A high-quality early years system improves children’s life chances and supports families, but current provision is fragmented, underfunded and too often shaped by private profit rather than children’s needs.
Key facts
- The early years are a vital stage of education that should be accessible to all children and families.
- Provision is fragmented and dominated by private providers, with inconsistent quality and access across communities.
- Maintained nursery schools offer high-quality, non-profit provision for disadvantaged children and those with complex SEND but face ongoing funding insecurity.
- Government plans to expand childcare risk prioritising quantity of places over quality, staff ratios and specialist support.
- Family support services such as Sure Start and family hubs are essential but have not been funded on the scale needed.
- High staff-child ratios, age-appropriate environments and child-centred pedagogy are crucial for safety, wellbeing and learning.
Key statistics
- As of December 2024, group-based providers offered around 1,100,100 childcare places, school-based providers 359,200 places and childminders 143,200 places.
- Around 62% of maintained nursery schools are rated Outstanding by Ofsted, compared with fourteen per cent of providers on the early years register and sixteen per cent of schools.
- Between 2010-11 and 2023-24, maintained nursery schools saw their spending power cut by £59m, a 16% real-terms reduction.
- 56% of maintained nursery schools have lower real-terms per-pupil funding than in 2010-11, and fifty-six maintained nursery schools have closed since 2010.
- Sure Start received around £1.8bn a year at its peak, while Best Start family hubs are expected to share around £1.5bn over three years.
Campaign asks
- Guarantee long-term, sustainable funding for maintained nursery schools and support them to expand as hubs of expertise in their communities.
- Build up high-quality public provision across the early years so that access is based on children’s needs, not parents’ ability to pay.
- Ensure that expansion of early years places does not dilute staff-child ratios, staff qualifications or the quality and safety of environments.
- Restore and expand family support services to at least match historic Sure Start funding levels in real terms.
- Embed age-appropriate, play-based pedagogy and reject approaches that turn the early years into preparation for formal testing.