London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Sep 19, 2025

Ministers ‘knowingly underfunding’ childcare sector in England

Ministers ‘knowingly underfunding’ childcare sector in England

Early Years Alliance investigation finds government is ‘shamelessly’ driving costs up and quality down
Ministers have been accused of “shamelessly, knowingly” underfunding the early years sector in England over the past decade, driving childcare costs up and quality down, after a two-year investigation by a body representing the sector.

Private government briefing documents uncovered during the investigation reveal that 2020-21 early years funding rates for the Conservatives’ free childcare offer for three- and four-year-olds are less than two-thirds of what the government believed was needed to fully fund the scheme, according to the Early Years Alliance (EYA).

The documents also show ministers were aware that insufficient investment would result in higher prices for parents of younger children, and that early years settings would be forced to maximise child-adult ratios – therefore lowering quality – to stay afloat, the EYA says.

The findings, described as “shocking” by Labour, follow a protracted two-year freedom of information dispute between the government and the EYA, and come as a petition calling for an independent review of childcare affordability and funding reached 100,000 signatures.

According to the EYA, one government briefing document reveals that in 2015 Department for Education (DfE) officials estimated that the cost of providing a government-funded early years place for a three- or four-year-old would be £7.49 an hour by 2020-21.

However, according to independent analysis provided by the childcare research agency Ceeda, the average early years funding rate given to local authorities in 2020-21 was £4.89, a £2.60 shortfall, equivalent to £2,964 over the course of a year for children in receipt of 30-hour funding.

The document, called Early Years Spending Review Scenarios and marked “official sensitive”, also acknowledged that the introduction of the Conservatives’ 30-hour policy was likely to result in price increases of as much as 30% for parents of young children where care was not covered by the free offer. This would make it too expensive for many to return to work, the EYA said.

The findings were published before the EYA’s annual conference on Tuesday, where the alliance’s chief executive, Neil Leitch, is expected to accuse the government of “shamelessly, knowingly underfunding our sector”.

“For years, the early years sector has warned that the so-called ‘free entitlement’ offer is anything but free, in the face of repeated government claims that the policy is adequately funded,” Leitch said. “These documents, which they spent more than two years trying to hide, prove otherwise.”

The DfE said the EYA data pre-dates increases to the rates paid by government, with additional investment announced by the chancellor in 2019 and 2020.

A spokesperson said: “We’ve made an unprecedented investment in childcare over the past decade, spending more than £3.5bn in each of the past three years on our free childcare offers and increasing the hourly rate paid to councils above inflation for the past two years.”

Tulip Siddiq, the shadow minister for children and early years, said: “Conservative ministers knew that they were dramatically underfunding early years and that this would drive up the cost of childcare whilst driving down quality. Yet they pushed ahead regardless.

“The government owes parents an apology for this reckless underfunding of early years and for covering it up. Ministers must now change their failed approach to early years, which must start with urgent action to prevent further childcare closures.”

Justine Roberts, the founder of Mumsnet, said: “Childcare provision in the UK is expensive to the point of being unusable for many families, meaning that mothers are often forced to take less skilled work or leave the labour force altogether.

“Forty per cent of Mumsnet users who use the 30 hours offer say they’ve been asked to pay additional or new charges for things such as lunches and nappies, and 77% of working mothers on Mumsnet don’t think the government does enough to support parents with the cost of childcare.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×