Across the ages
Natalie Perera, executive director and head of research at the EPI
Monday, September 18, 2017
In light of concerns over the 30 hours, Natalie Perera says the Government should review the balance between public and private investment
There has been much debate about whether the Government is investing enough to deliver the 30 hours offer.
My first reflection is that I’m glad we’re having this debate so publicly – from the national newspapers to Newsnight to the Today programme. At the same time, the issue of funding for schools and higher education has barely been out of the media since the general election.
All of these are vital issues for the education system, the economy and labour market, and social mobility. So why are these debates taking place on separate platforms, in separate newspaper columns and fronted by different experts? As austerity continues and the uncertainties of Brexit loom, it is arguably more important now than in the past few decades to consider the balance of education spending across all phases.
A report published last week by the OECD found that while overall spending in the early years is higher in the UK than the OECD average (at £7,435 compared with £6,687 per child), the majority of this expenditure comes from private sources, rather than public funding. In other words, only 47 per cent of investment in the early years comes from state funding. Parents are meeting more than half of the cost. Meanwhile, across the OECD, the average proportion of early years investment made by the state is 82 per cent.
The balance of funding between public and private income may well change once the 30-hour entitlement is rolled out but, as EPI research has shown, the new funding available is likely to benefit wealthier families the most. Indeed, the policy largely represents a transfer of cost from more affluent families to the state.
In light of these findings, and the significant concerns we’ve seen about the funding of the 30-hour offer, the Government should really step back and review not just the balance of funding across education phases, but also the balance between public and private investment. If we’re debating whether it is unfair for young adults (or their parents) to pay for university education, we should consider, alongside that debate, whether the majority of the cost of early years education should be met by the parents of children under five.
