The report, published this week, suggested that more flexible childcare provision, currently being pushed for by the government, "risks serving the interests of the parent but not of the child". It also backs decisions by local authorities to spread free childcare for three- and four-year-olds evenly across the week.
But the Daycare Trust's chief executive Alison Garnham, said the report was a missed opportunity to provide practical support for families. "For parents trying to balance childcare demands against working — particularly during these tough economic times — politicians should be doing everything in their power to make life easier," she added. "The benefits children receive from formal childcare are well documented and increasing the flexibility of the free entitlement would mean that even more children could feel these benefits and get the best start in life."
The committee has been investigating the single funding formula since November last year. Ministers introduced it in a bid to distribute money more fairly to both state and privately run nurseries to pay for free childcare places. Every child aged three and four is entitled to 12.5 hours of free childcare each week, and this will rise to 15 hours, to be delivered flexibly across the week, from September.
The formula was due to take effect in April this year, but was delayed for a year after concerns among council-run nurseries, many of which were facing budgetary cuts.
Private providers also worried that they appeared to be gaining little from the formula, as funding for free childcare has traditionally benefited council-run nurseries most, while authorities had been accused of basing their new funding plans on insufficient data.
The committee's report, based on written and oral submissions from ministers and various members of the childcare sector, states that council-run provision should be protected as it represents the highest quality. It also calls on government to consider funding two- to 11-year-olds from one pot of money and investigate whether more money could be taken from primary and secondary school budgets and put into early years provision.
Barry Sheerman, chairman of the committee, said: "It may be that if a department in government looked at the first 11 years of a child's life and saw how much they spent per child each year, they may be persuaded to spend more early on."
