Nursery World - Early years Alliance files complaint over DfE refusal to release funding data

The Early Years Alliance has lodged a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office over the Department for Education's refusal to release calculations to back up its claims that early years funding rates for 2021-22 do cover rising costs to staff wages.

Ministers have claimed that new early years funding rates will cover national minimum and living wages increases but has yet to publish calculations to demonstrate this PHOTO Adobe Stock

The Government has claimed that the £44m increase in early years funding, which came into effect in April, is enough to cover the increase in statutory wage costs - including the extension of the national living wage to 23- and 24-year-olds.

Earlier this year, children’s minister Vicky Ford publicly stated that the Government would share details of the calculations.

In April, the Alliance filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the DfE asking for the calculations underpinning the claims.

The Alliance said that the DfE rejected the request. It has subsequently filed the complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) over the DfE’s refusal to publish the information.

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