Ordinarily, September is all about looking ahead to the new academic year with hope and optimism, and so my articles during this time of year tend to try to predict (perhaps foolishly) what the year ahead might hold for early years and education.
But thanks to the drama that continues to unfold in Westminster, it is difficult to know what will happen in the next 24 hours, let alone 12 months.
What we do know is that the current Government is very much in pre-election mode. This month’s spending review statement might have been low-key due to other Parliamentary business, but there was enough of a sprinkling of populist policies in there to grab the attention of potential voters.
But, as ever with these high-level announcements, the devil is in the detail. In the days leading up to the spending review, the Government announced an additional £7.1 billion for schools (serving five- to 16-year-olds) by 2022-23 and an additional £400 million for 16-19 provision. As the date of the spending review neared, we were left wondering whether the Government had, indeed, forgotten about the early years.
Some reassurance then when the Chancellor stood at the despatch box on spending review day and, after confirming the settlement for schools and further education, went on the say that ‘the Government will also increase early years spending by £66 million…to increase the hourly rate that’s been paid at maintained nursery schools and other childcare providers who deliver on the Government’s free childcare offers.’
To the lay-person, £66 million in a year doesn’t sound too bad at all. But in actual fact when inflation for next year is taken into account, it amounts to a total increase of £0. Given that our research found that early years workers have already experienced a real-terms pay cut of almost 5 per cent since 2013 and are increasingly reliant on in-work benefits, the promise of a pay rise of £0 next year is derisory. And is in stark contrast to the pay rise offered to school teachers over the next three years (when all teachers will receive a minimum salary of £30,000).
While the Government says it values the early years, the clear dichotomy in the treatment of funding between schools and early years remains – signalling that the Government needs to move beyond just ‘warm words’.
