Childcare costs to soar if DfE freezes early years funding
The Pre-school Learning Alliance has today warned that if the government goes ahead with plans to freeze early years funding rates until 2019/20, childcare costs are likely to be on the increase. Freedom of information (FOI) requests, filed by the Alliance, have shown that early years funding rates have failed to keep pace with […]
Alliance launches Fair Future Funding campaign
The Pre-school Learning Alliance has today launched its early years funding campaign, Fair Future Funding. The campaign is calling on the government to create a system which monitors childcare delivery costs on a local level and ensures that funding increases to meet these costs when needed. The Alliance has filed a number of […]
Paediatric first aid rules yet to be implemented
The government has confirmed that new paediatric first aid rules have not yet been implemented. A consultation on first aid changes was held between October and December 2015, and new rules were set to become effective as of September this year. 84% of respondents agreed with the new first aid requirement which will mean staff […]
Labour to launch early years taskforce
At Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, shadow education secretary Angela Rayner is to lay out plans for an early years taskforce designed to transform early years provision. Angela will highlight that every parent should have the right to quality, affordable childcare, and she will push Labour’s mission to ensure that no child’s life chances […]
Education committee launches primary assessment investigation
The government’s education committee is to launch an inquiry into primary assessment following what the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has called “chaos and confusion” around the topic. Earlier this year, the government abandoned reception baseline assessments and later, a security breach led to the cancellation of the key stage 1 spelling, punctuation […]
Button batteries can be deadly for children, surgeons claim
Small button batteries – found in a range of domestic items – can burn a hole through the lining of a child’s oesophagus should they accidently swallow them, surgeons have claimed. London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital said it is now treating approximately one child every month with this condition, a sharp rise from 10 […]
Alliance calls on government to admit 30-hours funding crisis
The Pre-school Learning Alliance has said that the government must “come clean” about the problems with the funding of the 30-hours free childcare scheme. The Department for Education ran a consultation on early years funding reforms in September, but many providers have still threatened to pull out, stating that even with the proposed changes […]
Healthy eating impacts children’s literacy, study claims
Researchers in Finland have claimed that a healthy diet has a significant impact on children’s literacy skills. The universities of Eastern Finland and Jyväskylä studied 161 children between the ages of six and eight, analysing the quality of their diets using food diaries. Nordic and Finnish dietary guidelines recommend an increased consumption of […]
Report calls for government to scrap 30-hours offer
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has called on the government not to implement the 30-hours offer, in a report titled, ‘We can solve poverty in the UK’. Released yesterday, the report proposes that the existing 15 hours of free childcare for three- and four-year-olds is retained, and that this be extended, over time, to two-year-olds. […]
Number of childcare providers closing down near doubles in one year
The number of childcare providers going bust has nearly doubled in the last year due to the “soaring costs” of childcare, accountancy firm Moore Stephens has claimed. 29 providers closed down in England and Wales in 2015/16, compared to 16 in 2014/15. Factors involved in these decisions included the introduction of the national living […]
Alliance chief raises concerns over viability of 30 hours offer
Pilots of the 30-hours free childcare scheme are due to start next month, but Neil Leitch, chief executive at the Pre-school Learning Alliance, is concerned about its viability. The government launched a consultation into three- and four-year-old funding earlier this month which Neil said is a welcome first step, but he added that more is […]
Report on radicalisation fails to mention early years
The Home Affairs Committee report, ‘Radicalisation: the counter-narrative and identifying the tipping point’, published today, makes no mention of the early years. The report called for an independent review of The Prevent duty, requiring teachers and other public sector workers to monitor and report people they believe may be at risk of radicalisation. […]