Childcare Sufficiency Assesment Recommendations 2011-2014 - consultation

BRISTOL CHILDCARE SUFFICIENCY ASSESSMENT (2011) Consultation on Recommendations

Bristol City Council Early Years Service would like to invite all parents, providers, employers and all those who have an interest in early learning and childcare provision in Bristol to comment on our draft Childcare Sufficiency Assessment (CSA) The purpose of the CSA is to help us make the best use of resources by targeting support and investment in areas where early learning and childcare is needed the most. We are committed to ensuring that all children have an excellent experience of learning and care, that provision is accessible and affordable for working parents and that our providers are supported in delivering high quality, sustainable provision. It was with this commitment in mind that we conducted a citywide survey between July and September 2010 to find out what parents, children, providers and employers think about our services. Your response was tremendous and we would like to thank everyone who took part. We have made an assessment of your responses, looked at other relevant data for the areas you live and work in, and have come up with a number of recommendations for an Action Plan for 2011-2014 . We would now like to invite you to comment on these recommendations by completing and submitting the feedback form. This report is divided into 12 short sections. You may comment on all or any of the sections by Friday 4th March. We will look at your comments on our recommendations to finalise our Action Plan. We aim to publish a full and detailed CSA report and Action Plan on line by the end of March 2011.

Thank you for your time and interest

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SECTION 1: DAYCARE PLACES FOR CHILDREN UNDER 4

1. This Section includes day care provided by Children’s Centres and day nurseries. It does not include childminding places which is covered at Section 5

FINDINGS

2. Our analysis of the number of day care places per 100 children highlighted that the following wards have the lowest provision

Ward

Number of places per 100 children aged

Birth - 2

Ward

Number of places per 100 children aged

2-4

Brislington West 0 Windmill Hill 0Windmill Hill 0 Brislington West 0Whitchurch Park 1 St George West 3Southmead 2 Whitchurch Park 3St George W 2 Eastville 4CITY AVERAGE 12.2 CITY AVERAGE 15.44

Source Data: Mid 2009 ONS Population Estimates/Ofsted data Recommendation 1 To monitor take up of baby places in wards with lowest levels of provision and support expansion / development of provision where feasible. This will include looking at what is available in neighbourhood wards, demand from parents, and sustainability of current provision

Note: Where wards are colour coded this represents the three areas of Bristol as follows

You can click on the map links below to see where current provision is located.

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SECTION 2: DAY CARE PLACES FOR 2 YR OLDS IN DEPRIVED AREAS. 1. In April 2009, a national pilot scheme was introduced requiring Local Authorities

to deliver 15 hours of free early learning and childcare to two-year-olds living in the 20% most disadvantaged areas. Since that time, Bristol Early Years Service has delivered over 300 places to eligible children.

FINDINGS

2. Our data for demand for places between October and December 2010 shows

that there is a greater demand for places in East Central and a pressure on places in some wards in the South of the city.

Locality

Total number of places offered immediately

Total number of children on the waiting list

East Central 69 23 North 37 6 South 23 15

Source Data: Mid 2009 ONS Population Estimates/Ofsted data

Recommendation 2 To prioritise wards in East Central and South for developing and sustaining pre-school childcare provision to meet the pressures on demand for 2 year old places

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SECTION 3: FREE EARLY LEARNING PROVISION FOR 3 AND 4 YR OLDS

1. This provision is for early education places with Local Authority nursery schools and Classes and private, voluntary sector and independent pre-school and playgroups. Capacity for this provision also includes 50% of registered day care places for 2-4 year old

FINDINGS

2. Our analysis of the number of day care places per 100 children highlighted that the following wards have the lowest provision

Wards with the least number of places per 100 children

Ward

No. of places per 100 children

Windmill Hill 34 Brislington West 49 Lockleaze 57 Hillfields 59 Easton 70

Source Data: Mid 2009 ONS Population Estimates/Ofsted data

3. We also know that children in Bristol East Central have the lowest take up of free early learning places (86.31%) as compared with Bristol North (96.95%) and Bristol South (94.53%).

4. It is estimated that there will be specific issues for parents in Lawrence Hill due

to a projected 20% rise in childhood populations and the pressure on places for enhanced provision, that is, provision which some children are eligible for which may includes extra hours or family support

Recommendation 3 To prioritise Central and East and South 4 for developing and sustaining early education provision, particularly in pre-schools with an emphasis on the Lawrence Hill Area.

