DfE responds to petition calling for childcare funding increase

The petition, which was started in November and has more than 10,000 signatures – triggering a Government response – calls for early years funding to be increased to ensure settings can continue to operate.

While within its response, the Department for Education (DfE) acknowledges that the sector is ‘facing economic challenges’, it stresses that additional funding of £160 million in 2022-23, £180 million in 2023-24 and £170 million in 2024-25 has already been announced. The childcare funding was announced by the Department for Education in December, the month after the petition was started.

When a petition on the GOV.UK website receives 10,000 signatures, the Government must provide a response. At 100,000 signatures, the petition is considered for debate in Parliament.

The petition, which urges the Government to increase funding for early years settings to ensure they remain open in light of the 9.7 per cent rise to the national living wage, effective from April, was started by Vicky Willetts, manager of Pre-school @ St Mark’s in Cheshire in November.

It proceeded an announcement from the Department for Education that childcare funding is to rise by 3.4 per cent for three and four-year-olds and by 4 per cent for two-year-olds in 2023-24, while an extra £20m is being provided to help cover minimum wage increases.

Willetts told Nursery World, ‘I am pleased the Government has increased funding, but more needs to be done. The extra 21p and 17p per hour will not go far enough to support early years settings.’

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) commented, ‘This petition received more than 10,000 signatures in its first seven days which shows the overwhelming strength of feeling about this issue among the early years sector and parents.

‘This Government must stop putting sticking plasters on a system which is failing children, their parents and their childcare providers.

‘There must be a comprehensive review of childcare funding. We welcome the Education Select Committee’s inquiry into childcare affordability and early years education which should address some of the challenges settings are facing.’

Full Government response

‘We have spent over £3.5 billion in each of the past three years on our early education entitlements. Over one million children per year are benefitting from this Government’s record investment.

‘The Government understands that hard-working parents rely on childcare to help them balance their home and work commitments. We can rightly be proud of our childcare sector. Ninety six per cent of childcare settings in England are now rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, an increase from 74 per cent in 2012. Ofsted data also shows that the number of childcare places available has remained broadly stable since August 2015.

‘The Government already provides a significant package of childcare support to parents and carers and over one million children every year are now benefitting from our record investment in early years education entitlements. These include 15 hours of free childcare a week for three- and four-year-olds and a further 15 hours a week for three- and four-year-olds with working parents, also known as 30 hours free childcare, which can help save families up to £6,000 per child per year. 15 hours a week of free early education is also available for disadvantaged two-year-olds.

‘We know the sector is facing economic challenges, similar to the challenges being faced across the economy. We have already announced additional funding of £160 million in 2022–23, £180 million in 2023–24 and £170 million in 2024–25, compared to the 2021–22 financial year, for local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers. Improving the cost, choice and availability of childcare for working parents is important for this Government.

‘For 2022-23 we have increased the hourly funding rates for all local authorities by 21p an hour for the two-year-old entitlement and, for the vast majority of areas, by 17p an hour for the three and four-year-old entitlement. We have also increased the minimum funding floor – meaning no council can receive less than £4.61 per hour for the three and four-year-old entitlements.

‘For 2023-24, we are investing an additional £20 million into the early years entitlements. This is on top of the additional £180m for 2023-24 announced at the Spending Review. Taken together, this will help support early years providers at a national level with the additional National Living Wage costs associated with delivering the free childcare entitlements next year. 

‘Local authorities are set to receive average funding increases of 3.4 per cent for the three- and four-year-old free childcare entitlements and 4 per cent for the two- year-old entitlement in 2023-24, compared to their 2022-23 rates. All local authorities will benefit from at least a 1 per cent increase in their funding rates in 2023-24, with increases for some up to 4.9 per cent for three- four-year-olds, and up to 10 per cent for two-year-olds. 

‘We will also be investing an additional £10 million into maintained nursery school (MNS) supplementary funding from 2023-24; this is on top of the increase in 2022-23, where we have increased the supplementary funding hourly rate by 3.5 per cent - equivalent to the increase in the 3 and 4-year-old hourly funding rates. We have also confirmed the continuation of MNS supplementary funding throughout the spending review period, providing the sector with long-term certainty. 

‘The Government remains committed to the future of the early years education sector. We continue to monitor the market closely through a range of research projects, including our annual Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey which gives the government robust evidence on the provider market. The most recent survey was published 9th December 2021 and the latest was published on 15th December 2022. We are also in regular contact with early years sector stakeholders through meetings and working groups and we feed their messages right into the heart of Government..’

• Click here for the petition