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Leading early years membership organisation the Early Years Alliance has urged the government to take urgent action on wage support for self-employed childminders, as the latest Ofsted statistics on the childcare sector, published today, reveal that the number of childminders has fallen by 22% since August 2015.

According to Ofsted’s ‘childcare providers and inspections as at 31 December 2019’ statistics, there are now 37,600 operating in the sector, a fall of 10,200 since 31 August 2015.

The figures come just a few days after the Early Years Alliance launched its Childminder Action MP letter-writing campaign, which to date has been more than 9000 childminders – nearly a quarter of the workforce – write to their local MP to demand better wage support for self-employed childminders during the coronavirus outbreak.

Under the ‘coronavirus job retention scheme’ announced by the Chancellor on Friday, businesses can apply for grants to cover 80% of the wages of furloughed staff for an initial period of three months. However, this scheme doesn’t apply to the self-employed.

Commenting, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Alliance, said:

“These figures show why it’s so vital that the government takes urgent action to support self-employed childminder during this crisis. 

“For years now, we have seen a slow but steady decline in the number of childminders operating in the sector. With so many heavily reliant on parent fees for their income - which will fall dramatically following the government instruction to all childcare providers to close to all but key workers and vulnerable children - without additional financial support, many will not be able to survive this difficult period.

“With more than 9000 childminders having written to their local MP since the weekend, there can be no doubt of the strength of feeling on this issue. We understand that the government is looking into the issue of support for the self-employed, and hope they will make an announcement on this as a matter of urgency.”

Commenting on the wider early years sector, Neil said: 

“While much focus has been on the impact of partial closures on schools, these figures serve as a timely reminder of the importance of the early years sector, with 1.3 million children normally taking up place at a childcare provider.

“While the promise of covering 80% of staff wages for furloughed workers has been welcomed by nurseries and pre-schools, there remain a number of questions on how this scheme will work in practice for childcare providers. Unlike many businesses which will be closing entirely over this period, many providers will be staying partially open – this means, for example, that staff who have been furloughed may need to temporarily return to cover staff illness or self-isolation. However, as it stands, the government has yet to issue any childcare-specific guidance on this point.

“It’s vital that the government remembers the unique position that childcare providers are in at the moment, and provides relevant guidance on exactly how the financial support promised by government will be applied in practice to ensure that early years providers are able to provide care as needed during this crisis, and are still able to operate when it is all, eventually, over.”