Doubts hang over future of NHS childcare
James Tweed
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
The NHS childcare strategy is facing an uncertain future, according to a report produced for the Department of Health, despite its proven benefits to NHS staff over the past four years. The report, NHS childcare strategy impact analysis, produced for the NHS by the Daycare Trust, said there was 'some uncertainty and concern' about the strategy's future after this April, when new arrangements will see childcare funded out of local NHS Primary Care Trust budgets. It warned that there was 'a real danger that with the switch to the new funding regime, the NHS childcare strategy will lose much of its momentum'.
The report, NHS childcare strategy impact analysis, produced for the NHS by the Daycare Trust, said there was 'some uncertainty and concern' about the strategy's future after this April, when new arrangements will see childcare funded out of local NHS Primary Care Trust budgets. It warned that there was 'a real danger that with the switch to the new funding regime, the NHS childcare strategy will lose much of its momentum'.
The report, which was published last week to coincide with the third NHS childcare conference in York, found that the strategy appeared to be achieving its aims. It was introduced in 2000 to support the provision of good-quality, affordable and accessible childcare for NHS staff.
But the report noted that many of the initiatives undertaken by the strategy were 'still in their infancy and have not yet had sufficient time to make their full impact on meeting parents' childcare needs or improving their working lives'.
The report undertook a detailed analysis of the strategy's implementation in five areas across England. Interviews were conducted with 33 childcare co-ordinators and 35 NHS staff with childcare needs. More than 80 per cent of NHS staff members with children said they had found the strategy helpful in meeting their childcare needs and that it had had a 'significant impact'
on their working lives.
The report said, 'The biggest impacts have been in helping to retain staff in the NHS, enabling parents to return from maternity leave, reducing sickness and absence levels, and improving the job satisfaction and morale of staff members with children.'
The NHS childcare strategy has seen 140 new nurseries or nursery extensions built or put in the pipeline, providing 6,000 new and subsidised nursery places, as well as the appointment of more than 230 local NHS childcare co-ordinators.
But the report found there was a need for more before- and after-school clubs as well as more provision for children aged 11 and over during school holidays.
The report also cast doubt on the future of the strategy. It said an area for concern was 'the fact that funding for the NHS childcare strategy was no longer ring-fenced' and that many childcare co-ordinators 'felt it was inevitable that in coming years Primary Care Trusts would divert monies away from childcare to service areas that they regarded as higher priority'.