Reflections on England’s childcare system - Emeritus Professor Eva Lloyd WHO OWNS CHILDCARE

Promoting equity in marketised early education systems Reflections on England’s childcare system Emeritus Professor Eva Lloyd WHO OWNS CHILDCARE symposium Winnipeg 04.04.2024 England’s early childhood education and care (ECEC) system • Children aged 0 to 5 in England do not have a right to a place in ECEC provision • Directly funded ECEC access determined by age or parental employment status • acc. [...] The impact of public funding • Introduction of public funding, regulation and governance support: step-change in nature of childcare markets (Lloyd, 2019) • Public funding boosts presence for-profits and large for-profit. [...] Canada (Beach et al., 2023) • England’s childcare market skewed towards for-profits even during Labour administrations (Lloyd, 2018) • Result of market consolidation in England over the last two decades: stagnant or falling number of places and increase in financialized large chains, i.e. [...] 2024) • 2021 Irish Republic introduced conditionality attached to new additional form of supply-side funding after extensive review of its childcare funding model (Lloyd, 2023) • England’s Early Education and Childcare Coalition: agreed position on need for conditionality and ‘public good’ approach to childcare, though not yet clear on role of public provision within the market • Need to learn les. [...] Hold national debate regarding role of private equity in private for- profit early education and care provision and find ways of promoting non-profits like Denmark and Iceland have done (Traetteberg et al., 2021) 12 .