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DfE confirms no change over unqualified staff rules

The Department for Education (DfE) has confirmed that unqualified early years staff can continue to work in early years settings as normal, following confusion over a new qualifications’ guidance document.

The Alliance was contacted by a number of members who were concerned about guidance in the new early years qualification requirements and standards document, where it states that, “to be included in the staff:child ratios at level 2, level 3 or level 6, staff must hold a qualification that is recognised by the Department for Education as full and relevant at the appropriate level”, and “any individual that does not hold a full and relevant qualification can only work as an unqualified member of staff in an early years setting and therefore cannot count in the staff:child ratios”.

Many members took this to mean that, under the revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), unqualified staff could no longer work in early years settings.
The Alliance has spoken to the DfE and can confirm that there have been no changes to the rules on unqualified staff and that this guidance does not mean that unqualified educators are unable to work in early years settings – only that they cannot be counted in Level 2, 3 or 6 ratios, as is currently the case.

The DfE has stated that this document “is a technical change that puts the existing information about qualifications that is currently held on various gov.uk pages into one easily accessible document” and that it “does not introduce any new policy or requirements, other than the changes to the Level 2 maths requirement and use of students and apprentices in ratios, which the department is bringing in following the consultation”.

The Alliance has spoken to the DfE and can confirm that there have been no changes to the rules on unqualified staff and that this guidance does not mean that unqualified educators are unable to work in early years settings – only that they cannot be counted in Level 2, 3 or 6 ratios, as is currently the case.

Local authority funding rates confirmed for early years entitlement expansion

The Department for Education has confirmed long-awaited council funding rates for the early years entitlement expansion, due to come into effect in April 2024, as well as new rates for the three- and four-year-old offer.

From April next year, the national average hourly rates funded by the government for local authorities – not providers – will be:
• £11.22 for under twos
• £8.28 for two-year-olds
• £5.88 for three- and four-year-olds

In the announcement, the DfE stated that these rates “reflect the increase in the National Living Wage from April 2024, which makes up a significant proportion of providers’ costs”.

The government has also announced that applications for the first wave of the expansion’s rollout for working parents will open on 2 January 2024. From this point until the end of February, eligible working parents or carers of two-year-olds will be able to register to access the funded hours, which will begin in April 2024.

From Thursday 30 November, funding will also be available for new childminders who are joining the profession, who completed their registration on or after 15 March 2023, or those re-registering at least 12 months after the cancellation of a previous registration. Those who register with Ofsted will be eligible to receive a start-up grant of £600, while those who register with a childminder agency will receive £1,200.

Sharp rise in national living wage heightens fears over fate of early years settings

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced that the national living wage will increase from £10.42 to £11.44 in April 2024 – a near 10% increase – and extend to 21- and 22-year-olds. The government has also confirmed that the national minimum wage for 18- to 20-year-olds will increase from £7.49 to £8.60,

while the minimum wage for both under-18s and apprentices will increase from £5.28 to £6.40.

However, the Chancellor failed to provide any additional support for the early years during the statement, despite recent Ofsted figures showing the closure of 3,000 providers in the past year due to financial pressures. During a Parliamentary session that immediately followed the Autumn Statement, Conservative MP Chair of the Education Select Committee Robin Walker warned that the wage increase would put “great pressure” on early years settings and urged Mr Hunt to work closely with the sector to ensure that providers were able to “meet that pressure.”

In reply, the Chancellor said that “for many schools and nurseries, the issue is recruitment […] and this change will make that much easier”.

Proposals given go ahead after Ofsted public consultation response

Ofsted has stated that four proposals put forward in a public consultation about its post-inspection arrangements will be implemented throughout 2024.
The consultation – which ran from 12 June to 15 September 2023 – was intended “to build on current arrangements to support a ‘right first time’ approach to inspections” and allow for the consideration and resolution of any issues during an Ofsted inspection.

The four proposals put forward were:
• enhancing on-site professional dialogue during inspections to help address any issues
• introducing a new opportunity for providers to contact Ofsted
• introducing new arrangements for finalising reports and considering formal challenges to inspection outcomes
• allowing direct escalation to the Independent Complaints Adjudication Service for Ofsted and adding a periodic review of closed complaints using external reps from the sectors Ofsted inspects

Ofsted says that the four proposals received “very positive” responses overall, with proposals one, two and four receiving an 80% ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ consensus, while just under 80% of respondents supported proposal three.

As a result, Ofsted has confirmed that the proposals will be introduced in two phases, with the first phase beginning in January 2024 and the second in April 2024.

