Nursery World - Pressure put on DfE to make childcare costs report public

The Pre-school Learning Alliance says the DfE must now publish research on childcare delivery costs, following a ruling in the charity's favour from the Information Commissioner's Office.

This week, the Alliance won a ruling from the ICO, following numerous unsuccessful attempts to obtain a copy of the Department for Education's externally-commissioned research into the cost of delivering early education and childcare.

The DfE commissioned Deloitte to undertake research to support a governmental review into the cost of delivering early education and childcare. However, while the review was published last November, the research, which focused on the cost pressures facing early years providers, was never published, but frequently cited in the report.

The Alliance's request through the Freedom of Information Act for a copy of the research in January was rejected by the DfE on the grounds that the information was held by Deloitte, not the Department. An appeal by the Alliance was rejected on the same grounds.

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