CEY1517

Written evidence submitted by Oxfordshire County Council

Oxfordshire County Council has a mixed childcare and early years education market of over 1000 providers. There are approximately 1500 eligible funded 2 year olds and 12,770 eligible 3 and 4 year olds children. In the Authority’s providers we see approximately 94% take up.

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? 

• With a number of different entitlements on offer dependant on child age and family circumstances it can be difficult for parents to navigate.
• Both tax-free childcare and childcare support under universal credit are paid retrospectively. This means that parents have to pay upfront, which is something low-income families often can’t afford.
• To improve social mobility for those families living in the most deprived areas the government should consider doing more to subsidise childcare from the point that parental leave ends to support parents re-joining the workforce at that point.
• If universal entitlements and extended entitlements started at the age of 2, it would streamline the offer making it easier to understand and provide increased financial assistance allowing more parents to work and use formal childcare. This could also remove the stigma (caused by access to supported childcare at 2 years old being restricted to those on low/no income) and therefore increase take up. The approach would require adequate funding to develop and sustain availability of places.

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?

• Anecdotal feedback from parents is that the current system does not enable them to take up all of the childcare that they need in order to remain in or return to work
• For many families, the entitlements do not cover hours sufficient for them to work. Some families require up to 50 hours of childcare and find it difficult to fund.
• Childcare at either end of the day is disproportionately expensive to deliver and settings often exclude these times from hours that free entitlements can be used for.
• Providers inform us of continued cost pressures with regards to business rate increases, employers contribution to pensions; national living wage increased and the erosion of salary differential, inflation costs that are not supported by an early years hourly rate that has been cash limited for a number of years.
• The recently announced reforms are welcomed but do not go far enough to address the underfunding of early education places therefore providers have to find ways to pass on the costs to working families in order to subsidise the ‘free’ entitlements so that provision remains viable.
• The cost of childcare has increased considerably in the past year:

• Day nurseries fee have seen a 28% increase since 2015, increasing by 12% in the past year
• In comparison from 2015 - 2022 the average wage increase for the South East was 18.6% increasing by 4.6% in the past year making childcare costs increasingly unaffordable
• Increased cost pressures for providers along with change in parental demand has inevitably led to the closure of some settings thus reducing the overall availability and choice of childcare.

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

• Generally there is a poor understanding of the Childcare Tax scheme including who it is aimed at, how it works and how it differs from other benefits and support.
• Feedback from providers and parents themselves is that there is a lack of awareness of the scheme among parents with some of those eligible unaware. On some occasions families are taking up a paid for childcare space they cannot afford because of misunderstandings around tax free childcare benefits and eligibility. On the other hand, some parents do not consider returning to work because of a lack of awareness of support potentially on offer.
• A simplified and streamlined scheme to ensure support is accessible and equitable would be welcomed. This should be considered alongside increased funding of universal and extended entitlements.

Early years provision 

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?

