Test ratios in 'real-life nursery', urges NDNA chief

National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) chief executive Purnima Tanuku made the call after early years leaders widely rejected government calculations that suggest changing child-to-staff ratios in nurseries could cut childcare costs by 28 per cent.

The Department for Education has claimed its plans to raise ratios of children to staff could increase a nursery’s gross revenue by about £200,000 a year and reduce childcare fees by more than 50 pence an hour.

But early years professionals have questioned the DfE’s calculation, which assumes full occupancy, omits additional costs associated with childcare, and allows no non-contact time for nursery workers to prepare sessions or attend training.

Tanuku urged the DfE to explore the reforms in real-life settings. She cited NDNA research, which suggests 73 per cent of nurseries believe the changes would not make a difference to fees, with 23 per cent expecting that fees would in fact increase.

“It is crucial to be aware that a paper exercise on relaxing ratios might demonstrate savings, but put into practice it wouldn’t meet the needs of individual children, which is the priority of people at the frontline in early years,” she said. 

“We need a model of provision that has the right mix of staff in the right numbers to provide a high-quality early learning environment, particularly for the most disadvantaged children soon to benefit from free nursery places.  

“To explore how changing ratios and levels of staff qualifications would affect the price of childcare, robust modeling based on real-life nursery situations is needed.”

Tanuku’s plea followed news that the NDNA is to trial current maximum child-to-staff ratios, which are rarely used in practice, as part of a DfE-funded project.

The DfE’s calculation, published in response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, showed how a nursery employing 11 full-time staff could increase its capacity by 52 per cent under the government’s proposed ratios change.

New ratio regulations would allow the staff to care for a total of 73 children aged up to three rather than 48 at current legal levels.

According to the DfE, the extra revenue generated would allow the nursery to raise staff wages and reduce fees for parents even after additional costs such as overheads, taxes and pension contributions were covered.