EYA alerts regulator over DfE ‘refusal’ to release funding information
Joe Lepper
Thursday, August 5, 2021
The Early Years Alliance (EYA) has taken a “battle” with the Department for Education over the release of details of early years funding to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
An appeal with the information regulator has been lodged after the DfE rejected a Freedom of Information (FOI) request made by the EYA to publish calculations behind the government's recent £44m increase in early years funding.
The early years body asked for more details over DfE claims the funding is enough to cover rising wage costs in the sector.
According to the EYA, the DfE rejected the FOI request as ministers already plan to release a document detailing factors behind the rate at which early years providers are funded for delivering free hour entitlements, including wage demands.
But the EYA says the DfE has not given a time scale on the release of the data.
While the FOI Act does allow public bodies to decline to release information if it is being published later, this is only when details around the publication deadline are given.
In June, the EYA published briefing documents following what it calls a “two-year FOI battle” with the government that revealed early years funding rates for 2020/21 were less than two thirds of what officials estimated would be needed to meet early years sector costs.
EYA chief executive Neil Leitch said that the DfE “has been claiming for months now” that the funding rate is enough to cover the increase in national living and minimum wages.
“So where’s the proof? It is simply not good enough to say ‘we’ll prove it at some point’ when these rates have been in effect for more than four months now,” he said.
“For years, early years providers have been struggling to survive on funding rates the government knew were inadequate. They have been left to face the huge challenges of the pandemic with wholly inadequate support. As a sector, we have suffered a net loss of more than 2,000 providers over the past year.
“Surely the Department for Education can understand why we might find it difficult to take these latest funding claims on trust alone.
“The government needs to stop dragging it feet, and commit to releasing this important information without further delay.”
The DfE has been contacted for comment.
