Ryan Shorthouse
shows long-term benefits from attending high-quality childcare. At the age of 40, those who attended pre-school had on average higher earnings and a lower propensity to crime than similar people who didn’t attend.
D
espite a period of fiscal
retrenchment, the government
announced at the Spending Review investment of £300 million to extend the free entitlement – free hours for young children in a childcare setting – to the most deprived 2% two year olds.
This builds on the supply- side investment made by the previous government which by the end succeeded in pumping roughly £1.3 billion a year via the Dedicated Schools Grant for Local Authorities to deliver free childcare of 15 hours a week for all three and four year olds.
This commitment to early years education stems from clear evidence that children’s cognitive development, particularly the most deprived, is boosted by attending high- quality pre-school settings.
The UK’s Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) study, which began in 1996, showed that children from lower social backgrounds who attended high-quality childcare settings had on average scored above the expected level at key stage 1 writing, whereas those children from deprived backgrounds who did not attend pre-school scored on average lower than the expected level.
In the US, an evaluation of the High/Scope Perry Programme
Nov/Dec 10
If we are to improve social mobility, increasing access to high quality early years education is critical, especially as those from the poorest backgrounds show bigger increases in their cognitive development from attending high quality childcare settings.
In fact, human capital experts Professor James Heckman and Professor Pedro Carneiro show that the best returns to investment in education are earlier as skills formation is based on two crucial concepts.
First, plasticity. Early childhood is characterised by rapid brain development, meaning it is more responsive to external stimuli. Secondly, complementarity. Children’s attainment is better if their attainment was better before.
The return from a year’s college education for those in the top 5% for maths is 26% whereas it is 16% for a student in the bottom 5% for maths. Heckman and Carneiro conclude:
“The rate of return to a dollar of investment made while a person is young is higher than the rate of return for the same dollar made at a later age”.
Despite this, and despite the government’s welcome further investment in the free entitlement, in the UK we still spend considerably more per head on schools and tertiary education than early years education.
State schools are free at the point of use for all hours. Pre-
school settings, on the other hand, only provide a set number of free hours per week with anecdotal evidence suggesting that not all do this, instead providing the free entitlement through a subsidised package.
The other funding derives from parental income which can be supported by tax credits, benefits and tax-exempt salary sacrifice childcare vouchers.
Parents in the UK contribute more towards their childcare costs than any other OECD country and costs can vary from £140-£220 per week for a full- time childcare place.
The Spending Review saw an overall increase in the schools budget, rising in real terms by 0.1% each year, whereas overall funding to early years education has, in fact, been reduced.
“ If we are to improve social mobility, increasing access to high quality early years education is critical ”
Yes, the free entitlement was expanded. But this was cancelled out by the reduction in demand- side funding.
The childcare element of the working tax credit,
predominantly used for children under five, which can provide parents on low incomes up to 80% of their childcare costs, has been reduced, meaning parents with one child will lose up to £17.50 per week in support and those with two children will lose up to £30 per week.
Funding for Sure Start Children’s Centres - providing
Cont. page 38 pse 35
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68