40,000 more staff and 84,500 places needed by 2025 to meet increased early entitlement demand, PAC warn
by Jess Gibson
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has published a letter to the Department for Education (DfE) highlighting challenges in meeting the number of early education and childcare places available for the entitlement expansion.
The letter follows an inquiry by PAC into the DfE鈥檚 early entitlement expansion for working parents in England.
PAC鈥檚 inquiry found that, though the DfE 鈥渕ade good progress in getting the programme off the ground鈥, it now 鈥渇aces huge challenges in increasing the number of places available for children鈥.
This is in light of DfE estimations suggesting that the early years workforce needs to grow by 40,000 between now and September 2025 鈥 a 12% increase compared to July 2023. In addition, the DfE also estimates that the early years sector will need to create 84,500 new places for children by September 2025 鈥 with a fifth of local authorities having to increase hours by 20% or more.
In total, the inquiry provided six conclusions and recommendations for the DfE to consider before September 2025.