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SECTION 4 OUT OF SCHOOL PLACES FOR CHILDREN OVER 5 YEARS

1. Key challenges in developing and sustaining out of school provision have been identified as affordability and take up, with 60% of After-school providers reporting vacancies July 2010

2. Providers will continue to need support in business planning and marketing their

services and in identifying new ways of working together, for example shared transport schemes. We currently fund a highly successful project to encourage providers of Out of School activities to register with the Voluntary Childcare Register. Parents on low incomes, who use registered childcare could be entitled to support with child care costs. With targeted business support the VCR project could lead to more affordable fees for parents and will support this sector in becoming more sustainable.

3. We are also aware of the need to work with our partners in the Council who are

responsible for providing play facilities for young people and also those who provide after school activities to make sure that we are working in ways which offers parents the greatest choice and quality of provision, and that this is accessible and affordable for parents.

Findings

Number of Holiday and After School places Our findings show that there is either no or very little out of school provision in the following wards

Ward

Number of holiday places

per 100 children aged5-11 Ward

Number of after school places

per 100 children aged5-11

Easton 0 Bishopsworth 0Brislington West 0 Brislington West 0Bedminster 0 Eastville 0Filwood 0 Filwood 0Hartcliffe 0 Hengrove 0Knowle 0 Knowle 0St George East 0 Stockwood 1.3CITY AVERAGE 4.6 CITY AVERAGE 3.4

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Recommendation 4

To undertake feasibility research into developing out of school places in areas of shortfall wards identified, including partnership working between out of school clubs Recommendation 5 To support the sustainability of Out of School provision through business and crisis support and registration on the VCR .

Recommendation 6 Improve strategic working arrangements with partners in the City Council to support the sustainability of the Out of School sector.

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SECTION 5 CHILDMINDING PLACES FOR CHILDREN FROM BIRTH TO 8 YEARS

1. Bristol currently has 415 childminders 80 of who are on the enhanced provision scheme which delivers family support with childcare. We are pleased to report that an increasing number of childminders are joining the recently launched Bristol Childminding Network for quality assured and accredited care. Childminding is one of the most affordable and flexible forms of childcare and the recruitment of childminder remains key priority for the Early Years Service.

2. We have also found that a significant number of people who are interested in

becoming childminders drop out between achieving entrance qualifications and getting their registration from OfStED because of waiting times. We are committed in working with potential childminders to overcome this challenge and will offer continued support.

Findings

Our findings show that the wards with the lowest number of childminding places are as follows

Ward

Lowest number of places per 100 children aged

Birth - 8

Parental demand for total number of childminding

sessions for 2011Cabot 0 7Cotham 0 21Clifton 1 8Filwood 1 10Stoke Bishop 1 21Lawrence Hill 1 39Redland 1 41CITY AVERAGE 4.18 32 Source Data: Mid 2009 ONS Population Estimates

Recommendation 7 To market childminding as a career option and target recruitment in areas where there is likely to be a shortfall in provision for children of all ages due to population increases and parental demand. This will include support to potential childminders to secure registration

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SECTION 6 : QUALITY QUALITY IN EARLY YEARS PROVISION

1. Bristol is committed to the provision of high quality childcare for all children in early year’s settings. The Code of Practice for Providers delivering the Flexible Free Entitlement (formerly Nursery Education Grant) states Bristol City Council will, wherever possible, prioritise investment in the highest quality providers and prioritise support to those of lower quality, in the delivery of the free entitlement.

2. Current summary of Ofsted Judgements in recent early years inspections is set

out below Private Day Care – 66.6% of providers are good or outstanding and there are no unsatisfactory settings. Voluntary Day Care – 60.5%66.6% of providers are good or outstanding Maintained Day Care – 77.8%of providers are good or outstanding and there are no unsatisfactory settings. Independent sector – 80%of providers are good or outstanding and there are no unsatisfactory settings. The overall effectiveness of Nursery Education has been rated 100% good or outstanding 65.7% of childminders have been rated good or outstanding We also use the Early Years Quality Improvement Framework (EYQIF) to identify the the support needs of providers rated Satisfactory or Inadequate. The Early Years Consultants Team works with key partners to deliver a comprehensive package of training and support to cover all aspects of the Early Years Foundation Stage and we wish to build on this success

Recommendation 8 To continue to develop the role of the Early Years Consultants Team, Children’s Centres, Lead Teachers and commissioned partners in raising the quality early years provision across all sectors Workforce Development

3. Bristol aims to place an Early Years Professional in every Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) full day care settings by 2015. Currently 53 settings (74%) receive Graduate Leader Funding to support them in either training or retaining graduate leadership in their setting.

