In December 2018, the Early Years Alliance filed a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to the Department for Education asking for the thinking behind the early years funding rates that were announced in 2015, which came into effect in 2017.
After a two-and-a-half year battle, the DfE has finally made this information available to the Alliance.
The information – a series of private government briefing documents – reveals that:
- back in 2015, the government predicted that, by 2020, it would cost £2bn to fully fund the sector and that doing so would result in a three- and four-year-old funding rate to local authorities of £7.49 per hour. In reality, they provided just £300m of funding and a three- and four-year-old funding rate to local authorities of just £4.89 per hour on average, according to Ceeda analysis
- the government knew that the proposed funding levels, alongside the introduction of the 30 hours, would lead to increased costs for parents of younger children
- the government expected providers to operate at maximum statutory ratios to make the funding levels on offer work
In the interests of transparency, the Alliance is making this information available in full for the sector and the wider public to view.
All the information provided to the Alliance is available here.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said:
“For years, the early years sector has warned that the so-called ‘free entitlement’ offer is anything but free, in the face of repeated government claims that the policy is adequately funded. These documents, which they spent more than two years trying to hide, prove otherwise.
“The early years of a child’s life are critical to their long-term learning and development – and yet ministers have been all too happy to force providers to work to maximum ratios, inevitably reducing quality, in order to save the Treasury some money.
“For so long, the government has tried to deflect the blame for rising childcare costs. But these documents prove, in black and white, that it knew that the introduction of the 30-hours policy, along with an insufficient level of investment, would result in higher costs for parents of younger children.
“Early years providers and parents have had enough of being forced to pay the price for this underfunded policy year after year. There is still time for the government to do the right thing, but at this point, the only way for it to maintain any credibility with parents and early educators is by agreeing to a full review of early years policy in this country. That means delivering the substantial investment the sector needs in the upcoming Spending Review.
“Only with fair and adequate funding will we ensure nurseries, pre-schools and childminders can continue delivering the quality, affordable care and education that children and families both need and deserve.”
What our allies said...
“The perseverance shown by the Early Years Alliance to get answers from the government on their early years policy is admirable. It’s disappointing to have confirmation that the government were aware that the current early years funding would not be enough to fully support their scheme, but that it was implemented anyway.” – The Sutton Trust
“This reveals what we have known all along – that the 30 hours ‘free’ childcare scheme was only implemented to win votes, but as the Government failed to subsidise the scheme properly, it has made it harder for providers to deliver sustainable early years education for our children, and hugely inflated costs for parents, forcing hundreds of thousands of mothers out of the workforce.” – Pregnant then Screwed
“The Alliance should be congratulated for its success in finally obtaining these figures. We have all known for a long time that the sector is woefully underfunded. These figures are hard evidence of the extent of that underfunding, and the Government’s knowledge of the situation.
“There is already an early years recruitment and retention crisis, and that will only get worse unless the Government acts now.Staff need a national pay and conditions and career structure.
“We call on the Government to invest in the early years sector, which has a vital role in both children’s development and in post-pandemic economic recovery.”- Voice the Union