Early years changes will fail without further financial investment, Education Committee warns
by Jess Gibson
A new published today concludes that the government has 鈥渕ore work to do鈥 to ensure all children, families and providers benefit from available support, says the Education Committee.
A cross-party inquiry, Support for childcare and the early years, was launched in 2022. It had a wide remit of assessing ongoing support, entitlements, and provisions, as well as the impact of COVID-19 on child development and proposed changes to the sector.
The findings highlight the precarious position of many early years settings, with the committee seeing evidence of a system 鈥渟training to provide鈥 adequate care and education due to a range of issues, including mass closures, an ongoing recruitment and retention challenge, and a significant drop in childminder numbers.
The report further acknowledged that, despite the 拢204m earmarked by the government for the early years sector, the amount pledged fails to address years of chronic underfunding and the difficulties posed by the current cost-of-living crisis.
In addition to those conclusions, the Education Committee outlined a series of suggestions for the government to consider moving forward, one of which was to refer to the extended early years entitlements as 鈥榝unded鈥 or 鈥榮ubsidised鈥 to avoid misleading parents.
A range of other key suggestions were also in the report:
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increase the early years entitlement subsidy for providers
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streamline the system for proposed 30-hours funding entitlement
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abolish business rates for nurseries
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mandatory SEND training for all early years鈥 staff
Other findings 鈥 which can be found 鈥 were wide ranging, including closely monitoring changes to staff:child ratios and the funding of family hubs across the country.
Commenting on the inquiry, Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said:
"As the Education Committee states, the education and care a child receives during their first five years is absolutely crucial, yet the infrastructure, funding and support simply isn鈥檛 there to both enable providers to easily deliver this and families to benefit from it.鈥
"We, therefore,鈥痺elcome the inquiry鈥檚 focus on the鈥痑rray of critical challenges facing the sector.鈥疦ot only鈥痟ave鈥痽ears of severe underfunding鈥痯lagued the sector,鈥痓ut the worst staffing crisis in decades has created a perfect鈥痵torm that鈥痬ust be addressed if the sector has any chance of survival in the coming years.鈥
"If that鈥痺asn鈥檛鈥痓ad鈥痚nough,鈥痠t鈥檚鈥痩ikely that鈥痶he鈥痷pcoming sector expansion鈥痺ill be鈥痙angerously underfunded and鈥痺ill鈥痯lace鈥痷nrealistic鈥痚xpectations鈥痮n providers鈥痑lready on the brink.鈥疊ut, if the government had properly listened鈥痶o our countless鈥痗alls鈥痜or sector support and鈥痜unding,鈥痶hey would have known this.鈥
"It鈥檚鈥痗lear that鈥痳emedying鈥痶he challenges the sector is facing cannot be achieved overnight. Yet, for the Committee鈥檚 findings to truly have a lasting impact, we鈥痟ope against hope鈥痶hat it finally wakes the government up to the reality of the situation facing families and providers, and prompts urgent, effective action.鈥疐rankly, too much is at stake to do any less.鈥