NEWS

Coram’s report is based on its 24th annual Childcare Survey, which used survey data from local authorities between November 2024 and February 2025.

The survey and report follow the rollout of the first two phases of the early entitlement expansion of funded hours for eligible working families in England. It found that, with the new ‘funded’ hours, a part-time early years place for a child under two now costs an average of £70.51 in England – a 56% decrease since 2024.

However, the report also identified that families not eligible for the new entitlements – such as those not in work or not earning enough to be eligible – face higher costs to provide the same level of early education, paying up to £105 more per week for a part-time early years place for a child under two and £100 more per week for a two-year-old. Furthermore, for parents of three- and four-year-olds in full-time early years provision, the average weekly cost is £126.94 in England, a 4.7% increase since 2024.

While around eight in 10 local authorities in England who responded to the survey saying they have enough early years provision for at least 75% of children eligible for all funded entitlements, the report also founds gaps in availability for children with SEND: only 29% of local authorities in England that responded to the survey report having enough provision for at least 75% of children with SEND in their area.

Coram is recommending that the government take a number of key actions to ensure a “balanced” system, including:

• updating the current funding model to ensure rates cover the true cost of provision
  
• the removal of parental work criteria from the government-funded entitlements to give all children an equal right to quality early years education and provision
  
• the creation of a more flexible SEND funding system
  
• addressing sufficiency gaps by ensuring that new school-based early years settings are opened in areas of most need.
  

Commenting, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said: “While it is positive that early years places are becoming more affordable for those families who are eligible for funded places, it’s clear from these findings that the early years sector in England is fast becoming a two-tier system.

“With the bulk of the early entitlement offers skewed towards working families, more and more children from disadvantaged backgrounds – who we know benefit the most from early education and care – are at risk of being frozen out of accessing affordable places.

“Add to this the fact that children with special educational needs continue to find it more difficult than their peers to access provision, and there's no doubt that under the existing system, the children most in need of support are now the least likely to be able to access it.

“As our own recent research has shown, the combined impact of next month’s national insurance increases, wage rises, and updated charging guidance is likely to see settings limit places and raise their fees. It’s clear, therefore, that far more sector support is needed if every child is to be able to benefit from affordable provision.

“Ultimately, we know the only way of achieving this is to adequately fund the sector, both now and in the long term. If the government is truly committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity, there simply is no other option.”

The government has published new guidance on a government grant for increasing National Insurance contributions that confirms private and voluntary early years providers are not eligible for support.

As announced by the Chancellor in October’s Budget, from 6 April 2025, employer national insurance contributions will increase to 15%, with the per-employee threshold at which employers start to pay National Insurance reduced from £9,100 to £5,000 per year.

The guidance details how schools and maintained nurseries will be supported to meet the costs of these increases, confirming that they will receive additional government funding to manage the changes. The grant will be available to the following early years settings:

• schools (both maintained and academies)
  
• governor-run academies and maintained nursery schools
  
• all other maintained nursery schools.
  

However, no additional support or funding has been confirmed for private, independent and voluntary early years settings.

The early years NICs grant funding will be paid to local authorities in September 2025 to distribute to eligible early years settings in their area. It will be the responsibility of local authorities to notify eligible early years providers in their area of their NICs rates ahead of the 2025 to 2026 financial year.

This payment is separate to the entitlements funding rates announced in December 2024.

Further information on grant eligibility and methodology can be found bit.ly/3DOWjdq.

backgrounds and how agencies helped to protect them. It focused on the cases of 53 children from Black, Asian and mixed-heritage backgrounds who died or were seriously harmed between January 2022 and March 2024.

Overall, the report revealed a lack of talk or action regarding race and racism in child safeguarding, with many local areas failing to acknowledge the impact of race, ethnicity, and culture.

Findings in the report identified:

• a lack of focus on race, ethnicity, and culture in both safeguarding practice and reviews, leading to insufficient critical analysis and reflection on how racial bias impacts decisions and service offers.
  
• a hesitancy to address racism and its manifestations, leading to the safeguarding needs of Black, Asian and mixed-heritage children being ‘invisible’ both in practice and in terms of learning via reviews.
  
• that many opportunities to learn from serious safeguarding incidents involving Black, Asian and mixed-heritage children are missed due to a failure to acknowledge race, racial bias, and racism.

The panel’s lead recommendations include:

• acknowledging and challenging racism by ensuring appropriate internal systems are in place to support practitioners to recognise, discuss and challenge internal and institutional racism.
  
• empowering practitioners to hold conversations with children and families about race and identity.
  
• including opportunities for self-reflection to identify and challenge their own biases.
  
• child safeguarding partnerships reviewing local strategies and approaches to addressing race, racism, and racial bias.
  

Jahnine Davis, panel lead for the report, said: “The silence around race and racism in child safeguarding practice is deeply concerning.

“Ensuring that Black, Asian, and mixed-heritage children are safeguarded requires a collective effort to build knowledge and understanding at both local and national levels.

