Press Story

Nick Clegg has published a social mobility strategy, including a "report card" to assess whether government policies are improving people's life chances. The government is investing £300 million in extending early years provision to disadvantaged two-year-olds. This will increase the number of places offering 15 hours a week of free nursery provision from 20,000 to 130,000 over the next four years.

However, ippr analysis shows that this welcome initiative will only help to achieve greater social mobility if the quality of free nursery provision and its take-up by low-income families are ensured.

Take-up

ippr research shows that many low-income parents will not, without encouragement, turn up at a children's centre to use their free entitlement. In particular, those with two-year-olds are less likely to realise that these free services are available to them.

To encourage take-up, ippr recommends:

Outreach workers, who work with low-income parents and encourage them to take up free nursery places, should be viewed as the 'first frontline' by local authorities and therefore protected from spending cuts.
Local authorities should test the use of cash payments to low-income parents to encourage take-up of early years provision through a system known as conditional cash transfers (CCTs).
CCTs - which have been used successfully overseas - provide an incentive for parents to invest in their children's future. Small extra payments would be made to families conditional on their child's attendance at a children's centre.

Quality

An evaluation of a government pilot showed that the outcomes for disadvantaged two-year-olds only improved significantly if the free early years provision is of a high quality. Yet, in England, only 68 per cent of providers reach this standard (defined by Ofsted as 'good' or 'outstanding'), and the level is lower still in disadvantaged areas.

To drive up standards, ippr recommends the following:

The government-established Early Education Co-Production group should ensure that only providers defined as high quality can deliver services to disadvantaged two-year-olds.
The government should restore the commitment that early learning for two-year-olds in disadvantaged areas is always delivered by a provider with a graduate-level leader.

Nick Pearce, ippr Director, said:

'Expanding early years provision is an important objective but will only increase social mobility if the places are of high quality and parents take them up. Otherwise the money will be largely wasted.'

Notes to editors

Download ippr's report Parents at the Centre.

ippr undertook 10 deliberative workshops with 104 parents from across the UK. ippr's aim was to engage with parents who don't normally access early years provision and who live in poverty or who face a substantial risk of becoming poor. The workshops found:

Beyond the free entitlement, parents rarely use (or had used) childcare provision.
Parents use childcare primarily for their child's social development. Other reasons include educational development and preparing children for school.
Location was important for the majority of parents. Provision had to be close to home, preferably walking distance.
Affordability was also a major concern, with few being willing or able to pay any additional fee

For an outline of the Deputy Prime Minister's forthcoming announcement of the Social Mobility Strategy see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/mar/30/nick-clegg-social-mobility-report)

A summary of Ofsted's report on the Early Years provision can be found at: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/News/Press-and-media/2011/February/A-good-start-for-the-Early-Years-Foundation-Stage.

The announcement of the Early Education Co-Production group was made on 21 March 2011: http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/earlylearningandchildcare/developing/a0075913/early-education-co-production-group).

Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) are successfully used in Brazil and Mexico and are being piloted in New York. In the UK, the value of payments would need to be tested and evaluated to ensure that they were pitched at the right amount. For example, the Opportunity NYC CCT scheme offers incentive payments which range from US$25 (£15 approx) for attending parent/teacher conferences to US$100 (£60) for a preventive health screening. ippr research suggests that parents would respond well to these incentives if they were offered. Additional conditions could also be tested - in some communities, attending ESOL English language classes would be desirable, in other areas, taking up basic skills and training.

Contact

Tim Finch, Director of Communications: 0207 470 6110 / 07595 920 899 / t.finch@ippr.org