Councils confirm 30-hour childcare funding rates

Staffordshire County Council has confirmed that early years providers will receive a flat rate of £4 an hour for every eligible child.

The council has said it will be working with local employers to find out how the 30 hours can encourage parents back into work. The council will offer 415 places for eligible working parents.

Ben Adams, Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet member for Learning and Skills, said, ‘Every provider who takes a child as part of the 30 hours trial will receive £4 an hour for the whole 30 hours.

‘We believe the flat rate for all involved is the best way to encourage participation across the sector.’

Mark Sutton, the council’s cabinet member for Children and Young People, added, ‘The trial scheme has limited places and we do hope the programme is rolled out to all eligible parents in 2017. The extra hours will help give children the best possible start in life and will make a real difference to working families in Staffordshire.

‘The trial will also see us working with a number of local employers, which will help us understand how extra funded hours of childcare can be used as work incentives and to help us further develop flexible packages of care for families.’

Wigan Council has also confirmed its rates. Its pilot will also offer 415 places and providers will be paid a rate of £3.88 for the full 30 hours.

James Winterbottom, director for children’s services at Wigan Council, said, ‘This is a fantastic opportunity for childcare providers to work with us to influence how the 30 hours free childcare scheme will work and to make it a smooth process for families when the national rollout happens in September 2017.

‘We recognise that some families will be disappointed to miss out and we would love to have had the opportunity to help everyone benefit but we are limited by the project to these 415 places.’

There are two aspects to the pilot. The first is the development of early years clusters, which will bring together early years providers to work in partnership and develop childcare packages designed to offer parents more flexibility in how they use their entitlement.  Secondly it will offer support to the long-term unemployed who have citied childcare expense as a barrier to returning to work, the council said.

The Department for Education has also asked the council to focus on the inclusion of children with special educational needs and disability in the pilot.

Providers will also be offered business support to assist them in determining the financial advantages of taking up the extended offer and enable them to identify the actual cost of delivery per hour for two-, three- and four-year-olds.

Wigan said that settings have been coming forward to take part in the pilot. They include nurseries, childminders and primary schools.

Childminder Kate Hill from Little Caterpillars said, ‘The 30 hour offer available to parents from September is great for everyone: enables parents to get into work, childcare providers to secure long-term places, and more importantly allows more young minds to access quality childcare. At Little Caterpillars we can't wait.’

Helen Halliwell from New Lodge Pre-School added, ‘We are positive that parents in Wigan will benefit from this pilot scheme and are looking forward to being involved and gaining new experiences from this.’

All of the pilot areas will be offering 415 30-hour places from September, except York which is the only area to be trialling a local authority-wide scheme.

30-HOUR PILOTS: CONFIRMED FUNDING RATES PER HOUR