Take twos - considering all the possibilities in schools

Many assumptions seem to get in the way when I hear colleagues in the sector discuss schools providing the two-year-old offer, but there are a number of points to consider.

First, it's not just about the school building. This is crucial in areas where schools are being stretched already by rising birth rates and the need to offer statutory school places. School-led provision could be off-site, in linked provision nearby, and/or through a childminder network. With a school as part of the partnership, we can achieve models that take advantage of all available opportunities.

There's potential to revisit the pack-away model. School-led provision could be a PVI setting hosted as a pack-away sessional service in the school hall. Schools should sometimes resist the temptation to deliver directly. Take the lead if it is needed, but the first step should be to look at what the PVI sector is delivering externally. And continued involvement should include teacher input to support quality provision, planning and inter-setting communication to achieve true integrated working.

Teacher-led does not always mean teacher-delivered. Indeed, sustainable and appropriate staffing models need to take the best of qualified teacher leadership and qualified and experienced childcare practice to grow a workforce of assistant childcare and early years staff, apprentices and volunteers. Many in the sector were, or are, parents of young children and entered the sector through this route. So this is an opportunity to develop your own workforce from the start and on an ongoing basis.

A key issue, especially once low-income working families become part of the statutory duty in September, is flexibility. Provision can no longer be delivered merely in short sessions in the middle of the day. Consideration needs to be given to the 8am to 6pm agenda, working beyond term times, and the needs of parents to buy additional childcare.

Get the model right and the benefit to families is a sense of joined-up working and earlier and better relationships with school. This is the same for the early years sector too.

James Hempsall is director of Hempsall's (@jhempsall, www.hemspalls.com).