4. The Early Years and Childcare Service also awards bursaries to practitioners

working or volunteering in Bristol settings who undertake qualification courses. The level of bursary ranges from 50% to 90% of the course fees. 220 practitioners across the city are receiving bursaries as of December 2010.

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Recommendation 9

Ensure that support is available to enable settings to retain highly qualified staff (QTS, EYPS).

Recommendation 10

o To target settings which need support in improving the qualification levels of their staff, to ensure that they are working towards employing graduate level staff by 2015.

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The Bristol Standard

5. The self-evaluation framework, known as the Bristol Standard, is designed to help nurseries, pre-schools, reception classes, out of school providers and childminders to reflect on, assess and improve their practice. The Bristol Standard has received national acclaim and currently 269 providers of early education have achieved or are working towards achieving it

Recommendation 11 To continue and to expand the delivery of the Bristol Standard across all sectors including Childminding Quality in Childminding Provision

1. The Early Years Service launched the Bristol childminding Network in June

2010 to boost the recruitment of childminders and to put in place a quality assurance framework for childminders to increase access to training, resources funding and networking. We are committed to ensuring that as many childminders as possible can achieve or maintain the required Ofsted grade to be part of the accredited network and access all the benefits of the Childminding Network membership.

2. Bristol’s Quality Improvement Framework for childminders also provides a tool to ensure that support from the local authority is targeted effectively and that childminders receive appropriate levels of support to improve the quality of early learning and care.

Recommendation 12 To work with Childminders to continuously improve the quality of care through Network membership and accreditation

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3 Quality in Out of School Provision

1. Most out of school providers are now required to register on both the Early Years Childcare Register and the compulsory Childcare Register. On-going training in the Early YFS has, raised the confidence of playwork practitioners in working with the youngest children. This has had a significant impact and has resulted in a marked increase in numbers of settings achieving higher Ofsted judgements

2. Another challenge for the Out of school Sector, has been the requirement for

a Level 3 practitioner to lead settings. Training for Level 3 staff needs to be a priority if we are to sustain the current market.

Recommendation 13 To prioritise investment in the EYFS training and refresher courses, to the Out of School sector Recommendation 14 To work with training providers to ensure there is sufficient Level 3 training available to meet the needs of the sector.

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SECTION 7 TAKE-UP OF CHILDCARE FOR BME CHILDREN

1. Bristol has seen a significant increase in the diversity of its childhood population. The chart below shows the take up of childcare places by BME communities in the wards with the highest BME childhood populations.

Ward

Estimated %of children

(under 14) from Non-

White British Background

in Ward (Highest Wards)*

Estimated take up of

Daycare places from

Provider Survey

Responses

Estimated take up of

Out of school places from

Provider Survey

Responses

Estimated % of accessing

Early Learning from Early

Years Census

Lawrence Hill 83 66 69 86Easton 63 0 0 63Ashley 61 43 86 69Eastville 60 46 94 64Cabot 49 11 46 71CITY AVERAGE 29 22 34 33

*Source Data: Combined Data from Careplus, Health Apr 2010, EY Census 2010 and PLASC Data 2010.

Findings

2. The findings show that families with BME children have high take up of free early learning places in the wards they live in but that there are some gaps in the proportionate take up of places for day nurseries and after school care, ie for fee paying places.

THE VIEWS OF PARENTS

3. Comments received from parents with BME children both on the survey forms and through our focus groups shows the following:

• A lack of knowledge about what childcare is available • A lack of ability to pay for childcare, because of low incomes, numbers of

young children in the family and lack of awareness of support for childcare costs

• Lack of childcare choices because parents tended to live in areas where there are increasing pressures on childcare places

• A lack of awareness of help available for parents who are studying or training or volunteering for work experience

• A concern that childcare providers may not be able to accommodate children from different religious and cultural backgrounds.

• A lack of ethnic diversity in the early years workforce

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BME PILOTS

4. In 2008/2009 Bristol City Council was invited to participate in a national pilot to raise the take up of early learning and childcare for families with BME children.

