£4bn boost for childcare in England

[Helen]

Well, I'm sure I'm not the only one waiting to hear the details.  Relieved that the government realises the sector crisis, but concerned that their proposal won't help with staff recruitment and retention, or raise the status of working in the early years. Fingers crossed.

[Helen]

Main headline:

The new rules mean from April 2024, parents of two year olds will get 15 hours free care. From September 2024 children from nine months will get 15 hours free childcare and from September 2025 all under 5s will get 30 hours free childcare.

Of course, until we see the figures for the increased hourly rate of funding, it's impossible to see if this will help with salaries and sustainability.

I'm uncomfortable with the increased ratio for 2 years olds- that's not going to make staff want to stay in the job. 

[sunnyday]

Relaxing the ratios will be an absolute disaster - in fact I don't think it is safe 

As you say Helen without knowing what the funding levels will be it is hard to judge how this will impact on settings

September 2025 - hmm - if the Tories are in power then I will eat my hat!

[mundia]

Has anyone read yet if the increase in 2 year old hours will take away from the current hours for more disadvantaged children? I've only seen mention of working parents.

I read the increase in funding for 2 year olds but not a lot for 3-4 year olds. 

I do wonder where all these thousands of new practitioners will come from not to mention the premises that will be needed. 

Hmm as others have said, devil in the detail.

[BenTapestrySupport]

I think this clip from yesterday sums up the issue with the offer that was in the budget. 

 

From what I've seen, the changes are for those parents who work 16+ hours. Otherwise, you get the 15 hours - which again drives up the divide for the disadvantaged groups of children. 

For me, the ratios thing is another area that leads to the divide getting wider. It's an optional thing - but if settings are struggling to recruit adequate staff, which is already an issue but may become a bigger issue if some leave settings to become a child minder and grab the £600 welcome bonus, then they are not going to have any option but to increase ratios. Staff-Child Ratios and Early Learning" Melhuish & Sylva (2018) found that that lower ratios were associated with better outcomes in language and maths, but that this effect was stronger for disadvantaged children. Increasing the ratios then is most likely going to effect those same disadvantaged children who may only be entitled to 15 hours. 

Sadly, it's just another headline grabbing policy that will lead to more chaos in the sector. 

[Helen]

This is a good summary from Frontier Economics

Hugely telling that elsewhere, the government are congratulating everyone on the proposed increase in capacity for childcare, but absolutely no mention, as far as I can see, about early education.

[sunnyday]

On 17/03/2023 at 11:35, Helen said:

This is a good summary from Frontier Economics

Hugely telling that elsewhere, the government are congratulating everyone on the proposed increase in capacity for childcare, but absolutely no mention, as far as I can see, about early education.

Absolutely - it's not just 'childcare' - makes me rather cross (huge understatement as I wander of muttering!)

[louby loo]

On 17/03/2023 at 11:35, Helen said:

This is a good summary from Frontier Economics

Hugely telling that elsewhere, the government are congratulating everyone on the proposed increase in capacity for childcare, but absolutely no mention, as far as I can see, about early education.

 

On 17/03/2023 at 11:42, sunnyday said:

Absolutely - it's not just 'childcare' - makes me rather cross (huge understatement as I wander of muttering!)

Well, I guess we will just move from early education and simply provide childcare then!! 

We can just let the children get on with it- no more positive interactions etc... just get in as many as possible and then just 'firefight' any squabbles between the children.

[Gezabel]

Is it just me that thinks it will cause a shortage of childcare places?

Ar my small preschool, if the number of children claiming 30 hours increases, the effect will be less children on roll and being unable to accept new children.

I have looked at our current situation with children leaving for school this Summer and our new intake for September. If the children returning in September increased to 30 hours we would not be able to accept anything like our planned intake :-((

[finleysmaid]

On 18/03/2023 at 15:14, Gezabel said:

Is it just me that thinks it will cause a shortage of childcare places?

Ar my small preschool, if the number of children claiming 30 hours increases, the effect will be less children on roll and being unable to accept new children.

I have looked at our current situation with children leaving for school this Summer and our new intake for September. If the children returning in September increased to 30 hours we would not be able to accept anything like our planned intake :-((

This is what happened last time of course and you are absolutely right we used to take 54 children over the day and now we take about 35 because they do either 15 or 30 hours, TBH its easier for us as practitioners but we have made it a firm either 5 mornings of 5 afternoon or 5 full days. I absolutely cannot afford to have people doing less. So much for parental choice !

[Mouseketeer]

On 20/03/2023 at 19:44, finleysmaid said:

This is what happened last time of course and you are absolutely right we used to take 54 children over the day and now we take about 35 because they do either 15 or 30 hours, TBH its easier for us as practitioners but we have made it a firm either 5 mornings of 5 afternoon or 5 full days. I absolutely cannot afford to have people doing less. So much for parental choice !

