She said, ‘Our survey shows that 76 per cent of nurseries are making losses on three and four-year-olds while half of nurseries are losing out on two year-olds. This inflates fees for all parents paying for childcare – both for younger children and additional hours for three and four-year-olds. This is unfair on families and not sustainable for nurseries if parents only use the funded hours.’
Early education places for two year-olds was the focus of a brief address from children’s minister Sarah Teather (pictured). She revealed that Mott MacDonald has been awarded a three-year contract to deliver strategic support for the development of free places for two-year-olds. She urged the sector to provide its input in order to influence its approach to training and advice. During the subsequent Q&A session, delegates raised issues around inadequate funding of free places and affordability for parents, while the Government’s Childcare Commission was welcomed as an opportunity to have a proper discussion about the future for childcare and education. 
On the second day, Liz Elsom, Ofsted’s divisional manager for the EYFS framework, re-iterated the changes which will be coming in as part of the new inspection framework in September.
One delegate questioned whether inspectors would be competent when it came to making a judgement on the child development aspects of the new framework.
Ms Elsom said, ‘We would certainly hope so. We are actively recruiting new inspectors at the moment and these are educated to degree level with wide experience of working in early years settings.’
In response to various questions about no-notice inspections, Ms Elsom emphasised the importance of having deputy managers trained to be able to manage an inspection in the advent of the owner or manager’s absence.
The DfE’s Chris Armstrong-Stacey, of the Early Education and Sufficiency Team, set out how the revised Code of Practice required providers to work closely with local authorities to address problems to do with no top-up fees. Sarah Steel, managing director of the Old Station Nursery group, highlighted the lack of guidance in the Code on nitty gritty details – such as not being able to charge for nursery lunches. She said this presented difficulties for those children who had to bring in packed lunches and asked – ‘Is this funding about getting parents back to work or is it about early education?’
Another delegate expressed the view that ‘local authorities had no appetite to listen to providers’ on these kinds of issues.
In response to audience claims that funding was a ‘county lottery’ Mr Armstrong-Stacey countered that local authorities were better placed than central government to allocate funding. ‘We want to be transparent about funding and the Department is currently developing a tool which will show how each local authority spends its allocation.’
Claire Schofield, director of policy, membership and communications at the NDNA, added, ‘This tool will be of interest to nurseries, because it will show how much money comes in and how much goes out to early years. It will be possible to see if the money gets shifted back into schools.’
A highlight of the conference was a glimpse into the NDNA’s research project with the University of Oxford – ‘Engaging parents in your setting’. In her presentation Professor Kathy Sylva outlined the scope of the study which focuses on engaging with highly aspirational parents as well those who are identified as lacking in confidence. She said, ‘It is important to get the balance right between encouraging high aspirations and celebrating childhood.’ The NDNA will be unveiling the full research findings at the end of August.
