Yesterday, the spring budget 2023 was published and the Chancellor of Exchequer confirmed plans to reform and reduce the cost of childcare for parents by introducing a new childcare scheme. Under the proposed scheme, the current 30-free-hour funding that is open to three and four year olds could be extended to children as young as nine months old. The rationale for opening funding for younger children is to enable parents to go back into work as soon as their maternity/paternity leave finishes. This is a welcomed plan for many working parents and will reduce the financial pressure of paying for childcare.

A further plan was announced to increase the adult to child ratio for 2-year-olds from 1:4 to 1:5. This is a turnaround from January, when Rishi Sunak appeared to scrap the changes to childcare ratios due to it being met with protest from the early years sector and parents, as it raised safety concerns over the supervision of children. It is suggested that increasing the ratio will enable more 2 year-olds to attend a setting, without having to increase the amount of staff. It is suggested that this will result in lowering the cost of childcare for children. However, in a press release by the Department for Education in July 2022, it was suggested that parents would only be saving an average of 15% overall.

The proposed increase in adult to child ratio will not be made statutory however, with substantial financial pressures already hitting the early years sector, it is highly likely that many providers will implement the increased ratios as a cost-effective measure. This brings into question the overall effectiveness of increasing funding and ratios as it raises a concern that it will quickly become a ‘warehousing’ strategy, which will focus upon quantity over quality. Although more children will be able to access funded childcare from a younger age, increasing ratios for 2-year-olds could result in a dilution of what practitioners are able to offer children in terms of learning opportunities.

Increasing ratios could additionally have a substantial impact upon early detection and support being put into place for young children with SEND. Without funding for additional support, practitioners for children with SEND (often obtained through an EHCP), will be included in the proposed 1:5 ratio. This will reduce opportunities to implement targeted support for children with SEND and could have a detrimental impact upon their overall learning and development.

Although the new childcare scheme looks promising for parents and could increase their opportunities to access work, it is unlikely to be an effective scheme within practice. Unless a more substantial package of funding and support is directly provided to early years providers, it will be challenging to implement it. The spring budget appears to fall short of providing this support and therefore, it could result in further early years settings having to close due to increasing costs and further financial burdens being placed upon them. More needs to be done to close the financial gap between policy and practice for early years providers.