Families key to success of free childcare plans

This was the worrying finding suggested in a Department for Education-commissioned study into a childcare pilot with two-year olds, sneaked out this month.

The study compared the Early Years Foundation Stage profile scores of five-year-olds subject to the pilot, which took place between 2006 and 2008, with a control group (who received no such free childcare at two). It identified barely any difference in their outcomes. It also found no difference in children’s take-up of early education at age three or four. Not the best news as the free entitlement – the centre­piece of the government’s pledge to increase social mobility – reaches the 20 per cent most deprived two-year-olds this September, and 40 per cent a year later.

Scratch the surface, however, and a couple of caveats might appear to quell the alarm: those in the pilot who attended high-quality settings performed better (and the government wants funding for places to be targeted at settings rated good or outstanding by Ofsted); and the pilot provided typically only 7.5 hours of childcare a week, compared with the 15 hours to be offered. Although there was no overall impact on take-up aged three and four, the pilot did improve take-up among children from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.

That said, with less than six months until the free entitlement comes into force, these findings provide a shrill wake-up call. There is little point committing so much energy and resource to the free entitlement if its benefits to children are so negligible. It has to be done right.

But providers have bemoaned the £5.09 hourly flat rate they will receive for each disadvantaged two-year-old, arguing that it does not reflect the true cost of tending to very small children who may need specialist care. Proposals to change ratios where staff can care for more children will not aid this challenge. Professor Naomi Eisenstadt, the former director of the Sure Start programme, told the education select committee a few weeks ago that the “two-year-old offer is nuts”, saying: “I don’t think we have the quality in place that will make a difference.”

However, there is optimism in some quarters that children’s centres will be able to step up to the plate. They are generally located in more deprived communities where more children are eligible for the free entitlement. While their services have been stripped back as a result of spending cuts, the range of support children’s centres still offer means they interact more with families than other settings, building trusting relationships.

It is this genuine engagement with families – getting parents and carers to help their children to develop and learn at home – that will be vital if the free entitlement for two-year-olds is to reap long-term dividends.

ravi.chandiramani@markallengroup.com