Decent funding formula is the only way to save England's early years provision and help families to flourish

They are integral contributors to our economy, the social good and developing our future citizens. The early years sector was one of the integral pistons keeping everything going during lockdown yet they were barely given a mention by government let alone the thanks and other accolades they truly deserved.

The sector struggled alone through COVID, suffered with austerity and have never been properly rewarded. Since then we have seen reams of nurseries going out of business as the sector grapples with a staffing crisis which has seen thousands of childminders quit.

Ofsted data highlights that 3,320 of 62,300 nurseries and childminders for under-fives in England closed in the past year, meaning 17,800 fewer childcare places and thousands more closing their doors since the Chancellor announced the expansion in the March 2023 Budget. From April 2024 working parents of two year olds can access 15 hours of childcare support, with the rollout expanded to 30 hours for children aged under five from September 2025. The funding allocation for the supported childcare places don’t meet in real terms the true costs if these placements, meaning early years providers are being put at further risk. Add in a staffing crisis, government underinvestment training since 2010 and local authority's top slicing early years allocated  budgets. It's a mess and the implications are wide-reaching.

Early years providers fear  that they won’t be able to implement Jeremy Hunt’s expansion of what he terms ‘ free childcare ‘. They urgent needed 100,000 additional early years staff to meet what will be a surge in demand for these places. In addition, as Neil Leitch of the Early Years Alliance points out, the average hourly rates paid by the government to local authorities will be £11.22 for under-2s, £8.28 for two year olds, and £5.88 for three and four year olds from April. He has made it abundantly clear that the latter is “nowhere near enough”, yet the Government are surging ahead and ignores the ringing alarm bells.

A Department of Education spokesperson said: “We are delivering the single biggest investment in childcare in England’s history, providing 30 hours a week for working parents from nine months old up to when they start school, which could save parents using the full entitlements up to £6,500 a year. We know this will lead to increased demand on the sector, which is why we are taking a phased approach to implementation to make sure there are enough early years places in the run up to September 2025, all backed by £8bn a year by 2027-28. We are already investing hundreds of millions of pounds to increase hourly funding rates, have allocated £100m in capital funding for more early years and wrapround places and spaces, and will be launching a nationwide recruitment campaign in the new year."

The figures don’t match up. The money provided will not meet the outgoings - leaving nurseries in a terrible predicament and at even greater risk. The sector is in crisis and there needs to be urgent intervention to stem further closures.

It is also concerning that the Labour proposal to ‘ save’ the early years sector is based on moving early years into schools. This regurgitated approach caused problems previously when community, voluntary, charitable, cooperative and private sector providers were cut out - including long serving and highly successful ones being cut out of Sure Start delivery. Local authorities colonised the funding and - instead of using existing services and investing in established community based provisions - they drove forward a programme of displacement.

They kept the funding for themselves to deliver their own provision instead and when the money was stopped, so did the services.

None of this is fair. It isn't working for parents and it is completely wrong for early years workers as they struggle through a crisis not of their making. Our great nation should be properly supporting and honouring them, not making things harder for them. The country's future is in their hands.