Supporting Families in the Foundation Years - consultation response

The following response is on behalf of London Councils and the Association of London Directors of Children’s Services (ALDCS).

We support the principle behind the introduction of the entitlement for disadvantaged 2 year olds to provide the best foundation for young children’s education and development. Like the Government, London local government is strongly convinced by the findings of many recent reviews (such as those by Graham Allen, Frank Field, Clare Tickell and Eileen Munro) about the benefits of early intervention with our most vulnerable young children.

Key points of the response:

• We welcome the extension of the free 15 hours a week childcare entitlement to 20% most disadvantaged two year olds. However, we have concerns over whether local authorities will have the resources to expand capacity in the capital to support the entitlement coming into force by 2013.
• We call on the Department for Education to extend the Pupil Premium to
  disadvantaged three and four year olds to help maximise the benefits of the 2 year old entitlement and ensure that our most disadvantaged children have continuity of additional support before they enter mainstream education.
• We support the proposals for the entitlement being linked to free school meals eligibility and the basket of eligibility criteria being used to determine eligibility to provide the entitlement
• We support the repeal of Section 11 of the Childcare Act 2006 and the proposal for Childcare Sufficiency Assessments to be replaced by an annual report on the sufficiency of childcare.

View or download the full response above...