Government response: Consultation on proposed changes to the role of the local authority in early education and childcare

On 29 January 2012 the Department published ‘More great childcare’,which outlined the Government’s plan to improve quality in the early years and to give parents more choice.  As part of this plan, the Government intends to reform the role of the local authority to remove duplication and introduce earned autonomy for effective providers. This will free up local authorities to focus on improving ineffective providers and securing higher standards.

The consultation on these proposals was launched on 25 March 2013, and closed on 6 May 2013. It covered both funding requirements and conditions set by local authorities and funding mechanisms to be used by the Department. The consultation asked respondents for their views on these proposals. In total there were 547 responses to the consultation. 

The Government’s response to the consultation is set out in ‘More affordable childcare’. In summary, next steps will be:

As a first step, we have published statutory guidance which sets the direction. Specifically it says:

• Local authorities should offer to fund places for three-and-four-year olds attending any ‘satisfactory’/’requires improvement’, ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ provider, and two-year-olds attending any ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ provider;
• Local authorities should not place conditions on ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ providers other than those relating to:
•  Proper use of public funds (the prevention of fraud and error);
• Ensuring funded places are entirely free of charge to parents;
• Ensuring parents are able to access places flexibly;
• Ensuring providers meet the needs of disabled children or those with a special educational need; and,
• Ensuring providers are keeping children safe.
• In addition to the above, any conditions local authorities make of providers who are judged as ‘satisfactory’/‘requires improvement’ must relate to addressing concerns raised by Ofsted at inspection.
• At the earliest possible opportunity, we will make regulations to refocus the duty on local authorities to secure information, advice and training for childcare providers. Authorities will be under a duty to secure information, advice and training to meet the needs of providers judged by Ofsted as ‘requiring improvement’. Local authorities will continue to have a power to provide information, advice and training for other providers.
• At this time, we will not be making any changes to the regulations governing the early years single funding formulae and centrally retained funding. We https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/more-affordable-childcarewould encourage local authorities to continue to look at how their funding formulae could be simplified and how more money can be passed to the front line.
• At the earliest possible opportunity and subject to the will of Parliament we will legislate to:

• Ensure local authorities cannot refuse to offer to fund a place at early education providers of a certain quality as judged by Ofsted if an eligible child wants to take up a place there;

• Ensure local authorities cannot refuse to offer to fund new providers to deliver early education places when they have passed their initial Ofsted registration visit and prior to their first Ofsted judgement; and,

• Limit the conditions that local authorities can set on PVI early education providers – in line with the approach set out in the statutory guidance published alongside this document.

We will also consider whether to make regulations so that, from September 2015, local authorities can only fund early learning places for two-year-olds in settings judged by Ofsted to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’. When making this decision we will take into account all available data on the implementation of the early learning for two-year-old programme.

See the summary of responses here