(A) Carol Arnfield: Head of Service, Early Years, School Standards and Adult Education, LBB
(B) Liz Hodgman: Early Years Strategy Manager, LBB
Minutes:
The Committee had been provided with a range of written evidence in advance of the meeting. This included a report explaining the position in relation to Early Years, Childminding and the 30 Hours Challenge in Bromley, as well as a link to the Department for Education Evaluation of the pilot schemes that had been run in relation to the provision of 30 hours funded childcare.
The Chairman was pleased to welcome Carol Arnfield, Head of Early Years, School Standards and Adult Education (LBB), Liz Hodgeman, Early Years Strategy Manager (LBB), and Angela Leeves, Chairman of the Early Years Foundation Stage Forum and Early Years provider to the meeting.
Context
The Head of Early Years, School Standards and Adult Education clarified that one of the Local Authority’s duties in relation to childcare provision was to provide information, advice and assistance to parents and prospective parents, which included people who were expecting or planning a child. The majority of childcare provision in Bromley was delivered through the private, voluntary and independent sectors; however the Local Authority provided two maintained nurseries at Blenheim Children’s Centre and Community Vision Children and Family Centre. Charges to attend the maintained nurseries were currently set at the lower end of the market rate, although increases in charges were planned for April and September 2018 that would bring nursery fees in line with other local provision. A new structure would also be introduced to the two maintained nurseries to make them more commercial and create additional places.
The Chairman emphasised the importance of promoting the excellent quality of Early Years provision available in Bromley as well as upcoming opportunities for training and employment in the Early Years sector.
Early Years Provision
The Early Years Strategy Manager explained that Bromley had a significantly higher number of childminders than any other London Boroughs, supplying 2877 childcare places which was 25.7% of the total number of Ofsted registered Early Years places within the Borough. People who provided care in their home for children for more than two hours a day as a paid provision were required to register as childminders unless they had a close family relationship to the child they were caring for.
With regard to specialist provision, the Early Years Strategy Manager confirmed that all Early Years providers were expected to offer care to children with special educational needs and disabilities that met their individual needs, and that this was supported by a programme of assessment and additional funding. The Outreach and Inclusion Team provided support to Early Years providers in meeting the needs of children with high level special educational needs and disabilities, and this could include the involvement of other professionals. The Phoenix Centre offered a range of Early Years services to children with special educational needs and disabilities such as classroom assessment, but the emphasis was on supporting children to remain within mainstream settings where appropriate.
The 30 Hours Challenge
The Head of Early Years, School Standards and Adult Education reported that the Local Authority had taken steps to ensure that Early Years providers were delivering funded provision within statutory guidance by requiring all providers to submit their admissions policy when agreeing provider contracts. Early Years providers were able to charge for hours over and above the funded entitlement.
The Chairman of the Early Years Foundation Stage Forum and Early Years provider confirmed that the exercise of reviewing her provision’s admissions policy to ensure compliance with statutory guidance had been a useful exercise. It ensured that her admissions policy was up-to-date but had also assisted with the identification of budget implications in relation to changes to funded entitlement.
Training
The Chairman of the Early Years Foundation Stage Forum and Early Years provider advised Members that Early Years providers from across the full scope of provision including pre-schools, childminders and after-school clubs were invited to attend a termly meeting of the Early Years Childcare Development Partnership to share information and promote best practice.
The Early Years Strategy Manager reported that information sessions for Early Years providers were run on a termly basis at different venues across the Borough and were very well attended. Regular e-bulletins outlining changes to funding were supplied to Early Years providers by the Early Years Funding Team.
The Head of Early Years, School Standards and Adult Education added that relevant items from the Schools Circular were also supplied to Early Years providers.
IT Systems
The Head of Early Years, School Standards and Adult Education confirmed that the Local Authority had received £31k from the Department for Education to develop a bespoke system that could interact with the Local Authority’s Oracle system in processing funding claims for Early Years entitlement. This had been necessary due to the increased complexity of funding claims and the short notice in introducing 30 hours funded childcare. There was potential to explore whether this bespoke system might be saleable to other Local Authorities with a comparable IT infrastructure.
Future Capacity
The Head of Early Years, School Standards and Adult Education informed Members that a bid had been made to the Department for Education’s 30 Hours Delivery Support Fund for 9 projects totalling £69k which aimed to increase capacity within the Early Years sector and that the outcome of the bid would be confirmed shortly. This included the delivery of a childminder recruitment and training programme with the aim of recruiting 30 new childminders for the Orpington and Mottingham areas.
The Early Years Strategy Manager confirmed that it was difficult to project future demand, particularly in relation to 30 hours funded childcare which was not taken up by every parent or carer, and that a part-time staff member had been recruited to undertake work on sufficiency of childcare places. The distribution of capacity across the Borough was subject to market forces. Some wards with a perceived shortage of places were served by surplus provision in neighbouring wards whilst attempts to introduce additional Early Years provision in other areas of shortage, such as Darwin ward, had not proved popular with parents and carers. A number of Bromley schools had expressed an interest in establishing their own nursery provision which was expected to build further childcare capacity across the Borough.
The Early Years Strategy Manager advised Members that there was a shortage in qualified Early Years practitioners locally and nationally that was partly due to a change to the entry requirements for Level 3 Early Years qualifications which had now been amended. To address this, work was being undertaken to explore the potential to develop the two Local Authority maintained nurseries as ‘training hubs’ for students and apprentices working in partnership with Bromley Adult Education Service, local training providers and children and family centres.
The Vice-Chairman noted that new Early Years providers sometimes struggled to establish their business as they were unable to obtain Class D1 (non-residential institutions) permission, and suggested that the Local Authority develop a similar approach towards Early Years policy and planning as that used for the schools expansion programme.
Universal Funding for 3 and 4 Year Olds
The Early Years Strategy Manager confirmed that parents were eligible for 30 hours funded childcare if they were in paid work (with both parents in work in a two parent family) and were earning the equivalent or more of 16 hours at the national minimum or living wage; however if one parent’s wage exceeded £100k, they were no longer eligible. This applied to parents who were employed, self-employed or on zero-hours contracts, including people in receipt of Universal Credit. In considering the funded childcare offers available, the Two Year Old funding was primarily aimed at children identified as being more vulnerable for reasons of low household income or with identified special educational needs or disabilities, the Three to Four Year Old funding was a universal free entitlement, and the extended entitlement for 30 hours funded childcare was to support parents in or moving into employment.
The Chairman thanked Carol Arnfield, Liz Hodgeman and Angela Leeves for their excellent contribution to the review.
The Chairman invited Angela Leeves, Chairman of the Early Years Foundation Stage Forum and Early Years provider to join the Education, Children and Families Select Committee as a Co-opted Member representing Pre-school Settings and Early Years from the 2018/19 municipal year.