Letter to the next Prime Minister

The letter below sets out our key asks for the next government.

Labour commits to more nursery provision in schools

On 10 June, Labour announced their plans for “over three thousand new nursery classes across England to open up access to childcare hours for families”, with “spare classrooms” in schools to be used either for nursery provision delivered by schools, or by PVIs. According to the Guardian, this will include funding of £140m to refurbish […]

Lib Dems commit to tripling early years pupil premium

The Lib Dems have published their manifesto, including commitments to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into UK law and to tackle child poverty. On early education and childcare specifically, they aim to “close the attainment gap by giving disadvantaged children aged three and four an extra five free hours a […]

Early Education and Childcare Coalition manifesto calls for “rescue and reform”

Today, Friday 17 May, the Early Education and Childcare Coalition (EECC) has launched its new manifesto, with proposals to rescue and reform England’s early education and childcare sector. Early Education are one of the 30 organisations in the coalition which brings together representatives of parents and children, practitioners, providers, employers and the business sector. To […]

Government consults on funding rates for extended entitlements in England

DfE has today launched a consultation on the new funding rates which will apply for 2-year-olds and under 2s when the new entitlements are introduced in England in 2024-25. The consultation sets out the government’s plans which are in brief: Like the current funding formulae, under these new formulae the allocations to local authorities will […]

Mid-year funding rates in England to rise, but not enough to meet the funding gap

The Department for Education has today announced that the extra £204m for early years announced in the budget will be allocated to local authorities as an additional grant to boost funding for the early years entitlements between September 2023 and March 2024. The average rate for a 3- or 4-year-old will rise from £5.29 to […]

Budget extends early education entitlements

In today’s budget the Chancellor has confirmed several new measures on early education and childcare: Our analysis The decision to relax the ratios for 2-year-olds from 1:4 to 1:5 despite overwhelming opposition from the sector and parents is extremely disappointing. While most of the sector are unlikely to implement this, the pressure on settings budgets […]

Levelling up or levelling down? The latest early years funding rate increases in England

The government’s latest changes to the early years funding formulae bring two key changes which we pointed out in our response to the consultation would spread an already limited amount of funding unevenly across the country. Our analysis of the published 2023-24 allocations shows this to be the case and looks at where the funding […]

Government response to funding consultation and announcement of 2023-24 allocations

DfE have today announced the early years funding settlement for 2023-24, which leaves the early years sector struggling on below inflationary increases. While an additional £10m for the least well-funded maintained nursery schools (MNS) is welcome, and an additional £20m for the Early Years National Funding Formula represents a token acknowledgement of the additional wage […]

Ofsted’s Annual Review highlights importance of early years workforce

Ofsted’s latest annual review highlights the impact of recruitment and retention challenges and finds a link between inspection outcomes and the proportion of graduates in a setting. It recognises the work which settings are doing to address the impact of the pandemic on young children. It found that 96% of providers on the early years […]