DfE refuses to explain how funding rates were calculated

Last month, the ICO ordered the DfE to provide withheld information about how it determined early years funding rates by Thursday 14 November to the Early Years Alliance, which has repeatedly asked for disclosure of the information.

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The DfE today confirmed to the Alliance that it will not be providing the information as it has lodged an appeal with the First Tier Tribunal, which deals with appeals against ICO decisions.

In December 2018, the Alliance filed a freedom of information (FOI) request to the DfE asking for the calculations, or broader thinking underpinning current early years funding levels. As part of the request, it asked for information on exactly how the Government concluded that the funding rates for three- and four-year-old places, announced in 2015, were sufficient to cover rising business costs up until 2020.

In response, the DfE confirmed to the Alliance that it held relevant ‘spreadsheet, presentation and briefing documentation’, but rejected the FOI request on the grounds that the information formed part of the development of Government policy and the need to keep it private outweighed the public interest in releasing it. An appeal by the Alliance was rejected by the Government on the same grounds.

The Alliance then took the case to the ICO, which formally rejected the DfE’s argument, and ordered it to provide the relevant ‘spreadsheet, presentation and briefing documentation’ by 14 November.

The Alliance branded the DfE’s decision not to provide the information as ‘shameful’ and urged it to reconsider.

Chief executive Neil Leitch said, ‘The Department for Education has always flatly rejected concerns that childcare funding levels have failed to keep up with rising costs, and continues to claim that it is investing more than enough into the early years sector. All we have asked for is proof that this is indeed the case. The fact that the DfE is going to such extreme lengths not to release this information surely begs the question: what have they got to hide?

‘The early years sector in England is reaching a crisis point. Nurseries, pre-schools and childminders across the country are finding it impossible to make ends and, as a result, are being forced to increase parent fees, restrict funded places and, in a growing number of cases, close down altogether.

‘The Department for Education clearly has some serious questions to answer about its childcare policy – but rather than taking this as an opportunity to prove once and for all that its approach to early years funding has been fair and adequate, it’s wasting taxpayers’ money trying to hide information that should be available to all.’

The Department for Education is unable to comment due to purdah.