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The 30-hours of free childcare offer could cause a lack of childcare places, due to provider reluctance to sign up to the new scheme, DfE statistics suggest.

 

According to the Survey of Childcare and Early Years �°������ϲʹ�������, England 2016, a total of 44,250 early years providers are planning to offer the 30-hours, compared to 54,900 who currently deliver the 15-hours offer, a fall of 19%.

 

The survey reveals that 14,600 pre-schools and nurseries said that they planned to offer the 30-hours, compared to 22,700 who are currently offering the 15-hour scheme. Childminders were found to be the only type of setting likely to increase their offering in response to the increased offer: 23,600 currently offer the 15-hours offer but 25,400 are planning to offer the 30-hours.

 

However, the Alliance pointed out that providers responded to the DfE survey between March and July 2016, when the new average early years funding rate for three- and four-year-olds had been announced as £4.88 per hour. Since then, all local authority funding rates for 2017 have been confirmed, 70% of which are less than this, while many providers rates are even lower as councils retain some funds for central spend.

 

Alliance chief executive Neil Leitch said: “What’s most alarming is that these figures were gathered at a time when many providers thought they would be receiving close to the average funding rate of £4.88 per hour. With final rates currently being confirmed across the country, and many providers discovering that they’ll be receiving significantly less, we would expect the number of settings opting out of the 30-hour offer to be even higher than these statistics suggest.”