Calls for extended support for early years providers
By Rachel Lawler
The Alliance has called on the government to extend its commitment to funding early years providers at pre-pandemic levels after new figures revealed that the percentage of children who have returned to settings is lower than previously thought.
The Department for Education鈥檚 latest statistics have been 鈥渁djusted鈥 due to previous errors with the methodology used to calculate previous levels of attendance. This mean that the number of children who would normally be attending an early years setting in the autumn term has increased from 887,000 to 929,000.
The number of children attending early years settings has also decreased 鈥 down from 806,000 on 26 November 2020 to 795,000 on 3 December 2020..
This means that the percentage of children attending an early years setting is just 86% of normal levels 鈥 down from the previous estimate of 91%.
The government previously promised that it would continue to fund local authorities at pre-pandemic levels, regardless of the actual numbers of children attending, until the end of 2020. However, it plans to base funding on actual attendance levels from January 2021 onward.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Alliance, commented: 鈥淲ith just a few weeks until the start of the spring term, nurseries, pre-schools and childminders have been left in a completely unacceptable situation where they have no idea how much financial support they will be getting from the government over the coming months.
鈥淲orse still, today鈥檚 admission from the Department for Education shows that for weeks now, government officials have been working on the basis that more children had returned to early years settings than was actually the case.
鈥淕iven this and the fact that the recent extension to the furlough scheme until the end of March is likely to prolong the period of reduced childcare demand, it is clear the government must now commit to continuing to pay for funded early years places based on pre-Covid attendance levels until at least the end of the spring term.
鈥淔or the sake of providers across the country, we urge them to make this commitment sooner rather than later.鈥