'The link between the reforms and the roll-out of two-year-old places is not straightforward'

A lot has been going on recently in the world of childcare and early years education: first, the announcement of 15 free hours of early education to be extended to include disadvantaged two-year-olds and more recently, the Elizabeth Truss reforms, aiming to increase the number of children per adult and improve quality in the sector.

I work for NatCen Social research and we recently looked into the situation ‘on the ground’ in terms of childcare providers’ capacity for taking on disadvantaged two- year-olds, and what they thought would make the policy sink or swim.

On the face of it, the Truss reforms appear to directly support the success of the two-year-old policy. Relaxing ratios means more places for the now eligible two-year-olds.  Higher quality of staff directly address providers’ primary concern about the policy - while providers were overwhelmingly supportive and enthusiastic it was not without a caveat: if you want to place potentially vulnerable, disadvantaged children in childcare settings at just two years of age and achieve the desired benefits for them, you’ve got to provide high quality care.