CEY1074
Written evidence submitted by Leeds City Council
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?
The current patchwork of programmes that make-up childcare support in England has been criticised for being complicated and confusing[1], with calls for redesign to simplify the childcare offer for families. One programme that is central to this is the ‘2-year-old’ offer, which entitles children from low-income families to 15 hours of free childcare per week. It is one of the government’s single biggest interventions aimed at closing the educational disadvantage gap, costing just under £500m a year.
However nearly a decade since its introduction, take up of the offer remains stubbornly low at 72%, and there are doubts about the contribution the offer makes to improved outcomes for disadvantaged children, with the gap in school readiness in England being relatively stable over the past few years and pre-pandemic[2].
The Fairer Start Local[3] partnership - Nesta, Leeds City Council, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and City of York Council - together with the Behavioural Insights Team, undertook work to research and test ways to improve the uptake of the offer. Our work focused on two key challenges:
The research findings informed the following recommendations to increase uptake of the 2-Year-Old Offer:
The recommendations listed above reflect the constraints of existing policy design. By making more radical changes to the system of childcare entitlements, we may be able to unlock much bigger impacts on take up.
As has been recently recommended by Nesta and Kindred Squared, replacing existing entitlements with a universal offer of 15 hours free childcare would cost just £480m more per year. Doing so would unlock potential positive benefits for take-up.
At present, parents must navigate a complicated system of differing entitlements at different ages. To promote the offer, different communications must be sent to different parents.
By making entitlements universal and consistent for all parents, the offer would become simpler to understand and promote. It would also make it easier to introduce auto-enrolment of parents into the offer as with a universal offer, there would be no uncertainty about eligibility. Additionally, universalism would remove any stigma attached to the two-year-old offer and could create important social norms around uptake.
We encourage DfE to consider the potential positive impacts on take up when assessing the recommendation to universalise the childcare offer at 15 hours a week for all children from 2.
Further recommendations, in line with many of those put forward by IPPR’s Delivering a childcare guarantee report, would be to:
Family Information Service have not conducted any customer surveys around affordability. The schemes for help towards childcare costs are promoted on a regular basis to childcare providers, support groups and other agencies such as Jobcentres; parents may also ring the helpline with any enquiries. The main avenue of information is the Childcare Choices website and a current promotional campaign for this has been launched by DfE in conjunction with LAs. A communication toolkit has been pulled together here Communications toolkit | Childcare choices This is to be distributed to all providers, play groups, advice centres and jobcentres in Leeds shortly.
Family Information Service are currently working on a request from the Local Government Association on some independent research they have commissioned around recent reported rises in private and voluntary sector nursery closures. Within Leeds, providers report struggling with rising costs such as energy, food, and wages, as well as a shortage in the labour market.
All LAs are required to include a Deprivation Uplift to their basic hourly funding rate. These are targeted at the most deprived areas and following consultation with providers, the rates are agreed annually by members.
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?
The Leeds Family Information Service have had very few conversations with parents struggling to find day-care places currently, but the service has helped to locate after school provision. No parent has reported being unable to eventually find a place. We do not have any data around the second part of the question on the impact of costs on returning to work. However, anecdotally, settings are seeing less demand for full time childcare as families who are returning to full time work, are using a combination of nursery provision and informal childcare from extended family or friends. A lack of affordable childcare can push parents out of paid work, or limit choices around employment.
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.
We do not feel able to judge the effectiveness of the various schemes in place.
What challenges do early years providers face in terms of workforce, including recruiting and retaining qualified staff and the barriers faced by individuals joining the profession? To what extent has the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated workforce challenges?
During the period of the pandemic, providers told us that many early years staff felt under- valued and that there was a lack of acknowledgement for the important work they did throughout the Covid period. Many staff left the profession and have taken up posts in hospitality and retail where they are able to obtain higher salaries for less responsibility.
Currently, providers tell us that they are struggling to recruit early years staff. There is a general lack of applicants for posts in settings, but also many of those that do apply do not have the appropriate qualifications, skills, or experience to undertake the roles that are required. Since the pandemic, where applicants are applying, we have seen a greater emphasis for applicants in considering their work/ life balance and inevitably they are seeking part- time or more flexible hours. The requests invariably do not meet the operational needs of a nursery setting which requires staff to be able to work a shift pattern to cover the opening hours.
Many settings have reported that they are using more agency staff than they have done in the past. However, these organisations are also struggling to recruit, and when settings approach agencies for temporary staff they are often not available.
The recent increased awareness of the DfE online qualification checker has meant that more settings are now checking staff qualifications to ensure they are full and relevant. However, in several settings this has highlighted that some qualifications are not full and relevant, and this has then impacted on staffing, ratios etc.
