The findings come from a new evidence review on the role of early childhood education and care in shaping life chances by Carey Oppenheim and Nathan Archer.
The report calls for a whole-system review of early childhood education and care, to inform a new strategy designed to deliver quality of provision for children, affordability for parents, improved training and pay for the workforce, and which makes a difference to the lives of disadvantaged children.
‘As families emerge from the pandemic, demand for childcare will change, and these changes in demand, coupled with historic underfunding for settings create a complex dynamic,’ the report says. ‘Tensions exist between quality of education and care, affordability for parents and sustainability of provision.
‘This points to a dysfunctional early childhood education and care "market" which needs urgent attention and raises broader questions about whether the plurality of provision or a more "school like" uniformity in the system is advantageous.’
The right support for families?
The report says that the 30 hours policy, with its aim of enabling parental employment, and the reduction of support through tax credits/universal credit, have led to a shift in funding away from low-income families towards middle-high earning families.
In practice this means that there is concern that the funding system is becoming less focused on lower income families, whose children have most to gain from early years provision.
Parents find the system confusing – with policies, such as Tax-Free Childcare under-utilised.
‘This complexity also affects the sustainability of providers, and the case continues to be made for an overhaul of the early childhood education and care funding system with the aim of ensuring quality of provision for children, affordability for parents, and improved remuneration for the workforce,' the report says.
Reviewing the evidence on the quality, effectiveness and sustainability of early childhood education and care, the report highlights the extent of the sector’s growth from the limited provision in the 1990s to an established UK-wide infrastructure.
However, its states that expansion has been 'piecemeal' and has led to 'a complex and confusing system', as successive governments have prioritised different objectives at different times.
It points out that some polices have sought to support child development and learning through early education, others to reduce gaps in attainment between advantaged and disadvantaged children, and some to increase parental employment through access to flexible and affordable childcare.
Workforce
Recognition of the value of early education and care is not matched by the rewards for those working in the system, say the authors.
The evidence shows that the early childhood education and care workforce is key to improving outcomes for children, but there is a lack of both a national long- term strategy and sufficient investment to improve qualification levels and develop the workforce.
'Such a strategy is central to improving the quality of early childhood education and care and supporting the outcomes of the most disadvantaged children. There is a need to explore how public funding mechanisms might be better deployed to incentivise increases in qualifications and higher quality provision,’ the report says.
Carey Oppenheim, early childhood lead at the Nuffield Foundation and co-author of the report said, “We have moved from very limited provision of early childhood education and care in the mid-1990s to the current situation where the vast majority of children under five attend some formal provision.
'This is a remarkable shift that has seen the development of a nationwide infrastructure on which many children and parents depend, but the system is dysfunctional. It is not working for children in terms of quality of provision, for parents in terms of access and affordability, for the workforce on pay and training, or for providers on sustainability.
‘We need a wholesale review of the purpose and provision of early childhood education and care that provides clarity on who and what it is for and how it can make a difference to disadvantaged children in particular. Such a review also needs to consider the fairest and most sustainable funding model and how the people providing care can be appropriately skilled and renumerated.’
- The report is the fourth evidence review from the Nuffield Foundation’s series: The changing face of early childhood in the UK.
