CEY0976                              

Written evidence submitted by Be Buckfastleigh

Childcare Entitlements
•              How affordable and easy to understand is the current provision of childcare in England and what steps, if any, could be taken to improve it, especially in relation to families living within the most deprived areas in England?
•              Are the current entitlements providing parents/carers with sufficient childcare, and to what extent are childcare costs affecting parents/carers from returning to work full-time?
•              Whether the current Tax-Free Childcare scheme, and support for childcare from the benefits and tax credit system, is working effectively or whether these subsidies could be better used within other childcare subsidies.

Parents report that the current system of childcare entitlement is challenging to navigate, in terms of what the entitlement is, what it can be used for and how to access it.

The current entitlements and additional childcare costs do not allow for parents to return to full-time work. This is especially relevant in small rural communities where there is no work or no suitable work available and where a commute to the nearest larger town adds an additional 2 hours to the working day. Parents who are looking to return to work full-time are then needing childcare for an absolute minimum of 47.5 hours a week.

Unless parent/carers are skilled and fortunate enough to be working within the education sector, they will be needing to access stretched, all-year-round funding, which not all childcare providers offer. This is further compounded in smaller, more rural communities where schools are small and therefore require less support staff, which is often the most suitable type of work for parents. (As an example, the Primary in this locality has just 152 pupils on roll and is small enough for the school to operate in composite classes).

Where providers do offer stretched funding, it leaves parents in full-time work needing to pay for over 25 hours childcare per week at an average cost of £119.07 per week (Coram Childcare Survey, 2021). This, based on the NMW for over 23’s (gov.uk), equates to parents working a day and a half a week just to pay for the childcare which enables them to go to work full-time. This, when compared to a parent working part time (24 hours per week), with the same two-hour daily commute, shows them needing to work for less than four hours a week to pay for the additional childcare needed. Nevertheless, they still need to pay.

Even if parent/carers work for an employer who offers childcare vouchers and they can navigate and utilise this system, the parent working 5 days a week is better off by just £28.09 per week than their part-time (3 days per week) equivalent working parent. This equates to the additional two days per week paying them, in real terms, just £1.75 per hour. Parents therefore are needing to make a choice between working part-time and spending an additional two days per week with their young child(ren) or working full time and those extra two days being worth a little over £14 each. None of these figures include the cost of a parents’ daily commute which, when considered, will mean that the full-time working parent is actually paying to go work for those extra two days.

Early years provision

•              The extent to which the reduction of Sure Start Children’s Centres has affected children and families, particularly children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and the role of Family Hubs.

The following evidence has been collected as part of an Early Years Pilot project being run by Be Buckfastleigh CIC:

Parents and carers are struggling to access universal services such as ante-natal support and health visitors. Factors such as the fragmentation of service delivery, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ability to travel for appointments or to access services all play their part in this. This is leaving families feeling isolated and without the support and resources that they need to support children in their early years.

Parental mental health is being impacted, which further reduces parents’ emotional capacity to recognise the need for- and to seek support. It is recognised nationally that children’s development has been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and this is exacerbated in areas of poverty and deprivation, such as ours (DfE, 2021, NESTA, 2023). Additionally, the lack of childcare also leaves parents and carers unsupported as they do not have access to the skilled professionals who can support them and signpost to other agencies and forms of support.

Parents of multiple children speak with emotion and regret of the current lack of access to Sure Start centre’s (specifically) and describe them as having been a “lifeline” for them as parents with their young children. To fill this gap in services, Be Buckfastleigh are providing a weekly drop-in session for free for children and families and are organising sessions to be led or attended by Action 4 Children, the County Council, breastfeeding peer supporters, speech and language specialists, Baby Massage instructors and inclusion and diversity specialists, among others. This group is incredibly well attended, and parents report the significant impact that it has had on their mental health since starting to attend. This is demonstrated by analysis of the ONS adult well-being survey that parent/carers are asked to complete when starting to attend and then again after 12 weeks of regular attendance.

A key aspect of this is that it is not just those families who are confident to attend new groups and seek support who attend, but the regularity and consistency of this well organised and welcoming group has attracted harder to reach families who are now able to access and be signposted to further support. This is only possible because it is being funded by a CIC, which many smaller towns and villages do not have the privilege of having access to.

The significant benefits that are being seen by families being able to attend this group is testament to the impact that Sure Start Centres had and have on families and the devastating effect when they are removed. The local county council were not successful in their bid for funding for a Family Hub, and the adjoining councils who are able to begin this process are, again, not able to be accessed by local families who cannot (logistically or financially) attend sessions unless they are in their immediate location. The need to for Family Hub’s or centres that are accessible to all is of paramount importance. Particularly for those families living in areas of poverty and deprivation.

Dr Su Maddock
Be Buckfastleigh Chair

References:

Department for Education (2021) Study of early education and development (SEED): Findings from the coronavirus (COVID-19) follow up. Accessed at: [https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1030051/SEED_2020_Report.pdf]
Gov.uk (2022) National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates. Available at:
[https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates]
Jarive, M., Shorto, S., and Partlett, H., (2021) Coram Family and Childcare: Childcare Survey 2021. Availbale at: [https://www.familyandchildcaretrust.org/sites/default/files/Resource%20Library/Childcare%20Survey%202021_Coram%20Family%20and%20Childcare.pdf]
NESTA (2023), A Fairer Start. Primary Focus: Early Childhood. Available at: [https://www.nesta.org.uk/fairer-start/]

January 2023