The research from the Fawcett Society, sponsored by the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY) and the Pavers Foundation, finds that five other liberal welfare states have recently or are currently introducing large-scale reforms to their early education, however no changes on the same scale have been made to England’s childcare system since 2017.
The report, which compares England’s early education system with that of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Switzerland, states, ‘Several of the countries in this review have recently adopted large-scale reforms’ or are in process of doing so. It says that the reason behind the reforms are due to a mix of factors including a need to engage mothers with the labour market, support the middle class, and respond to the impact of Covid on mothers’ unpaid work.
Other key findings include:
- Wages for early years staff in England are the lowest among the six countries.
- In all five other countries, parents with lower incomes pay less for childcare.
- Public spending on childcare in the UK is lowest among the countries in this review, bar Switzerland. Yet these countries also fall short on public spending themselves in worldwide comparisons.
- New Zealand staggers funding for childcare providers to incentivise and resource greater proportions of highly qualified staff. The country also offers free hours of childcare all-year-round to support working parents, in contrast to the term-time-only offer seen in England.
- In Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, fee subsidies go straight to the childcare provider
- In Australia, employer-provided childcare is much more common
- In Quebec, rather than focussing on universal free entitlements the system provides $10 per day childcare for all – which numerous studies have found results in significant increases in mothers’ participation in the labour market.
PACEY is now proposing a three-point plan to improve integration of family and childcare support services at a local level, reform the early education funding system and put in place a national workforce plan to address the sector’s recruitment and retention crisis.
Policy advisor Helen Donohoe said, ‘PACEY is proud of the services that early years and childcare professionals work hard to deliver every day for children. But against a backdrop of Government underfunding, and a lack of long-term vision or national strategy, we know their efforts alone are not sustainable.
‘We have seen recent willingness from Government to make changes to improve the system. Rather than piecemeal tinkering with regulations, what we need is Government to recognise is that the whole system needs fixing. It needs to work with the sector to ensure a long-term plan to address the well-documented and embedded barriers that have to be removed to ensure early education and childcare in this country is well supported as it is in other countries. We are urging Government to learn from the best evidence, listen to practitioners on the ground and draw on innovation and best practice already taking place in England and further afield.’
The research came as the majority of ministers at the Department for Education resigned and ahead of a new education secretary being appointed, as such the Government department was unable to comment.
- The research is available here