Analysis: Poorest childcare provision is in deprived areas
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
The paradox of areas that need quality childcare the most having it in the least measure looks far from being solved. Simon Vevers asks why.
Children and families living in areas already experiencing relative deprivation face further inequity because they have less access to high-quality provision.' Given that the Government's ten-year childcare strategy placed a major emphasis on developing good-quality care in these areas to enable parents to find work or training, this assessment in the recent Ofsted review appears damning.
The report found that only 53 per cent of childminders in deprived areas provide 'good or better' childcare, compared with 60 per cent in the rest of the country, while the figures for daycare providers are 54 per cent in disadvantaged areas and 63 per cent elsewhere.
While there is a gap in quality, there is also a sharp difference in the take-up of formal childcare. The recent Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey 2007 found that families in the least deprived areas had the highest use of formal childcare - 47 per cent - while in the most deprived districts it was just 36 per cent.
The survey suggested that the high proportion of families in deprived areas giving educational reasons only for using formal childcare probably reflects the success of the free entitlement, and programmes such as children's centres and the Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative. And that's the nub of the problem, which is also threatening the sustainability of providers.
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), says, 'In these areas it may be that a higher proportion of children are taking the free early years entitlement only, which adds to the issue for nurseries who are underfunded when providing this, as there are no extra hours being taken where they can recoup losses.
'In addition, a number of providers took up funding under the Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative, which helped keep fees at a lower rate and supported the running costs of settings. Now that this has ended, this is causing financial difficulties as they work to keep parents and cope with running costs.'
LABOUR'S ASPIRATION
The NDNA has welcomed Labour's aspiration to expand free early education and childcare for two-year-olds, outlined by Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Labour's conference, but insists that to avoid this becoming a further threat to sustainability it needs adequate funding and the existing problems surrounding provision for three- and four-year-olds must be resolved.
Steve Alexander, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, echoes the view that families using only the free entitlement 'puts pressure on running costs'. From the PLA's own experience of running full daycare nurseries in deprived areas, he argues that the business model of fees covering outgoings is 'harder to sustain'.
He adds, 'The current childcare market with its free market aspirations hampered by well-intended, yet restrictive interventions, is causing problems for providers and parents.' He urges the Government 'to make well-resourced, stable and long-lasting childcare provision a reality by offering a supply-side subsidy' - that is, channelled direct to providers.
Mr Alexander says that local authority performance in this area, from the experience of the PLA, is variable. 'We would like central Government to make consistency in local authority performance a priority and to incentivise and promote the good practice and innovation that we know is taking place in some areas.'
STANDARD OF CHILDMINDING
There were considerable variations in the standard of childminding, according to the Ofsted report, with only 29 per cent good or better in the largely deprived London borough of Hackney, compared with a national average of 60 per cent. The highest was at 81 per cent in more affluent Wokingham in Berkshire.
Liz Bayram, chief executive of the National Childminding Association, says, 'Greater analysis is needed by local authorities in those areas of deprivation to assess whether the support and training they provide is adequate.'
She adds that, as the Ofsted report shows, childminders who have access to quality improvement networks are more likely to achieve good or outstanding gradings.
Michael Hart, Ofsted director children, expressed concern about the variation in quality and said, 'There are exceptions which buck this trend and from which we should learn.' The Ofsted report highlighted the achievements of Blackpool council which, despite being in a deprived area, achieved 75 per cent childcare that was either good or outstanding.
Sarah Lambert, head of early years education and childcare in Blackpool, says the local authority 'targets very specifically settings which we feel need additional support, advice, guidance and training. Being a relatively small authority allows us to do this, because we know all our providers exceptionally well.'
The authority has developed a Childcare Partners Scheme which links all the providers in the private, voluntary and independent sector and childminders to their local children's centre. This mechanism encourages settings to strive for high quality so children's centres can signpost parents to them. It also allows providers access to training and other initiatives.
The partners scheme and a new quality framework - a vehicle for settings to continuously improve their provision - are linked 'inextricably' to the local authority's capital spend programme. The council has also helped PVI providers to improve the quality of their offer to parents and children by assigning each of them a dedicated health visitor who can provide regular advice and support on health issues.
SUPPLY AND TAKE-UP
Recent childcare sufficiency assessments conducted by local authorities have also flagged up concerns about both levels of supply and take-up of childcare places in deprived areas.
The London borough of Enfield has been divided up into four childcare area partnerships (CAPs) - two in deprived areas and two in more affluent areas. Peter Chapman, Enfield's childcare business development co-ordinator, says in one of the deprived CAPs there are 6.5 children for every childcare place, while in a more affluent CAP the figure is only 2.5 per place.
But in spite of these differences, 'there doesn't seem to be a great clamour in the more deprived areas for places.' Mr Chapman says this begs a series of questions: do parents shun formal childcare because they can't afford it, don't need it because they are not working, or because they use their extended family instead?
In its childcare sufficiency assessment, Kent County Council found little difference in the price of childcare in more affluent areas compared with deprived areas. It suggests that 'price reductions or childcare subsidies could have a positive impact upon childcare usage in those deprived areas.'
The assessment points out that provision in these areas might also benefit from higher start-up and sustainability funding and greater support in developing appropriate services to meet local needs.
SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY
Alex Gamby, head of early years and childcare operations in Kent, says there are three key elements which need to be in place for a successful strategy: childcare that is accessible, affordable and of good quality; job or training opportunities; and people with the skills to do jobs or who are willing to be trained. 'If you don't get all those things in place at the same time, it undermines the validity of the whole package,' she says.
Ms Gamby says the authority has been monitoring what she terms its 'attrition rate' - how many childcare places have opened and how many closed. While the authority has had 'an extraordinary track record' of meeting government targets for the creation of places, she adds, 'we did get to the position at one point where the sustainability of childcare had become so challenging that we were losing more places than we were opening.'
However, Kent's early years childcare and extended services board moved to rectify the situation and will shortly be considering a draft sustainability action plan. Ms Gamby says providers need help with advice on business sustainability, how to market themselves and recruitment and retention strategies.
As local authorities absorb the findings from their sufficiency assessments, they may be in a better position to unravel the conundrum - ensuring that good-quality childcare in deprived areas is accessible and affordable to parents, and that sufficient numbers take it up to make it economically viable. But, as the Government pulls yet another initiative out of its hat - this time for free early years care and education for two-year-olds - pressure will build for more central Government support.
Steve Alexander sums up the urgency felt widely across the sector and in many local authorities when he says, 'We need to protect these family services so that children from disadvantaged backgrounds can reap the benefits of quality early education and to enable parents to work or to pursue qualifications and training.'
FURTHER INFORMATION
- Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey 2007 can be downloaded at: www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/DCSF-RR047.pdf
- Early Years: Leading to Excellence by Ofsted can be downloaded from www.ofsted.gov.uk.