IFS annual education spending report reveals 9% real-terms funding fall for early years in 2022-23

Government spending on the early years sector in 2022-23 has dropped by almost 9% in real terms, according to an annual report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

This overall funding decrease in the early years looks set to continue, with the report highlighting that government funding for the extended entitlement offers fails to account for the growing costs falling on settings and providers.

In addition, the IFS estimates that core resources per hour for three- and four-year-olds in 2024-25 will be 12% lower than in 2012-13 once providers’ costs are taken into account.

The proportion of local authority funding for deprived children has fallen from 60% in 2017-18 to 38% in 2023-24.

The report also found that, between 2017-18 and 2023-24, funding uplifts for children with additional needs fell – though this doesn’t include funding provisions for children with disabilities.

In addition, financial support for children for more disadvantaged backgrounds has also fallen over recent years, with Early Years Pupil Premium funding – allocated to deprived children in settings – decreasing by 2% in 2023-24 compared to 2017-18. Similarly, the proportion of local authority funding for deprived children has fallen from 60% in 2017-18 to 38% in 2023-24 – a trend that the IFS attributes in part to an increase in “the number of children classified as deprived”, though the report notes that “a national funding formula where resource per disadvantaged child falls as deprivation rises seems particularly illogical”.

Ongoing early years staffing challenge highlighted in Ofsted’s annual report

Ofsted’s latest annual report states that the ongoing recruitment and retention challenges in the early years sector are putting the quality of early years provision at risk.

Published yesterday, the 2022/23 Education, Children’s Services and Skills report notes that that “the challenges of recruiting qualified [early years] staff [...] continue to get worse” due to “low wages, perceived low status, poor working conditions and limited opportunities for professional development”.

It warns that the growing use of unqualified or agency staff and apprentices to maintain staff:child ratios in some settings means that

The challenges of recruiting qualified [early years] staff [...] continue to get worse.

“children may not have a consistent key person who knows them and understands their needs”, and describes the fact that one in five staff working in nurseries and pre-schools is unqualified – up from 16% in 2020 to 21% in 2023 – as “one of the greatest challenges to high-quality early education”.

The report, which is Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman’s last in her current role, also highlights that the number of providers on its registers has been falling steadily since 2016. This is primarily related to a significant drop in childminders, with numbers having “halved in the past 10 years from 55,300 in 2013 to 27,000 at year end”.

Half of children under five living in ‘early education and childcare deserts’, says new report

More than 1.5 million children in England are living in areas where there are more than three children for every early years place, according to new statistics.

The report – A Fair Start for All by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) and The Social Guarantee – says that the number living in what it deems as “early education and childcare deserts” is equivalent to 44% of all under-fives in England.

According to the research, most of the areas in which early education settings are closing are already disadvantaged by existing in the most deprived local authorities. The report also highlights that the remaining settings in such areas tend to receive lower Ofsted ratings on the whole.

The research comes just months before the government plans to launch its funded hours’ expansion, adding to existing concerns about its feasibility. With the sector already stretched, there are fears that it will be the most vulnerable children who are impacted.

The report’s author and head of social policy at the New Economics Foundation, Tom Pollard, said: “The government’s plan to expand its childcare offer means that by the end of next year the state will be funding 80% of provision in England, making it a de facto public service. It would be inconceivable not to use that opportunity to deliver for the children who stand to benefit the most, and to help level up across our country.”

One in five children with SEND being turned away from early years settings, new research finds

A rising number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are being turned away from early years settings as providers struggle to cope with a growing “tsunami of need”, new research from SEND organisation Dingley’s Promise has found.

A recent survey carried out by the organisation – which received 550 responses – found that 95% of settings

have seen a rise in the number of children with SEND, with 79% noting this rise as ‘significant’. This, combined with a lack of SEND training and complicated funding processes, is leading to rising rates of exclusion in the sector: 27% of respondents reported that they had no space for children with SEND, while 85% of local authorities stated that they don’t have sufficient provision for children with SEND.

The research warns that the current situation is likely to worsen when the new early entitlement offers for one- and two-year-olds are introduced next year, with 57% of survey respondents reporting that they will not be able to offer spaces to children with SEND following the introduction of the new schemes.

In response to the findings, Dingley’s Promise has launched a manifesto calling on decision makers to take urgent action to support the growing numbers of SEND children in early years settings.

The manifesto outlines three core areas of improvement for the sector: workforce development, including inclusion training for every member of staff; sufficient funding with easy-to- navigate systems; and a long-term focus securing SEND places for those that need them.