Analysis: 30 hours pilot study predicts success but flags up 'risks'

While the evaluation of the 30 hours pilot areas concludes there is ‘no specific’ reason to believe the policy will not be a success, it highlights potential issues including difficulties in recruiting good staff and nurseries limiting places.

‘Evaluation of Early Implementation of 30 Hours Free Childcare’ was published by the Department for Education (DfE) and carried out by Frontier Economics, NatCen Social Research and the University of East London. There are also separate case studies on the Childcare Works website.

The evaluation is based on survey responses and in-depth interviews with providers and parents in the eight early implementer areas that began delivering the 30 hours of funded childcare last September: Hertfordshire, Newham, Northumberland, Portsmouth, Staffordshire, Swindon, Wigan and York. In total, 561 providers from a sample of 991 completed the survey, and 2,257 out of 3,514 parents.

It finds overall that a high proportion of providers in the eight local authority areas were willing and able to offer the extended hours, and there was ‘no evidence’ that financial implications were a substantial barrier to the delivery.

However, the evaluation says that full implementation of the policy may be different as funding rates won’t be the same and there will be no obligation for local authorities to offer extra support. Also, in the pilot, only one of the areas ran a full implementation.

Delivery risks