Local authorities will learn how a fund announced by the chancellor in the Spring Budget for primary school-based wraparound care will be allocated today, the Department for Education has said.
It comes after Jeremy Hunt pledged back in March that a “start-up” fund would be made available to ensure all primary pupils would get access to wraparound care in school between the core hours of 8am and 6pm by 2026.
The allocations are being unveiled today alongside an announcement that an additional £100 million will be made available to local areas to support childcare settings to increase physical space in a bid to boost capacity.
An “increase in the number of wraparound childcare places available” will begin from next September, the DfE said in a blog published today.
Mr Hunt had previously said that the wraparound funding would mean that all schools could offer 8am-6pm care “either on their own or in partnership with other schools” by September 2026.
However, the DfE said today it “expects all parents to have access to wraparound care either from their school or from another provider in their local area” by that date.
Around 60 percent of primary schools across England currently offer wraparound care, both before and after school, according to the DfE.
The Treasury told Tes in March that funding would be provided to local authorities and schools and would taper until 2026 - which it called the “pathfinder” period.
From 2026, it said it expected that most schools would be able to deliver provision self-sufficiently, funded by charging parents.
“We expect all parents who need it to have access to wraparound care, either from their school or from another provider in their local area, by September 2026,” it said.
Cash is ‘a fraction’ of what’s needed
However, heads’ leaders said today that the funding was “a fraction” of what is required to fund “desperately needed” childcare expansion.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT, added that heads “are also questioning where they will find the additional staff”.
“There is a real danger that the government’s promises could fall short in reality if they don’t urgently look again at the funding and resources,” he said.
The DfE said it would publish the full allocations later today.
‘Desperate attempt’
The DfE also today confirmed plans to allow managers of early years foundation stage settings to include students and apprentices in staff-to-children ratios as part of measures to support the government’s offer of 30 hours of free childcare a week to parents who work the equivalent of 16 hours a week at the national minimum or living wage and individually earn less than £100,000.
However, the move, which was announced in changes to guidance in July, has drawn accusations of “lowering standards” for EYFS provision.
Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, described it as a “desperate attempt to build capacity in the sector”.
“We of course recognise that there is an urgent need to tackle the early years recruitment and retention crisis,” he said.
“But lowering standards as part of a desperate attempt to build capacity in the sector ahead of the rollout of the extended 30 hours offer, under the guise of increasing flexibility, is simply not acceptable.”
The measure was introduced as part of a package of changes to EYFS guidance in July, which relaxed the staff-to-children ratio from one staff member per four children to one to five.
EYFS consultation response due
The DfE is also set to publish its response to its recent EYFS consultation, confirming that the majority of proposed changes will go ahead.
But it said a “small number of proposed changes that consultation responses suggested” will not proceed, as this will “not help achieve the government’s aim of removing unnecessary burdens”.
This will include no changes to staffing ratio requirements outside of core hours.
Mr Leitch said he welcomed the fact that “some of the most damaging proposals” in the EYFS consultation have been scrapped, but said that “the remaining changes”, alongside the recent relaxation of ratios, represent an “incredibly concerning direction of travel for early years policy”.
“We’re clear that the needs of the child, and their right to a high-quality early education, must always be the priority,” Mr Leitch added.
