Agenda item

That this Council:-

(a)      believes that the early years are critical for a child’s development and childcare is a fundamental building block of our economy and further believes that over the last decade, early years services have been neglected by the government;

(b)      notes with concern the report ‘Closed Doors’ by Action for Children, which considered children’s centre usage between 2014/15 and 2017/18 and stated “Despite the importance of children’s centres to many families, their existence is under threat. Years of funding cuts have left councils with little choice but to reduce children’s centre budgets. As resources become increasingly stretched, a number of centres have closed. Many of those that remain have been forced to reduce the level of service on offer.”;

(c)      notes recent research which highlights that nationally over 1,000 Sure Start Centres have been lost since 2010 and believes that this is the legacy of the coalition government’s reckless austerity policies targeting cuts at children most in need, and in addition, notes that 12,000 early education and childcare providers have been lost since 2015 and 30,000 more early years providers are at risk of closure within a year;

(d)      is concerned that the sector has been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19 and believes that, although early years providers were relied upon to enable key workers to continue to work during the pandemic, they received insufficient financial protection;

(e)      welcomes that Sheffield City Council provided additional support for the publicly funded hours (over and above national guidance), however, believes that the Government failed early years providers providing little support for the paid provision;

(f)       is concerned that the insufficient increase in funding, historical underfunding, increasing costs and impact of Covid-19, means that early years’ providers in Sheffield will be faced with financial sustainability issues across the childcare sector and that it is also becoming increasingly difficult to recruit and retain staff due to the early years providers’ inability to pay competitive rates;

(g)      believes Sheffield continues to be underfunded as compared to other local authorities, with the disparity in Sheffield’s hourly Funded Early Learning (FEL) rate compared to other core cities, with Bristol receiving £5.69 an hour for three and four year olds, which is 21% higher than Sheffield’s rate of £4.71 per hour; Nottingham receives £5.06 per hour, Newcastle £5.05, Manchester £5.01, Leeds £4.95 and Birmingham £4.85, and only Liverpool receives less, at £4.69;

(h)      notes that Sheffield also receives a lower rate for two year olds at £5.36 per hour, compared to £5.59 in Bristol, £5.46 in Manchester, £5.40 in Birmingham, £5.39 in Nottingham and £5.38 in Liverpool, with Leeds and Manchester also receiving £5.36 per hour; and

(i)       calls on the Government to address this disparity and provide Sheffield with a fair funding deal in addition to the additional investment needed to ensure every child can recover the learning and social development lost in the pandemic and has the chance to reach their full potential.