Please find below a comment from the Early Years Alliance on a letter from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to the Department for Education, published today (28 May) in which the PAC outlines a number of concerns over the rollout of the extended early entitlement offer. The comments in the letter include:
- “By September 2024, the Department estimates that early years providers will have to create 15,500 more new places nationally. This rises sharply by September 2025 to 84,500, with a fifth of local authorities having to increase the supply of hours by 20% or more. This is a significant challenge for the early years sector that faces years of underfunding, ongoing cost pressures and a recruitment and retention crisis.”
- “The Department has introduced various measures, mainly aimed at boosting recruitment and improving the number of those with relevant qualifications to enter the workforce. However, it does not yet know what works in terms of increasing staff numbers and acknowledges that it will not know until close to each milestone if there are enough staff to meet the expected demand for places. This piecemeal approach is unlikely to address long-standing concerns around the status and low pay of the early years sector.”
- “The Department … has quantified significant financial benefits for improved educational attainment from those children taking up the new entitlements. However, this large-scale, rapid expansion with accompanying changes to early years staff:child ratios and staff qualification levels could put this quality at risk.”
Commenting, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said:
“The Public Accounts Committee is absolutely right to warn of the serious risks of the planned early entitlement extension.
“We’re told that an additional 40,000 staff are required to deliver the additional places needed for younger children, and yet, the sector is already in the midst of one of the worse staffing crises in its history – so where exactly are these extra educators expected to come from?
“As the Committee rightly highlights, attempts to increase capacity in the sector by reducing qualifications requirements and relaxing ratios are likely to put the quality of early years provision at risk, something that we know would have a particularly detrimental impact on the children who need the most support, such as those from low-income backgrounds and those with additional needs.
“It’s clear, therefore, that whoever is in power after the next election must ensure that a comprehensive workforce strategy is absolutely central to their plans for the early years. Without this, it’s hard to see how the planned expansion can have any hope of succeeding in the long term.”