Nursery World - Editor’s view

The Report on Childcare released last week by the Treasury Committee was almost breathtaking in the scope and intensity of its criticism of Government childcare policies.

Its conclusion was that there was no evidence that current policies would improve productivity – obviously a major concern for a Treasury body.

The findings and recommendations about the level of funding for the 30 hours programme have been particularly well received by early years providers. The game of table tennis between the sector and the Department for Education, with one claiming that hourly rates are too low and threaten sustainability and the other responding that they more than cover costs as shown by its research, has been well and truly interrupted by this report. The Committee says that rates are too low, are based on out-of-date information, and don’t take into account costs such as the National Living Wage, and that they should be raised and updated annually.

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