FSFRebecca Posted July 19, 2018 Posted July 19, 2018 Hopefully you will have seen some of the press coverage we received for the APPG lobby day yesterday - we had coverage on The Victoria Derbyshire programme, in the Financial Times and also in the Guardian. Each of the five sponsors made a brief speech explaining the importance of the APPG and urging providers to lobby their MPs to raise the problematic issues faced by the sector. the speech I made on behalf of the Foundation Stage Forum is below: "My name is Rebecca and I’m here representing The Foundation Stage Forum who are proud to be one of the sponsors of this important APPG. The Foundation Stage Forum is a very active online community of over 37,000 early years professionals ranging from trainee nursery assistants through to exceptionally experienced early years teachers and advisors all of whom have dedicated their career to making a difference for the very youngest in our society. The Foundation Stage Forum is a supportive network of professionals who share expertise, experiences and ideas in an effort to help everyone become the very best provider they can be. Over the last few years we have seen members becoming increasing disillusioned and worried about the state of the early years sector and the future of their careers and their businesses within it. As the recent statistics from the DfE* say 80% of 3 and 4-year olds are taking their 30 hours places in the Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) sector. This sector relies on fee income to continue to be able to deliver the high-quality care and education that our children deserve. The government is relying on the goodwill of the sector to deliver its early years election pledge and this is not financially sensible in the longer term. One of our members told us: “We have not offered the 30 hours as we could not afford to - we predicted a potential £50K loss – if we offered it we would not be financially viable.” The government’s 30 hours funding scheme has cut the fee income for providers and has limited the opportunities for cross-subsidisation. The increases in salary costs through minimum wage and pensions, the increases in business rates, the increases in costs of resources and provisions have impacted massively on providers’ financial well-being. Outgoings have gone up – income has gone down, one doesn’t need to be an economist to realise that is an unsustainable situation. Indeed, the question of sustainability resonates throughout our forum. On behalf of the Foundation Stage Forum members we felt compelled to be part of this APPG to ensure that their voices were heard. We recently surveyed our members regarding the financial sustainability of their settings. We were given examples where: • (Business rates) have increased by 37%. This is huge and has meant we needed to find an additional £7000 per annum • (Our business rates have been recalculated) from £13000 per annum to £30000! We don’t know how we are going to manage when the tapered introduction ends. Some of our members decided not to offer the 30 hours saying: • The living wage and pensions have had a huge impact on my setting. Some of my senior staff are not entitled to the living wage because of their age. However (it is not right) that I pay them less than someone who is entitled to the living wage. If the Government want high quality, qualified staff in early years they need to pay for it. My qualified, experienced people are leaving early years to work in supermarkets as they get paid more. We, at the Foundation Stage Forum agree. Sadly, supermarkets can afford to pay their staff more, they do not have their sale prices dictated to them by the government. In their 2016/17 Annual report**, Ofsted said that 88% of early years providers were judged to be either ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’. If settings can’t afford to employ and retain highly qualified staff, then this impressive percentage of high quality provisions will fall. Our local authority members are also very worried for the sustainability of settings in their area, when we asked them for their views one local authority told us: • We have had an exceptionally high take up of the 30 hours Extended Entitlement. This has had quite a devastating financial impact on our Early Years Providers as our base rate in 2016 was £4.60 reduced to £4.40 in 2017 down to £4.25 in April 2018. We have lost 4 of our 22 Early Years Settings during this academic year – 2 stating financial viability as the reason for closure. At the Foundation Stage Forum, we are committed to ensuring that our members voices are heard and will continue to speak up for them at every opportunity. Thank you for attending today, thank you for speaking to us and thank you for sharing how important these issues are for us all." * https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/education-provision-children-under-5-years-of-age-january-2018 ** https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ofsted-annual-report-201617-education-childrens-services-and-skills/ofsted-annual-report-201617-data-summary If you were not able to attend the event but feel strongly about the issues facing the sector Tracy Brabin MP, Shadow Minister for Early Years. urges you to contact your own local MP. If you would like a template letter to use please let me know. 1 1
Lauren Posted July 23, 2018 Posted July 23, 2018 It was great to see so many practitioners and MPs attending the APPG. The shortfall between the funding of the 30 hours free childcare scheme and the cost of provision is something that lots of people are obviously passionate about, but unfortunately there are also still a lot of people who are not aware of it. It would be great to get this topic into parliament so please do try and speak with your MPs about it. Even if funding can't be increased, it would be good to reassess the scheme and adjust it to make it work better for everyone!
SueFinanceManager Posted July 25, 2018 Posted July 25, 2018 It was a really interesting day and there was a great buzz in the room, here are a few pics from the day Tracy Brabin - Shadow Minister for Education signing the Pledge Board Tulip Siddiq Shadow Minister for Education - Early Years signing the Pledge Board From left to right - Our very own Rebecca, Siobhan who is Peter Kyle MP's assistant and again our very own Lauren witnessing another MP taking the pledge. From left to right - The FSF's Steve, Neil Leitch, chief executive, of the Pre-school Learning Alliance and the FSF's very own Helen A view of the room with all the conversations going on, you can see us the FSF team in the foreground of the picture. Tracy Brabin delivering her Parliamentary Address If you would like to see lots more photos from the event check out twitter APPG Early Years @APPGearlyyears
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