NEWS

According to the report, despite overall increases in early years spending, once rises in both national minimum wage and national insurance contributions are taken into account, funding per hour for three- and four-year-olds is 22% lower than at its peak in 2017, and has fallen by 4% in the last year alone. In comparison, funding per hour for two-year-olds is 12% higher than its 2017 peak.

The report also found that new entitlements have reshaped how early years spending is targeted. While spending targeted specifically at working families has risen from 15% in 2014 to 48% in 2024, and is on track to reach 58% in 2025, spending on disadvantaged children has halved in the decade to 2024. Tighter eligibility criteria also saw entitlement to the two-year-old disadvantaged offer fall from almost 40% of two-year-olds to under a quarter.

Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, commented: “This research confirms what we already know to be true: that increases in the national minimum wage combined with national insurance rises have placed significant financial pressure on early years providers – pressure that, for the three-and four-year-old offer at least, has not been matched by rises in early years funding. As a result, despite their best efforts, it is becoming increasingly difficult for early years settings to deliver the affordable, flexible service that families need.”

The Department for Education has announced plans to publish new expert-led guidance for parents and carers on screen use for under-fives.

The announcement follows new research which shows that screen use is near-universal among young children, with 98% of two-year-olds watching screens daily, and that two-year-olds with the highest screen time have weaker language development than those with lower screen time.

The study also found that children with the highest screen use – around five hours a day – could say significantly fewer words than children with the lowest screen use, around 44 minutes a day, and that at age two, 77% of children in the highest-income families are read to daily, compared with 32% in the lowest-income families.

Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner and Russell Viner, former Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for Education and Professor of Child and Adolescent Health at UCL, will engage with parents and experts to inform the new guidance ahead of its publication in April.

The government says that the screen time guidance will provide “practical, non-judgemental” tips for parents on how screen use can sit alongside activities that support children’s early development including talking, playing and reading together.

Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said: “While we broadly welcome plans to develop new guidance on screen time for under-fives, with technology now such an integral part of young children’s lives, it’s important that any such support on this topic sits within a much wider framework of guidance for families and educators on digital literacy and online safety., said: “While we broadly welcome plans to develop new guidance on screen time for under-fives, with technology now such an integral part of young children’s lives, it’s important that any such support on this topic sits within a much wider framework of guidance for families and educators on digital literacy and online safety.

The government’s aim for this initiative is to overcome inconsistencies in SEND training and to deepen knowledge of how to adapt teaching to meet a wide range of needs in the classroom, including visual impairments and speech and language needs.

Educators will learn about using assistive technology like speech to text dictation tools and building awareness of additional needs amongst all pupils.
Underpinning the training will be a new expectation set out in the SEND Code of Practice, confirming that all staff in every early years setting, school and college should receive training on SEND and inclusion.

Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, commented: “We know that early years settings play a vital role in identifying SEND as early as possible and providing the support that children with SEND need to thrive, and so the news of plans to roll out new government-funded early years SEND training is very welcome.

“Looking ahead, it’s important that the government clarifies how much of this investment will go specifically to early years, and that it works closely with the sector to design CPD and training that reflects the realities of early years practice.

“Nevertheless, this is a positive step and we look forward to working with government to ensure that this funding can make a real difference to early educators, and the children and families they support.”

The Alliance has co-signed a joint letter to HMRC raising concerns about upcoming changes to how childminding professionals can claim for wear-and-tear expenses under new government rules.

From April 2026, HMRC is introducing a new approach to income tax Making Tax Digital (MTD), which will see childminders (and other self-employed tax-payers) required to use MTD-compatible software to keep digital records of income and expense, provide quarterly income and expenditure updates and submit tax returns.

While the rules around childminder expenses are currently determined by a historic childminder-specific agreement with HMRC several years ago, which states that “a deduction of 10% of total childminding income may be made to cover the wear and tear of furniture and household items”, HMRC have now confirmed this will not apply to childminders within Making Tax Digital – though policy officials have confirmed that childminders withing MTD will “still able to get tax relief on the business proportion of the purchase and replacement of furniture and household items”.

In the letter, the coalition of childminder-representative organisations warns that requiring childminders to claim for individual items, purchases and repairs will potentially placing a higher financial and administrative burden on them, which may lead them to reduce staffing levels or leave the profession altogether.

The letter stresses that the childminding profession is still fragile as a result of the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis and the increasing costs of running a business and highlights that childminding numbers are at their lowest level on record – a concerning fact in light of the expansion of funded entitlements that require an increasing number of providers to be a success.

The letter is available to read in full at bit.ly/U5_CMwearandtearletter.

The committee made this decision in light of the recent appalling high-profile cases in which early years staff have been convicted of abusing children in nursery settings.

Education Committee Chair Helen Hayes MP said: “Shocking and distressing recent cases have raised questions about the effectiveness of safeguarding policies and practices in early years settings, to which parents entrust their most precious and vulnerable loved ones. Therefore, we are expanding our early years inquiry to investigate how safeguarding can be strengthened and parents can be reassured.

“We will examine Ofsted’s inspection regime, the role of local authorities, the effectiveness of current regulation and how well those regulations are understood by the sector. We also want to look at the role that CCTV and other technologies can play in protecting children, and what effect staffing shortages can have on safety.”

Short news updates from the early years sector and beyond.

Oxford University Press (OUP) has announced that the Oxford Children’s Word of the Year for 2025 is peace. AI was runner-up for the second year in a row.

The government and the National Literacy Trust has launched Go All In, a new campaign that aims to encourage reading for pleasure among children, which has dropped to its lowest level since 2005.