You are here: News Lack of consistent strategy for quality childcare leaves children’s life chances to postcode luck
A postcode lottery in the quality of early education risks tilting the playing field for children’s life chances, the Family and Childcare Trust warns in a new report.
Driving High Quality Childcare: the role of local authorities finds wide variation in funding for free early education contributes to uneven quality:
- Just under half of local authorities (70 out of 152) use a quality supplement linked to Ofsted grades or graduate leadership.
- It is not uncommon for a local authority to offer less funding per hour with a quality supplement than a neighbouring local authority offers without a quality supplement.
- There is little correlation between average local funding rates and local wages – the key driver of provider costs.
- Only 22 per cent of local authorities report using funding to encourage graduate leadership in childcare settings.
The study also finds that the local authority role in supporting high quality early years services is being neglected. The majority of local authority teams now concentrate on supporting early years providers with ‘Requires improvement’ or ‘Unsatisfactory’ Ofsted grades. This targets scarce resources on poor quality providers but it means many providers now have limited access to support and training from their local authority, and local authorities have a limited ability to spot and respond to quality problems at an early stage.
Cuts to local authority early years teams have particularly undermined the support local authorities provide to early years providers to provide high quality care for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Evidence shows that while the average quality of free early education has improved in recent years, there are sharp differences in the quality of care children receive:
- Over a quarter (26 per cent) of children attended in low quality early years settings in Bradford compared to four per cent in Wigan. Overall, 14 per cent of children attend in settings rated ‘Requires improvement’ or ‘Unsatisfactory’ by Ofsted.
- Only 18 per cent of children in Hull attending early education in private or voluntary settings received graduate-led care, a factor known to be associated with quality, compared to 77 per cent in the City of Bristol.
Julia Margo, chief executive at the Family and Childcare Trust said:
"High quality early education is the one of the best opportunities we have to boost a child’s development early on and support long-lasting outcomes. The 30 hour offer means that local government will be funding more childcare than ever before. Additional investment in quality and a more effective approach to funding local providers are urgently needed. The Government should use the Life Chances strategy to prioritise quality in early education and give local authorities a clear remit to work with providers to improve outcomes for children.
"Children with special education needs and disabilities stand to lose the most from poor support from local authorities. The Government must work with local authorities and providers to dramatically improve inclusion in the early years. The recent commitments on childcare from the main parties but setting out childcare strategies is only the first step. What matters for families is whether such policies mean that they will get the affordable, high-quality childcare that they and their children need."
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Contact: Mark Bou Mansour, Communications and Campaigns Manager. Telephone: 0207 940 7535, mobile: 07538 334 772, email: mark@familyandchildcaretrust.org
Notes to Editor
The Family and Childcare Trust collated information on each local authority’s early years funding formula for 2015/16 using section 251 data published by the Department for Education and sent a survey to local authority early years teams, to which 89 local authorities responded.
The Department for Education is currently preparing to consult on the future of early years funding from 2017/18 when the new offer of 30 hours free childcare each week for most working parents with three and four year olds will begin. The Government has also committed to consulting on a new Life Chances strategy.
Only 66 per cent of children reach ‘a good level of development’ at age five, with a persistent gap of 19 per cent between average outcomes for children eligible for free schools meals and the rest. (Department for Education First Statistical Release: Early years foundation stage profile results in England, 2015)
Evidence shows that only high quality early education boosts children’s outcomes: childcare of average quality adds no value in the long-term whilst poor quality care puts children’s wellbeing and development at risk. (Department for Education, Effective pre-school, primary and secondary education project, 2015)
Local authorities are responsible for funding free childcare using a locally designed early years funding formula, which can include supplements for high quality care. Under the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities also have statutory responsibilities to provide information, advice and support to early years providers, which support strategic duties under the same act to improve outcomes for children in their areas. The report includes three good practice case studies setting out how local authorities are meeting these duties.
About the Family and Childcare Trust
The Family and Childcare Trust aims to make the UK a better place for families. We are a leading national family charity in the field of policy, research and advocacy on childcare and family issues, with over 40 years’ experience. Our on-the-ground work with parents and providers informs our research and campaigns. We focus on the early years and childcare because they are crucial to boosting children’s outcomes throughout life and supporting parents to work.