Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships are to get more money and responsibility to develop provision. Anne Wiltsher reports from the first planning conference
Nearly 200 delegates from Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships made their way to the prestigious New Connaught Rooms off London's Covent Garden at the beginning of the month.
They emerged from Underground stations blinking in the sunlight and peering at maps sent to them by the Department for Education and Employment. The delegates, mainly women, were from the London area, and here to attend the first of seven regional planning conferences run by the department.
That morning, many of them would have heard on the radio that the Government is tripling its funding for childcare from 66m per year to 200m by 2003/2004 and that an extra 115m will be allocated from the New Opportunities Fund (NOF). A further 873m will provide universal part-time early education places for three-year-olds by 2004.
Inside the hall, delegates mingled over coffee. This was a chance for them to network, the DfEE invitation had said, as well as to receive a draft version of the department's written guidance on the work it wants the partnerships to do over the coming three years.
Three DfEE officials sat on the platform: Alan Cranston, head of the Early Years Unit; Caroline Slocock, head of the Childcare Unit; and her deputy, Nick Tooze, who is to take up the new position of Partnership Manager which was created to provide more support for the partnerships in their enhanced role. The speakers set out the Government's next three strategic goals for the National Childcare Strategy:
- new childcare places for 1.6 million children in England by March 2004
- a full-time place for every lone parent entering employment in the most disadvantaged areas by 2004
- and a closure of the childcare gaps between poor areas and other areas.
Childcare 'ran like a vein' through the Government's overall aims, said Caroline Slocock, three of which were to increase opportunity for all, eradicate child poverty and improve children's educational achievement.
More for poor areas
Delegates were told that an additional 45,000 full-time, group-based childcare spaces, along with 25,000 childminder-based places, are to be created in disadvantaged areas. This won't necessarily involve building new nurseries - partnerships could build on existing provision. For example, part-time, maintained nurseries and pre-school playgroups could extend their hours - provide 'wraparound' care in the jargon - for working parents.
More detail on this policy will be available in December, but the Government also wants to encourage the private sector to be involved, which could mean opportunities for nursery chains to offer community places. Bank loans, Sure Start and NOF funds are intended to subsidise the childcare places for a maximum of three years. A special task force will be on hand to help implement this policy.
With the extra funds, partnerships are also expected to provide 360,000 new out-of-school childcare places by 2003 and to increase the number of childminders - for every ten new childminder places, no more than nine should close. They are also expected to employ one specialist early years teacher for each ten settings providing the Foundation Stage by 2004.
'Do you realise there's a shortage of teachers?' and 'Do you know there's no child development modules in teacher training courses?' were two comments from the floor in a question-and-answer session later.
As well as teachers, partnerships will have a mandatory requirement to employ a special needs co-ordinator and team, plus a business and finance manager. They are also being encouraged to take on a childcare marketing manager to inform parents about Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) and local childcare.
More training
Training is another expanding sphere. Partnerships must conduct an audit of practitioners' qualifications and training needs by next March and then work closely with Learning Skills Councils (LSCs) - to replace the Training Enterprise Councils (TECs) in April - to reach targets. Seven million pounds will also go directly to the partnerships to provide each early years practitioner with four days training a year (employers will pay 50 per cent of the cost).
In addition to this, the DfEE plans to develop a 'modular, core competence programme of training' to help foundation practitioners deliver the curriculum, with a 'national support infrastructure' to assist delivery.
When asked by one delegate from Oxfordshire why 'qualified' was being defined as NVQ2 and not NVQ3 in the proposed national daycare standards, Caroline Slocock stressed that 'these are only minimum standards. We'll be talking to the LSCs to work immediately with partnerships to raise them.' However, concern was expressed by delegates who questioned how poorly paid practitioners could afford to take NVQs when they cost 600 a time and how work cover would be provided when they were on the course.
All together
The Government wants more integration of childcare and early years education, and the DfEE is piloting five schemes in Cornwall, Ealing, Kirklees, Lancashire and York until March 2003. Sandra Jones, lead officer at Ealing EYDCP, explained that its project had several elements, including researching the barriers to providing wraparound care. 'We have offered to assist providers with NOF applications, but few have come forward. We have anecdotal evidence that one of the reasons is difficulties with premises, but we need to do some proper research to find out why.' It is also planned that a pre-school playgroup in Ealing will work with two nursery schools to extend their hours for working parents.
However, two questions arose from the conference floor on this issue. One delegate was concerned about the lack of continuity of care for young children.
'No-one would expect a six-year-old to go to two schools, so why is a younger child expected to go to two settings?' she asked. Another raised the subject of the duplication of management committees when linking two part-time schemes.
On the ground
This planning conference for partnership representatives (Nursery World was the only member of the press there) showed the practicalities of carrying out the National Childcare Strategy behind the policy headlines.
Focusing on disadvantaged areas sounds great, but it's sometimes difficult to define disadvantage, even using the recommended DETR index, as partnerships have found when allocating nursery places for three-year-olds. Understandably, parents get annoyed when a three-year-old on one side of the street has a place and another on the opposite side hasn't. Such decisions can also create disadvantage, said one frustrated delegate, who explained that if you bolster an area with community support, then neighbouring areas become disadvantaged.
Another potential problem was the difficulty of getting hold of some of the money. Funds to pay for the four-year-old education grant, the early years teachers, the special needs co-ordinators and part of the budget for Children's Information Services and training will be allocated as part of the Standard Spending Assessment (SSA), which is the grant that goes to each local authority to spend how they choose. The rest of the increase in funds will be paid directly to EYDCPs.
'It sounds good, but on the ground we won't get the money,' said one delegate. Another said trying to get money allocated through the SSA had been a problem. 'The DfEE needs to write to local authorities and say the extra money has been allocated to partnerships,' she said.
In essence, the delegates' frustrations stem not necessarily from lack of money - bar the SSA issue - but from trying to make a coherent service out of the fragmented provision that exists. 'We can't just set nurseries up,' said a delegate from Merton. 'We have to pull the right people together.' There's also a shortage of early years practitioners generally. 'We haven't got the people,' said Sandra Jones from Ealing, and the reason was probably pay, she thought.
If this is the delegates' main message, the DfEE's reply seems to be that if it pumps enough money into the system both through WFTC and start-up funds, then time, the market and its own recruitment campaign will crank the system into action without the need for permanent subsidy. Childminders in some areas were already being paid more because of WFTC, said Nick Tooze.
New responsibility
Ending the conference, Nick Tooze injected an almost evangelical note. He said he hoped the DfEE had proved it was an 'accessible, listening organisation' - 'I've never known the DfEE to be like this,' he said.
The draft guidance was a 'living document' and comments from delegates would be taken on board for the final one, due out in mid-November. 'This is a step change in responsibility - and you should go back and prepare for that,' he urged.
