Liz Truss considers giving early years funding to parents
By Rachel Lawler
Prime Minister Liz Truss is reportedly considering giving early years funding to parents, rather than to providers via their local authority.
The Times has reported that the government is considering giving the funding for the 15 and 30 hours offers directly to parents.
The paper also reports that the Prime Minister is also considering allowing parents 鈥渘ear-total freedom鈥 on how they spend the funding, possibly allowing for it to be given to relatives rather than registered providers.
A spokesperson from the Department for Education said that the government was 鈥渆xploring a wide range of options鈥 for early education but said that no decisions had been made yet.
A right to care and education
Commenting, Neil Leitch, CEO of the 无码天堂, said: "Years of government underfunding for the so-called 'free childcare' offer has forced thousands of early years providers out of business and left many others on the brink of closure. As such, we recognise why the idea of scrapping the policy entirely and potentially replacing it with one where parents are given a 'pot' of money to spend might, to some struggling providers, seem like the best of a bad bunch when it comes to early years policy ideas.
"Our view, however, is that every child has a right to care and education, regardless of their circumstances - and we would be deeply concerned that such an approach would result in a two-tier system where wealthier families able to top up their government 'pot' could access higher quality care and education far more easily than those on lower-incomes who can't afford to do so.
"And of course, unless those pots of funding were set at an adequate level, such a policy could leave those on the very lowest incomes unable to access any early years provision at all.
"Rather than continuing to take a patchy, piecemeal approach to early years policy where we lurch from one rushed, ill-thought-out scheme to the next, we need a clear, comprehensive government strategy that ensures the long-term viability of the sector and supports all parents, not just the richest, to access high-quality childcare and early education.鈥