Government sets up taskforce to help implement free childcare pledge

The Prime Minister has announced the government’s intention to start pilots in September 2016 for its Queen’s Speech commitment to double free childcare available to working parents.  The new employment minister, Priti Patel, will chair a government task force to oversee the implementation of the pledge and to address the challenges arising from it.  Chief among these is a need to review the current funding model for childcare providers with the Pre-school Learning Alliance saying that many providers are already underfunded. 

For some months, AELP has also highlighted that the sector is facing a recruitment crisis following the Department for Education’s decision last year to impose an entry requirement for a level 3 Early Years Educator apprenticeship of a good GCSE in English and maths instead of attainment of good GCSEs or Functional Skills on exit from the programme.  In April, we reported that the number of people starting this essential qualification is dramatically down which is impacting negatively on settings’ recruitment and in turn driving up employers’ wage costs in the pursuit of qualified childcare workers. 

AELP will shortly publish the results of another survey of training providers in the childcare sector on the impact of the GCSE entry requirement and we will use these to inform the government task force’s promised consultation with the sector. 

In the meantime, our briefing on the issue is available here: http://www.aelp.org.uk/news/submissions/details/aelp-briefing-paper-no-20-impact-of-gcse-entry-req/ .