Leading childcare organisations are voicing concerns about the Government's multi-million pound project to provide business training and support for up to 100,000 businesses within the sector.
The concerns centre round the speed with which the Departments for Education and Skills, and Work and Pensions launched the initiative. There are also worries that the programme could fail to meet the sector's specific needs because the company awarded the contract by the Sure Start Unit, while having undoubted expertise in training, lacks specialist knowledge of the childcare sector.
The major national childcare organisations submitted bids for the Childcare Business Support Development Programme, which is set to run until March 2004. The Pre-School Learning Alliance and a consortium including the Kids'
Clubs Network and National Childminding Association were among those on the shortlist of five bids.
The childcare bidders informed the DfEs that if selected, they would work together on delivering the programme. However, the Sure Start Unit awarded the contract to the Sheffield-based company Action for Employment, known as A4e, which has limited early years experience.
The childcare organisations stress that their concerns are not merely sour grapes. Some were reluctant to talk on the record for fear of sounding churlish. They believe it is vitally important to ensure the sector is equipped with the necessary business skills to enable providers to deliver sustainable childcare so that they can expand.
The programme was announced shortly after last November's publication of Delivering for Children and Families, the cross-cutting review of childcare which found that settings needed to be equipped with better business skills. Bids had to be submitted by the end of November, prompting some observers to regard it as a knee-jerk reaction from the DfES.
Anne Longfield, chief executive of the Kids' Clubs Network (KCN), says, 'I was on the review team. This programme did not come out of the review report, but what did come from that report was the recognition that developing a sustainable market in childcare means childcare providers need to have better business skills. In a sense the programme was part of the DfES response to the review.'
Margaret Lochrie, chief exceutive of the Pre-School Learning Alliance (PLA), says, 'The idea of the programme is essential and the DfES's aim is a positive one.' But some feel that by rushing its response, the DfES has missed an opportunity to engage in strategic planning.
Tom Shea, chief executive of the Child Care Innovations Partnership and a member of the KCN consortium, adds, 'As soon as we identify an issue we try to plug it rather than think about the most appropriate way forward or about whether plugging it is the right answer.'
National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA)chief executive Rosemary Murphy believes all the interested parties - the DfES, early years partnerships and childcare organisations - should have worked together to evaluate sector needs and devise coherent solutions.
Time for dialogue
Anne Longfield, meanwhile, thinks there should have been time for a dialogue with the sector, even if the plan ultimately went to competitive tender. 'I think this is a lost opportunity. What we need is a more co-ordinated, joined-up, strategic approach in terms of harnessing the capacity of the childcare organisations to support the childcare field and not just their own members, because all the organisations work beyond their own membership.'
A4e will have to avoid duplicating training provided by the Government-funded business training and support schemes currently running, while developing materials in sufficient detail to answer the sector's needs.
KCN has a strategic contract with the DfES, worth about 1.5m, which involves seminars, workshops and conferences. It is also writing a business training programme as part of the Department of Trade and Industry's Phoenix scheme of funding training and support for childcarers establishing small businesses in areas of disadvantage.
The PLA also has a strategic contract with the DfES and is developing and providing software packages to assist settings with their administrative housekeeping. It is about to launch an interactive one-stop shop where settings can access answers to a range of questions on issue like funding streams and business planning.
The NDNA has been running a business training support programme funded by the DfES, delivering 18 seminars in the last 12 months on the theme of viability and sustainability. The DfES has also awarded early years partnerships funding to develop business support.
Mrs Murphy says, 'I think nursery owners are getting smarter than they used to be. What they need is not stuff about profit and loss but how to ensure their business is going to survive in a market that is changing, what impact Government initiatives are going to have and how they can keep their heads above water, particularly if they are in an area that is disadvantaged and there are Neigh- bourhood Nurseries, Sure Start, community schools and maintained nursery schools.'
A4e, one of the UK's largest providers of training, employment and business solutions, is little known in the childcare sector. However, it does already have some small-scale childcare training among its portfolio of work, which includes operating two business link organisations and delivering business support, skills development, employment, regeneration and educational services for more than 70,000 individuals and 65,000 small- and medium-sized businesses.
Track record
According to the Adult Learning Inspectorate's report on A4e in July 2002, 'Training in all areas is satisfactory, with the exception of construction, and health and social care. Business administration, management and professional and foundations programmes are good.'
Within the health and social care area of learning, which scored an unsatisfactory grading, the report noted A4e had nearly 180 learners on care or early years care and education training programmes. The report cited as strengths the company's 'comprehensive initial assessment process, wide range of work placements and a very good development of communication skills'.
Poor practice the report highlighted included, 'In one area, learners are told to use the internet to research child protection. Assessors are not sufficiently supportive and use language not fully understood by inexperienced learners.'
A4e says that the value of the contract is a matter of commercial confidentiality. A DfES spokeswoman also declined to answer questions about the contract, but it is known that the unsuccessful bids were priced from between 3m to just under 10m.
The DfES spokeswomen says, 'It was a competitive exercise and A4e were selected on their merits and against the stated criteria to deliver the training on our behalf.'
In all, 64 bids were received, of which 42 were long- or shortlisted, five were invited to interview and one company was selected.
Apparently, the Sure Start unit chose A4e in part because of its national network of offices, necessary to deliver such a huge programme. The childcare organisations, however, feel that with their combined strength and spread they could more than match that - and can boast around 150 years' expertise of the sector between them.
Since winning the bid A4e has tried to tap into that expertise by approaching leading figures in the sector. One reports, 'A4e haven't got a clue about the sector. They don't have any access to it. They are working from the DfES brief, and as we know, they are not always that much in touch with what is going on.'
While some childcare providers might eventually be persuaded to do a deal, others are not going to part with their core business at any price. One says, 'If you are going to be an independent sector that is driven in a business market way, then you need to look after your products just as much as any other business should. That limits your ability to be able to give away your trade secrets.'
Mrs Murphy says, 'Our key business is to support the business of childcare - that is what we all do. We would have thought that the early years organisations were best placed to do this.
'The DfES says it is a massive market and there is room for everybody. I don't believe the market for training is all that big. We are all going to end up bumping into each other. Bringing someone into the market is going to skew the market. The DfES has brought a new player into the market and are giving them the tools to deliver new childcare training and to develop their business.'
Whatever happens, there will be an ongoing need to provide business support and training. Mrs Longfield says, 'I don't think there has been any planning for the next stage. I am sure the DfES will see how it goes. We would encourage the DfES to roll out business support on a longer basis.'
Further information
* The contract was signed in February 2003 and runs until March 2004.
* A project team of 13 people is writing and delivering the programme.
* Dates and venues for the 790 workshops, which begin in May, will be confirmed soon.
* All registered childminders and childcare centres will be sent dates of workshops in their area.
* The programme will include web-based materials, videos and workbooks.
