Early years and childcare news

NDNA has announced the appointment of Susan Hill as Trustee for NDNA Scotland and Nikola Masters as Trustee for NDNA Cymru.

Susan was previously on the Board of Directors of the Scottish Independent Nursery Association until it merged with NDNA in 2005.  Since then, she has been actively involved as an NDNA Network Chair, playing a vital role in being a voice for and bringing together the early years community at a local and national level.

Nikola has acted in the role of NDNA Southeast Wales Network Chair for many years and has a good understanding of the early years sector at both a local and national level.  She is an advocate for Pontypool and currently represents as Chair for Friends of Pontypool Town, a group aimed at regeneration and incubation of small local businesses.

The DfE has responded to the Ofsted complaints handling consultation and agreed to implement all four proposals.

These will be introduced in the first few months of 2024 with more details on how they will work in practice to follow.

NDNA responded to the consultation following webinars with members, who broadly supported the plans but with some reservations. The four proposals had the most support from the early years and care sectors.

From next April the National Living Wage will rise to £11.44 per hour from £10.42, a rise over more than £1 and the largest ever cash increase to the minimum wage.

The current rate of £10.42 applies to workers over 23, but the Chancellor has announced that the rate will also  apply to 21 and 22-year-olds.

A new report published by the Early Education and Childcare Coalition (EECC) and the University of Leeds warns that the governments planned expansion of funded childcare hours is at risk of not being delivered due to a workforce crisis.

The report, ‘Retention and return: delivering the expansion of early years entitlement in England’, reveals that 57 per cent of nursery staff are considering leaving the sector in the next 12 months, one likely reason being the recent changes to staff:child ratios. This comes at a crucial time as the Government prepares to roll out the ‘biggest expansion of childcare in history’ – 30 hours of ‘free childcare’ will be offered to eligible parents of nine-month-olds by 2025.