- National Audit Office expresses doubts on childcare sector expansion
- Concerns raised over quality compromise in government’s daycare initiative
- Government aims to meet childcare demand despite staffing shortages
Despite projections that 85,000 additional childcare places will be required by September 2025, the National Audit Office has expressed “uncertainties” regarding the sector’s ability to expand and provide sufficient places due to a dearth of qualified personnel and suitable space.
A report has identified a potential “compromisal of quality” in the government’s free daycare initiative, while activists urge immediate action to fulfill the “virtually impossible” commitment the program made to working parents.
Beginning this month, eligible parents and carers of two-year-olds are now entitled to 15 hours of free child care as part of the first phase of the Conservatives’ plan.
These 15 hours will be extended to all eligible parents of infants older than nine months beginning in September. The government aims to ensure that all children between the ages of nine months and five years are eligible for 30 hours of complimentary childcare by September 2025.
Nevertheless, higher staff-to-child supervision ratios for two-year-olds and an influx of “inexperienced” early years staff, according to the National Audit Office (NAO), pose a risk of “compromising quality.”
With an estimated 85,000 new childcare places required by September 2025, the NAO stated that there are “uncertainties” as to whether the sector can expand promptly to provide sufficient places due to a shortage of qualified personnel and suitable space.
In March, the Department for Education (DfE) surveyed local authorities and found that only 34% were certain there would be sufficient places to meet demand in their area during September of this year.
The schedule for extended childcare was established notwithstanding “significant uncertainties” regarding its feasibility, costs, and benefits, according to the watchdog, because the DfE failed to consult the early years sector before making the announcement.
Dame Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC), stated, “To avoid disappointing tens of thousands of parents over the next eighteen months, DfE must clarify with urgency what it will do if the early years sector is unable to recruit the staff it so desperately needs.”
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Neil Leitch, chief executive officer of the Early Years Alliance (EYA), stated: Government action is urgently required, namely a comprehensive workforce strategy supported by adequate long-term funding for the sector, to ensure that there are sufficient early years places to fulfill the enormous promise that ministers have made to parents, given that the sector is currently experiencing one of the worst staffing crises in its history.
The government launched a recruitment campaign in February, funded at £6.5 million, to encourage individuals to enter the early years sector.
A DfE spokesperson stated, “We have increased funding significantly above market rates, launched a workforce campaign and new apprenticeship routes, and provided £100 million in capital funding to assist in the expansion or refurbishment of facilities in order to prepare the sector for the subsequent phases.”
