The Early Years Alliance has responded to a Labour release highlighting new government data on nurseries, pre-schools and childminders joining and leaving the early years sector.

It shows that the number of settings in England fell by 2,087 during the first three months of 2021.

Labour’s Shadow Early Years Minister, Tulip Siddiq MP, said following the Queen’s Speech yesterday that on early years, the government’s “rhetoric does not match reality”.

The full dataset is available here: Joiners and leavers in the childcare sector – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Neil Leitch, Early Years Alliance chief executive, said:

“The fact that more than 2,000 early years providers have closed since the start of this year is deeply concerning but is of no surprise those familiar with the sector. It is the obvious result of years of paltry, below-inflation funding rises that have resulted in the substantial underfunding of early education entitlements.

“When combined with a lack of government action to combat the loss of income and additional costs resulting from the pandemic, we have an early years emergency on our hands. Unless this enormous and clearly unsustainable pressure is eased now, this unwelcome trend will only continue.”