5. Bristol’s pilots were nationally showcased and there was an agreement to

implement the recommendations from the evaluations of these pilots.

6. Recommendations which are relevant to the comments raised by BME parents responding to this survey are include in the Action Plan

Recommendation 15 Increasing take-up of free early learning and participation in free 2 year old places by newly arrived BME families

• Programme of partnership working with BME community groups, Health Visitors and social care agencies, providers and parent support agencies to promote, publicise and broker take up of accessible early learning.

Recommendation 16 Increased take-up of tax credits for working parents in BME communities

• IAG workers to target and monitor take up of the childcare tax credit by BME parents, through partnership working with employers, childcare providers, Job Centre Plus and community advice agencies

Recommendation 17 Increasing access of out of school care for BME communities

• Training community outreach workers to offer an information and brokerage service to parents

• Training and briefing for after school providers on continuously improving

practice to make provision accessible to BME children and parents.

• Service planning to take into account religious, cultural and particular working patterns of the diverse community groups particularly Bristol Central and East.

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SECTION 8 ACCESS TO CHILDCARE FOR DISABLED CHILDREN VIEWS OF PARENTS OF DISABLED CHILDREN: DISCUSSION FEEDBACK Children Under 5

1 Parents of disabled children and children with special education needs were

asked about their views on access to childcare over a period of six months through visits and discussions at parent support groups and approximately 20-30 parents all with children under 5 years of age gave their views.

“What difficulties, if any, did you experience in finding childcare for your child that could effectively include them and meet their needs?”

2 Findings from the survey can be summarised as follows:

Information about Inclusive Childcare • Parents had experienced difficulties in finding information about settings

with staff who were experienced in supporting children with Special Educational Needs, particularly where children required treatment or medication when in nursery

• Parents who had found an inclusive childcare setting expressed their relief at being able to trust practitioners and feel welcome and supported by both the setting and the multi agency support that could be facilitated in the placement. Somme settings in the city were able to offer this very effectively

• Parents also expressed the need for setting to have access to equipment such as sensory equipment to meet children’s needs

• Concern was expressed by a few parents around an insufficient number of specialist provision placements for children during reception year

Quality of Childcare

• Parents felt that there was a lack of experience within settings around how to talk sensitively to parents about the subject of their child’s SEN and supporting children with SEN .

• Parents of young children expressed concern around being able to find childcare where practitioners have enough experience and confidence to include and support their children

• Parents want to feel confident that the support provided to child and family from outside professionals in the home needs to translate to the childcare setting.

VIEWS OF PARENTS OF DISABLED CHILDREN: SURVEY RESPONSES Children over 5

3. We received 95 separate comments from parents of disabled children in

response to our Parent’s survey, with the majority of children in the over 5’s age range.

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4. The key themes can be summarised as follows: • Lack of services for children with complex needs • Lack of inclusive provision for children and young people aged 8+ • Lack of suitable provision for disabled young people aged 14+ • Staff not being able to meet their child’s needs or to protect children from

being bullied • Significant number of comments about affordability particularly as many

parents of disabled children were only able to work part time, and concerns about lack of information about help with childcare costs.

• Continued frustration at the perception that parents with disabled children should not work

• Some very positive comments about specific settings which can be used for modelling good practice.

D CATCH

5. The government provided all local authorities with funding in 2010-11 to

support the Disabled Children’s Access to Childcare or ‘DCATCH’ programme which is part of Aiming High for Disabled Children. It aims to improve access to child care for families with disabled children.

6. The DCATCH project in Bristol has focussed on ‘Increasing capacity,

inclusion and improving quality’ by developing a standard Inclusion Induction Training Programme for Early Years Practitioners, and offering training to an identified member of staff in each early years setting to provide a basic level of training around supporting children with additional needs for all staff during their induction. This training programme can easily be adapted for out of school providers and the training rolled out to playwork staff and this should be seen as a priority

Recommendations 18 and 19: Roll out the DCATCH Induction Training Programme to all Early Years and Out of School Providers Recommendation 20: To ensure all parents, and particularly parents of disabled children have access to accurate up to date information on their childcare options and information on help with childcare costs

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SECTION 9 AFFORDABILITY OF CHILDCARE PROVISION INCREASING TAKE UP OF CHILDCARE TAX CREDITS

1. The take up of credits to help with childcare costs is crucial to lifting children out of poverty and to stimulating the growth and sustainability of quality childcare provision in areas of low income. Recent welfare reforms and budget announcements will mean that less help with childcare costs will be available but potentially for more working parents, and that more lone parents will be in the job seekers market.

