Regulation of private early years providers needs to be strengthened to tackle “excess profiteering” and improve quality, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).
Through its proposed tougher regulatory framework the charity wants to see better standards of care for staff and children as well as a requirement of receiving public funding.
Its report warns that private providers who dominate the early years market are currently overseen by “lax financial regulation” and the sector is blighted by “well-documented issues like variable quality and poor worker pay and conditions”.
This situation will continue unless “robust and ambitious standards, controls and sufficient funding” is in place to ensure quality early years is being delivered by privately run settings.
