Children’s commissioner calls for funded childcare extension to aid pandemic recovery

Anne Longfield has made the recommendation in her Best Beginnings report, which calls for 30-hours a week of government-funded childcare for working families to be expanded to all children aged two to four.

She also wants to see all one-year-olds entitled to 15 free hours a week. This is currently offered to disadvantaged two-year olds and all three and four year olds.

The move is needed to improve the life chances of all children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, Longfield said.

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Extending free hours will also aid the economic recovery to help more parents return to work as lockdown restrictions ease.

The childcare sector would also receive a major boost from the move, amid recent fears that one in four providers face closure as a result of a fall in children attending due to the coronavirus. This rises to one in three in areas of deprivation.

Today we are publishing a major report looking into early years, alongside a call for a new “Best Beginnings” guarantee. https://t.co/OT1k1J8Bd3

— Children's Commissioner for England (@ChildrensComm) July 17, 2020

Other recommendations Longfield makes include an emergency recovery package for childcare providers who have been hardest hit by the pandemic.

“The government must make the early years a priority and drive reforms so that all children start school ready and able to learn and progress,” said Longfield.

“Alongside high-quality early education, this means making sure that every family is guaranteed the support they need to help their young child to thrive, and to prevent early challenges turning into serious problems.”

Her report states: “There has been a steady increase in the amount of government funded early education and childcare provided for young children and their families in England over the past 20 years. However, the funding system is complicated,” her report adds. 

It details how there are seven different ways families can be supported with their childcare across three different departments, the Department for Education, Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs. This currently totals £4.63bn.

Longfield wants to see a single childcare funding system in place, with fees charged in relation to income, as takes place in Sweden and Norway.

Other recommendations Longfield’s report makes are for the government to reconsider the design of childcare support through Universal Credit, where currently parents have to pay costs upfront and then wait to be paid.

A Cabinet Minister for Early Years post should be created to lead a cross-government strategy for the sector. This should cover children’s health, children and family support, antenatal services as well as the Troubled Families programme.

Under-five-year-olds and their families should receive a ‘family guarantee of support' delivered by health visitors, family nurses, support workers and early help specialists.

The creation of a national network of Children and Family Hubs, where universal support services for families are based, is another recommendation.

Other recommendations include better data sharing among early years services to ensure disadvantaged children are targeted and supported, as well as a broad national early years workforce strategy, involving councils, early years settings and health providers.

The report has been welcomed by early years sector leaders.

“Even before the crisis, too many parents were struggling to find and afford the high quality childcare that supports their children’s development," said Megan Jarvie, head of Coram Family and Childcare.

"Without action this situation is set to deteriorate even further. For too long, childcare and early education has been treated as the poor relation of school education, and now there is a genuine risk that families will struggle to find a nursery to go back to in September.”

Max Stanford, head of early childhood education and care at the Early Intervention Foundation, said: “Ensuring children are school-ready in all areas of their development, and supporting families whose children face developmental risks, is crucial to the recovery from Covid-19.”

National Day Nurseries Association chief executive Purnima Tanuki added: “We warmly welcome the report and recommendations which call for the government to put young children at the heart of its recovery plans.

“Although emergency funding is absolutely crucial now to prevent nurseries from closing en masse, the whole process of government funded childcare places must be comprehensively reviewed.”

Early Years Alliance chief executive Neil Leitch said underfunding for providers to offer funded early years provision needs to be addressed before any extension is considered.

“We would urge caution on any recommendation to extend existing 'free childcare' schemes any further before any such review has taken place,” he said.

“While positive in theory for families, unless the current issues around underfunding are fully addressed first, such a move would only place more pressure on an already struggling sector, and ultimately result in even more providers being forced to close their doors for good."

Meanwhile, shadow children and early years minister Tulip Siddiq said: “The government must urgently provide targeted support for the childcare sector to prevent a wave of nursery closures, which would devastate working families and set back our economic recovery."

In response to the Longfield’s report, a DfE spokesman said that the government “has always championed the early years sector”.

He added: “We have protected early years settings throughout the pandemic with significant financial and business support, including through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

“We are investing in early years organisations to help them boost disadvantaged children’s development, with grants targeted at improving outcomes for young children at risk of falling behind by age five, and for those with special educational needs.”