More Affordable Childcare: Sector reaction

Currently parents can pay a family member, friend or neighbour to look after their child on an informal basis for up to two hours a day, but if it is any longer than this they must register with Ofsted and follow the EYFS, if they are caring for under-fives.

However, education and childcare minister Elizabeth Truss is proposing to raise the threshold to three hours a day.

The proposal is just one of a series of recommendations set out today in More Affordable Childcare.

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-School Learning Alliance, said, ‘As most sessional childcare provision is only for three hours a day, this could open the door for registered settings to choose to become unregistered,’ he said. ‘We would advise that the Government proceeds with great caution.’

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said, ‘We would issue a note of caution around the increase in hours a child can be looked after informally. The benefit to a child’s development of a good quality early years environment, working with the EYFS cannot be underestimated, especially for children in more deprived areas, informal care arrangements cannot provide the same development opportunities.

‘This also applies to the removal of learning journeys. These are of great value to parents who like to be able to see their child’s progress on a day to day basis.’

Regulation

The Government wants to make it easier for nurseries and childminders to expand by extending the planning relaxations recently introduced for state-funded schools to nurseries, such as using vacant office space

Ms Tanuku said, ‘The removal of red tape and planning permission is to be welcomed, as long as neither have an impact on the quality of provision.

‘Taking away unnecessary bureaucracy will help lower the costs early years providers face and the possibility of expansion means an established business can look at growth in its existing building.’

Good and outstanding settings

Could the document also be signaling a move that in future only good or outstanding settings would be able to offer funded places? The Government said it was considering whether to make it a requirement from September 2015 that providers would need to be graded good or outstanding to be eligible for the two-year-old funding.

Local authorities will no longer have a say on whether providers receive funding. All nurseries and childminders that are good or outstanding will automatically receive Government funding for two-, three- and four-year-olds.

However, in future LAs will be required to fund a place at a new provider prior to first Ofsted inspection if an eligible child wants a place.

Mr Leitch said, ‘Ofsted statistics show that settings in more-affluent areas are more likely to be judged Good or Outstanding than provision in disadvantaged areas.

‘Given the Government’s desire for disadvantaged two-year-old children to benefit from childcare, this could rule out their attendance of some local provision. We therefore welcome the Government's move to ask local authorities to provide additional support to help raise the quality of settings judged Requires Improvement or Inadequate.’

But Liz Bayram, chief executive of the Professional Association of Childcare and Early Years, said, ‘We are pleased to see there are indications that in future local authorities will only allow good and outstanding providers to deliver free funded places. But there are still question marks over how and when this will manifest in practice.’

However, PACEY remains concerned about the plan to introduce childminder agencies, which it said could damage the quality of childcare and push up fees for parents.

Ms Bayram added, ‘It is a positive step to see the Government talking about increasing investment and exploring new options in the early years sector. But for childcare professionals, and the families they work for, quality must come first.

‘There is also work to be done to clarify boundaries of where new services would begin and end. For example, a childminder working in a school environment may lose their status as childminders and instead become afterschool club workers, with a range of implications from regulation and insurance, to status and pay.’

Local authorities

The document also confirms changes to the way that local authorities will play in working with early years and childcare providers.

In future, local authorities will only be required to provide support, advice and training to providers rated ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’.

Dr Hilary Emery, chief executive of the National Children’s Bureau, said, ‘Local authorities currently play an important role in continuous quality improvement within early education and childcare settings – and indeed in safeguarding the wellbeing of children. Such changes may undermine the vital quality improvement function that good and outstanding settings need to access in order to remain high quality.’

‘We are concerned that good and outstanding settings could fail to sustain high standards if they lose vital information, advice and training provided by LA quality improvement teams.  As these proposals move forward, we will be keen to understand the way in which ongoing support and challenge will be provided to ensure all settings are able to both reach and sustain good or outstanding status.’

Longer school days

Other plans centre on making it easier for schools, particularly primary schools, to open for longer hours during term-time and in the holidays to help parents with childcare, whether they offer it themselves or through linking up with nurseries, childminders, children’s centres and out-of-school clubs.

Families should be able to ‘rely on their child’s primary school as a single-site location for their child’s education as well as before and after school childcare,’ the document states.

The move follows a clause set out earlier this month in the Deregulation Bill to allow maintained schools to set their own term times, as academies and free schools are able to do.

Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children, said, ‘4Children has advocated more school based childcare for 30 years because we know that parents value the certainty and support that it can provide. Schools buildings are important community resources but too many still shut their doors at 3.30pm. 

‘Moves towards reducing bureaucracy and making it easier for schools to provide childcare are welcome and the emphasis on schools working with voluntary and community groups is also positive.  However, experience shows that without concrete incentives, resources and support too many schools will continue to see this as someone else’s problem. 

‘To make this a reality we believe it will be necessary for Government to consider increasing the power of parents to demand the opening up of school buildings or formally building the provision of childcare into the Ofsted framework for schools.’ 

Two-year-olds

Affordable Childcare also re-states the Government’s intention to encourage more schools to offer provision for two-year-olds.

Mr Leitch said, ‘Our foremost concern is always what is in the best interests of the child. Should these proposals lead to inappropriate and overly-formal education for our very young children, they will be resisted. We would encourage all head teachers to liaise with childcare providers in their areas to ensure adequate provision and no duplication of services.’