DfE study finds 'lack of appetite' for 30 hours offer among childminders
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
There is a "lack of appetite" among many childminders to grow their businesses in order to deliver 30 hours of free childcare for all three-and four-year-olds, a study commissioned by the Department for Education has found.
A report on the views and experiences of childminders on funded early education highlights a series of concerns among providers about government plans to increase free childcare for three- and four-year-olds from the current 15 hours a week to 30 hours a week from September.
Childminders told researchers that in order to support more of them to provide funded places in the future policymakers need to, among other things, pay a fair market rate, allow them to make additional charges, explain to childminders how they can optimise their earning potential and provide support, information and advice.
"These issues need addressing as childminders are often at capacity and there is a lack of appetite amongst many to grow their businesses to accommodate the demands of the new system," the report states.
"However, childminders believe that they will be very much needed to ensure that there is sufficiency and choice in the market to make the 30-hour offer work for parents."
Childminders who said they would not provide funded early education under the extended entitlement either suggested they would continue operating as they are at present, or would adapt their business model to allow for this.
Some said they would focus their service on caring for babies under three years of age - especially disadvantaged two-year-olds who attract higher funding rates - who would leave their care when they become eligible for funded provision, or take an increased number of school-aged children before and after school.
Others said they would offer full-day childminding on private fee rates during the holidays only. And some said they would leave the childcare profession.
The research, conducted by social research firm Ask Research, was based on in-depth telephone interviews with 40 selected childminders based in nine local authority areas.
The government is currently piloting expanded free childcare provision of 30 hours a week for three- and four-year-olds in eight local authority areas.
It was announced last week that a further four local authority areas - Dorset, Leicestershire, North Yorkshire and Tower Hamlets - will join the trial in April, with the extended 30-hour entitlement to be available nationally from September.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said: "While we welcome the fact that the Department for Education has taken steps to examine the challenges facing childminders, it's disappointing that this has been limited to such a small-scale study, undertaken at a time where plans for the 30-hour offer were still to be confirmed.
"We are not surprised that those childminders interviewed for this study cited inadequate funding rates as the greatest challenge to delivering funded provision. Like group settings, many childminders have seen little to no increase in funding over several years, resulting in a continued loss in income.
"Given that the government has highlighted the central role it hopes childminders will play in the roll-out of the 30-hour offer, it's clear that much more needs to be done to encourage and support them to participate in the free entitlement offer."
