When the Government unveiled its children's centre programme it conjured up a vision of brand new, purpose-built centres springing up in disadvantaged areas and then in every community.
But as the programme has unfolded there has been a growing recognition from Government and local authorities that building new centres may be neither practical nor affordable, and that the ten-year strategy cannot be achieved without private and voluntary sector involvement.
Some local councils have large-scale building projects under way in the first wave of the programme, but others are opting to create 'virtual'
centres with integrated services delivered through 'satellites' - this is likely to be a feature of the second wave of centres. This approach avoids the need for massive capital outlay and makes services arguably more flexible and accessible to communities.
The move towards satellite services appears to be creating fresh and more encouraging opportunities for private sector nursery providers who want to become part of the children's centre programme (see box).
The DfES has insisted that all neighbourhood nurseries should be linked to children's centres. By the end of last year the DfES reckoned that 157 of the 564 private sector-led neighbourhood nurseries were involved with children's centres. But there appears to be nothing inevitable about neighbourhood nursery involvement in the programme.
One private provider was astounded to discover that proposals for a children's centre in the North West included plans to put daycare out to tender, even though there was already a neighbourhood nursery on site.
Lack of understanding
Rosemary Murphy, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), says, 'What worries me sometimes is a lack of understanding in the commissioning departments of local authorities about how to involve the private sector.
'If a neighbourhood nursery is on a school site it has already taken the public purse and should be the first option for a children's centre. But generally not many private sector nurseries have been involved in the first wave.'
The NDNA, which has worked closely with the DfES in developing the children's centre programme, has produced research showing that private providers are involved in children's centres in many areas, including Bedfordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Cumbria, Northumberland, North East Lincolnshire, Nottingham, Devon, Herefordshire, Bradford, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and the London Borough of Redbridge.
John Thorn, head of early years in Nottinghamshire, says the private sector is being included in the development of the county's children's centre programme through 'close link partnerships'.
He says, 'At the Sure Start in Gedling we have a new building on the campus of a new primary school, while across the road there is a private day nursery with some neighbourhood nursery places. We have managed to agree with the Sure Start Unit that we can create a linked children's centre with the day nursery at its heart, and we will be paying to put a teacher in there.'
A similar framework is being proposed to include a community day nursery in Hawtonville. 'Most of our neighbourhood nurseries are in the private sector and we have tried to build them into our plans. We are about to tender for private and voluntary providers for day care on sites we are building. We do not want to set something up which will damage the private sector,' Mr Thorn adds.
Satellite models
In Hertfordshire, satellite private daycare provision is the order of the day because of the need to make it self-financing. The Birchwood Children's Centre in Hatfield, which incorporates a nursery school, also has a 32-place new private nursery on the same site. Children attend free nursery education sessions at the nursery school and for wraparound care go to the private nursery.
Alex Taylor, head of the centre and the nursery school, says, 'This was the only way we could offer day care because the education budget was not going to fund it. We supplement them in the sense the nursery can access a lot of the services the school uses.
'The nursery is open 52 weeks of the year and a lot of children from the school will go there for holiday clubs. It shares our ethos, we plan activities together so there is continuity and consistency for the children.
'When it comes to things like behaviour management the children know that the deal is the same, regardless of where they are.'
While the satellite model appears to be gaining currency, however, others are also being trialled. The governing bodies of some schools where children's centres are located have set themselves up as the private providers of day care, often through not-for-profit companies.
Meanwhile, private provider Hazles Farm Childcare has secured the contract to supply day care on site at a new Sure Start children's centre at Sunflower House in Shrewsbury.
Nursery manager Diane Beauman says, 'We had to put in a bid and the parents on the Sure Start board wanted a really good quality daycare setting on site. We pay a nominal rent and 40 of our 48 places must be for families from the Sure Start area.'
A key element in the bidding process was a commitment to ensure the viability of the daycare facility; Hazles Farm had to submit a ten-year business plan.
Saturation point
In Stoke-on-Trent, where eight new children's centres are being built in the first phase, there is concern among private providers and schools that the area is becoming saturated with too much nursery provision.
Nick King, who runs Dresden Nursery, says the business plans he has seen for some of the children's centres factor in profits from the daycare units when calculating how the centres are to be self-financing. He questions whether they can be viable long term if the nurseries 'don't take off'.
Loretta Boswell, head of early years and childcare in Stoke, says the council is waiting to see what criteria the Government lays down for the second wave of children's centres.
'It may not be all new-build for phase two. We don't know how much money we are going to get, whether they are going to be on school sites or separate,' she says.
Ms Boswell adds that care is being taken not to create childcare places where they are not needed, and she acknowledges the reluctance of many nursery owners to get involved in the children's centre programme where they would get no additional funding.
Another source of concern for the private sector is the confusion in some circles surrounding the Government's plans for extended schools. Rosemary Murphy feels reassured after hearing from the director of the Sure Start Unit Naomi Eisenstadt that day care in schools will be restricted to children of school age, from five years upwards.
However, there is uncertainty because schools are increasingly taking children from age three and even younger, and with plans to extend free nursery education, private providers fear that full day care in schools will become a reality.
Rosemary Murphy says such a development could 'completely annihilate the whole sector as we know it in what we call the unintended consequences of Government policy'.
Mary Graveney of the South Gloucestershire Private Nurseries Association says her nursery feeds eight schools, none of them very near. She warns, 'If they are proposing that local schools provide day care, they will destroy us.'
Commenting on these fears, a DfES spokeswoman says, 'Many schools will choose to deliver childcare in partnership with private and voluntary sector providers rather than directly themselves. At the very least, schools will need to liaise with these sectors to determine existing childcare provision and demand.'
However, despite concerns over the impact of Government policy, Rosemary Murphy remains upbeat that private nurseries can provide the core offer for the next phase of the children's centre programme. Indeed, she says, some can become centres in their own right.
