Upcoming changes to early years childcare funding in England are likely to affect local authorities already struggling with declining early years places, analysis from the Early Years Alliance has found.
Areas largely in northern England, will be hit much harder than areas – largely in London and the south-east – that have seen the availability of early years places rise over recent years, according to the analysis published today [9 August 2022].
The Department for Education (DfE) is currently consulting on changes to the formulas it uses to calculate how much early years funding each local council in England receives from central government. The idea behind the formulas is that ‘the more expensive it is for nurseries, pre-schools and childminding settings to operate in an area, the more early years funding that area should receive’, the Alliance said.
