Three-quarters of local authorities in England have reported underspending for funded childcare places, suggesting that the full amount of funding for the 15- and 30-hours entitlements is not reaching early years providers.
The NDNA’s findings follow a similar investigation last year, but this time 17 local authorities were reporting that they had more than £1m in unspent funding for early education and childcare, a higher number than a year ago.
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), said they had been 'shocked' to find very similar results to their previous investigation.
‘To discover so much money, allocated for early education and childcare, still not reaching providers is totally unacceptable given the recommendations we made last year. This must not be allowed to happen again and an urgent full review of early years funding is needed.’
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