Understanding the Impact of Childcare Ratios on Children's Outcomes

The UK Government has recently consulted on changes to the statutory maximum staff-to-child ratios in early years settings in England in a bid to "improve the cost, choice, and availability of childcare" (DfE, 2022). Specifically, they have proposed altering the staff-to-child ratios for 2-year-olds from 1:4 to 1:5, bringing England into line with Scotland. The consultation also refers to wider options for reform, including changing staff-to-child ratios from 1:8 to 1:10 for 3-4-year-olds in settings for less than 4 hours per day, again in line with Scotland. There is strong evidence demonstrating that attending high quality early childhood education and care settings has significant positive impacts on both short and longer-term child outcomes. However, there is little robust quantitative evidence, especially for the UK, on the impact of staff-to-child ratios in care settings – one determinant of setting quality – on children’s outcomes. This severely limits our ability to inform decisions about the most appropriate childcare ratios.