Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the impact of childcare ratios on the finances of childcare providers.

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, to bring English ratios in line with Scottish ratios.

The government trusts that setting managers know their children and their staff best, and fully supports the judgement of setting 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 would continue to be a statutory minimum requirement for settings, and there will be no obligation on providers to operate at the statutory minimums.

A full response to the consultation can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1142987/Childcare_regulatory_changes_government_consultation_response.pdf. Childcare Regulatory Changes: Consultation Response (publishing.service.gov.uk).

Alongside the consultation, the department ran a survey of early years providers to establish the likely impact of the changes on provision. This survey has been published in full here: 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.

The government will be publishing a full regulatory impact assessment proportionably assessing the impact of the change in ratios on businesses, individuals and other groups in society.