The new analysis by the trust of polling carried out by the Early Years Alliance on the immediate impact of the coronavirus on the sector, finds that many nurseries – particularly those in disadvantaged areas - are facing permanent closures due to financial difficulties exacerbated by the crisis.
It warns that a third of nurseries in deprived areas face closure.
Chief executive of the Early Years Alliance Neil Leitch, said he was 'deeply concerned' about the findings from the analysis of the research.
Sector organisations have welcomed the 'important report' and teaching unions also backed the call for funding.
While the early years sector faced financial difficulties before the pandemic, widespread closures due to Covid-19 have meant that many providers – particularly those in disadvantaged areas - have relied on Government support to stay afloat, including through the furlough scheme and business rates holidays.
The trust says that transition funding of £88m would be equivalent on a per hour per child basis to the £1bn package for schools, and would help to protect providers from closure while they face costs of trying to stay open before they return to full capacity.
The report by Professors Christine Pascal and Tony Bertram of the Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC), with Erica Holt-White and Carl Cullinane of the Sutton Trust, also shows that parents are worried about the impact of lockdown on young children’s social and emotional development.
The report also calls for a one-off boost to Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) funding for the next year, to support nurseries and pre-schools, particularly those in deprived areas, to provide more direct support for parents in terms of the home learning environment and the healthy development of their children.
Bringing the EYPP up to the level of the primary school pupil premium on a per hour per child basis would cost £35.6m for the year (in 2019/20 prices), with the remainder distributed as emergency transition funding to providers in order to prevent further closures.
The report analysed polling by the Early Years Alliance of 3,167 private and voluntary providers between 22-29 April, and subsequently 6,300 providers from 20-27 May, to look at patterns by levels of deprivation in the provider’s local authority.
Many early years providers say that they may be forced to close permanently, with those in the most disadvantaged more unsure of their future than those in more affluent areas (34 per cent compared to 24 per cent in the least deprived areas). 69 per cent of those in deprived areas expected to operate at a loss over the next six months and 42 per cent anticipated making redundancies (compared to 29 per cent in the most affluent areas).
It finds that at the height of the pandemic in April, two-thirds of early years providers were closed to all children, including 79 per cent of pre-schools, 59 per cent of nurseries and 41 per cent of childminders. Of those that were closed, two-thirds expected to be open again by June, with 20 per cent expecting to still be shut and 15 per cent uncertain about whether they would be able to open.
Nurseries and pre-schools in the most deprived areas are more than twice as likely to have needed a business rates holiday compared to those in the least deprived (35 per cent vs 16 per cent) and almost twice as likely to have utilised small business grant funding (18 per cent v 10 per cent).
Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chairman of the Sutton Trust and chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation, said, ‘The first years of a child’s life are crucial for their development, both in terms of attainment and their social and emotional wellbeing. Access to high-quality early years education is key to this, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
‘The coronavirus crisis is having a devastating impact on the early years sector, with many nurseries and pre-schools facing closure. This will inevitably have a long-lasting impact on children’s early development. Parents will struggle to find a place for their child. This will affect their ability to go to work.
‘Now is the time, when the world has been turned upside down, to prioritise support for children and families. Crucially the Government must introduce a package of support to protect early years providers and enable them to stay solvent.’
In a separate poll of 604 parents in Britain of two- to four-year-olds carried out by YouGov, almost half (45 per cent) of parents felt that their child’s social and emotional development and well-being had been negatively impacted by the lockdown, with those whose children were unable to attend their nursery or pre-school most likely to report this.
Among parents working from home without childcare, 65 per cent reported feeling stressed, worried or overwhelmed by the education and childcare arrangements for their child. However, parents in middle class homes were more likely to have received online support from their nursery/pre-school than working class parents (31 per cent v 23 per cent).
Today’s impact brief comes alongside Getting the Balance Right, a new report by the Sutton Trust that examines recent Government policy on early childhood education and care in England by Beatrice Merrick, chief executive of Early Education, and Nathan Archer. It finds that:
- Progress on closing the school readiness gap between disadvantaged children and their peers has stalled. Having slowly but steadily decreased from 2007 to 2017, by 2019 the gap had reverted to 2015 levels.
- The policy to provide working families with 30 hours free childcare is regressive, with the majority of the increased Government funding supporting better off families, and parents on benefits seeing little change to their incomes. Those disadvantaged children who qualify for only the universal offer of 15 hours early education entitlement may fall behind their better- off peers who receive a double dose of early education, as local authorities no longer have discretion to use early years funding to provide full-time funding for disadvantaged children.
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Mr Leitch added, 'We have long warned that without urgent government financial support, many nurseries, pre-schools and childminders would be unable to stay afloat, and the SuttonTrust’s analysis of the our own survey data shows that it is those settings that serve families most in need of support that could be hit the hardest.
'This risks causing significant harm to young children from the most deprived and vulnerable communities, who research has shown can benefit the most from quality early years education and care.
'At a time when the Government is making spending pledge after spending pledge, it is just unacceptable that the early years sector seems to have simply been forgotten. We urge the government to recognise the value of the sector, listen to our concerns, and provide the support we desperately need to survive this crisis and beyond.'
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) said, 'This important report from Sutton Trust echoes our research with members showing that 71 per cent of nurseries would be looking at running at a loss for the coming months. The levels of impact on nurseries in areas of deprivation are deeply concerning.
'The Department for Education’s own statistics show that the majority of providers were struggling even before Coronavirus hit. How much more evidence do ministers need before they act to support childcare providers and protect places?'
Liz Bayram, chief executive at the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY), said, 'The Sutton Trust’s report makes for depressing but familiar reading. It shines a light on the thousands of livelihood currently under threat in childcare and early years. No working parent can be without childcare; no child should be without the quality early education that childminders, pre-schools and nurseries provide but Covid-19 is threatening to take this all way.
'We have members who have already closed their childminding setting or nursery and many more who are worried this may be the future that they face.'
Tulip Siddiq MP, Labour’s shadow minister for children and early years, said, 'Thousands of childcare providers are forced to close every year as a result of government underfunding. It is nurseries in the most disadvantaged areas which have been most likely to disappear, and we now have confirmation that this crisis has hit them the hardest.
'The impact of mass nursery closures on working families and the life chances of disadvantaged children is too awful to contemplate. Urgent support is needed to help early years providers cope with reduced demand and extra safety costs, yet the sector has consistently been ignored.
'The Government needs to wake up to the reality that many thousands of essential childcare places could be lost unless it steps in with a properly funded plan to save the early years sector.'
Teaching unions the National Education Union and the NAHT also voiced their support for the early years sector and maintained nursery schools (MNS), which have also missed out on any extra funding from the Government.
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU said, 'If MNS are forced to close, this will have a devastating impact on local communities, some of the most deprived in the country, and severely harm the educational attainment and life opportunities of the children these settings serve. The NEU is alarmed that the recently announced additional £1 billion for schools does not include any funding for MNS or the wider Early Years sector. We urge the government to rethink this and also provide additional funding for Early Years and MNS in particular.'
James Bowen, director of policy for school leaders’ union NAHT, said, 'It is becoming increasingly clear how much financial pressure all early years providers are under as a result of the impact of Coronavirus. The stark reality is that some of them may simply not survive.'
