Nursery funding: you spoke, the government listened

We’ve had some great news for our campaign to give England’s youngest children the best start in life.

After hundreds of Save the Children supporters spoke out, the government has reversed its decision to remove funding for the quality of nursery provision.

Now, new plans that reform childcare funding in England will allow local authorities to continue investing in the quality of nursery education in their areas.

A small but significant victory

We called for greater investment in qualified early years teachers to ensure every child gets the support they need at nursery to achieve their potential – and the government listened.

Its response recognised our campaigners’ concerns, and said that: “The government absolutely agrees with the importance of ensuring quality and will therefore allow a discretionary quality supplement for workforce qualifications and system leadership.”

This means that local authorities will now be able to use this nursery funding to hire qualified early years teachers.

This is a small but significant victory. From here we can keep building towards our ambition of an early years teacher in every nursery.

Why is this important?

This is the biggest reform of early years funding in a decade, so it was vital that we made our voices heard.

The early years are so important for children’s learning, and a crucial opportunity to close the gap in attainment between those growing up in poverty and their classmates.

But there must be enough money in the system and it must be spent in a way that doesn’t just protect, but improves, the quality of early education.

A wealth of evidence tells us that a staff team that is led by early years teachers (EYTs), supported by valued and skilled staff, improves quality.

Investing in the workforce, and increasing the number of EYTs, improves children’s outcomes and nurseries’ Ofsted grades. It can even eradicate the gap between nurseries in poorer and more affluent areas.

A qualified teacher in every nursery

Right now, half of all children in nurseries don’t have a qualified early years teacher.

So in the longer term, we will need to invest even more funding in early education if we want it deliver the maximum benefits to children, especially those living in poverty.

Gareth Jenkins, Director of UK Poverty at Save the Children, explains: “The next step is to set out a clear strategy to address the chronic shortage of early years teachers.

“These teachers play a decisive role in preventing children from falling behind in their crucial early years.

“Yet hundreds of thousands of children – particularly those from the poorest areas – don’t have access to them, and we know that children who start behind are more likely to stay behind throughout their lives.”

“To make sure that every child gets the very best start in life, it’s vital that the government invests in a qualified early years teacher for every nursery across England.”

The best start for every child

At the moment, the very best early years provision is led by EYTs and qualified support staff, helped by graduate management support. Much of this is in schools and maintained nurseries.

We want to see all nurseries being funded to this level, and able to offer such quality.

Every child deserves the best start in life, regardless of where they live or how much money their family has.

That’s why it’s great to see that the government has listened to our concerns and is seizing the opportunity to invest in qualified early years teachers and better outcomes for children everywhere.