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Ceeda debate: 'Until the sector collapses you won't get investment'

A legal challenge, a PR campaign and a working group were mooted as solutions to raise the profile of unsustainable childcare funding with the public, in crunch talks last week.
Ceeda Research's The Big Early Years Debate took place last week in London
Ceeda Research's The Big Early Years Debate took place last week in London

At a meeting on Thursday organised by Ceeda, which has identified a Government funding gap of £824m in 2020/21, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said it was ‘beyond any doubt’ that the sector had amassed the necessary evidence on underfunding. He said, ‘If we can get half the politicians in the pub and say off the record what do you think, there would be no dispute.

‘I have heard officials say to me that until the sector collapses you are not likely to get the investment that is needed.’

At the meeting, which was seeking solutions to the funding crisis, which has been widely acknowledged outside of Government, one suggestion from the floor was to ‘take the Government to court for price fixing.’ A recent report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Childcare and Early Education found there is around a 20 per cent shortfall between the Government funding provided and the actual per child cost of providing the ‘free’ 30 hours entitlement for parents.

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