Teach Early Years - Issue 14.2

News Research shows that funding is failing to reach providers A new analysis of government funding by NDNA has revealed that millions of pounds allocated to support early years providers are yet to reach their intended target. The money in question was supposed to create additional places to meet demand for the childcare expansion, but a Freedom of Information request has revealed that of the Early Years Expansion Grant’s £75 million plus, announced in December 2024, less than a third had been distributed by councils as of early August 2025. Similarly, just half of the earlier Childcare Expansion Capital Grant’s £100 million had made it to providers, despite having reached councils in February 2024. Councils reported that some 10% of the former and 57% of the latter would still not have made it to providers by the start of September. “It’s a shocking state of affairs that millions of pounds of money made available for nurseries to be able to increase their capacity for the childcare expansion has still not been paid out – eighteen months after councils have received it in some cases,” said Tim McLachlan, NDNA’s chief executive. “When the government looks at the Early Years funding review as part of the Best Start in Life strategy, it needs to find a way to simplify the system for families, councils and providers to avoid these types of underspends.” Also of note is the fact that those councils that had distributed funding told NDNA that 33% of the Childcare Expansion Capital Grant and nearly 9% of the Early Years Expansion Grant had been given to school-based providers: NDNA notes that this is a disproportionately high figure, given that school-based providers deliver around 6% of funded places to two-year-olds and under-twos, according to figures in the latest Early Years Providers report. “There’s £65million that has yet to be distributed to providers, and of that, there is more than £44million unaccounted for.” TIM MCLACHLAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, NDNA PAY MUST RISE Against the backdrop of the expansion of the free childcare entitlement, analysis by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) has highlighted the recruitment and retention challenges the sector faces, despite a recent growth in staff numbers. It suggests that low pay is a major factor: while they have risen recently in relative terms, early years pay levels remain lower than in the general workforce and among similar workers. Related to this, the NFER also points to poor career progression opportunities within the early years workforce, and has called on the government to increase funding rates to counter the problem. 200k CHILDREN IN EARLY YEARS SETTINGS ELIGIBLE FOR POVERTY SUPPORT WHO DON’T QUALIFY FOR FREE EARLY YEARS MEALS: TINYURL.COM/ TEYFFEN Writing slump A National Literacy Trust survey of 115,000 children has shown a deepening disengagement from writing, which now ranks as the lowest-performing area in national assessments. Teachearlyyears.com 7