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Parents in England are facing a 'postcode lottery' for 30-hours funded childcare places, leading early years organisation the Pre-school Learning Alliance has warned after new government statistics revealed huge regional disparities in the number of parents who had been able to access 30-hours places by the beginning of the autumn term.

In order to secure a 30 hours place for their child, parents have to apply for an eligibility code through a government online portal, and then give this code to their childcare provider who, if they are willing to offer a place, will validate it with their local authority to confirm that the parent meets the 30-hour eligibility criteria.

This means that, in order to have their 30 hour code validated, parents need to have found a childcare provider willing to offer them a place.

According to government statistics, as of 5 September, 71% of all codes issued to parents had been validated by childcare providers. However, new local authority level figures, published by children and families minister Robert Goodwill in response to a parliamentary question from Labour MP Lucy Powell, reveal that, as of the same date:

• 65 out of 153 (42%) local authorities had validated less 30-hours codes than the overall national validation rate of 71%.
• 47 local authorities had validated less than two-thirds of codes issued to parents, while 14 had validated less than half (this includes North Yorkshire, one of the 30-hour pilot areas, which has been offering the 30 hours since April 2017).
• Two local authorities (Hammersmith and Fulham, and Kensington and Chelsea) reported having validated no 30-hour codes, despite having issued 180 and 82 codes respectively to parents.

On 12 October, the Department for Education released updated 30-hour validation code statistics which showed that the national validation rate of 9 October had increased to 90%, with the remaining 10% of parents (around 21,000)​ still without a 30-hours place. The government has not published a local authority-level breakdown for those updated figures.

Commenting on the statistics, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance said:

"It's incredibly concerning to see such huge disparities in the numbers of parents able to access 30-hours places across the country, with some local authorities reporting that less than half of parents who have applied for a 30-hours code have subsequently secured a place.

 "We know that the overall national validation rate has continued to rise as the term has progressed, and while this is undoubtedly positive, these new figures show the picture is very different on the ground in many areas, meaning that parents are effectively facing a postcode lottery on places.

 "Add to this the fact that the autumn term is always the quietest term for childcare providers, with the squeeze on places likely to get worse as the year progresses, and it's clear that urgent action needs to be taken to avoid a childcare crisis in some areas of the country.

 "We have long warned that unless the government funds the 30-hour offer adequately, many childcare providers would look to limit the number of funded places on offer â€“​ or in some cases, withdraw from the scheme altogether – meaning less places for parents. With business costs like wages, rents and business rates on the rise while local authority funding rates are set to remain frozen until 2020, this situation is only going to get worse. That's why our Fair Future Funding campaign calls on the government to not only increase early years funding levels, but also to ensure that funding continues to rise in line with the growing cost of delivering funded places in the years to come.

 "The government chose to make this pledge to parents, and so it's up to the government to keep it. This means investing what's needed to ensure that all parents are able to the childcare they were promised, not just the lucky few."

ENDS

• The Pre-school Learning Alliance's Fair Future Funding campaign, which has 5000 provider and parent supporters, is calling for the government to ensure that early years funding increases to cover the rising cost of delivering places. More information is available at  
• An Alliance survey of nearly 1400 childcare providers conducted in August 2017 found that 42% did not expect that the number of 30-hours places they planned to offer would be enough to meet demand.

ABOUT THE ALLIANCE

• The Pre-school Learning 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 member settings 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 and accreditation schemes and campaign to influence early years policy and practice.
•  The Alliance website is