Warning over impact of academy expansion on school-based childcare

The Trust's report, Academisation and Early Years Education, states that as the number of primary schools converting to academy status grows, the ability of local authorities and regional school commissioners (RSCs) to oversee standards and support settings that need to improve could be affected.

It is also concerned that the introduction of different management arrangements as a result of schools converting to academies could limit the number of childcare places available at a time when demand is expected to grow to meet the expansion of free childcare.

As more primary schools become academies, they are likely to opt out of local authority early years partnerships, weakening the system of collaboration and best practice exchange available to maintained schools and nurseries, it adds.

The report calls for the government to review the role of the eight RSCs in England, monitor annually the number of early education places in primary schools and introduce a chief early years officer to drive improvement in the quality and availability of early years provision.

"RSCs cover large areas and these are often not coterminous with regional devolution arrangements or Ofsted regions," states the report.

"Lack of oversight presents a risk to the overall quality and availability of early years provision, which may be compounded by other challenges faced by the sector, including funding pressures for providers and local authorities and the extension of the free early education offer.

"If the different freedoms, financial arrangements and oversight arrangements result in academies and non-academies following divergent strategies to manage these challenges, there is a danger that this will establish a two-tier system of early education in schools."

Concerns about the capacity of RSCs to oversee standards in academies were raised last year by the Local Government Association.

Around 40 per cent of primary schools offer early years provision and they are particularly important for children in disadvantaged areas where private, voluntary and independent (PVI) provision is often scarcer. In addition, they often play a pivotal role in local early years networks.

Nearly a quarter of state primary schools have now become academies, with an estimated 72,000 children now receiving their early education in academy schools. However, the Conservatives' general election manifesto outlined a number of measures to encourage more schools to convert to academy status.