England childcare strategy needs more European-style flexibilities

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If only we knew then what we know now. And now is an opportune moment to reflect over the past 18 years.

The National Childcare Strategy was launched in May 1998 to great excitement and hope to those of us working in the sector all those years ago.

Prior to the strategy, politicians had not taken early years and childcare seriously. Childcare was something parents had to struggle with. The strategy set out ambitions to ensure parents had access to good quality, affordable and accessible childcare to meet local needs.

Since 1998, the childcare market has grown. Indeed, it is a crowded market, albeit settings are not necessarily in the areas where they are needed the most. Is the landscape now what the strategy envisaged back in 1998? I don’t believe so.

Despite all the investment made since, and a plethora of initiatives designed to improve access and affordability, parents still face a daily struggle to find – let alone pay for – quality childcare. Parents continue in the UK to contribute three-quarters of the cost of childcare, whereas our European counterparts contribute only 25 to 30 per cent.

Governments come and go. Childcare organisations such as 4Children, Pre-school Learning Alliance, Family and Childcare Trust, NDNA and others lobby, and offer solutions. But the childcare market is not working and it is time for radical changes.

The funding mechanisms to support early years and childcare have always been difficult to understand, be they the free entitlement, tax credits and employers’ support. It will become even more complex to get to grips with the extension of the free entitlement to 30 hours, tax breaks and Universal Credit.

Why would you want to complicate the system even further? After 18 years of taking wrong turns, it is time to be brave. Childcare in this country has reached a critical crossroads and needs a fundamental rethink.

Extending the 15 hours free entitlement for three- and four-year-olds to 30 hours is based on what evidence? The Department for Education’s own data shows that parents of these children use about 18 hours of childcare a week on average, so we have to ask whether the 30 hours offer is needed, let alone realistically deliverable by providers.

The government claims it funds childcare support to the tune of £5bn a year and that it will invest an additional £1bn a year by 2019/20. If the different funding streams were simplified and streamlined, then the £6bn on offer could be used far better, and parents, providers and the wider childcare market would all benefit.

So why doesn’t government want to amalgamate the various funding streams? If the status quo is maintained, much of the financial support potentially on offer will not be taken up and much of the £6bn stays in government coffers. That’s why.

But as well as taking a deep breath and pressing the pause button on implementing changes in the funding – while Treasury officials consider how best to simplify the current funding that is spread across different government departments – there are two other things that need to be explored to make the childcare market more efficient.

First, ratios. I have been critical in the past at any suggestion that the child-to-adult ratios should be changed to reduce staffing costs. However, I have witnessed first-hand during the past 18 months working in the Netherlands that it is possible to deliver good quality early years and childcare for two-, three- and four-year-olds with fewer but higher qualified staff – who must be rewarded adequately for their expertise. I do firmly believe though, that caring for children aged under two requires a higher ratio. We still only have two hips and one lap.

Second, flexibility. Does the childcare market deliver what parents want? Evidence shows that parents are taking fewer hours for lots of reasons; they are sharing childcare with their partners, relying on family and friends, and working from home more often. Maybe nurseries should also offer after-school provision? In other European countries, childcare providers offer care from nought to 12 years of age.

The world of work has changed considerably in the past 18 years and the needs of parents have changed too. Yet the childcare strategy does not reflect these changing demands or solve the funding crisis.

Let’s not continue to take the road to nowhere. Childcare is at a crossroads, a car crash waiting to happen. It’s time for a new strategy that will help parents access quality, affordable childcare and at the same time support childcare providers to deliver the very best for young children.

Denise Burke is former CEO of Smallsteps, the largest childcare provider in the Netherlands