2019 has been another tough year for the sector with ongoing problems of funding, recruitment and retention, and the new Ofsted framework adding to the challenges.
And who knows what 2020 will bring! Will Brexit continue to be a drag on reform, or will a new Government finally start addressing social inequalities and longstanding funding problems – not just in the early years – with fairer and more innovative approaches to policy and financing?
The extent of the problems is clear to see in our news story (pages 10-11), where a number of settings are having to use their Nativity play as a fundraising event and some parents are struggling to pay even a small fee.
Let’s hope that with innovation comes greater transparency about how Government spending is funded, and how budgets are set and allocated.
No-one has seemed fooled by the parties’ big spending promises during the election campaign. Seemingly overnight, the national media was filled with reports about ‘magic money trees’, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies later concluded: ‘There is no magic money tree: Parties should stop the pretence that “someone else” can always pay.’
What the next Government must make clear is how it sets early years funding rates. In October, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) ordered the DfE to hand over this information to the Early Years Alliance – following a Freedom of Information request – only for the DfE to confirm, in November, that it was withholding the information and appealing the ICO decision.
No new Government should feel it is off the hook on this. How can it plan to offer more ‘free’ places without making clear how it sets current rates? Come a new year, the sector will still want, and need, answers.
SEASON’S GREETINGS
This issue of Nursery World is the last for 2019, and the first of the New Year will be out on 6 January. In the meantime, you can keep in touch with all the latest news and views in our daily email bulletins until Friday, 20 December, returning on 2 January.
The Nursery World team would like to wish all our readers, contributors and advertisers a happy Christmas and festive season, and all the very best for 2020.