More than 40 per cent of children live in local authorities that are ‘early education and care deserts’, where there are more than three children for every one registered place.
According to research by the New Economics Foundation (NEF), half of local authorities can be defined as ‘early education and care deserts’, but these are much more likely to be the most deprived councils.
It also finds a similar picture when it comes to quality of provision. The analysis shows that the proportion of providers rated ‘outstanding’ steadily increases as you move from the most deprived postcodes to the least. In comparison, the proportion of providers rated as ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted increase as you move in the opposite direction.
Other key findings include:
- Providers that are thriving in the current system tend to be large for-profit chains with ‘opaque financial arrangements’, with little incentive or support for providers operating with a stronger social ethos in line with the universal basic services (UBS) framework.
- With the expansion of the funded hours, 80 per cent of early years provision will be funded by state by the end of next year. This makes early education and care a ‘de facto public service’, treating it as a ‘public good’, establishing it as a ‘fully-pledged public service’.
- Under a public service framework, a ‘good Government’ should improve the status, qualifications, pay and conditions of staff, as part of a wider effort to recognise the vital social and economic importance of care roles.
