Alliance reacts to research on impact of cost-of-living crisis on Londoners, including increasing early years costs
The Early Years Alliance has issued a comment in response to The Rising Cost of Living: A Review of Interventions to Reduce Impacts on Health Inequalities in London, a report from the Institute of Health Equity which explores the impact that the cost-of-living crisis is having on London families.
In the report, the institute explores the importance of early education in reducing inequalities and the impact of rising early years costs.
Commenting, Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said:
“The Institute of Health Equity is absolutely right to highlight the impact that growing financial pressures are having on health inequalities, and the significant role that high early years costs play in this.
“As the review rightly states, not only does a lack of access to affordable early years provision affect parents and carers trying to return to – or remain in – work, it also risks widening the development gap between children from more deprived backgrounds and their wealthier peers, entrenching inequalities from the very start of childhood.
“That’s said, while the Institute is right to argue that employers have an important role in promoting early years schemes and supporting parents, and to highlight the need to build on existing service offerings such as Family Hubs, these steps alone will not address the fundamental reasons why our early years system is broken: a sustained lack of government investment.
“At the Alliance, we believe that every child, regardless of their background or circumstances, should be able to access high-quality early education and care – and yet, years of government underfunding has pushed the sector to the brink, leaving some settings with no option but to increase prices to stay afloat while others are left with no choice but to permanently close.
“As such, while the approaches outlined in the review are a step in the right direction, ultimately affordable care and early education is impossible to achieve without long-term and realistic government funding and support.â€