One in six local authorities in England are ignoring government
guidance instructing them to fund childcare providers as if
coronavirus wasn’t happening until the end of the year, a new
Freedom of Information (FoI) Act investigation from leading early
years organisation the Early Years Alliance has found.
The Department for Education (DfE) is providing early years
funding to all councils in England based on the number of
children who were attending childcare settings in their areas
last year, rather than the number attending this year, until at
least the end of 2020. The government has described the move as
“‘block-buying’ childcare places for the rest of this year at the
level we would have funded before coronavirus, regardless of how
many children are attending”.
Under current DfE guidance, councils are expected to take the
same approach and fund nurseries, pre-schools and childminders
“broadly the levels they would have expected to see in the 2020
autumn term had there been no coronavirus outbreak”. However,
over recent weeks, the Alliance has received a number of reports
from childcare providers of councils not adhering to this
guidance.
In response, the Alliance filed a FoI request to every local
authority in England, asking if they were basing the funding
being given to early years providers this term on child
attendance numbers from last year, as stated in the DfE guidance.
Of the 120 councils who responded, 20 (17%) stated that the were
not following this guidance. A further seven (6%) stated that
they were only following the guidance in some circumstances, such
as funding nurseries and pre-schools based on last year’s
childcare attendance numbers, but not childminders, while three
(3%) were still yet to decide.
The Alliance has provided details of its investigation findings
to the Department for Education.
Commenting, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Alliance, said:
“It is simply unacceptable that so many local authorities have
disregarded the DfE guidance on early years funding during this
critical time – and more importantly, that they have been allowed
to do so.
“The government has said that it is ‘block-buying’ funded early
years places until the end of the year but as our investigation
shows, in many areas, this simply isn’t true as the money isn’t
making it to the frontline.
“We have been contacted by many providers who had budgeted and
planned on the basis of the government’s reassurances that their
funding for the autumn term wouldn’t be affected by the pandemic,
only to find out at the last minute that this isn’t the case. For
many, this could be the difference between surviving the next few
months, and being forced to close their doors.
“It cannot be that councils can simply choose to disregard
government guidance, when that guidance has been issued to ensure
the sustainability of the early years sector at such a difficult
time. As such, we urge the Department to tackle this issue as a
matter of urgency and make it clear that it is a requirement, and
not an option, for all councils to fund all providers fully and
fairly.
“The next few months are going to be difficult enough for the
sector – neither central government or local authorities should
be making it any harder.”
