Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number and proportion of early years settings that will reduce (a) staffing ratios and (b) charges to parents following the changes to childcare staffing ratios announced in the Spring Budget 2023; and if she will make a statement.

The government remains committed to supporting the childcare sector and providing flexibility to providers, to help more parents to access childcare in support of their working lives. On 15 March 2023, the government announced a significant new investment in childcare, worth over £4.1 billion by 2027/28. In addition, the government has decided to proceed with the proposed changes to staff to child ratios for 2-year-olds from 1:4 to 1:5, bringing English ratios in line with Scottish ratios.

Early Years settings managers know their children and staff best. The department supports the judgement of managers and practitioners to work at the ratios that are right for the individual needs of their staff and children. The proposed changes to ratios are a statutory minimum requirement for settings, and there will be no obligation on providers to operate at the statutory minimums. As such, providers can continue to work to tighter ratios if they decide that is best for the children and staff in their setting. A full response to the consultation is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1142987/Childcare_regulatory_changes_government_consultation_response.pdf.

Alongside the consultation, the department ran a survey of early years providers to establish the likely impact of the changes on the quality of provision. Findings from the survey showed the majority of group settings with 2-year-olds (70%) said they would be unlikely or very unlikely to change their provision if ratio requirements were relaxed, with 45% saying they would be very unlikely. 28% of group settings with 2-year-olds said they would be likely or very likely to make any changes to provision. This corresponds to 19% of all group settings, including those with and without 2-year-olds.

Additionally, findings from the survey showed that just under half of the settings offering provision for 2-year-olds said they were very unlikely to implement the change. However, of the providers who were likely to move to new ratios, around three in five said that they would use any income or cost savings generated to improve the financial sustainability of the setting, and around half would use it to improve the quality of their provision. This could benefit children in the long run.

The published survey is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1143005/Findings_from_the_early_years_staff-child_ratio_consultation_survey.pdf.