'Tweaking' childcare ratios will not cut costs for parents, say nurseries

"Tweaking" childcare ratios will not save parents £40 per week, according to nursery chiefs, who claim government's calculations which show it will reduce childcare costs are "fundamentally flawed".

Credit: Maria Symchych/ Shutterstock

The Department for Education (DfE) has launched a public consultation on proposals to "drive down" costs for nurseries and parents by increasing the number of children aged two that can be looked after by each staff worker (from four children currently to five) in England’s nurseries and pre-schools.

The government claims this will "reduce the cost of this form of childcare by up to 15 per cent or up to £40 per week for a family paying £265 per week for care for their two-year-old" if nursery providers adopt the changes and pass all the savings on to parents.

Calculation 'fundamentally flawed'

It argues this will "improve the cost, choice and availability of childcare" to benefit "hundreds of thousands of parents" across the country. However the Early Years Alliance, which represents nurseries, has called the government’s calculation "fundamentally flawed".

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said: "Given the scale of the challenges facing the early years at the moment, it is beyond frustrating that the government is wasting its time consulting on relaxing ratios, rather than just admitting that if we want to have affordable, quality, sustainable care and early education in this country, we need to invest substantially more into the sector that we are doing at the moment."

The government’s calculation assumes all nurseries and pre-schools are currently working to a 1:4 ratio at all times, that they will all move to a 1:5 ratios at all times and that the entirety of any savings made would be passed onto parents in the form of lower fees.

"The calculations incorrectly assume that all settings have the physical space to be able to substantially increase the number of children they care for and educate, within the current legal limits on floor space per child, which the government has not indicated they are consulting on," added the Early Years Alliance.

An Alliance survey of more than 9,000 early years settings revealed only 51 per cent of nursery providers (offering places to two-year-olds) work to maximum ratios all the time, meaning that around half already have scope to work to more relaxed ratios more often than they do, but choose not to.

The poll also discovered only five per cent of nurseries and pre-schools would always/permanently operate to looser ratios if the government’s proposal went ahead.

'Tweaking ratios is not the answer'

Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s shadow education secretary, has called the proposal "pathetic" and said it "fails to deliver the ambition families need to tackle spiralling childcare costs".

She added: “Tweaking ratios is not the answer parents want and not the answer children need.

“The vast majority of providers have made clear this would make no difference to costs for parents."

The government’s announcements follow visits by Children and Families Minister Will Quince to the Netherlands, Sweden, France and Scotland – whose staff to child ratios for two-year-olds the consultation seeks to copy.

However, Children’s minister Will Quince has himself admitted that there is no expectation that early years settings will move to a 1:5 childcare ratio all the time and that the change is unlikely to impact largely on costs.

In an interview with Sky News, Mr Quince said: “The ratios change in and of itself is no silver bullet or panacea or magic bullet… it is not going to significantly change costs because what we don’t expect is settings to routinely or religiously go to 1:5. Most doing currently go to 1:4."

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), said: “From when this was first mooted, the sector has been saying that altering ratios for two-year-olds from 1:4 to 1:5 won’t make any meaningful difference to the cost of childcare for providers or parents. That can only come from the government paying the full rate for funded childcare places for children under five.”

The government recently launching a new website about government support including Universal Credit, Tax-Free Childcare and 15-30 hours free childcare to boost parents’ awareness and up the number of people getting support.

The website www.gov.uk/costoflivingsupport has prompted the NDNA chief to say: “The £2.6bn unspent money earmarked for Tax-Free Childcare since it was introduced must be reinvested into childcare.”

Ms Tanuku is also pushing for Universal Credit to be included in upfront payments for childcare to prevent this being a barrier for parents to be able to start work and has called for the Early Years National Funding Formula to be reviewed and “the whole funding system in the light of the challenges the sector is facing.”

More childminders and childminder agencies

The government also announced that it plans to streamline the Ofsted registration process for nursery providers. The DfE stated: 'More providers registering would mean that parents have a wider choice of providers on which to use these schemes.'

While the average cost of a two-year-old attending a nursery for 50 hours a week in England is £265 per week, this compares to £236 with a childminder. The government has said it will ‘increase choice and affordability’ for parents by encouraging more people to become childminders.

The government plans to reduce the upfront costs of becoming a childminder via financial support and will allow childminders to spend more of their time working from locations outside of their home such as village halls.

The DfE intends to reduce Ofsted inspections for childminders, slim down the childminder-specific Early Years Foundation Stage framework by one-third and give childminders greater childcare ratio flexibility when looking after their own children or siblings of other children.

The government wants to encourage the growth of Childminder Agencies (CMAs) to ‘stimulate’ competition and drive down costs. It also announced an extra £10m investment for maintained nursery schools into the supplementary funding they receive from 2023-24.

Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi said: “Childcare is an integral part of our economy, and these reforms prove again that this government is on the side of working families.

“I’m hugely grateful to the thousands of dedicated early years professionals who provide daily care and education to our youngest children, which is why I am determined to support them by giving them greater flexibility in how they run their services.”

Nurseries are encouraged to give their views by responding to the government consultation on changing childcare ratios, which closes on 16 September.

click here for more details or to contact Early Years Alliance