Around 84,500 more childcare places and 40,000 extra staff are required by September 2025 if the Government is to deliver on its plans to increase early year childcare support.
The Department for Education (DfE) has made a good start to delivering its programme of extending early year childcare support for working parents in England, according to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
However, the DfE estimates that early years providers will have to create 15,500 more new places nationally by September 2024 and 84,500 by September 2025, with a fifth of local authorities having to increase the supply of hours by 20% or more.
The committee warns this is a ‘significant challenge’ for an early years sector that faces years of underfunding, ongoing cost pressures and a recruitment and retention crisis.
The Department for Education also estimates that the early years workforce needs to grow by around 40,000 between now and September 2025 – a 12% increase compared to July 2023.
The DfE expects all eligible children between nine months and four years old to be able to access the equivalent of 30 hours of subsidised childcare per week by September 2025.
This is expected to cost an extra £4.1bn year by 2027-28 – doubling the DfE’s current annual spend on childcare to £8bn.
According to a recent report by the National Audit Office (NAO), just one in 10 councils are confident they can provide enough early years places to deliver the Government’s childcare expansion on time.
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