Got views on free early years education (AKA 'free childcare hours')? Parliament wants to hear from you

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

Parliament's Public Accounts Committee is going to be holding some sessions examining the free early education offer - that is, the 'free childcare hours'* that three and four year olds (and some two year olds) are entitled to before they start school.

At the moment most parents are entitled to 15 free hours for each child each week during term time; the government has promised to increase this to 30 hours for households where parents meet certain eligibility criteria.

(If this is news to you, you can find out more about the free hours here and here.)

The Public Accounts Committee regularly inquires into various aspects of government spending (see previous reports here) and wants to know what stakeholders think about the early education offer.

Their questions are copied in below; please reply on the thread to let us know what you think about any or all of the points they raise, and we'll pass on your views before their session next week.

Thanks
MNHQ

*We know, we know it's early years education! but almost everyone calls it childcare

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"On Wednesday 20th April, the Public Accounts Committee will look at the government’s implementation of ‘free entitlement to childcare’, speaking with the Permanent Secretary and a range of education witnesses to understand how the policy is achieving value for money for the country."

"The Department for Education has made progress in providing 15 hours of free childcare to more parents of 3- and 4-year olds and parents of disadvantaged 2-year-olds, according to the National Audit Office. It has not yet, however, achieved full value for money because it cannot track the effectiveness of its substantial investment of £2.7 billion."

"Most parents of 3- and 4-year olds take-up free childcare places for their children. The Department’s measure of children’s outcomes at age 5 has also shown steady improvement. In 2015, 66% of children reached a good level of development compared to 52% in 2013. However, the Department cannot link this data to the quality of individual childcare settings, and from 2017 the current measure of development is being halted."

"The review found that funding for free childcare has stayed the same since 2013-14 meaning that providers have faced real-term cuts. The Department has announced new average funding rates at levels which are designed to encourage efficiency, however, it does not know how efficient providers currently are, following the freeze in funding in recent years. In 2017, the Department will also double the number of hours of free childcare that working families with 3- and 4-year-olds are entitled to, from 15 to 30 hours per week."

"The Public Accounts Committee would like to investigate how the policy is achieving value for money for the UK and would like to hear your views on the implementation and understand how free entitlement to early years education has had an impact."

"§ Some parents have reported that there is confusion about entitlement to childcare and better information would help many of them. Do you think that there is currently enough information provided on free entitlement to childcare?"

"§ What have been the advantages for parents of the provision of free entitlement to childcare?"

"§ Are there any reasons why there might be lower levels of take-up for the entitlement to childcare for two year olds?"

[sausagepoo]

The funding amount is not enough and for most nurseries/childminders, they cannot operate at that level of funding so they understandably would not take children for just those hours or those whose parents do not agree to their fee calculations. The childcare settings I have used have just taken the funding received from the overall bill, and I feel this is fair (if they are asked to justify this then they can legitimately charge for nappies, snacks etc). The govt cannot expect a nursery to be able to run on £3.50 an hour, term time only.

The other issue with the funding is the term time only nature - both for nurseries with all year round costs and parents, the majority of whom will work 52 weeks a year and not 38.

The low take up of the 2 yr funding is presumably as those who qualify (not many) either don't know about the scheme, don't need the places or that childcare settings are not likely to want a funded 2 yr old for just 15 hrs a week as this is not viable.

On a separate point, the whole of a childcare bill should be tax free, the govts calculations of the average childcare bill seem wildly out (I pay over £1500 a month for one FT nursery and one in after school club) and I wish they would stop fannying about consulting and bring these hours in or start their childcare account that they harped on about - by the time anything does materialise, mine will be teenagers.

[CorkyBark]

TiggyD has it spot on.

[CorkyBark]

Reposting TiggyD's post:

Thr so called free hours are capped so nuseries make a loss on those 15 hours. They will soon be making a loss on 30 hours.
Nurseries will shut, stop taking funded children, or slash their out goings dramatically but reducing quality.
If you wanted to introduce something to destroy the entire nursery sector you couldn't do better than this government enforced income cap.