Steve Brine MP: 'Government must properly fund early education to ensure the best outcomes for children'

As we start 2023 we are faced with a crisis in childcare and early education unlike any we have ever seen.

The sector faces unprecedented challenges, with Ofsted’s latest figures showing that there has been a consistent reduction in the number of early education and childcare providers, particularly among the Private, Voluntary, and Independent (PVI) settings which support the majority of our children. I’ve seen this across the country and in my own Winchester constituency.

This isn’t the providers’ choice. Rising business rates and the cost-of-living crisis are forcing many towards closure, leaving parents and children, including those with SEND or from disadvantaged backgrounds, without access to an essential part of our national education infrastructure.

This is deeply concerning and demonstrates why arguments that reform to childcare is unaffordable simply don’t add up. Voters are increasingly hungry for a new direction for the childcare and early education sector that prioritises children and empowers parents to choose what is right for them. This alone ought to focus the minds of us politicians, along with the question that, if the early years is so fundamental to our children’s future happiness, well-being, and success, and by extensions that of the country, why are we not addressing it?

Today marks the start of Childcare & Early Education Week. The week, organised by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Childcare and Early Education, of which I am chair, is dedicated to raising the voice of the providers, practitioners, and parents in Westminster. The theme this year is 'Fund the early years, fund their future’. The underlying message of the campaign is that early years education must be properly funded in order to deliver the best outcomes for our children.

Key to this is a funding model that begins with better use of our existing early years budgets and a fundamental overhaul of how the sector is funded to ensure that the money follows the child.

The current landscape of childcare support across Universal Credit, Tax Free Childcare and funded hours is complex for families, providers, government agencies and local government to budget and plan for. Money is left unspent in Tax Free Childcare and council budgets that could be supporting children and families. The APPG supports additional funding for SEND children, and money allocated via tax-free credit that is unclaimed should be invested back into the sector, not sent back to the Treasury.

The funding debate also feeds into the staffing crisis many settings currently face. We know that there are still a great number of people training as early education professionals, and yet many are leaving the sector early, or choosing not to enter it at all. Low wages, burnout and stressful work make a career in early years an unattractive prospect when staff could easily find employment in retail or hospitality for more money and fewer hours.

Given that the wage bill for providers alone amounts to 76 per cent of nurseries’ operating costs further funding from central government is needed. Pay must be reflective of the vital work early years educators do in order to stem the staffing crisis, and settings cannot seriously invest in their staff when they face so many financial challenges.

There is an economic and social imperative to tackle these issues now. It is clear that early education, and the support this provides for parents, is a part of the infrastructure of this country that is under-funded at our peril.

• The APPG is holding a virtual meeting on Tuesday 24 January, 2-3pm to celebrate Childcare and Early Education Week 2023, the theme of which is ‘Fund Early Years, Fund their Future’.

You can sign up to attend via Zoom here