30 Hours, Part 9: Tower Hamlets - Reaching out

Improving children’s outcomes when child poverty is high is a tall order at the best of times. With 49 per cent of Tower Hamlets children living below the poverty line, the pressures on this London borough to provide high-quality early years services is high.

That was ramped up yet further when the Early Years National Funding Formula (EYNFF) was unveiled last year. This was despite the EYNFF offering the local authority among the highest rates nationally of £8.51 per hour (although down from £8.96 the year before), simply because the cost burden of providing the care far outstrips the income.

Debbie Jones, Tower Hamlets’ corporate director of children’s services, was left wondering how they would continue to meet the needs of thousands of the borough’s ‘very vulnerable families’. However, after the local authority made a case to the Department for Education to opt out of parts of the EYNFF legislation, it was granted a one-year reprieve and is now able to continue to offer the places in the short term. The local authority, which in April became one of four additional areas piloting the 30 hours, already has a scheme to fund full-time childcare for its most disadvantaged three- and four- year-olds. This means that, of a total of 4,000 children in this age group, around half have been receiving 25 hours per week of funded term-time care. This is made up of the 15 hours entitlement, plus five hours’ lunch supervision provided by the school and 10 hours’ LA top-up.