The government must address differences in the take-up of early years education across the country to ensure spending on nurseries represents value for money, the National Audit Office said today.
Children aged between three and four are entitled to 15 hours per week of free education for 38 weeks a year. In January 2011, 831,800 were receiving this, at an annual cost of £1.9bn, a take-up of 95%. However, the proportion falls to as low as 62% in some areas, the NAO found in its report, Delivering the free entitlement to education for three and four year-olds.
Disadvantaged families are the least likely to use their entitlement, the Department for Education has admitted. The NAO called for more to be done to promote the offer. This should include comparing the take-up in local authority areas and developing consistent public information.
It added that the variation in the quality of the nurseries, schools and other providers should also be addressed.
An NAO analysis of Ofsted data showed that the percentage of good or outstanding providers across local authorities in March 2011 ranged from 64% to 97%, with the most deprived areas least likely to have good provision.
The watchdog added that it was not yet clear if the free education had longer-term educational benefits. The report found that although children’s development by the age of five had improved since 2007, National Key Stage One results at seven showed almost no improvement.
Auditor general Amyas Morse said: ‘The Department for Education needs to do more to put itself in the position to assess whether the forecast long-term benefits of free education for three and four year-olds are being achieved. It also needs to understand how the arrangements for funding providers of that early education drive its availability, take-up and quality.
‘Both of these are necessary if it is to get the best return for children.’
Public Accounts Committee chair Margaret Hodge said parents ‘will be concerned that the quality varies so much across the country’.
She said her committee would want to examine what the government proposes to do to ensure families in deprived areas have access to good quality early-years care.
Responding to the report, children’s minister Sarah Teather said that the NAO had recognised the progress made in providing free early education for three and four year-olds. She added: ‘There is lots more to do – and the report also sets out important national and local challenges to be addressed. We are determined to improve the availability of quality places in disadvantaged areas, and offering free early education to around 40% of two year-olds will help by bringing even more money into the system.
‘We also want to examine in more detail how to make sure the significant improvements we are seeing at five feed through into better results at seven.’
