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In its open consultation on the 30-hours free childcare initiative, the DfE has proposed extending the period that parents can access this free entitlement from 7am – 7pm to 6am – 8pm.

 

The DfE’s draft document – released on Sunday 3 April – highlighted a number of areas for discussion, also including the requirements of local authorities to publish information about early education places in their area.

 

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said that while he welcomed the opportunity to share his views on the delivery of the offer, he was unclear as to why the DfE chose to publish “such an important consultation on a Sunday during the Easter break”.

 

“We recognise the need to ensure the provision of flexible early years care and education, particularly to support parents and carers working atypical hours. However, we remain concerned that the government’s primary focus now appears to be on ‘childcare’ and getting parents back to work, rather than ‘early education’ which supports children from all backgrounds to get the best possible start in life,” he said.

 

“The fact that most of the references to ‘early education’ have been removed from draft local authority early years guidance speaks volumes, as does the fact that there is no reference to any attempt by government to explore what impact arriving at a childcare provision at 6am, or leaving at 8pm, might have on a child’s wellbeing or early learning.”

 

The draft document does state that it plans to discuss how local authorities should pay providers to deliver this entitlement, but Neil notes that there is little consideration of the practicalities of the propositions which, he says, would require significant changes for many early years providers.

 

“What’s more, while the consultation document rightly recognises that childminders are a key source of quality, flexible early years provision, it fails to mention the fact that poor policy has resulted in the sector losing 10,000 in the last four years,” he added.

 

“Quite simply, unless the government provides the early years sector with the financial and practical support needed to offer an accessible, flexible and most importantly, high quality service, it is making promises to parents that it will struggle to deliver.”