Rollout of UK Childcare Hours Faces ‘Challenging’ Stages, Warns Report
The implementation of the UK government’s expanded childcare funding scheme is facing significant challenges, according to a new report. The National Audit Office (NAO) has raised concerns about the likelihood of the rollout going smoothly, particularly in the later phases scheduled for September 2024 and September 2025.
The report, published on Wednesday, notes that testing of the new system in pilot areas was canceled. As a result, there is uncertainty about the availability of sufficient childcare places and staff to meet the increased demand.
The Department of Education has graded the likelihood of the rollout working as planned as ‘amber/red,’ which signifies ‘problematic.’ The NAO report warns that the rapid growth in childcare places could impact quality or displace more challenging or costly children.
The rollout is expected to cost an additional £15.2 billion between now and 2028, with an extra 40,000 full-time childcare staff required (a 12% increase on figures as at July 2023) and 85,000 extra places.
The speed of the rollout is leaving councils struggling to keep up. Research collated last month showed that while 82% of local authorities were confident they could meet increased demand this month, this dropped to 34% for September 2024 and only 9% for September 2025.
‘Providers may also face practical constraints, such as finding staff and physical space for new places,’ the report states. ‘In November 2023, representative bodies told us they have little confidence there will be enough places to meet demand.’
The new support for working parents may increase the attainment gap between affluent families and their more disadvantaged peers, despite the government setting a target of reducing this, the report also warns.
The government announced last year that by 2025, parents and carers with children as young as nine months would be able to access 30 hours of subsidized childcare every week of term time.
People are only eligible for the support if each parent is earning between certain parameters (or temporarily away from the workplace on leave), which are generally 16 hours per week at the National Minimum wage at minimum, and £100,000 at maximum.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies calculated that the lowest 30% of the income distribution would see almost no direct benefit from the rollout.
Although extending entitlements to younger disadvantaged children was considered, the government ‘opted not to progress this, given affordability concerns,’ the report says.
Meanwhile, the rollout could even harm more vulnerable children already in childcare, because ‘the rapid growth in places may impact quality or displace those children who may be more challenging or costly to support.’ And ‘the risk of a large influx of more inexperienced staff,’ alongside changing staff:child supervision ratios, could jeopardize quality.
Higher income families will also not benefit from the help, with an unfairness in the system that means one parent could earn £100,000 and their partner £25,000 but be entitled to nothing, whereas two people earning £99,000 each could claim the full amount.
Childcare in the UK is notoriously expensive, with many parents deciding it’s not worth it to go back to work for less money than they would need to pay a nursery or childminder. Highly anticipated help was always going to be a bit of a damper squib than the ‘free childcare’ headlines suggested, as they are only available for 38 weeks of the year (while most working parents do not stop their jobs when the school term finishes). Also, the hours are more accurately described as subsidized rather than free, as the funding covers education only and parents may still have to pay additional charges including for food or activities.
Not all nurseries will offer the hours as they may say the funding available from the government is not enough to provide the care they offer.
The National Audit Office’s report concludes by saying that the government needs to take urgent action to address the challenges facing the rollout of the expanded childcare funding scheme. Without this, the report warns, the scheme is likely to fail to meet its objectives of improving access to affordable childcare and reducing the attainment gap between disadvantaged and affluent children.
