The vision
By 2010, parents and their children will have:
* a local authority that understands their childcare needs and their wider needs
* a thriving local childcare market
* easy access to information and advice about what is available
* 15 hours of free early learning and care for three- and four-year-olds, to be taken flexibly over three or more days, over a minimum of 38 weeks
* a local Sure Start Children's Centre, providing or giving easy access to family services and health and employment support
* their primary school and secondary schools offering, from 8am to 6pm for 48 weeks a year, access to childcare, out-of-school activities and parent support and quick referral to specialist health and social care services.
Local authorities
* To deliver 'the vision', and meet their new duties as outlined in the Childcare Bill, local authorities are expected to: 1. Analyse local demand for childcare; 2. Map supply of childcare; 3. Map supply to demand; 4.
Secure the delivery of sufficient childcare.
* It is intended that these new duties, which will include extending local information services to parents and making childcare more integrated with other family services, will come into effect in April 2008. Some of the elements will start earlier, including the childcare sufficiency assessment, which comes into force in April 2007.
* Best practice information will be delivered through:
- pathfinder areas and the Childcare Implementation Project
- the nine recently appointed Directors for Children and Learners and the Children's Services Advisers (three in each region)
- existing and new information networks and approaches.
Mixed economy
* Local authorities will be expected to maintain a mixed economy within the childcare sector and have a duty to consult with private, voluntary and community providers.
* The children's centres planning and delivery guidance, to be published this spring, will put in place a system to regularly review provider involvement.
* Initiatives to support provider diversity and sustainability include local authority-provider networks to be set up by the National Day Nurseries Association.
Children's centres and extended schools
* The Government expects 1,000 children's centres to be in place by the end of 2006, 1,250 by the end of 2007, 2,500 by the end of 2008 and 3,500 by the end of 2010.
* Government targets for the numbers of extended schools offering core extended services are: 2,500 by September 2006, 7,500 by the end of 2007, half of primary schools and one third of secondary schools by the end of 2008 and all schools by the end of 2010. The extended services will be based in the school or at a nearby private, voluntary or independent provider (with suitable transfer arrangements in place).
* All early years childminders will be part of a network linked to a school or Sure Start Centre by 2010.
* Schools and their partners will need to develop a sustainable model for charging for childcare and out-of-school activities, and local authorities will be expected to work with them on devising their model.
* The Government has commissioned a study into the emerging roles and responsibilities of the school leadership group, and guidance on leadership and governance for schools and children's centres will be issued in the spring.
15 hours of free education and care
* The extended free provision for three- and four-year-olds will be introduced first in a few pathfinder areas, where local authorities will be expected to devise, by the end of 2007, best practice models that:
- meet the parents' demands for flexibility
- maintain continuity of care for the child
- pose no threat to the sustainability of smaller early years settings.
* The free provision will be on offer from 8am to 4pm and from 8am to 6pm in half of the pathfinder areas.
* The new entitlement to all three- and four-year-olds will be introduced gradually between 2007 and 2010.
Two-year-olds
The Government will be piloting free early years provision for 12,000 disadvantaged two-year-olds across 15 local authorities from April 2006, and will feed the evaluation into its future plans.
Early Years Foundation Stage
* The new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), a single statutory framework for care, learning and development for children from birth to age five, will show children's development across the six areas of learning currently used in the Foundation Stage curriculum.
* Consultation on the EYFS will be in May 2006 and it will become statutory in September 2008, but some elements of the framework, specifically those relating to literacy and mathematics, will be available to practitioners from September 2006.
* There will be a specific document to support childminders delivering the new framework.
* In partnership with the Primary National Strategy, the DfES will develop and consult on EYFS training materials during 2006-07.
* The national director for the Foundation Stage and a team of regional advisers will support local authorities in providing training in effective early years practice.
Ratios
The Government is proposing to change adult:child ratios in all settings which care for three- and four-year-olds, other than reception classes, to:
* 1:8 when one staff member is qualified to Level 3 and half of all other staff are qualified to Level 2
* 1:13 for a limited period in each day, when a qualified teacher or other graduate level professional is present together with a staff member qualified to Level 3.
Parental involvement
All childcare providers will be expected to involve parents, and the Parents Early Years and Learning project is developing a national model of effective practice. The Government will also fund Early Learning Partnerships, between parents and practitioners, over the next two years.
Regulation and inspection
* The Childcare Bill requires Ofsted to allow those looking after children over the age of seven to register voluntarily on the new Ofsted Childcare Register, so that eligible parents can claim financial support through the tax credits. Consultation will be completed by the end of 2006, and providers will be able to register by the end of 2007.
* Ofsted is developing a new early years inspection framework, to be introduced by the end of 2008. The new framework will reflect the EYFS and link with the school inspection framework so that all school provision is judged against the same standard.
Early years professionals
* Early years professionals (EYPs) will be leading practice in all Sure Start Centres offering early years provision by 2010.
* Work is in hand to define the skills, knowledge and experience required to become an EYP. An initial set of standards for the new role has been drawn up, with a view to giving EYP status to those who can demonstrate the required standards by January 2007.
Training and the Transformation Fund
* The Government is aiming to have a higher proportion of the workforce in all early years settings qualified to at least Level 3 by 2008. The Children's Workforce Development Council will advise the Government on appropriate strategies and targets by summer 2006.
* The Transformation Fund, of 250m over two years, will support training for all early years workers in private, voluntary and independent settings and will help settings recruit and retain graduate staff.
* 52m from the Fund will be used to develop and deliver appropriate training routes to EYP status.
London pilot
The London Development Agency pilot giving supply-side funding to some private and voluntary providers is due to end in 2008 and will inform wider Government thinking about how best to improve affordability of childcare for low-income parents.
Stakeholder forum
A Ten-year Strategy Stakeholder Group to be chaired by Dame Julie Mellor, former chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission, is to be set up.
Members will be drawn from the early years, schools, local authorities, health and the private, voluntary and community sectors.
Targets and performance indicators
* Statutory targets on development of children by age five, and for narrowing the gaps in development, will be set annually.
* National performance indicators for Sure Start Centres will be finalised by the end of 2006. Possible indicators are:
- children's development, as measured by the Foundation Stage Profile
- reach of the centre to the most vulnerable families
- health indicators, such as smoking
- child poverty indicators.
Collecting and using data
A new power in the Childcare Bill will allow the Government to collect accurate data from all registered early years providers. The data will be added to existing data sources to help the Government ensure it is delivering against its plans.
Further information
* Choice for parents, the best start for children: making it happen - An action plan for the ten-year strategy: Sure Start children's centres, extended schools and childcare can be downloaded from www.surestart.gov.uk.
Have your say
Nursery World will be reporting on sector reactions to the implementation plans over the coming weeks. Make sure you have your say and e-mail us at news@nurseryworld.co.uk.
