More than 100,000 parents have called for an independent review into childcare funding and affordability, which led to a parliamentary debate yesterday.
But the minister argued that ‘given that we are already right now in the middle of the spending review negotiations it wouldn’t be appropriate to launch a separate independent review of childcare at this time’.
Opening the debate, Catherine McKinnell MP, chair of the Petitions Committee pointed out that the UK is close to the top of the list for OECD countries in childcare costs for parents, and that ‘childcare is as necessary to parents getting to work as roads and railways’.
The Government has no plan to review childcare funding, she said, but she urged the minister to consider the petitioners’ request for a review.
Many MPs spoke during the debate in favour of a review, giving examples of how early years settings and maintained nursery schools were struggling with underfunding issues in their constituencies.
MPs also talked about the need for childcare to be viewed as part of the country's 'infrastructure'.
They included Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, who has two children under two, and spoke with her newborn baby in a sling.
Investment in universal childcare from the age of six months ‘paid for itself', she said, as it enabled more women to work.
‘Minister, there’s an army of mums out there mad as hell that they’re being ignored and expected to take on childcare at short notice,' she said. 'But I tell you, mums can multi-task too and they can vote.’
From left: MPs Fleur Anderson, Stella Creasy and Tulip Siddiq spoke during yesterday's debate on the petition calling for a review into childcare funding and affordability PHOTO Twitter
Steve Brine MP, the Conservative chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for childcare and early education, said that he was ‘proud of the 30 hours’, but through his work charing the group it had become ‘clear that systemic reforms were needed to make our flagship reforms work better.’
He said that his hope was that Government would use the forthcoming spending review to fund an ‘early years catch-up premium’ to address the funding shortfall and tackle existing local authority underspend, reported by NDNA research to be £62m in 2019-20.
‘We cannot fund our early years sector without reviewing the early years system. The future of the sector is in peril.'
Early years staff should be [financially] rewarded, he said. ‘These are not well-meaning amateurs at the end of their career, who are just providing plasticine. These are educators. They are preparing children for the world of learning when they go into their primary and secondary education.’
Shadow early years minister Tulip Siddiq said that childcare workers were ‘languishing on poverty-pay. These talented and dedicated workers are unsurprisingly leaving the sector as quickly as they can.’
She said the ‘Petition should be a wake-up call’ for Government… We’re not being dramatic, we’re not scaremongering – this is the reality of the situation.’
Responding for the Government, Vicky Ford said, ‘We are already working on a multi-year spending review. And in the Department for Education, we are absolutely continuing to press the importance of early years care and education right across Government as part of that spending review.
‘But given that we are already right now in the middle of the spending review negotiations it wouldn’t be appropriate to launch a separate independent review of childcare at this time because the outcomes of such a review would not be able to feed into the spending review that is happening right now. And we do expect the outcome of the spending review to be announced later this year.’
The minister also denied that there were any issues with a lack of sufficient childcare, and said 'we don't recognise the description of the 35 per cent increase in closures'.
‘Between August 2020 and March 2021 approximately 2,000 settings joined the early years register while around 4,000 left but the overall number of childcare places has broadly stayed the same suggesting some closures are mergers and some providers are in parallel or increasing the places they offer,’ she said.
In closing remarks, Catherine McKinnell MP urged the minister to consider the petitioners' request.
‘Parents and providers are struggling. Early years staff are undervalued and underpaid. Childcare is becoming a big political issue. I would say don’t close the door on this because it does need to be looked at - not only are parents and providers being let down, but ultimately it’s the children that would benefit from getting the best early years and childcare system in the world– let’s ask the experts to guide us in a cross-party way about how we best achieve that.’
Commenting after the debate, Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) said, ‘This debate showed the breadth of concern for the early years sector. It was sparked by a petition of over 112,000 people showing that parents, providers and MPs from all sides have very real concerns about the state of the early education and care system. Providers are telling us loud and clear that the funding on offer doesn’t cover their costs and that situation gets more difficult year after year and ministers need to recognise this.
‘The offer of funded childcare to support children’s educational outcomes and help working families was supposed to be a flagship policy - but it is not working for everyone. Underfunding threatens providers’ business models, harms efforts to improve quality and limits investment in the vital early years workforce. Our research has shown that these pressures are felt even more acutely in areas of deprivation.
‘The minister’s constant denial of any evidence is a grave concern for the sector.
‘We need to see a clear plan from the Government about how they are going to address underfunding for providers that result in higher costs to parents and put nurseries at risk.’