In Leeds, the Local Authority managed early years provision (Little Owls settings) have successfully managed a childcare apprenticeship programme in partnership with Leeds City College, for several years now and this has proved very effective in growing and nurturing our own workforce. Some private providers are also considering this but may not have the infrastructure to implement this.
Recommendations:
Importantly, the sector requires adequate funding to secure its viability going forward and to be able to pay staff more to make childcare an attractive career option.
Whether the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) system is meeting the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND), and the improvements that could be made to better support young children with SEND within early years provisions.
SEND continues to be a huge challenge for early years settings. It is a regular point for discussion whenever we meet with providers. They are committed to providing an inclusive setting for the children in their care but are experiencing a range of issues. They report increased numbers of children with increasingly complex SEND needs since the pandemic. Many children have missed out on experiences, socialisation and language opportunities during the pandemic which means they also need additional support to reach their developmental milestones.
Staffing challenges mean that it can be difficult for settings to provide what they know the children need to support their development and progress. Releasing staff to complete necessary paperwork, attend review meetings, meet with parents etc. is increasingly challenging. Some providers are finding it difficult to recruit staff to support children with SEND and many don’t have the necessary skills to do so. As a result of these challenges, many private providers signpost families to the Council run provision, evidencing the importance of the LA meeting this vital need
To what extent does the early years system adequately prepare young children for their transition into primary education, particularly children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Early years providers are very much aware of the importance of their role in preparing children for the transition into primary school, and they know the skills and knowledge that children need to support this transition.
In Leeds we share the EYFSP data with all Early Years providers so that they are aware of the areas of learning that need further support to close the gaps for children. We also highlight the groups of children where attainment is lower and offer advice to better meet the learning needs of these children. We provide a range of training and Continuous Professional Development across all sectors of early years providers to give staff the skills they need to support and extend children’s learning.
Currently, providers tell us that the challenges around staffing, recruitment and capacity is impacting on their ability to provide the best education and care for children. Many report that they are still in “crisis mode” and not operating at their full potential. They feel frustrated that they know how they need to support children’s learning but are limited in how they can implement this due to lack of staff and lack of appropriately qualified staff.
In Little Owls settings we want our children and families to be prepared to succeed in school. As such we ensure that we are providing them with the social and emotional skills they will need as well as the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to learning to best support them moving forward. A key element of Little Owls work is being aware of and addressing any barriers to learning. The UNICEF description of school readiness underpins the Little Owls understanding and approach to ‘school readiness’ and has shaped our transition procedures. There are three elements that inform our approach to transitions:
Children’s readiness for school and how this affects their learning and development.
Data from Little Owls nurseries clearly shows the impact early intervention has on the attainment of children.
For children who will be starting school in September 2023 we can see there has been a significant increase in the number who are now working ‘on track’ for their age from their entry assessments. (City Wide data for the Little Owls settings)
PRIME AREAS – Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language and Physical Development |
Entry–– 34.66 % of children were on track when they started at the settings |
Autumn 2 2022 – 67% of children were on track |
This is nearly double the number of children who are now on track and the children still have 2 terms before they transition into schools. |
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ALL AREAS- including Prime areas and Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design |
Entry - 27.85% of children were on track |
Autumn 2 2022 – 53.57% of children were on track |
This is nearly double the number of children who are now ‘on track’ and they still have 2 terms in settings before starting school. |
The Making Words Count initiative in Leeds settings has had a significant impact on children’s communication and language.
Data shows that for the children who will be starting school in September 2023 there has been a 31% increase in the number working ‘on track’ in communication and language from when they started in the nursery to the December 2022 assessment. This is a significant increase, and this cohort of children will be at Little Owls settings for another two terms.
Early years settings and schools’ readiness
Families’ readiness
Our curriculums are developed around the unique needs of the children and the local communities and as such should ensure that children have the key foundations to move forward with their learning. Our approach to transition and the work we undertake with children, schools, other settings and parents and carers is vital.
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.
In Leeds, we have retained all 56 Children’s Centres which provides the opportunity for co-location of midwifery and health visiting services. Although the funding for the Family Hubs Programme is currently only reaching a limited number of Local Authorities, in Leeds we are currently undertaking a review of Early Help Services with a view to developing a family hub model soon.
January 2023
[1] An example of this being recently discussed can be found from Kindred Squared and partner organisations: https://457e40.n3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Solutions-for-an-Improved-Early-Years-System.pdf
[2] https://www.eif.org.uk/report/an-initial-assessment-of-the-2-year-old-free-childcare-entitlement
[3] A Fairer Start Local was established between Nesta and (i) City of York Council (ii) Leeds City Council (iii) Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, with the intention to see an innovation partnership approach could produce actionable insights to improve support for families in their children’s early years, from conception to age five.