Commenting on A Fair Start?, a new report by the Sutton Trust on
the Government’s policy of 30 hours of funded childcare for three
and four year olds, Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of
the National Education Union, said:
"It has long been accepted that access to good quality early
education makes a huge difference in a child’s future attainment
and helps improve social mobility. Providing good quality early
education should be considered by Government and policymakers as
vitally important and a funding priority, but for too long it has
been starved. Early Years is not merely preparation for formal
schooling, but an important stage of a child’s education and
development. As this report shows, it is the quality of childcare
that makes the difference in reducing the gap between
disadvantaged children and their peers before they start school.
“It should be of great concern to Government that many Early
Years settings simply cannot afford to provide the 30 hours free
childcare entitlement. As demonstrated in today's report, this
provision, where it is available, is restricted and the poorest
families in society are not able to access the full free
entitlement. This is very worrying indeed.
"If the government is serious about improving social mobility and
closing the attainment gap, it must act immediately to provide
adequate funding for the free entitlement, so that it is
available in more early years settings and ensure that provision
is universal so that children, regardless of their financial
background, can access it.”