We also have about 20 children less on register over the week than we did before 30 hours, I’d like to get back to being a ‘Pre-School’ with a school cohort year and the rising group and not the nursery parents want us to be, removing  2 yr olds from the equation not increasing them (at least until term before 3 yrs).

[finleysmaid]

Not sure i have any intention of taking any more 2 year olds....why would i?? we get children coming to us because we charge reasonable fees for reasonable hours we are always considerably cheaper than a full day care nursery and actually provide 15 hours free and 32.5 hours for a small charge. Even with the increase in funding and the change in ratios the 2 year olds still don't bring in the same income per hour as the 3 year olds....simples!!!

[finleysmaid]

On 18/03/2023 at 15:14, Gezabel said:

Is it just me that thinks it will cause a shortage of childcare places?

Ar my small preschool, if the number of children claiming 30 hours increases, the effect will be less children on roll and being unable to accept new children.

I have looked at our current situation with children leaving for school this Summer and our new intake for September. If the children returning in September increased to 30 hours we would not be able to accept anything like our planned intake :-((

Our local maintained nurseries do not offer 30 hour places....it is uneconomic to do so !

[Helen]

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education Baroness Barran gave a statement on the childcare reform package:

Baroness Barran announced that from today, the Department for Work and Pensions has raised the amount working parents can claim for their childcare to £951 a month for one child and £1630 for two or more children, an increase of roughly 50% from previous limits (£646 for one child or £1,108 for two or more children). When they enter work or increase their working hours, the government will now provide up to 85% of the first month’s childcare costs to parents before the next months’ bills are due, so that they have the money to pay for childcare one month in advance. Families on universal credit will now have £522 extra each month to cover childcare costs.

Describing the earliest years as “the most critical stage of a young child’s development”, and acknowledging that childcare costs are a barrier to work for those on universal credit, Baroness Barran described visiting childcare providers as “one of the best parts of my job”  but I SO wish she'd mentioned early education rather than childcare being a lifeline for parents.

She said that by 2028, the government expects to be spending more than £8bn per year on the early years, double what is currently spent, and saving £6500 per year on average for parents.

From September, the government will provide £204m of extra funding for local authorities to increase the hourly rates that they pay providers, and will ensure that the rates increase each year. From 2024-25, the average rate for under-twos will be around £11 per hour. The government will ask the childcare sector for its views on how the government should distribute the funding for the new entitlements from April 2024, including the rules that local authorities will have to follow when distributing the funding to providers.

They are going “full steam ahead” with a new national campaign early next year to promote the sector and support the recruitment and retention of staff, as well as considering how to introduce accelerated apprenticeship and degree apprenticeship routes.

 

[Mouseketeer]

On 23/03/2023 at 17:29, finleysmaid said:

Not sure i have any intention of taking any more 2 year olds....why would i?? we get children coming to us because we charge reasonable fees for reasonable hours we are always considerably cheaper than a full day care nursery and actually provide 15 hours free and 32.5 hours for a small charge. Even with the increase in funding and the change in ratios the 2 year olds still don't bring in the same income per hour as the 3 year olds....simples!!!

I’m with you on this FM……. If the funding for 5 x 2yrs doesn’t equate to the same as 8 x 3yrs it will be my get out of jail card to go back to the ‘term before’ 3rd birthday, our business model of no more than 4 per day/1 staff worked well but already there are sooooo many funded 2’s wanting places before all this kicks in 😔 

Thanks for the updated info Helen, I wonder  how long it will take our counties to tell us? Does anyone think we’ll really see a substantial increase to the 2yr funded rate for September?

[Helen]

Time will tell if this is all just pre-election promises with little substance! No parties seem to have grasped the education vs childcare debate and whether they are mutually exclusive. 

[finleysmaid]

On 04/07/2023 at 19:27, Mouseketeer said:

I’m with you on this FM……. If the funding for 5 x 2yrs doesn’t equate to the same as 8 x 3yrs it will be my get out of jail card to go back to the ‘term before’ 3rd birthday, our business model of no more than 4 per day/1 staff worked well but already there are sooooo many funded 2’s wanting places before all this kicks in 😔 

Thanks for the updated info Helen, I wonder  how long it will take our counties to tell us? Does anyone think we’ll really see a substantial increase to the 2yr funded rate for September?

We already have our funding rate for september (set at 6.66! that caused some hilarity!) can't see us getting another rise before the new term.

[Mouseketeer]

On 05/07/2023 at 20:07, finleysmaid said:

We already have our funding rate for september (set at 6.66! that caused some hilarity!) can't see us getting another rise before the new term.

The devils in the detail 😀  We are currently £5.60 for 2’s, it would usually have been the same for Aut’23.