The research is published as education and childcare minister Liz Truss was called to the House of Commons today to defend the Government's proposals to change childcare ratios.
The IPPR’s poll of more than 1,000 childminders, funded by the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY), shows that the majority of childminders are not planning to lower their costs or increase the number of children they care for should the Government press ahead with changes to childcare ratios.
Initial findings from the survey, released following concerns voiced by the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg that changes to ratios will not benefit parents, reveal that 74 per cent of childminders do not intend on increasing the number of children they care for.
The key reason given by childminders for not taking on more children was that they thought the quality of care would suffer. Sixty-eight per cent said it would pose a safety risk to children.
Nearly all childminders surveyed - 93 per cent - echoed the Deputy Prime Minister’s comments that increasing the number of children in their care would not cut the costs for parents and 5 per cent thought it would increase fees. Only 1.48 per cent of survey respondents said taking on more children would reduce the cost of childcare to parents.
Catherine Farrell, joint chief executive of the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY), said, ‘It’s great to see that at long last some parts of Government are finally listening to the legitimate concerns of parents and childcare professionals. Members of PACEY have continually voiced concerns that changing ratios will damage the quality of care children receive, regardless of the qualification level of staff. In simple terms the more children you have to look after the less individual attention you can give them.
‘PACEY has been lobbying for months to convince Liz Truss to rethink childcare proposals. In addition to the discussion about ratios, there are many more proposals that the Department for Education is planning that are causing concern for the sector. In particular the introduction of childminder agencies, an increasingly narrow definition of what it means for a child to be school ready, and the removal of local authority responsibility to provide training and information to registered providers.
‘We believe all of these proposals will be to the detriment of quality care our youngest children receive. Despite months of discussion, the Department for Education seems unwilling to listen and has yet to present a clear rationale for why these changes are needed. PACEY is yet to see any evidence that they will improve the quality of care children receive or reduce costs for families.’
Dalia Ben-Galim, IPPR Associate Director, said, ‘Nick Clegg has joined the chorus of concerned childminders, nursery providers and parents who are unconvinced by Liz Truss’ proposals that relaxing child ratios will improve quality or drive down costs.
‘Liz Truss argues that ratios are looser in other European countries, especially France. But this is because the qualifications attained by the early years workforce in France are generally higher. So using ratios as an indicator for costs is limited given the different levels and status of qualifications. It is a real stretch to suggest that slightly looser ratios will lead to lower prices and higher salaries.
‘Nick Clegg’s reservations on ratios are welcome and suggest that there is genuine concern on how to best improve child outcomes. But there are other parts of the Government’s childcare package where he should also be sceptical, namely proposals on tax relief.
‘Working parents will be eligible to claim up to £1200 tax-free voucher to pay for childcare costs. But tax relief is regressive, skewed towards higher income families. At a cost of around £1 billion and with no guarantee that providers will not raise their costs accordingly, IPPR has long argued that this money would be better spent investing in early years services, widening access and controlling costs.’
- The full results of the IPPR’s survey will be published later this summer.