Early years education and childcare research report

In April 2024, the Local Government Association (LGA) conducted an online survey of county councils, unitary authorities, metropolitan districts and London boroughs regarding the impact/s that may result from the chancellor’s announcement of the expansion to the existing early years entitlements. The survey gathered the views of how authorities have managed to deal with their sufficiency duties over the past 12 months, and any concerns or challenges they may face with the coming phases of the expansion. A total of 77 responses were received from individual local authorities resulting in a final response rate of 50 per cent. 

• Sufficiency duty: Almost all respondents (95 per cent) were very or fairly confident that they had delivered on their sufficiency duty in the past 12 months.
• Changes in childcare and education places: Nearly a fifth of respondents (18 per cent) said the number of early years childcare and education places available in their local authority had increased whilst almost half of the respondents (47 per cent) said it had remained the same. 
• Workforce vacancies: Just under a third of respondents (30 per cent) said they had filled workforce vacancies to a moderate extent in the past 12 months whilst over half (55 per cent) said to a small extent. Around a tenth of respondents (13 per cent) said they hadn’t filled workforce vacancies at all.
• Expansion confidence: For the expansion from April 2024 of 15 hours of support for two-year-olds, nearly all respondents (99 per cent) were very or fairly confident they would have sufficient early years and childcare places.
• Expansion confidence: For the expansion from September 2024 of 15 hours of support for children from the age of nine months to three years, over two thirds (70 per cent) said they were very or fairly confident they would have sufficient early years and childcare places whilst a quarter of respondents (25 per cent) said they not very confident they would have sufficient places.
• Expansion confidence: For the expansion from September 2025 of 30 hours of support for children from the age of nine months up to school age, just over a third (36 per cent) said they were fairly confident they would have sufficient places. Two fifths of respondents (40 per cent) said they were not very confident whilst ten per cent were not at all confident.
• Concerns: The majority of respondents (92 per cent) said that provider workforce numbers were an area of concern whilst three quarters (75 per cent) said provider capacity. Around three-fifths of respondents (61 per cent) answered funding for providers as an area of concern.
• Concerns: The majority of respondents raised concerns about ensuring sufficiency for children with SEND (93 per cent). Just over three-fifths of respondents (63 per cent) said babies whilst just under half (49 per cent) said children on the disadvantaged two-year-old entitlement.
• Government support: Nine-tenths of respondents (90 per cent) said they needed investment and support for the provider workforce from the government to implement the expansion whilst around two thirds (64 per cent) said they needed capital funding and a further 58 per cent requiring revenue funding.