Childcare Ratio Changes in the UK: What it Means for Providers
As part of the March 2023 budget announcement, the government announced changes to funding to provide more free childcare places to parents, as well as a slight change to childcare ratios.
This was an increase in the number of 2-year-old children staff could care for at any one time, from the current 1:4 to 1:5.¹ While the government argued this could help reduce costs for families, many childcare experts have not supported this change with one piece of research showing only 2% of providers would be able to pass on any savings to parents.²
The Early Years Alliance argued the change was “ludicrous, pointless and potentially dangerous”, doing little to help support a sector where “underpaid, overworked early years professionals” are doing their best to care for and educate children whose early development has been hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic.³
Childcare ratios across the UK
While this change hasn’t been welcomed, it’s important to note that child ratios for all other ages remain the same. This means that the UK’s current legal ratios for childcare providers are:
| Children aged | England | Wales | Scotland | NI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 2 | 1:3 | 1:3 | 1:3 | 1:3 |
| 2 | 1:5 | 1:4 | 1:5 | 1:4 |
| 3-8 | 1:8 or 1:13* | 1:8 | 1:8** | 1:8 |
| 8+ | 1:8 or 1:13* | 1:10 | 1:10 | 1:8 |
Source: Department of Education & DayNurseries
*For children 3+ in England, the ratio is 1:13 for staff with an approved level 6 qualification (teacher) or 1:8 for staff without
**For settings where children attend for fewer than 4 hours in a day in Scotland, the ratio can be 1:10
Ratios are also extended to 1:30 in independent schools in England (including nursery classes in free schools and academies), where a level 6 qualified staff member is in classes where the majority of children will reach 5+ within the school year.
These ratios are different for childminders: currently, in England, childminders can only care for a maximum of 6 children under 8. Childminders can care for children under 5 at a ratio of 1:3, but from September 2023, they can care for more if the additional children are the childminder’s own or siblings of children they already care for. Childminders should only care for one child under the age of 1 in their group.⁴
UK childcare ratios compared to other countries
The change in childcare ratios in England came from government investigations into childcare in other countries. While the 1:5 ratio matched England with Scotland, many other countries featured in government reports have even larger childcare ratios. For example:
| Children aged | Netherlands | France | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1:6 | 1:8 or 1:12* | 1:6 or 1:11** |
**Sessional pre-school ratios are 1:11 for children between 2 ½ and 6 years old
However, even here Netherlands and Ireland are the only countries with mandatory carer: child ratios, France rations often vary by provider type. In Germany, ratios are set by individual regions (Länder) with no mandatory childcare ratios in Denmark or Sweden.
Despite the government highlighting these much larger ratios in other countries, they are not always comparable to the UK. It’s not always clear where ratios refer to teachers, appropriately qualified staff, or total staff. It’s been highlighted by experts in the childcare sector that European approaches to early years education are different, with wider teams of support staff who aren’t counted in ratios and main staff may be qualified to a degree or master’s level.⁵
The charity, Pregnant then Screwed has also highlighted how ratios need to be stricter for the “child-led, play-based approach” promoted in England versus “more adult-led, desk/table-based” approaches, and that rising workload pressures have been felt even by Dutch childcare providers. Their strike in 2021 led to proposals in the Netherlands to reduce the number of children per class/group ratios as solutions.⁶
What does this mean for childcare providers?
The most important thing for providers regarding this ratio change is that any increase in the number of 2-year-olds staff care for is optional. If you want to, you can continue adhering to a 1:4 ratio. You wouldn’t be alone in making that decision, the Early Years Alliance acknowledged that many providers won’t change how they operate. In July 2022, they found that only 51% of providers were working to maximum ratios all the time, so many chose to work to stricter ratios regardless.⁷ Research after the government’s announcement found that only 13% of nurseries and pre-schools would work to the newer ratios, with 87% of those surveyed opposing the change.⁸ The safety of your clients is paramount, so you should not feel pressured to change how you run your business in light of this largely rejected relaxation in rules.
If you do choose to consider expanding children in staff care to the new ratios, there are several things to remember. While the ratio itself has changed, things like floor space per child have not, so changes may not be physically possible depending on your setting. Ofsted also highlights that staff must be 17 years old, with some exceptions only for apprentices, with an Ofsted suitability decision letter to be counted in ratios.⁹
There are several exceptions to the staff: child ratios that Ofsted notes, so it may be worth reading these in-depth if you’re concerned or if they impact your day-to-day operations. During inspections, they do mention:
“We are sensitive to the pressures of recruitment and retention. We may only focus on ratio requirements if there are concerns for the children in your care. We will not be constantly carrying out headcounts when we’re inspecting.”⁹
Managing Changes in Childcare Policy
Even with the industry and parents acknowledging that staffing issues should lie with the government, you need to keep your business going. While it shouldn’t fall to childcare providers, until issues are tackled at scale, they will, with increased workloads likely.
Organised, flexible staff scheduling will ensure you’re meeting ratio requirements around the clock. With PARiM, you can easily create, manage, and communicate childcare schedules, ensuring that your team is in sync and your clients receive the best care. Our intuitive scheduling tools mean you can plan out who is where, while the GPS time clock ensures all the right qualified staff are in the right place or places. You can then get insights into how your operations are running with the ability to export data for seamless payroll processing.
“PARiM has helped us save time equal to one full-time position. But what I love even more is how it eliminates human errors. Our invoices used to take three days. With PARiM, we have them done in three minutes.”
Megan Metzger, Founder & President of Preferred Childcare
PARiM can also enable client access, depending on your business needs. This means any client that may need or want to see things like contact information, their requested schedules and hourly rates can be added by you to your system. You can now save time by enabling clients to see their babysitter’s contact information, hourly rate, and also provide the ability for clients to approve timesheets in PARiM app.
Sources:
