NEWS

percentage points on 2023. Similarly, just over one in three (35%) are reporting enough provision for children under two, down by 14 percentage points on last year.

For children with disabilities, the findings were even more stark, with just 6% of councils reporting sufficient provision – down 12 percentage points from 2023.

Looking ahead, while 63% of councils in England are ‘confident’ or ‘very confident’ that there will be enough places to meet demand for the imminent expansion (15 funded hours for two-year-olds), just 28% say the same about the expansion from September 2024 (15 funded hours from nine months). For the September 2025 expansion (30 hours from nine months), this falls to just 12%, with 90% of councils identifying the local early years workforce as a ‘barrier’ to successful delivery of the 2025 expansion.

The survey also found part-time nursery place (25 hours per week) for a child under two now costing an average of £158 per week, a 7% increase on 2023.

Only a third (34%) of English councils are reporting sufficient early years provision for parents working full-time, a decrease of 14 percentage points on 2023.

Ellen Broomé, Managing Director of Coram Family and Childcare, said: “Our findings – with higher costs and dramatic drops in availability of childcare places – are concerning at this crucial time, showing the scale of challenge and the very real risks around this policy not living up to parents’ expectations. Unless this policy is properly funded and supported, it could have the opposite effect, with families unable to access or afford the childcare they need and the most disadvantaged children set to miss out.”

Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said: “With just a fortnight to go until the rollout of the extended entitlement offer, this report raises serious questions about whether the expansion is even close to being workable in practice over the long term.

“Not only are parents facing surging early years costs, but the availability of places is plummeting at a time when they are needed more than ever. Despite the government’s insistence that the new entitlement offers will be available to all eligible families, it’s clear from this report that many councils remain concerned, particularly about future phases of the expansion, with 90% citing staffing challenges as a significant barrier to the rollout.

“Yet, is any of this really a surprise? While nurseries, pre-schools and childminders do their best to provide high-quality, affordable early education and care, years of neglect have left the sector in an utterly dire situation – and without the robust infrastructure needed to roll out the upcoming expansion.

“To say time is running out is an understatement. It is absolutely critical that government wakes up to the reality of the situation and takes the urgent action needed to support early years providers – namely, adequate funding and a clear workforce strategy that focuses on retention as well as recruitment. Ministers chose to make a big promise to families; it’s up to them to ensure the sector is able to deliver on it.”

The Big Listen, a wide-ranging consultation inviting input from education and care professionals, has been launched by Ofsted.

The consultation is framed around four key priorities – reporting, inspection practice, culture and purpose, and impact – with Ofsted stating that it is structured to allow respondents to provide feedback on the areas “of greatest interest and importance” to them.

First announced by Ofsted in January following a report into headteacher Ruth Perry’s death, the Big Listen will run for 12 weeks, closing on 31 May 2024.

Ofsted states that it aims to put the interests of disadvantaged children at the centre of reforms. As part of this, the inspectorate plans to launch a consultation strand that is specifically aimed at disadvantaged children – including those in the care system – later this month.

Alongside the online consultation, independent organisations will carry out surveys and focus groups with parents and professionals to gather their views on Ofsted’s direction moving forward.

Ofsted expects that the results of the consultation will be published later in the year.

An Ofsted spokesperson said: “We inspect and regulate early years providers first and foremost in the interests of children – looking in depth at how well, and safely, early years settings are run. But we aim for all our work to be carried out professionally and sensitively, with careful regard for their impact on staff.

“We have already made several positive changes over the last year and are continuing to look at how we can make further improvements to the way we work. We want to encourage as many people as possible to take part in our Big Listen, to help inform our future direction and make sure all children have the best possible education, care, and life chances. If your work, your children, your education or your care are impacted by what we do, we want to hear from you.”

You can respond to the consultation at: bit.ly/U5BigListen.

this will mean an extra 60,000 parents enter the workforce in the next four years – a tremendous achievement for the Education Secretary. Today, in order to support the childcare sector make the new investments it now needs, I am guaranteeing the rates that will be paid to childcare providers to deliver our landmark offer for children over 9 months old for the next two years.

“More people in work and more jobs, sticking to our plan in a long-term Budget for Growth.”

The Treasury has confirmed that the metric used to increase rates over this period will be a combination of inflation, earnings and the National Living Wage, and that it would “reflect that workforce costs are the most significant costs for childcare providers”.

It estimates that this commitment will result in an additional investment of £500 million over the next two years, though this is subject to change depending on inflation levels and changes to the national living and minimum wage.

Commenting, Alliance CEO Neil Leitch said: “We at the Alliance have long called for a mechanism to ensure that early years funding rises in line with provider delivery costs, and so welcome the fact that today’s announcement should help prevent the current funding gap from widening even further over the coming years.

“That said, what this policy does not do is to close this gap in any way, or address the wholly inadequate funding baseline from which providers are forced to operate. With the early years funding shortfall estimated to stand at £5 billion, it is clear that there is still much more to do to build and sustain an affordable, accessible and high-quality care and education sector over the long term.

“We know that the early years is facing its most challenging time in decades. Not only have years of underfunding wreaked havoc on the sector – prompting both a surge in setting closures and the worst staffing crisis in years – but the sector is just weeks away from the biggest expansion in early entitlement hours, with many settings warning that they do not have sufficient funding, capacity or space to meet the likely surge in demand. As such, while today is certainly a positive starting point, much more support – including significant long-term funding and a comprehensive workforce strategy – is crucial if nurseries, pre-schools and childminders are to be to able to sustainably deliver both existing and upcoming entitlement offers. With many settings already on the brink of closure, simply maintaining the status quo is not an option.

“Today’s Budget hints at a renewed approach to how the early years is recognised – but rather than being viewed as a solution to the early years crisis, it must be seen as the first step of many that need to be taken to safeguard the future of our vital sector.”

• strengthen expectations or requiring local authorities to pay childminders or providers operating from domestic premises on a monthly basis.

• reduce the minimum frequency of quality assurance visits for childminder agencies (CMA) from once per year of registration to once per every two years of registration and make the practice support that CMAs provide optional rather than a legal requirement.

• expand the range of healthcare professionals working within a GP surgery that can complete health declarations for prospective childminders to include nurses, pharmacists, occupational therapists and paramedics.

As part of the consultation, the DfE is also gathering a range of evidence relating to property-related barriers to opening or maintaining a childminder business, accessing support and understanding issues facing childminders accessing the expanded entitlement offers and those who are offering wraparound care.

Commenting Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said: “It is extremely disappointing that today’s consultation does not include plans to allow childminding professionals to claim early entitlement funding for related children. This is something which has been long called for by the sector and which would have brought childminders in line with the rest of the sector, and so it is difficult to understand why the government has chosen not to even consult on a potential change to this policy.

“On top of this, proposals to water down requirements for childminding agencies are extremely concerning and misguided. Given the inherent conflict of interest within the agency model, there is a real risk that such a proposal will drive down quality and unfairly undermine the professionalism of this key section of the early years workforce.

“That said, we welcome plans to encourage monthly payments from local authorities. Such a change would help ease cash flow concerns and provide much-needed financial certainty, though we would urge the government to ensure that such a policy is applied to all early years providers, rather than limiting it to childminders.

“Ultimately, however, if the government truly wants to show it values this vital part of the sector and encourage high-quality childminder professionals to both join and remain in the sector, it must commit to properly funding them – along with the rest of the sector – and implement long-term support which acknowledges and values the crucial role they play in children’s care, education and development.”

The government has confirmed that parent applications for the second phase of the early entitlement expansion will open on 12 May 2024.

From that date, eligible working parents of children from 9 months old will be able to register to access 15 early entitlement hours a week, ahead of the offer’s roll-out from September 2024.

However, the Early Years Alliance is warning that the fact that the sector’s severe staffing challenges, and underfunding remain unaddressed will likely make the expansion “unworkable”.

Commenting, Neil Leitch CEO of the Alliance, said: “Today’s confirmation of when applications for the next phase of the entitlement opens may suggest that the policy is on track, yet the reality is likely to paint a very different picture.

“Even before the expansion was announced, the early years sector was struggling due to years of underfunding and the worst staffing crisis in decades. While the government may claim to be addressing these challenges, we at the Alliance remain entirely unconvinced, with our own research showing that even before the first phase of the offer begins in a matter of weeks, more than two thirds of settings are already full.

“The only way that this policy will come even close to being workable in practice is if these longstanding funding, capacity and staffing issues are properly addressed. Confirming when families will be able to apply for the next phase of the entitlement will be entirely pointless if early years settings don’t have the capacity and support to be able to deliver the places families need.”