The six-week consultation period, which ended on 31 August, invited practitioners to put forward their ideas about how to make childcare more affordable and accessible, focusing on three main themes:
- Ways to encourage provision of wraparound and holiday childcare
- Identifying any regulation that burdens childcare providers unnecessarily
- How childcare supports parents to move into jobs and out of poverty.
Early years organisations identified local authorities' interpretation of the free entitlement and the delivery of funding as regulations that burden childcare providers unnecessarily, theme two of the consultation.
In its response, the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) raised concerns over the variations in funding and ways of accessing it across different local authorities, which it claims is particularly burdensome for nursery chains with settings across the country.
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the NDNA, said, 'Some local authorities "gold plate" free-entitlement contracts, adding to the national guidelines which providers must meet. This adds an extra burden on providers and is particularly difficult for medium-sized providers who operate in more than one local authority.'
In addition to this, the NDNA says that private, voluntary and independent nurseries are being disproportionately impacted by changes to business rates and VAT. They refer to the 50 per cent reduction in business rates for small and medium-sized nurseries in Wales, introduced in 2010, and suggest a similar reduction for England.
Early years organisations have also spoken out against the proposed deregulation of early years settings, which they say would get in the way of the delivery of flexible, affordable and high-quality provision.
The evidence provided by the National Childminding Association (NCMA) does not support the view that reduced regulation would result in more affordable and more accessible childcare.
In its response, the NCMA also challenges the suggestion by Elizabeth Truss, the new parliamentary under-secretary for education and childcare, that adult-to-child ratios should be relaxed, so that childminders can care for more children under five.
Considering ways in which childcare supports families to move into sustained employment, early years organisations are in agreement that childcare vouchers break down barriers to childcare.
However, the Pre-School Learning Alliance and Busy Bees Benefits, suppliers of childcare vouchers, are calling on the Government to increase the cap on the amount parents can exchange through the salary sacrifice scheme for vouchers.
Busy Bees Benefits launched a campaign in May to raise the cap on childcare vouchers - which has not risen since 2006 - from £55 to £75. The 'Mind the Gap - Raise the Cap' campaign aims to bridge the gap between the rising cost of childcare and the amount parents can exchange for childcare vouchers.
In their submissions, Busy Bees Benefits and the NDNA also propose that vouchers should be extended to parents who are self-employed. Currently, childcare vouchers are only available through an employer to employees paid via PAYE.
According to the Laing and Buisson UK Market Report 2012, childcare vouchers now account for almost 30 per cent of total market value.
John Woodward, managing director of Busy Bees Benefits, said, 'Childcare vouchers are popular, targeted and convenient. However a number of improvements are needed. First, Government policy could be changed to increase the amount a parent can sacrifice in exchange for childcare vouchers. An increase in the capped amount would help bring registered childcare within the grasp of more middle-income families.'
Questions have also been raised by the sector about who will lead on the Childcare Commission following the cabinet reshuffle.
The Department for Education has confirmed that Elizabeth Truss and Steve Webb, minister for pensions at the Department for Work and Pensions, will now take over responsibility for leading the commission, previously that of Sarah Teather, former children's minister, and Maria Miller, previously the minister for disabled people.
