Current early years policy risks widening attainment gap, charity warns
By Shannon Pite
A political focus on 鈥榗hildcare鈥 over and above high-quality early education risks increasing the learning gaps between the most and least well-off young children, social mobility charity the Sutton Trust has warned.
In a new policy briefing published today, the charity points out that the new funded hours for young children for working families only is being rolled out at a time when 鈥渋ncreasing workforce and capacity pressures for providers could see them prioritising places for the children eligible for the most funded hours, and 鈥榗hildcare deserts鈥 are opening up in less affluent areas, placing poorer children at further disadvantage to gain places.鈥
The charity also notes that just 20% of families in the bottom third of the earnings distribution are eligible for the existing 30 hour offer for three- and four-year-olds, while all parents in full-time education or training are ineligible. Similarly, only 20% of families earning less than 拢20,000 a year will have access to the planned expansion of funded places, compared to 80% of those with household incomes over 拢45,000.
The Trust is warning that that eligibility for the expanded offer is likely to further widen the early years attainment gap, which has been widening since before the pandemic. It also notes that while the Labour Party has criticised the government for 鈥渘eglecting the importance of childcare as education that sets children up for school and for life, particularly affecting children from lower-income backgrounds鈥, it has not, as yet, any commitments to address this inequality in provision.
The charity calling on both the main parties to commit to tackling these issues by:
- Rebalancing entitlements so that all young children (aged two - four) have a core education entitlement of at least 20 hours per week, with extra provision needed for childcare paid by parents on a sliding scale of fees by income level.
- Developing an early years workforce strategy with minimum qualifications specified, and funding to attract graduates.
- Reviewing the early years pupil premium to match the level provided to schools and improve how it is administered to providers.
- Improving the wider support to families with young children by re-invigorating a national children鈥檚 centre programme.
Sir Peter Lampl, founder of the Sutton Trust and Founder of the Education Endowment Foundation, said:
鈥楶oliticians are failing disadvantaged children. The early years are a crucial stage that can create opportunity or lock in disadvantage. As things stand, government policy treats early years provision as childcare rather than education, and there is no indication as yet that this would change under a Labour government.
鈥業t鈥檚 disgraceful that the very children who would benefit most from early years education are being increasingly excluded from it. We need to rebalance government funding or we will continue to see poorer children falling further behind.鈥
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said:
"The Sutton Trust is absolutely right to argue that current early years policy is embedding inequalities and widening the gap between the most disadvantaged children and their peers.
"For years, we have warned that the political focus on 'childcare' as a means to get parents back to work over and above 'early education' would lead to the development of poor policy that does not have the needs of the child at its centre 鈥 and the new funded offers, which completely exclude many families on the lowest-incomes, is a perfect example of just that.
"In no other part of the education system would we accept that a child's access to learning opportunities could be defined by their parents' income and yet, for some reason, we have decided that this is absolutely fine when it comes to the early years.
"The government constantly talks about the need to close the attainment gap, and yet their approach to the early years is likely to achieve the exact opposite. It's clear that the whole approach to childcare and early education needs a complete rethink 鈥 otherwise it is those children who need the most support who will lose out."