A quarter of councils in England lack confidence in their ability to expand Government-funded childcare support in September, a Local Government Association (LGA) survey has revealed.
About 70% told the LGA they were ‘very’ or ‘fairly confident’ they would have sufficient places for the expansion of 15 hours of support for children from the age of nine months to three years.
However, 25% of the 77 respondents said they were not very confident they would have sufficient places.
For the expansion of 30 hours of support for children from the age of nine months up to school age, just over a third (36%) said they were fairly confident they would have sufficient places.
Two fifths of respondents (40%) said they were not very confident while 10% were not at all confident.
Nine in 10 said they needed investment and support for the provider workforce from the Government to implement the expansion. Around two thirds (64%) said they needed capital funding and a further 58% required revenue funding.
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