• Salary of workforce is an issue especially in a cost of living crisis as practitioners can earn more money taking up employment in other readily available job such as in supermarkets.
• Fewer new entrants are coming into childcare profession (we have seen a reduction in schools and colleges offering childcare qualifications)
• Cost of qualifications – providers struggling to pay for staff to complete the necessary qualifications (e.g. Level 2 and beyond) and also releasing staff for study time as they don’t have the capacity to do this
• Fewer supply/agency staff available and these are often very expensive and unqualified
• Brexit impacted upon European workers who would come to the UK to learn English and work in childcare (some large chains specialised in working with different countries to attract workforce) 
• Managers/Owners more often in ratio in class which prevents them from doing strategic work and can lead to poor outcomes with Ofsted.
• In Oxfordshire, settings have found it increasingly challenging to maintain a good or better judgement. Insufficient staffing ratios and qualifications are mentioned in an increased number of reports. Shortages of appropriately qualified staff has led to providers found to be in breach of requirements resulting in an inadequate judgement. Following any inadequate judgement, in line with guidance, the LA removes funding for early years places which for three providers over this past year who were already struggling financially has resulted in closures.  
• The EY workforce worked front line during COVID looking after key workers’ children, they worked long hours and felt they put themselves and vulnerable family members at risk. Low pay and cost of living crisis has now further impacted upon this group of low paid workers who report they feel undervalued by society and the government.
• The pandemic has changed the needs of working parents with more home working and the need for more flexible childcare. Many providers are unable to provide this therefore numbers drop and the business struggles to be viable. Demand in major towns has decreased as more parents choose childcare close to home rather than near or at their previous office base. 
• More children appear to have Special Educational Needs and many of these are much more complex and challenging and therefore the workforce is dealing with issues (e.g., medical) that they are not equipped to deal with and require additional resource
• More young children start early years provision with delayed development e.g., in potty training, because of Covid lockdowns and loss of parental support and social networks during their child’s first years. Practitioners report having to spend more time on ‘care’ than before the pandemic.

Whether the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) system is meeting the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN), and the improvements that could be made to better support young children with SEN within early years provisions JD

• Children with special educational needs are increasingly struggling to find settings that are able to accommodate their needs and consequently we are seeing many more children not being included and without access to early years education. This has definitely worsened during and since the lifting of COVID restrictions.
• The most common reason given by settings and school nursery classes for not including children with SEND relates directly to problems with recruitment and retention of staff in this sector i.e. if a child is likely to need additional staffing to keep them safe and meet their needs many settings lack confidence in being able to recruit these additional staff.
• The improvements that would make a difference relate to pay and conditions for early years staff
• Currently OCC supports the inclusion of children with high levels of SEND in early years settings via funding from the high needs block. The number of applications is increasing year on year and putting an increasing stress on a budget that is already vastly overstretched and in deficit.

To what extent does the early years system adequately prepare young children for their transition into primary education, particularly children from disadvantaged backgrounds

• The revised EYFS needs to further embed nationally in order for a view to be gathered regarding transition to primary education. The EYFS Profile is designed to help with transition to ensure all Y1 teachers have a clear picture of a child’s attainment and needs before starting school.
• With the change of ELGs, teachers need to become more familiar with them to ensure a good transition to meet children’s needs
• Emphasis on the curriculum in the EYFS dovetails with the work being done in primary schools – to ensure progression and continuity for all learners from nursery to Year 6
• Children with SEND do require specific help and support with transition and the EYFS Profile does make reference to this although our LA provides training, documentation, support and grants in order to ensure this is effective.
• Transition for any child from the EYFS into KS1 (school) needs to be carefully planned to involve parents and all professionals and the child. Research tells is that children from disadvantaged backgrounds require more support and guidance. In Oxfordshire we have developed a School Readiness Strategy to help with transition as the current EY system does not prepare children and their families and practitioners for this movement from one stage to another.

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 reduction of these centres has put further pressure on settings and schools/ and voluntary and community groups to ensure that they help support children and families from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• For example, applying for a place at school (school admissions) is something previously that a Children’s Centre would have supported disadvantaged families with however this is now up to any provider (as long as the child attends). Often the staff don’t have time or capacity (staffing issues) and therefore some families are at risk of missing out on a place at their preferred school because they are unable to access the system due to EAL, lack of ICT, Literacy skills etc
• Given the pressure on staffing (recruitment and retention issues) in our schools and settings, work to support vulnerable families is often squeezed putting extra pressures on this sector and resulting in some families not receiving appropriate Early Help whereas in the past a children’s centre could have picked up this work and also provided valuable outreach.
• We have seen a considerable decline in effective early identification and support for families of children with emerging SEND since the closure of children centres. The identification of need is reliant on overstretched health visiting teams and early years settings who as discussed above are often not sufficiently staffed to carry out this work effectively.

January 2023