Children's services leaders call for extra funding for early years

The work of early years professionals during the pandemic is praised in Building a country that works for all children post-Covid-19 but the report states that the past few months has ‘underlined the vulnerability and indeed viability of a fragmented early years sector giving rise to concerns about placement sufficiency going forwards’.

The discussion paper considers the impacts of the pandemic on children and their families and what is needed to restore and reset the support services they rely on. Along with a shortfall of childcare places, it highlights that the Prime Minister’s £1 billion catch-up plan to address the impacts of lost learning announced in June is not earmarked for use in early years settings. This could further wider the attainment gap and significantly compromise children’s development.

It acknowledges that early years workers, and others in the children’s workforce, who often go unrecognised have ‘come to the fore’ during the Covid-19 crisis. It states that their help has sustained many children and families during the last few months, with the support that the sector has given parents to provide positive home learning experiences being highlighted.

The report also acknowledges that many leaders, particularly in education settings, have ‘found themselves caught between very complex and frequently competing priorities giving rise to discord’.

Lack of funding

Before the pandemic, most public services were faced with growing levels of need in the community coinciding with funding reductions. In 2019, the Local Government Association estimated that children’s social care was facing a £3.1 billion funding gap by 2024/25 based on pre-Covid-19 levels of demand and activity.

The report emphases that this figure does not encompass the cost of meeting the needs of children and families who have become newly vulnerable as a result of Covid-19, or escalating levels of needs among those already being supported.

On top of this, the report states that the local authority’s ability to generate income has ‘plummeted’. Government data shows that only eight per cent of the first £3.2 billion of additional funding to support the Covid-19 response has been spent on children’s services.

The ADCS is calling on the Government to put children and their outcomes at the core of national recovery planning. It recommends that, ‘A long-term funding and investment strategy for local government, for children’s services and for schools is needed along with a commitment to resource preventative or "early help" services sustainably. Further education and early years funding, including a review of how childcare investment is prioritised, requires attention as does the level of funding attached to, and the eligibility for, pupil premium and pupil premium plus.’  

Jenny Coles, ADCS president, added, ‘The entire children’s workforce has been incredible during this period, social workers and staff in residential children’s homes have embraced new ways of working to support children and families and colleagues in schools and early years settings have worked hard to keep children learning during lockdown.

‘But the peak of activity in children’s services is only just beginning – this is when children and families will need us the most. We are clear that harms to children have not simply gone away but will become visible as restrictions ease and children are seen by schools and other settings that are likely to raise safeguarding concerns.’

In agreement

Donna Molloy, director of policy and practice at the Early Intervention Foundation agrees that there is an urgent need for funding for services to support families dealing with new or increased difficulties.

‘The ADCS is right to focus on the long term too,’ she said. ‘Nationally and locally, we need to be promoting and enabling a long-term approach to strategy, funding and evaluation of services for children and families, to ween ourselves off short-term or shiny-new-thing solutions. Only by looking and planning further ahead, beyond one year or one electoral cycle, can we ensure that services and support are really improving outcomes for those who need it most.’

Judith Blake, chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board believes the real challenge for children’s services is yet to come. ‘Councils and many others in the sector have raised concerns about the potential for increased demand for services as children return to school and issues become apparent. Tackling this will be a joint effort with central government, and we agree with ADCS calls for effective cross-government working to improve children’s lives,’ she says.

‘The Government needs to invest in preventative universal and early help services to ensure that children, young people and families receive the practical, emotional, educational and mental health support they need, as soon as they need it.’

• The report is available here