Give us a real plan, not piecemeal pledges

Since September, ministers have made a series of one-off announcements about early years and childcare. But we still await the outcome of the childcare commission, which is looking at reducing the costs for families and the burdens on providers. The commission’s report was promised this autumn, but we might have to wait until the mid-term coalition review due in January.

Are the ad hoc announcements made to whet our appetite for more to come, or are they merely a smokescreen because the education and childcare junior minister Elizabeth Truss has no real ideas or strategy to tackle the childcare funding crisis?

First, Nick Clegg announces a £100m capital fund to help the expansion of childcare places for two-year-olds. I and others were a little baffled. No details were immediately forthcoming as to how the money would be allocated to local authorities.

There have been similar capital funding streams in the past – the last one was to make improvements to premises and provide outdoor space, but councils faced a number of issues allocating the monies, such as planning permission and spending restrictions.

It is a mystery to me as to what basis the £100m capital has been calculated on. We know that an estimated 260,000 places will be required by September 2014, but does the Department for Education really know how many places for two-year-olds exist and how many new places need to be created, and where? Much of the need could be met from existing provision and providers would be keener to offer places if sufficient revenue funding was found to fund the free entitlement. The latest announce­ment from Truss on hourly funding for two-year-olds does nothing to bolster my confidence that the revenue funding is sufficient.

In her statement, the minister claims that the government is providing councils with enough money to ensure the best quality early years staff are working with our most disadvantaged two-year-olds. Local authorities will receive a flat rate of £5.09 per child per hour – significantly above the apparent market rate of £4.13, a figure plucked from the Daycare Trust’s annual childcare costs survey. But this survey reflects average fees, not the true delivery cost (see Letters, below). What’s more, the rate of £5.09 does not resonate with research carried out by the Pre-school Learning Alliance or with the evaluation from the pilots for two-year-olds.

The flat rate is to be passed in full to those providers identified as “good” and “outstanding” by Ofsted, and local authorities are to be named and shamed if this does not happen. But local authorities will have to administer and monitor the funding. At this time of austerity with local authority budgets being stretched to the limits, few will be in the position to pass on the full rate of £5.09. The government is just passing the buck.

A further funding announcement of £2m was made by the minister for women and equalities Maria Miller to support up to 6,000 new childcare businesses. This is intended to encourage more women back into the workforce to drive economic growth and boost the number of childcare places. But the grants, of £250 and £500, are not going to stimulate the growth of childminders nor encourage new childcare businesses to the market. What other sector of the economy would accept such derisory funding for start-ups?

None of these announcements seem to have been thought through or based on any tangible evidence. So what is behind them? Are they supposed to lull the sector into thinking that this government is committed to improving childcare and ensuring that we have well-paid, qualified staff and affordable childcare for parents?

It has also been rumoured that the Children and Families Bill, due before parliament in January, will include plans to cut back on regulation in a bid to reduce the cost of childcare. This action has very little support from the sector. Furthermore, a recent poll of more than 5,000 visitors to the Good Care Guide website found that 40 per cent thought that deregulation would reduce quality without making childcare more affordable, while more than a quarter said it would undermine efforts to make the sector more professional.

What we need is a new national childcare strategy with funding to match, not more piecemeal, ill-thought-through initiatives.

Denise Burke is Director of United for All Ages and the Good Care Guide