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by Shannon Pite

The government has rejected a number of recommendations made by the Education Committee as part of its long-running inquiry into the early years. In July 2023, the Committee published a report – – highlighting the urgent challenges facing the sector. The report contained a number of key recommendations for the government, including additional funding and SEND support; the reinstatement of previous staff:child ratios for two-year-olds; and a call to exempt early years settings from business rates and VAT.

However, in its response to the report, published on Tuesday 17 October, the government confirmed that it was not planning to take any action on many of these recommendations.

On the issue of funding, the government argued that it recognises the importance of setting funding rates that “reflect the cost of early years childcare delivery” but suggested that this had already been addressed through recent increases to early entitlement funding rates.

The government also stated that it has “no plans to make changes to the business rates support provided to early businesses” or to alter nurseries’ current VAT exemption.

It additionally rejected calls from the Committee to allow childminders to claim early entitlement funding for children who are related to them, arguing that this “would not be an effective use of public money and may have a negative impact on the viability of existing childcare businesses”.

Responding to the Committee’s recommendation that recent changes to staff:child ratio be “closely monitored and reversed if quality and education outcomes are seen to suffer”, the government only stated that it will continue to monitor the changes and “keep the policy under review”.

Commenting, Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said:

“It’s extremely disheartening that the government has completely wasted an opportunity to put in place meaningful change to address the raft of challenges facing the sector and families alike.

“In its report earlier this year, the Committee shed much-needed light on the array of critical challenges facing the early years, including – but by no means limited to – underfunding, recruitment and retention, and support for children with SEND.

“What the sector needed in response was for the government to show it had listened – and, crucially, acted – on the findings. What we got, however, was a disappointing reiteration of recent policy announcements, combined with a complete refusal to budge on a number of key changes that would make a difference for the early years sector, such as ratios, funding and business rates relief.”

“The government says it recognises the importance of early education. Today’s response shows that it has once again failed to match this rhetoric with any meaningful action.”