The UK’s early education and childcare system is “more complex, less equal, less sustainable, and results in demonstrably poorer child outcomes” than other European countries, says equity catalyst Elevate Great in its new report.
The review, conducted in partnership with the Henry Smith Foundation, examines how early education and care is financed across ten European countries that demonstrate strong child outcomes, and considers what this could mean for the UK.
The ten European countries included in the review were: Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden – all of which Elevate Great identified as achieving “better child outcomes” in the report.
The review states that these countries share several characteristics in their early education and childcare systems that the UK lacks:
- early education and childcare as a right instead of an employment benefit
- progressive funding and sliding fee scales that protect family income
- public or tightly-controlled non-profit private provision
- sustained investment in early years workforce development.
The report asserts that there is “strong evidence to support a shift towards new financing models” for early education and childcare that aren’t focused on spending more money, but on better consideration of how and where finances are allocated.
Elevate Great calls for “a radical transformation of the UK early childhood education and care system” with “a sustainable financing solution” built upon an evidence-based foundation that has child wellbeing and outcomes at the heart.
Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, commented: “We at the Alliance have long warned that a political focus on early years provision as ‘childcare’ to encourage parents to work, rather than vital early education that supports children’s learning, would exacerbate disadvantage gaps and misunderstand completely the true value of early years education. As such, we welcome this report and the call for high-quality early years provision to be considered a public good that all children can benefit from, regardless of socioeconomic status.
“We’re clear that the current funding system is not fit for purpose: under current levels of funding – particularly given the significant impact of national insurance increases – many providers are struggling to keep their doors open, while those that do are struggling to deliver the affordable, flexible service that families need. If we look to other countries, as the report does, we can see that greater investment and a simplified system deliver better outcomes.
“With the Best Start in Life strategy promising welcome change, we urge the government to take note of the insights provided by this research report when developing future early years policy.”
