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The UK government’s extended childcare offer risks jeopardising the quality of provision for the most vulnerable children in England, the independent public spending watchdog has found.
In a critical report, the National Audit Office on Wednesday said infant care could be compromised by a substantial “influx of more inexperienced staff”, as well as changes in supervision ratios for two-year-olds.
The government has pledged to strengthen its childcare support for families with working parents. From April 1, the offer of 30 hours of free care a week for three- and four-year-olds in England is being gradually widened to all infants over nine months.
The assistance will be available to families with two working parents earning at least the equivalent of a 16-hour a week minimum wage job and who both individually earn under £100,00 a year.
The NAO said local authorities and sector representatives had expressed concern that the “rapid growth” in childcare places in some areas may “impact quality or displace those children who may be more challenging or costly to support”.
Chronic low pay and high staff turnover has left the sector struggling to hire and retain staff needed to support more children, despite a government pilot scheme offering £1,000 sign-on “bonuses” in the most stretched parts of the country.
The NAO said the Department for Education should monitor the impact of the new entitlement on the availability and quality of places for disadvantaged children or those with special educational needs and disabilities.
The watchdog added that “uncertainties” remained over whether the sector can expand to deliver enough places to meet the needs of families, with “insufficient” staffing remaining the main barrier to expansion.
According to the government’s own projections, 40,000 extra childcare professionals will need to be recruited by September 2025 in order to rollout the programme fully.
Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the House of Commons public accounts committee, which scrutinises government spending, said: “The DfE needs to clarify with urgency what it will do if the early years sector cannot recruit the staff it so desperately needs, to avoid disappointing tens of thousands of parents over the next 18 months.”
The new entitlement, announced in the spring Budget, follows a sharp decline in the number of nurseries and childminders over the past decade.
The DfE said on Friday that 195,355 two-year-olds were already accessing the new government-funded places in April. However, the NAO report warned of a further squeeze on demand when the scheme is expanded in September.
The watchdog noted that just 34 per cent of local authorities surveyed by the government in March were confident there would be enough places to meet demand for childcare in their areas.
The education department said: “We have taken decisive steps to prepare the sector for the next phases, including increasing funding well above market rates, launching a workforce campaign and new apprenticeship routes, as well as providing £100mn of capital funding to help expand or refurbish facilities.”
A DfE spokesperson added: “We will continue to work closely with local authorities to monitor places for all children in early years, including for children with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities).”