“This means challenging current policies and practices, and how services are designed and delivered, recognising how racism and racial bias impact our work to protect children.

“We must recognise racism as a child safeguarding issue – whether it underlies the harm caused to children or hinders professionals from acting accordingly to protect them.

“This report is a call to action for all safeguarding professionals. We need to be more willing, reflective, critical, and committed to addressing the impact of race and racism in our work. The silence must end now.”

It aims to identify why, in many countries, children’s average toilet training age has increased, leading to 300,000 disposable nappies being sent to landfill globally. In the UK, for example, the toilet training age has increased by 32% between the 1950s and 2000s, leading to many schools and early years settings having an increased number of children wearing nappies for longer.

The first part of the project invites families currently toilet training to respond to the Big Toilet Project survey and share their experiences. The second part invites these families to voluntarily complete a toilet training diary over the course of a month.

The data gathered from families and settings will be combined with a materials systems analysis to explore ways to support families and children, and cut waste. Initial results from the project are expected this summer.

Dr Ayşe Lisa Allison, a behavioural scientist from UCL Plastic Waste Innovation Hub and the UCL Centre for Behaviour Change, said: “One of the reasons we are gathering information on toilet training is to understand what kinds of behaviour change might help reduce nappy waste.

“We all have a role in shaping a caregiving culture and environment that enables less wasteful practices, whether that’s improving acceptance of and access to reusable and recyclable products, or reducing over-reliance on nappies by empowering caregivers with the confidence, time, and resources to support toilet training. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to tackle nappy waste, too!”

More information is available at bigtoiletproject.org.

A national programme of supervised toothbrushing for three-to-five-year olds is being rolled out across the most deprived areas from April, the government has announced.

The supervised toothbrushing programme will be rolled out in early years settings and primary schools, with funding available from April, with the aim of helping children aged between three and five years old to develop positive brushing habits.

The most common reason children aged five to nine are admitted to hospital is to have treatment for decayed teeth, with the latest data showing that one in five children aged five have experienced tooth decay in England, with higher rates of up to one in three in more deprived areas.

To deliver the scheme, the government is investing a total of £11 million in local authorities across England to deploy supervised toothbrushing in schools and early years settings that voluntarily sign up. Local authorities will work to identify early years settings in target areas and encourage them to enrol.

The government has partnered with Colgate to support the programme, which will see more than 23 million toothbrushes and toothpastes donated over the next five years. It will also provide educational materials and a public-facing children’s oral health campaign to support the NHS.

Together, the resources are projected to reach up to 600,000 children each year and provide families with the support they need to ensure positive behaviours continue at home and over the school holidays.

Early education minister Stephen Morgan said: “Through our Plan for Change, this government is working hard to break the unfair link between background and opportunity to ensure tens of thousands more children are school-ready every year.

“We have already started urgent work to increase the affordability and accessibility of high-quality early years education and extend early learning support, but we know school-readiness goes beyond what is taught in a classroom.

“By supporting the youngest children with vital life and development skills, more teachers will be able to focus on what they do best: teach.”

to all early years settings, primary schools, and out-of-school clubs and groups to encourage greater awareness and understanding of food allergies, while also enabling children to feel empowered, included and protected. The resources include films, lesson plans and assembly packs created by the charity in partnership with Coram Life Education, The King’s Foundation, St John Ambulance, and Tesco Stronger Starts.

The resources – available at bit.ly/allergyschool – feature schools, teaching staff and children sharing their own stories and food allergy best practices. They also introduce Arlo, the friendly, food-allergic armadillo who “helps to educate children about food allergies in a positive and engaging way”. The Department for Education (DfE) encourages settings to use such resources as part of their work to fulfil their statutory duties to manage allergy risks, as set out in the government’s allergy guidance for schools and the Early Years Foundation Framework.

The first wave of resources is specifically for early years settings, childminders, primary schools, and out-of-school clubs and groups looking after children aged three to 11.

Jan Forshaw MBE, head of education at Coram Life Education, said: “Awareness of food allergies among the whole community is vital.

Children with food allergies are often excluded from events because of a general lack of knowledge and understanding of the issues they face. They can also experience bullying because their allergy can make them appear different to other children.

“The lessons and assemblies we have developed with Natasha’s Foundation work together to help everyone learn about the challenges and risks faced by children with food allergies – focusing on facts and, crucially, on developing empathy and caring attitudes. We are delighted to be part of this great work.”

families will be extended from 15 hours a week to 30 hours.

The additional funding to support this expansion will be distributed via an ‘early years expansion grant’, which will be paid to local authorities in July 2025 to be allocated to providers delivering the funded entitlements. The grant equates to an average increase of 14p per hour for two-year-olds and 19p per hour for under-twos (though the actual funding increases varies between local authorities – a breakdown is available at bit.ly/3QytAwm).

The Department for Education (DfE) has confirmed that local authorities can choose how they distribute their grant funding to “support specific growth needs” in their area, but has suggested ways for councils to distribute their allocation according to their local funding formulae.