Cut early years regulations, but which ones?

Over the summer months the government’s Childcare Commission has been busy working away collecting evidence and opinions on what can be deregulated, but my concern is by how much and at what cost to quality?

During these months a number of think tanks, including Centre for Social Justice and the Institute for Public Policy Research, have produced reports and papers on their take on what should be done to make childcare more affordable to parents.

As a provider of the free hours of early years entitlement I was hoping that someone would suggest how these free hours we offer could be made more affordable for nurseries such as mine – we make a loss of over £1 for every hour provide free. But that’s another matter.

Like many involved in early years I believe that there needs to be a "root and branch" review of the whole early years sector, looking at the childcare side as well as the educational aspects of our work. Like many in this field, I agree that these formative years of a person’s life are so important and will impact on them and society for the rest of their lives.

My fear is that the current review is just an exercise to justify cutting a few regulations in the vain hope that this will bring cost to parents down.
 
On reading these think tank reports, as well as reading articles in papers, trade journals and even attending consultation events there is one issue that seems to be noticeable by its absence, I refer to the other side of the ratio coin. 
 
There are two ratios contained in the EYFS, one that everyone seems to refer to the adult:child ratio, the other which very few reports seem to take into account - the indoor area space ratio. 

These space ratios impose a high financial cost in any new build or expansion, as well as restricting the overall number of places an individual setting can offer with the resulting restriction in flexibility and opportunities to create new or extra places.
 
Both of these ratios were first introduced nationally in 2001 in the National Standards for Under-8s Day Care & Childminding. Both I understand were a consensus of opinion, mainly taken from local authority set standards for day care provision in their area at the time. There seems to have never been any scientific basis for either set of ratios.