CYP Now - DfE amends press release over ‘flawed’ early years ratio calculations

The Department for Education has amended a press release which claimed relaxing childcare ratios could save parents £40 per week following a complaint from sector leaders.

The government is proposing to reduce early years staffing ratios. Picture: Adobe Stock

The press release, issued in July alongside the launch of a consultation on relaxing ratios, claimed that changing staff-to-child ratios from 1:4 to 1:5 for 2-year-olds “could potentially eventually reduce the cost of this form of childcare by up to 15 per cent, or up to £40 per week”.

However, the Early Years Alliance (EYA) filed a complaint to the Office for Statistics saying that the figure was based on “a number of flawed assumptions”.

The EYA said that the “method for this calculated saving could not be found publicly” and should be clarified in the DfE’s press release.

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