Speaking at the Education Select Committee meeting today (22 April), she said, ‘There has never been a change in guidance. The treasury guidance makes it enormously clear [that organisations receiving public funding to pay staff shouldn’t also be able to use furlough for them]. That is what we added to our guidance as extra clarification. I wish I could have got that clarification out faster.’
Ms Ford said that her priorities were sufficient childcare for keyworkers; making sure vulnerable children were safe; and ‘doing everything we can for the longer-term sustainability of the sector’.
‘That is why I fought for the commitment that government would continue to fund the free entitlement, even if schools [sic] closed, even if children were not attending.
‘I worked with the early years sector on getting the extra clarification on Friday night about the proportion of staff they could furlough. I know this is really challenging. The furlough scheme is clunky. We have to make sure we give them clear guidance.’
Committee member David Simmons MP said that he had seen ‘poor behaviour’ from nurseries, including one in his constituency which cared mainly for keyworkers’ children, which had immediately closed, had told parents to pay fees in full, and had furloughed all its staff. He asked Ms Ford if the government would deal ‘robustly’ with this sort of approach.
Ms Ford said that this behaviour was ‘completely unacceptable’, but that this was not what the vast majority were doing.
Asked by several MPs about early years settings’ struggles with sustainability before coronavirus, Ms Ford said, ‘I do not agree that there was a national crisis in early years prior to this.’ She acknowledged, however, that long-term sustainability should be addressed in the next Spending Review. ‘We did put up funding in the last funding round, but I do know that issue.’