Alliance responds to Low Pay Commission 2019 report

Please find below a comment from the Early Years Alliance on Low Pay Commission 2019 report, in which the Commission notes the challenges facing the early years sector as a result of funding failing to keep up with rising wages, and commits to looking closely at childcare as a sector in the future.

The Alliance submitted evidence to help inform this report.

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

"Supporting the learning and development of young children is one of the most important and valuable jobs there is, and so it is absolutely right that early years practitioners should be paid a fair wage.

鈥淭he fact is, however, that without adequate funding from government, every time the national living and minimum wages go up, rather than being a cause for celebration for the sector, we see more and more providers being pushed to the edge of financial collapse.

鈥淎s such, we welcome the fact that this report highlights the challenges facing the sector, and recognises that government funding 鈥榟as not risen in line with employers鈥 statutory costs鈥. We are also pleased to note that the Commission plans to look at the childcare sector particularly closely going forward.

鈥淲ith minimum wage levels set to rise by more than 6% in April, compared to funding increases of no more than 2%, many providers across the country are being put in an impossible situation. We urge the government to stop trying to ignore this growing crisis, and to finally commit to investing what is needed to ensure the viability of the early years sector in the long term.鈥

 

ENDS

About the Alliance

  • The Early Years Alliance is the largest and most representative early years membership organisation in England. A registered educational charity, it also provides high-quality affordable childcare and education to support children and families in areas of deprivation throughout the country.
  • The Alliance represents 14,000 members and supports them to deliver care and learning to more than 800,000 families every year. We deliver family learning projects, offer information and advice, produce specialist publications, run acclaimed training programmes and campaign to influence early years policy and practice.
  • The Alliance website is