Alliance calls for seat at funding review table

The manifesto, the Early Years Agenda, focuses on funding, schoolification and Ofsted, and draws on the Alliance's practitioner survey and Counting the Cost, its independent study into the free entitlement scheme.

Key calls in the manifesto include:

• Working with the Alliance to undertake a full, in-depth review of the free entitlement funding system, including a large-scale analysis of the cost of delivering funded places
• Introducing a statutory requirement on local authorities to collect annual data from local providers on the cost of delivering free entitlement places
• Scrapping the proposed baseline assessment and reinstating the EYFS Profile’s statutory status
• Implementing measures to monitor school-based provision for two-year-olds and ensuring it delivers age-appropriate care and learning opportunities to the children attending
• Bringing early years inspections in-house
• Implementing paid-for re-inspections, as legislated for by the Children and Families Act 2014.

The manifesto is underpinned by the principles that the needs of the child must always be at the centre of decision-making; policy should be based on extensive evidence, not personal views; and consulting with the early years sector should be the first step of policy development.

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said: 'We believe that it’s time that sector professionals set the early years agenda. For far too long, we have been faced with ill-thought-out early years policies that put economic concerns above the needs of the child; policies that have been rushed through with little to no consultation with the sector. It’s time for this to change.
 
'This manifesto is the result of more than a year’s work: scrutinising government legislation, gathering provider views and commissioning in-depth independent research into key areas of early years policy. Our calls to action are sensible, practical and achievable ways in which the government can support the sector in building and sustaining an affordable and, crucially, high-quality childcare system for those families that need it.
 
'We look forward to working with the new government to implement the changes necessary to ensure the long-term success of the early years sector.'
 

• The manifesto is available at www.pre-school.org.uk/EYAgenda-manifesto