Sector fears over reports Liz Truss plans to scrap childcare ratios completely

Sector leaders have described plans, first reported in the Daily Mail, to allow individual nursery settings to decide how many staff are required for the children in their care as “doomed”.

Previously announced plans to alter the staff:child ratios for two-year-olds from 1:4 to 1:5 caused concern within the sector, with experts warning it could reduce the quality of childcare settings and raising doubts about its effectiveness in reducing costs for parents.

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Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said that scrapping early years ratios completely would be “devastating” for the sector and for families.

He added that “it will greatly increase safeguarding concerns and sacrifice safety in settings”, which “cannot justify any benefits the government may be imagining”.

The plans would be an “unacceptable solution to rising costs”, he said.

Leitch added: "We know that it is extremely unlikely that ratio changes will lead to any cost savings for parents, as settings will be forced to use any savings to plug the significant shortfall between sector funding and the cost of delivering early education.

“Clearly, it will pile even more unnecessary pressure on a sector that is already doing its best in unimaginably challenging circumstances."

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association, said: “We said when the proposal [to relax ratios] was first mooted that if its primary aim was to reduce the cost of childcare to parents, it would fail. Many nurseries have told us they would not increase the number of children they care for anyway because they don’t consider it to be practical, safe or effective.

“With two-year-olds now coming into nursery impacted by Covid restrictions, they are needing more support with language acquisition and social skills than ever before. This is not the time to reduce the numbers of qualified practitioners who are working really hard to help them.

“Instead of forging ahead with this doomed plan in an effort to save money, the government must have the foresight to invest more in our youngest children to save further investment in their later education.”

Both Leitch and Tanuku said the government must consult on any proposed changes to sector regulation, with Tanuku pointing out that submissions to a recent consultation on proposals to relax ratios is yet to receive a government response.

Leitch added that further consultation is essential if the government intends to scrap ratios altogether.

He said he expects the plans to be met with “an overwhelming opposition form providers and parents alike”.

Leitch added that despite Truss’s pledge to be a government which listens, “the early years has yet to see evidence of that”, and urged ministers rethink “any current or future deregulation plans rather than charge ahead with ridiculous, far-fetched and extremely dangerous policy ideas that will have dire consequences”.