April 2011 saw the full roll-out of the EYSFF to deliver free nursery education for all three and four-year-olds in England. As part of our push to reform early years funding and in order to find out how the EYSFF is working, we surveyed a sample of member nurseries across a large number of local authority areas. Thank you to all who agreed to take part.
The data we gathered revealed great variations in the amount of funding allocated to private and voluntary providers by different local authorities. This has confirmed our longstanding concern that funding for free hours is varied, complex and unclear and that many of our members are not receiving the right amount of funding to deliver sustainable nursery education.
headline findings
Free nursery education funding rates for privately-run nurseries vary greatly between local authority areas, even within regions.
- Nationally, our data found that nurseries in the maintained sector receive more, per child per hour, than private nurseries.
- Supplements provided in addition to the free nursery education base rate of funding vary significantly in both specification and quantity.
- A number of local authorities have begun either to reduce or withdraw funding for workforce development.
- The funding for the two-year-old pilots appears to be more consistent to date.
next steps
It is clear that the EYSFF does not appear to be working and that reform is urgently needed to ensure providers can deliver sustainable early years care and learning to children and families in their communities. The complexity and variation in the system combined with a lack of transparency has led to widespread doubt about the decision-making process on national and local government levels. Free nursery education must be free to providers and funding must be allocated fairly.
The government is currently consulting on schools funding reform and NDNA is recommending a new system of funding for early years to improve fairness and transparency. Our recommendations include a separate pot of funding for the 0-5s, which recognises the importance of early investment to promote positive child outcomes and wellbeing.
This autumn NDNA will continue to raise members’ issues with policymakers and make the case for a more simple, transparent and sustainable way of funding free nursery education that is fair to all providers.
keep up-to-date
- We will be keeping NDNA members up-to-date through our fortnightly email newsletter. To sign up to receive this please email lindsay.garfitt@ndna.org.uk
- To discuss how NDNA can support you please contact your local NDNA area manager. For contact details please click here.
