Commenting on the announcement today of a consultation on school and early years funding, Anne Longfield, Chief Executive of 4Children said:

“4Children is pleased that the DfES has launched a consultation focusing on the specific aspects of the Dedicated Schools Grant which impact the level of funding for early years education.

“We welcome the proposal in the consultation to provide a voice to the sector on the Schools Forum. A representative from the early years sector on the Schools Forum which allocates funding for childcare provision in local authorities would help ensure the attention and priority it deserves.

“The Dedicated Schools Grant funding has to stretch a long way to meet all the funding requirements for education of children of all ages. Given the ever increasing recognition that investment in the early years education has important positive benefits for later learning, we support proposals to earmark an amount for early years. This is a positive steer for local authorities, and will raise the priority of early years spending.

“We also welcome the opportunity to discuss proposals to change the formula for calculating the amount provided to early years providers from being centre based to a unit cost per child. This issue has been a source of concern for early years providers from the private voluntary and independent sector who want to play their role in delivering good quality childcare, but who feel sometimes they are at a disadvantage in terms of the amount of funding that local authorities can afford to pass on given the higher fixed costs which many experience.

“But how successful the new proposals are will depend on how much money is allocated overall to the early years.”

Consultation on school, early years and 14-16 funding 2008-11:

CONSULTATION DOCUMENT

RESPONSE FORM

FURTHER INFORMATION


 

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