Address eligibility criteria to offer world-leading early years support, research finds

The organisation finds that the cost of 30 hours of early years education for a family of two parents earning a combined income of about £16,500 with two young children aged two and three living in England equates to eight per cent of their income if they do not meet eligibility criteria for additional funded provision.

While this is considerably more than for a similar family in countries including Denmark, where costs would equate to three per cent of income, and Ireland, where costs would equate to five per cent, it is significantly less than Slovenia, where childcare would cost 21 per cent of the family’s income and the USA, where the figure hits 39 per cent.

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“The analysis places England closer to the most affordable systems for low-income families than the least, meaning England could be on par with the world’s leading systems for access to early years, if current disparities with eligibility for the very poorest children are addressed,” researchers state.

An accompanying report by RAND Europe warns that government’s recent announcement of plans to expand to England’s early childhood education and care system to children as young as nine months old by 2025 “risks widening gaps in child development and worsening quality”.

Current issues with the system, which see parents who are studying or on low-hour contracts unable to access more than 15 hours of funded childcare a week, could be “exacerbated” by the planned expansion, it adds.

It also criticises levels of government funding in the early years system and plans to relax staff:child ratios for two-year-olds.

“A large proportion of the poorest children are locked out of extra early years education, rates paid by the government to providers are insufficient to cover their costs and planned changes to staff ratios and qualifications risk worsening the quality of education and care,” the World Class report states.

A series of recommendations put forward in the report, based on international best practice in the early years, includes a greater focus on financial support and time-protected training for childcare staff, maintaining or increasing staff: child ratios for children over the age of two and the removal of barriers to accessing early years support for disadvantaged families.

Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chairman of the Sutton Trust and chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation said: “By the time disadvantaged young children start school they are already behind their better-off peers. By treating early years provision solely as childcare, we are storing up inequalities for the future.

“As a rich country, we should have a better education system. By drawing on best practice from around the world, we could create an early years system that sets young children on a path to a lifetime of success. Further investment is now needed to make this a reality.”

Government plans to expand funded childcare are set to begin in April next year and rolled-out gradually until September 2025.