By Vanessa Clarke
Education reporter
About 85,000 extra childminder and nursery places are needed in England for the expansion of government-funded hours for babies and toddlers, the Department for Education (DfE) says.
It also says 40,000 more staff will need to be recruited by September 2025.
Early years charities say the challenge facing the sector “is an immense one”.
The government says it is providing “maximum support to nurseries and all providers” to make the plans “a reality”.
Figures released by the DfE show that so far, about 79% of eligible families who applied, a total of 195,355, are already using the free hours for their two-year-olds.
It says thousands more children will have their places confirmed over the coming weeks and some parents also tend to change their mind about formal childcare, so will not use the service.
Neil Leitch, from the Early Years Alliance, says what the figures do not reveal “is whether families have been able to access all the days and sessions they need”.
“A parent who has been given one day a week at their local setting – but needs five – may technically have a funded place, but not one that meets their needs,” he explained.
By this September, when the scheme will be expanded to include children from nine months old, the DfE says 15,000 additional childcare places will be needed.
And by September 2025, when 30 hours of government-funded childcare will be available to all pre-schoolers of eligible working parents, “around 70,000 further places are likely to be needed”.
It estimates 170,000 places are required in total, but about half are already available in the sector.
The offer comes at a time when the number of childcare providers is falling, mainly because of childminders leaving the profession, although the number of childcare places remains stable, according to the DfE.
An extra 40,000 childcare staff will need to be recruited by September 2025
However, there are also concerns about availability. In March, the Coram Family and Childcare annual survey suggested the number of councils with enough spaces for pre-school children decreased across all age groups.
The government says all local authorities have reported that they are currently meeting the demand from parents for childcare places.
Unused school space
This summer the DfE says it will also look at repurposing unused space in schools in order to increase the number of places.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said: “As today’s figures show, our plan is working. Thousands of parents are returning to work, and tens of thousands more will be able to do so later this year and next.
“Childcare expansion on this scale is unprecedented in this country, and we will continue providing maximum support to nurseries and all providers to make it a reality.”
A £1,000 cash incentives for new joiners has been piloted in some areas, as many nurseries struggle to recruit and retain staff.
Zoe Raven, from Acorn Early Years Foundation, says it is going to be very difficult to apply for funding to expand provision by September.
Zoe Raven, founder of Acorn Early Years Foundation, which has nurseries based around Milton Keynes, says the crisis of recruitment and retention in the sector is preventing her from expanding and meeting the increasing demand for places.
“Qualified practitioners are in very short supply and it can take 18 months to train up new practitioners,” she says, having lost staff to better-paid roles and more flexible hours elsewhere.
Many nurseries have waiting lists for under-threes, and creating additional places for under-twos can be very challenging, says Jonathan Broadbery, from the National Day Nurseries Association.
The government “must improve funding rates for three and four-year-olds, which is having a negative impact on sustainability for 83% of nurseries”, he added.
