Around 130,000 two-year-olds are now eligible for a free place on the Government's programme and nurseries up and down the country have been busy expanding provision and thinking about ways in which their business can accommodate more twos.
As the following case studies highlight, working with this age group can be hugely rewarding and deliver important benefits for staff, practice and even the bottom line.
Woodlands Day Nursery
Looking at children as individuals
Woodlands Day Nursery in Cheshire has been offering funded places for two-year-olds since last September. Manager Ivana Beckett says that as an outstanding nursery, she felt that they had a lot to offer the children.
'When we were contacted by Trafford Council to ask if we would be interested in offering the places, we agreed straightaway. It's good to offer services that make a difference to the community. We run extra-curricular activities every week, such as Stretch and Grow sessions, Drama for Tots and even Italian lessons. We've got a huge garden with a mud kitchen.'
But Ms Beckett has also noticed that offering the places has in turn helped to develop the setting. 'We have highly skilled practitioners with vast knowledge and expertise who have worked for us for many years, but even they have found areas to build on with the very individual needs of the two-year-olds.
'For example, we've looked into getting in-depth information and training on autism to up the confidence and develop the skills of the staff. We've broadened our knowledge of the services offered by the council, as we've been dealing with SENCO, Surestart and speech therapists. That has really strengthened our link with the community.'
The nursery has tailored its approach to the children taking up the places. 'The most important thing has been to look at the children as individuals and ask ourselves how we can best provide for each one in terms of development and progress.
'For example, we look at what each child's reason for using the funding is. Sometimes we are allowing the parents to go back to work or college. Sometimes the children have English as an additional language, in which case we try to provide some resources in the child's own language.'
Ms Beckett reports that overall it has worked out brilliantly. 'You're always apprehensive about bringing in something new, whether that's from the point of view of the business, the nursery, the parents or the children. But we're very proud to say that we've been able to make a difference to some of these children's lives.'
The Priory Nursery in Lincoln
'We wouldn't be without them'
Andrea Allen, manager of The Priory Nursery in Lincoln, has offered the places for two years. She also believes they can make a real difference to the local community. 'Working in our part of the city centre means we can provide places for children from a very deprived social background,' she says. 'Children from these backgrounds can be quite challenging by three years old, so it's useful for us to start engaging them and their parents early.
'You can make more of a difference if you get them as early as possible. Learning practice and perceptions of school can already be set by three, so getting the children at two can make a huge difference as they're more open-minded and that ambivalent attachment can be broken down.'
The nursery has switched to using two key people from one since the two-year-olds joined. 'If one person has to go off to nappy change - and there's a lot of nappy changing in the early years - or someone is busy with a child who is upset, it means there is still always another person with the group,' says Ms Allen.
'Emotional development and confidence can be sped up with some extra talk, listen and cuddle time through work in small groups. There is a noticeable change in individual children as a result, as they become more confident and engage better. One child who would previously never have approached an adult now asks staff to join in their play.
'I've heard about people making a fuss when the plans for the places first came out, saying they wouldn't want to take on "these families", assuming they were from deprived wards. But "these families" are also your staff who may work on a term-time contract, and parents who already live in your local area. We have members of staff who are single parents who might be the people benefiting from these places. Our catchment should be for them.'
The nursery has even decided to extend the offer through the holidays. Ms Allen explains, 'In a two-week break at Easter, children can be held back around six to eight weeks developmentally, and vulnerable families lose the support a nursery provides for that time. The majority of our children are now taking advantage of our stretched offer. Business-wise it makes sense for us because then the nursery isn't empty over the holidays, and for the family the routine a nursery provides doesn't stop.'
For Ms Allen, the benefits of having the two-year-olds coming to the nursery are twofold. 'The setting simply wouldn't run without them, from a business point of view it's just not viable. There aren't enough parents to pay in our area. And they are a part of our community. Taking the children has absolutely not been foisted on us. We wouldn't be without them.'
Global Kids Day Care
Early intervention is key
Global Kids Day Care in Tower Hamlets, London, has been offering funded places for two-year-olds since 2011. Manager Nicole Timberlake says the nursery has worked hard to adapt its practice to suit the two-year-olds.
'Two is such a fundamental age. We always try to look through the eyes of the two-year-old in adapting our resources, equipment and space,' she explains. 'The nursery is now very open and accessible as two-year-olds like to explore and be involved. We've doubled the size of the space children have to move around in inside the nursery and we've moved things around so more is at their level. This age group is very active and we have no outdoor space so we have changed things around for them.'
Global Kids has taken on more staff and adapted the rotas to keep consistency. 'We want the two-year-olds to have the same staff with them. We have the resources for our two-, three and four-year-olds in the same room. We researched specific resources for two-year-olds with our early years teams and purchased some new equipment. Everything needs to be bigger for two-year-olds, so we've invested in big chalks and paper for large-scale mark making.'
Ms Timberlake reports that everyone in the nursery has benefited. 'It's opened our eyes to how to support that age group,' she says.
'Early intervention is key, and we work to identify additional needs and give experiences to both the children and the parents that they might never have had before. We try to be very hands-on with parents, encouraging individual planning, parents'
evenings, and sharing ideas on how to support the children as well as educating parents on two-year-old development.'
Home visits are carried out before two-year-olds join the nursery, so that relationships can be established.
'One of our two-year-olds was a great example of the way our eyes have been opened to how a child with additional needs can be supported from this early stage. The child had been brought up in a very small, quiet flat and had almost never been outside,' she says.
'We introduced the child to Forest School sessions and outdoor experiences. The child has now gone on to school and the parent has written to us saying how happy they were that we had identified and responded to their child's needs. We were so pleased that a parent had appreciated and recognised what we had achieved with one of our two-year-olds.'
