Ministers knew parents would face higher childcare costs because of insufficient investment in the sector, an early years organisation has said.
Government documents, obtained and released by the Early Years Alliance (EYA), recognise that introducing the 30-hours free childcare for three and four-year-olds in England was likely to result in price increases for families.
The documents, which have been released after a lengthy Freedom of Information (FOI) dispute with the Department for Education (DfE), suggest that early years funding rates for 2020/21 were less than two-thirds of what Government officials estimated to be the true cost of “fully funding” the sector.
Documents reveal ministers invested less than two-thirds of required cost of properly funding childcare
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Government knowingly underfunded the early years sector
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Officials knew free childcare could push up nursery fees
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LocalGov co uk - Your authority on UK local government - Ministers knew early years was underfunded argues charity
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