Nursery World - Still work to be done

While the funding review is great news, Neil Leitch warns the sector to stay focussed.

What a difference a few months makes.

Back in November, the Alliance released the findings of an independent report into the free entitlement offer, undertaken by research company Ceeda, which found that for every five children accessing places under the scheme, only four were covered by Government funding, leaving providers to make up the shortfall.

When we published this data, the Department for Education said it was 'nonsense' to suggest that the early years sector was underfunded and that our report was an attempt at 'headline-grabbing'. But now, just six months later, the Government has publicly acknowledged that funding needs to increase and set up a taskforce to look at doing just that.

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