Free Entitlement to Early Years Education inquiry
Closed
What the inquiry looked at
“The Department for Education has made significant progress in providing 15 hours of free childcare to more parents of 3 and 4-year olds and parents of disadvantaged 2-year-olds, according to the National Audit Office. It has not yet, however, achieved full value for money because it cannot track the effectiveness of its substantial investment of £2.7 billion. Most parents of 3 and 4-year olds take-up free childcare places for their children, and the quality of provision, as measured by Ofsted, has increased in recent years. The Department's measure of children's outcomes at age 5 has also shown steady improvement. In 2015, 66% of children reached a good level of development compared to 52% in 2013. However, the Department cannot link this data to the quality of individual childcare settings children have attended, and from 2017 the current measure of development is being halted. In 2017, the Department will also double the number of hours of free childcare that working families with 3 and 4-year olds are entitled to, from 15 to 30 hours per week, estimated to affect 390,000 families. Risks in new 30 hour entitlement The National Audit Office (NAO) has identified a number of risks to the successful implementation of the new entitlement to 30 hours of childcare, which the Department will need to consider as it pilots the new offer. The NAO found that childcare settings are concerned about the levels of funding that will be available. Although they are keen to offer the new entitlement, some providers may choose not to if the funding is not right. There is also a risk that childcare settings could choose to offer additional hours to 3- and 4-year-olds by reducing the number of disadvantaged 2-year-olds they look after, as 2-year-olds are more expensive to care for. This would jeopardise the Department's aims to improve educational and other outcomes for the very children who could benefit most from free childcare.”
The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.
What it found
The Department for Education (the Department) has made significant progress towards ensuring all three and four-year-olds benefit from 15 hours of free early education and childcare (childcare), with 94% of three-year-olds and 99% of four-year-olds taking up a funded place in 2015. However, take-up of free childcare for disadvantaged two-year-olds is significantly lower, with only 58% taking up a place in 2015. In addition, it is not clear how the Department’s free childcare offer interacts with other government interventions to support families with the costs of childcare, and to support disadvantaged families.
Parents remain confused about the free entitlement and how to access free childcare; half of parents with children under four are not sure what help they could get with childcare costs. The quality of the information provided by local authorities’ family information services to parents varies significantly, and only 30% of parents are even aware of this service. There is a risk that not enough providers will be willing to provide the additional 15 hours of free childcare that the Department will offer working families from September 2017. The Department has the opportunity to test this in pilots commencing in September this year, but it will have little time to evaluate the results and implement any lessons learned before it rolls out the new entitlement.
What the government said
No government response is linked to this report.
How the inquiry ran
Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 5 April 2016 to its close on 4 January 2018.
- Oral evidence 20 Apr 2016
- Report 15 Jun 2016
- Correspondence 26 Oct 2016
What it recommended
The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in 4th Report - Entitlement to free early years education and childcare ↗ on parliament.uk.
Evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1
- 20 Apr 2016No witnesses recordedparliament.uk ↗