Going ahead with a planned pilot of expanded ‘free hours’ of childcare could have avoided some of the staffing and budgeting issues experienced by providers, according to a National Audit Office report.
In a review of the childcare expansion plans, first announced in the March 2023 budget, the NAO said that the decision to cancel a £35m pilot of the scheme in some local authorities meant some of the risks were not identified.
According to a Department for Education survey in March 2024, more than 90% of 152 local authorities cited a lack of early years staff as a problem in delivering the expanded provision. Almost two-thirds (63%) highlighted a lack of staff with appropriate qualifications.
The report said: “[HM Treasury] and DfE set dates without understanding local authorities’ and providers’ capacity and capability to deliver an unprecedented level of growth in the workforce and new places.
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“DfE estimated that, by September 2025, providers needed to create 85,000 places and recruit around 40,000 staff, although requirements would vary locally.
“DfE originally planned to implement early in some local authorities, to test feasibility and establish evaluation baselines, but cancelled this due to affordability constraints.”
The report also concluded that the DfE wanted to press ahead with the original rollout timetable so it could “realise labour market benefits quickly”, in that more parents would be able to enter or return to work thanks to childcare support.
“However, the fixed dates mean it has no contingency in its timetable to respond to uncertainties,” the report added.
Last week, the DfE confirmed that around 40,000 extra staff will be needed by September next year if the government is to fulfil its pledge of offering 30 free hours of childcare to all pre-school children.
It has launched an ambitious recruitment campaign offering a trial £1,000 ‘golden hello’ to attract candidates into early years education.
It also reported that almost 200,000 parents have signed up to the first wave of the scheme, which gives up to 15 hours a week of free childcare for two-year-olds. Seventy-nine per cent of the codes parents require to access the scheme have been validated.
The NAO pointed out in its report that the workforce uplift represents a 12% increase on existing staff numbers in just over two years. The workforce only grew by 5% between 2018 and 2023, it added.
Trying to increase the workforce in such a short time could lead to “unintended consequences of large numbers of new or less qualified staff entering the workforce”. This could jeopardise the quality of provision and reduce the number of places available for vulnerable children, which would widen the attainment gap between children from more affluent families and their disadvantaged peers.
The NAO recommends to the DfE that it continues to monitor the rollout of new entitlements so that disadvantaged children are not displaced because they are more challenging and costly to support.
NAO head Gareth Davies said: “Following the Spring Budget 2023, the government quickly established a programme to extend early years entitlements and sensibly staggered its rollout to reduce delivery risks.
“Despite the crucial role providers will play in delivering these reforms, consultation with the sector was hampered by the restrictions that apply when developing budget proposals. DfE then cancelled early testing plans, which exacerbated the significant uncertainty about the sector’s capacity and financial sustainability.
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“The next phase of the reforms will be significantly more challenging, with little contingency and flexibility in its ambitious timetable. The Department must monitor the programme closely and respond promptly to emerging risks.”
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