Claire Dent, professional lead for Early Years attended the session and reported that the Treasury’s understanding of the issues is woefully lacking.

Prospect has members working across the Early Years profession who feel very strongly that the 30 hours free childcare provision introduced by the Government is not sufficiently funded and is placing intolerable financial and administrative pressure on nurseries.

Our members want to see Early Years provision properly funded. If the Government, as they have stated in the past, accepts employing high qualified staff is the key to tackling disadvantage why is it doing nothing to ensure nursery settings can do that?

Elizabeth Truss stated on several occasions during her evidence that she recognised the importance of good quality provision but said she did not believe the free 30 hour provision was underfunded. She believes that nurseries just need to become more efficient.

We need to get our voices heard by increasing our membership and putting pressure on Government to listen to the people on the coalface.

The more members we have the more influence we can exert. If you are interested in becoming more involved in the work of the Early Years National Committee please email [email protected] or get in touch via Facebook or Twitter @ProspectECSG

Click here to see Prospect’s written submission and encourage your colleagues to join Prospect now so we can influence decisions that affect your workplace.

You can watch the podcast from the Treasury Committee meeting here