CREC response to the Chancellor’s Spring Budget statement

We cautiously welcome the Chancellor’s budget statement today and the realisation that significant investment has long been required to improve and sustain the quality, affordability and availability of early years places for all families regardless of income. We would argue however that the real driver for early years investment should be based on the needs and rights of young children and that its success should be measured by whether it improves children’s lives; improved productivity, GDP, employment rates and gender equality should all be positive side effects of a just, valued, well-resourced, equitably distributed, and universally accessible early years system.

 The current early years sector is in a precarious position due to a myriad of systemic issues, with providers across the country (both in the maintained and the PVI sector) operating at breaking point and demanding fairer funding in ever louder and more desperate voices over the past few years. CREC sincerely hopes that today’s announcements are sufficient to actually support the sector to deliver the high quality early years provision that this country desperately needs whilst responding to the high costs that parents face. We are however incredibly disappointed that the government proposes the relaxation of ratios for 2 year olds and see this as running counter to any ambition of delivering high quality early years provision.

 ‘Cheaper childcare’ cannot, and must not, come at the expense of the quality of provision or the sustainability of the sector.

We eagerly anticipate further information from the Department of Education to understand how this intricate balancing act can be achieved.