Take twos - meeting the needs of a new market

The entitlement criteria means that there will be some geographical areas with many eligible families. Providers located in these areas or serving eligible communities, now have an opportunity to think creatively and consider how this new market's needs can be supported, says James Hempsall

Re-engineering or re-organising existing services, rooms or space could all provide workable solutions to meet an increase in parental demand, and go-ahead settings are showing how this can be done.

Hoyland and Jump Children's Centre in Barnsley has developed from one of the original Sure Start local programmes. It offers early education and childcare at its two sites, Jump Children and Adults Centre, and Blacker Hill. The service is managed by a voluntary committee as part of the work of the Forge Partnership, a charitable company limited by guarantee.

Little Gem's 2 was registered in 2006 as a small, full-day unit in a one-storey building serving the needs of a discrete community in the village of Blacker Hill. The nursery's numbers had been low and it was becoming increasingly hard to maintain sufficient child numbers to operate sustainably. The centre management was continuously looking at how activities could be sustained and meet the changing needs of its community.

The setting is now focused on the delivery of the 15 hours free entitlement for two-year-olds. Open from Monday to Friday from 9am to 12 noon during term-time, children can access a variety of sessions. The move has required very little investment as the centre already had equipment and has been able to move resources around between venues.

Travel and public transport were considerations when planning session times as the service encompasses six communities. Session times were structured to support parents and children with school readiness, and flexibility is offered to accommodate families who just can't get there for 9am because of transport. A variety of services and activities are now on offer from the site so that families, parents and carers can attend meetings and access services at the nursery building.

The setting has now started to consider the expansion of the offer in 2013. They are looking at how places can be extended beyond term-time to offer families increased flexibility, as well as exploring opening in the afternoons to meet the anticipated increase in demand. This is important because, as the roll-out of the entitlement continues to reach the Government's target of 40 per cent by 2014, families will have similar needs to those using places for threeand four-year-olds.

Further information

James Hempsall is director of training and research provider Hempsalls