Commissioner's plans for schools to provide childcare labelled ‘misguided’

In her Vision for Childcare report, Dame Rachel de Souza lays out plans for “opening up schools to provide more early years education” as a solution for issues faced by private, voluntary and independent providers, around increased rental and utility costs. 

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Sector leaders have criticised the plans as "incredibly misguided" and have accused de Souza of “completely ignoring the importance and prominence of the private and voluntary sector”.

The report states: “Schools should also be utilised to help address the early education challenge. 

“As school rolls fall across the country, with the number of pupils in state funded primaries set to fall by a fifth over the next decade, there will be significant underused space in schools. Currently, rent or mortgage payments account for 12 per cent of private providers’ costs, and other costs (including utilities) account for 11 per cent  - these are only likely to increase in the short term, and may make many childcare settings unsustainable. 

“Opening up schools to provide more early years education would address both these issues.”

De Souza also suggests plans to “drive up childminder provision” through the introduction of compulsory childminder agencies in all local authorities to plug gaps around school opening hours.

“To bring more childminders into the sector it is essential to ensure the right balance is struck between easing administrative burdens, and ensuring there is the right oversight and support in place to drive up quality. Instead of leaving childminders as an afterthought to the childcare puzzle, they must be front and centre to an offer. 

“Every local area should be required to have an agency for childminders – this could be run directly by a local authority, a multi-academy trust, a group of schools or the local family hub. These agencies should transform the way information is provided to parents, childminders are supported, and different parts of the system are joined up,” the report states.

She also calls for a reform of funding for childcare places for all families despite their financial situation. 

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), said that while the organisation “would support” funding reforms, she described plans to gear early years support towards schools and childminders as “misguided”.

She said: “The sensible solution is to use the existing infrastructure, but to pay a fair rate for places.

“Dame de Souza’s main solution is for children to have their early education in schools, which may not be suitable for some children and their families.

“What the government must do now is to take a sensible approach towards funding early education adequately to cover all the costs rather than coming up with a series of unworkable solutions. They must invest sufficiently in those who are already delivering excellent care rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.”

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance (EYA), added: “It is disappointing that while this report rightly recognises that currently the early years funding system isn't working, it fails to acknowledge that the only way to solve this problem is by substantially increasing investment into our vital sector. Extending existing offers across more age groups without tackling this fundamental issue will only exacerbate an already-dire situation.

"What's more, with private and voluntary providers currently delivering the vast majority of early years places in this country, the suggestion that we should simply accept that those settings that are struggling are likely to become unsustainable in the long term and look to schools to deliver early years places in their place, is one we find deeply concerning. 

“Those working in our sector have a wealth of very specific knowledge and expertise built up over years of experience supporting early learning and development and the suggestion that this could be so easily replaced is incredibly misguided."

De Souza’s report comes amid a raft of reports that Prime Minister Liz Truss is planning to scrap funded childcare places for three- and four-year-olds and remove childcare staffing ratios for two-year-olds altogether.

The sector is awaiting the government’s response to a consultation on plans to relax staffing ratios in England.