NEWS

incidents (when a child dies or is seriously harmed, and abuse or neglect is known or suspected) between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.

The Annual Report 2023 to 2024 highlights three specific themes: safeguarding children with mental health needs; safeguarding children from risks outside the family home; and safeguarding pre-school children with parents who have mental health needs.

The report highlights that over half of incidents where the death or serious harm of a child aged one to five occurred involved a parent or relevant adult with a mental health condition, with reviews highlighting that parental mental health was often overlooked as a potential risk factor when considering parents’ capacity to care for their children.

As the new Mental Health Bill progresses through parliament, the panel is calling for greater measures to support effective partnership working between adult mental health services and children’s services.

Maria Neophytou, interim CEO at the NSPCC, said: “It is always deeply disturbing to see how many children have died or been seriously harmed as a consequence of abuse and neglect in the last year.

“This report acts as a powerful reminder of the tragic consequences when children’s best interests are not placed at the heart of the decisions that directly affect them, whether by frontline safeguarding partners in health, children’s social care or policing, or by government officials and policymakers.

“To deliver on its commitment to ‘raise the healthiest generation of children ever’, the new government must take a joined-up approach to transforming childhoods and tackling abuse and neglect. They can do this by ensuring vital, early help services are more widely available to support families before problems escalate to crisis point and children are harmed.

“It’s also crucial that children and young people experiencing, or at risk of, harm receive a swift, effective, child-centred response from the professionals and agencies that can protect them and support their recovery. That way, more babies, children and young people will be safe and able to grow up healthy and free from the horrific abuse and harm that can damage or even destroy their lives.”

Average parent-paid fees for early years places increased steeply between 2023 and 2024, new statistics published by the Department for Education (DfE) show.

These statistics provide information on early years provision in England from the DfE’s annual Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers (SCEYP). The DfE commissioned IFF Research and London Economics to conduct the SCEYP in 2024, with fieldwork carried out between May and July 2024.

The release shows the average increases for early years fees paid by parents, according to child age:

• £6.05 to £6.60 for under-twos (a 9.1% increase)
  
• £6.07 to 6.56 for two-year-olds (an 8.1% increase)
  
• £5.90 to £6.30 for three- and four-year-olds (a 6.8% increase)
  

The statistics come shortly after confirmation of next year's early years funding rates for local authorities, which will increase by between 3-4% and do not factor in the impact of national insurance contribution increases.

Commenting, Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said: "It's not at all surprising that parent fees have increased so sharply over the past year. For many years, funding for the early entitlement offers has completely failed to meet the true cost of delivering places, meaning that, despite the recent higher increases in rates for young children, many nurseries, pre-schools and childminders still face a daily struggle to remain financially viable. As a result, many simply have no choice but to increase fees to avoid going out of business altogether.

"Worse still, we know that this trend is very likely to continue. When asked what would happen if next year's early years funding rates did not cover the costs of minimum wage rises and national insurance increases, 95% of respondents to an Alliance survey said that they would be forced to increase fees for parents. And, with recent confirmation that funding across all age groups will increase by just 3-4% – despite minimum wage increases of up to 18% plus the significant additional pressure of national insurance changes – it's clear that these fee increases are likely to be significant.

"At a time when government has rightly identified the need to ensure that all children have access to a quality early education as a policy priority, ministers simply must do more to ensure that early years places are affordable. Of course, this is especially critical given that those on the lowest incomes are the most likely to be excluded from the funded entitlement offers, most of which are aimed specifically at 'working families'.

"We therefore urge the Treasury to recognise the urgent need to tackle this issue and work with the sector to ensure that early years providers are adequately funded, both now and in the future, to deliver the quality, accessible, affordable early education and care that all families need and deserve."

access to affordable, high-quality early education to ensure children will be ‘school ready’ at age five.

In December, the Prime Minister unveiled the government’s Plan for Change, which included an ambition for 75% of children to be achieving a good level of development when they start school by 2028. The government has said that “a reformed and sustainable early education system is central to this mission”, which is why it is increasing investment by over 30% compared to last year – bringing total spend to £8 billion – as it expands government-funded early education for working parents.

The £2 billion uplift reflects the government’s latest modelling for the final 2025-26 entitlement funding rates, the uplift to the Early Years Pupil Premium, and the £75 million expansion grant.

This updated spend figure is in line with existing projections of the 70,000 new places required to meet demand for next September.

The early entitlement expansion includes: the 15 hours entitlement for eligible working parents of children from nine months up to two years old (due to be extended to 30 hours from 1 September 2025); the 15 hours entitlement for eligible working parents of two-year-old children (due to be extended to 30 hours from 1 September 2025); the 15 hours entitlement for families of two-year-olds receiving additional support (formerly known as the two-year-old disadvantaged entitlement); the universal 15 hours entitlement for all three and four-year-olds; and the additional 15 hours entitlement for eligible working parents of three and four-year-olds.

The majority of the local authority hourly rates announced by the DfE is to support providers with the core costs of providing entitlement hours, with a small proportion being used to support local authorities to administer the entitlements locally.

