Nursery World - Campaign aims to end early years funding shortfalls

Early years funding rates have failed to keep pace with inflation in three-quarters of local authorities in England over the past five years, according to analysis by the Pre-school Learning Alliance.

Moreover, during financial years 2011/12- 2016/17, childcare costs have risen by an average of 4.6 per cent each year.

The findings are revealed in Freedom of Information requests filed by the early years organisation, that also show that two-thirds of councils have not collected data on childcare delivery costs since 2011/12 (based on 124 responses from 152 local authorities.)

Local authorities currently use an Early Years Single Funding Formula to calculate local funding rates, which was introduced on the premise that councils would monitor provider delivery costs on an ongoing basis to ensure that funding remained adequate.

The most commonly cited reasons given by local authorities for not collecting this data were that funding from central government had not changed in this time and that there is no statutory requirement to collect this information.

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