford to, despite this being the government guidance. 

"Instead, they are offering us a 20% uplift to our 2020 estimate, which is substantially lower than the figure we had calculated based on our 2019 autumn estimates - a reduction of nearly a quarter. 

"We are a small village charity pre-school and our budget was already stretched before we heard about this reduction in funding - I'm sure that there are many others in the same situation." 

In response to these concerns, the Alliance has filed an FOI Act request to every single local authority in England asking if they will be funding early years providers during the autumn term 2020 using ‘the numbers of children in places in the previous autumn to inform funding levels’, as suggested in the DfE guidance; and if not, what alternative approach they will be using, and if it will mean that local providers are still being funded ‘as if autumn term 2020 were happening normally’, as per the same guidance. 

Commenting, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said: 

“The Department for Education’s decision to continue funding the sector based on 2019 levels in the autumn term was a welcome step – but it’s clear that much more must be done to ensure that this support reaches the frontline. 

“The government has described the move as ‘”block-buying” childcare places for the rest of the year’ – but if councils are allowed to just disregard DfE guidance and refuse to fund providers at autumn 2019 levels, then this simply isn’t the case. 

 “We have received numerous reports of councils who are choosing not to follow the DfE’s recommendations, which is putting even more financial pressure on local providers at an already incredibly difficult time. 

“It is vital that the government places tighter requirements on local authorities on this issue, and we hope that the information that we are gaining through our FoI investigation will provide the evidence needed to ensure that this happens.”