In the announcement, the government has stated that the 2025 to 2026 pass-through rate – which is the minimum amount of funding local authorities pass on to providers – is being increased from 95% to 96%.

Frontline provider rates will be confirmed by individual local authorities by 28 February 2025.

Commenting, Alliance CEO Neil Leitch said: “While any increase of funding is, of course, welcome, the fact is these funding rates will fail to even come close to covering the cost of changes to National Insurance Contributions and wage increases.

“With our own research showing the National Insurance changes will cost settings more than £18,000 a year, what providers needed was a commitment to mitigate the impact of these changes. Yet in reality, by not accounting for these changes in next year's rates, countless nurseries, preschools and childminders will be left with no option but to raise costs, reduce places, or simply close their doors completely.

“What’s more, the Treasury may claim that the rates announced take into account the upcoming rises to national and living wages, but we know it will do little – if anything at all – to support settings in meeting these increases while ensuring wage differentials between junior and senior staff. As such, not only will it place even more financial pressure on settings, but it is likely to make the sector’s ongoing staffing crisis even worse.

“This was an opportunity for the Treasury to show it recognises the catastrophic impact that the National Insurance and wage changes will have on the sector. Not only has it turned a blind eye to this, but it will have clear repercussions on families expecting to take advantage of the ongoing expansion."

A new £75 million grant for early years settings, alongside an increase in Early Years Pupil Premium funding rates, has been announced by the Department for Education (DfE).

The DfE grant aims to support the delivery of the 35,000 additional staff and 70,000 places required to meet the early entitlement expansion’s projected demand in September 2025.

The government will also uplift the early years pupil premium (EYPP), increasing rates by over 45% to up to £570 per eligible child, per year. This increase is being described as “an investment in quality early education for those children who need it most, in the areas that need it most, to give them the support they need to be ‘school ready’ at age five and go on to have the best life chances”.

The expansion of government-funded early years places currently underway across England is at risk of not delivering for poorer families, according to a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and Save the Children.

The report analyses the quality and quantity of early years provision in England – including private and voluntary settings, as well as childminders – identifying that there are vast differences in levels of access according to region and social class.

The new research analysis reveals that rural areas have 31% fewer places, and 29% fewer Ofsted-rated ‘good’ places, compared to inner cities and town centres. Meanwhile, the most deprived areas have 32% fewer places per child, and 25% fewer Ofsted-rated ‘good’ places, compared to the most affluent areas. It also shows that, at the current rate of childminder decline, there will be no childminders left by 2033.

In light of these findings, the IPPR and Save the Children have made the following suggestions to reform early education in England amid the early entitlement expansion:

• Establish new not-for-profit nursery trusts, with the aim of helping smaller providers with business support and best practice guidance.
  
  
• Reinvigorate the role of local authorities, including by pooling funding.
  
  
• Grow and support the supply of childminders by developing a new, long-term national strategy.
  
  
• Increase funding for deprived areas and children.
  
  
• Reform the SEND funding system, giving greater recognition to emerging needs in early years within mainstream funding.
  

The annual report found that:

• many families have trouble accessing high-quality early years provision, with ‘childcare deserts’ more likely to be in areas experiencing lower incomes and higher child poverty.
  
  
• many nurseries are struggling to recruit and retain skilled and qualified staff. The disruption caused by high staff turnover can have a negative impact on children’s learning and well-being, with vulnerable children and those with SEND particularly affected.
  
  
• the vast majority of early years providers are doing a good job for children, but primary schools report that some children continue to lag behind with language, communication and social skills by the time they start school.
  

The report also focuses on the interrelation of education and social care, and the challenges they face, stating that where “education and social care professionals are working hard under immense pressure […] with systems under strain”, it is “vulnerable and disadvantaged children who are most affected”. In the new year, Ofsted will formally consult on a renewed inspection framework for schools, early years, further education (FE) and skills providers, and initial teacher education.

Improving outcomes in the early years is a key part of the government’s long-term plan to deliver change, the prime minister announced in a speech.

Speaking about the government’s ‘Plan for Change’ in Buckinghamshire , the Prime Minister set out the milestones that it will use to measure whether or not it has achieved its six key missions by the end of this Parliament. The missions are: growing the economy; an NHS fit for the future; safer streets; secure power through clean energy; and breaking down barriers for opportunity.

The government has now confirmed that it will measure its progress within the ‘opportunity mission’ by aiming to increase the number of five-year-olds reaching a good level of expected development in their Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) assessment to 75%, up from the current 67.7%, by 2028.

To achieve this, the government aims to: continue the rollout of government-funded early education support to improve access work in partnership with the sector, offering sustained professional development and helping providers to grow evidence-based programmes strengthen and join up family services.

Short news updates from the early years sector and beyond.

Let’s Grow provides a one-stop shop for resources to support personal, social and emotional skills among all children with baby fruit and veg characters.

The DfE joins forces with the Department of Health and Social Care to relaunch the home learning environment campaign, ‘Little moments together’. It aims to educate families about the importance of brain development in the first five years of a child's life.