2. The charts below shows the wards with the highest proportion of working

families on low incomes who are not claiming any help with their childcare costs. This could be for a number of reasons, but in order to ensure that there is maximum take up of childcare support, these are the wards where we need to target information and advice work

Wards with the lowest take up of childcare support costs by two parent families.

ALL Families Claiming WTC & CTC

60 8010

65 65 50 75

400

500

55

370300

210

305

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

Filw ood Law rence Hill Clifton Southmead Hartclif fe Stockw ood Kingsw eston

families not claiming childcare element

families claiming childcare element

Source: HMRC @ 31/8/2008 The comparative figures for the whole of the city is 10,120 of which 2,440 families (24%) are benefiting from the childcare element.

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Wards with the lowest take up of childcare support costs by lone parent families

ALL Lone Parents Claiming WTC & CTC

5 10 10 25 45 4010

5595

65

150

235190

50

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Clifton Westbury-on-Trym

Cabot Know le Filw ood Hartclif fe Stoke Bishop

lone parents not claiming childcare element

lone parents claiming childcare element

Source: HMRC@ 31/8/2008 3 The comparative figures for the whole of the city is 6,855 of which 1,505 lone

parents (22%) are benefiting from the childcare element.

Recommendation 21 To investigate why the take up of childcare tax credits is lower than city average, and to target IAG work in the wards with low take up

OTHER SUPPORT FOR PARENTS WHO ARE WORKING OR STUDYING Recommendation 22 To deliver Information Advice and Guidance support for parents of children over 5 Recommendation 23 To provide advice and support for very low income families who are seeking to study and train and who have exhausted all other funding streams .

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SECTION 10 CHILDCARE INFORMATION

1. The following charts set out responses from 2,018 parents on how they found out about childcare.

2. There are implications here for targeted work with providers and partner

agencies to increase access to information about childcare for parents.

Sources of Childcare Information

40.58%

27.95%

16.60% 13.53% 9.76% 8.47% 5.15%0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%

Friend /Relative

School Other Council /FIS

Otherinternet

Parent /ToddlerGroup

Dr'sSurgery,Health

Clinic orHealthVisitor

% r

espo

nses

3. The figures for Libraries and Job Centre Plus were too low to chart (at 8 out of 2018 parents each) and we have reflected this in our recommendation

4. We have also learnt from our work with families whose first language is not

English that the most accessible way of finding out about childcare is through community networks and venues. Families of Disabled Children have asked for specific information about inclusive and accessible childcare with experienced staff.

5. We have included actions to address both these concerns in the sections

above.

Recommendation 24 Increased partnership working between the Family information service and partners in Job Centre Plus and Libraries

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SECTION 11 Listening to Children 1 An Early Years and Play consultant was also commissioned to consult with

children to find out their views on early learning and childcare provision through the use of questionnaires, photographs, observations and conversation in early learning and play settings. A total of 980 children took part in children’s consultation.

The report with its recommendations of good practice is available on this webpage (please see ….) and we are committed to ensuring that the recommendations in those reports are shared with all our providers delivering early years and out of school childcare. Recommendation 25 • All Early Years settings receive a copy of the report and its findings regardless

of whether they contributed to the report and are encouraged to act upon the key recommendations.

• The Early Years consultants team use the key findings to support training delivered to providers

Recommendation 26 • All Out of school settings receive a copy of the report and its findings regardless

of whether they contributed to the report and are encouraged to act upon the key recommendations.

• Key support agencies use the findings of the report to encourage providers to act upon key findings

• Training opportunities in outdoor activities and healthy eating currently being delivered through the Holiday Play Pilot are continued and expanded for all of the Out of School sector

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SECTION 12 EMPLOYERS SURVEY

1. The employment rate in Bristol has fallen by approximately 2% since 2007

but remains the highest of the English Core Cities at 71.3%. In the last 3 months (Aug to Oct 2010) JSA claimant rates have decreased in most areas of Bristol. There were however 6 wards, which included the four wards (Ashley, Easton Filwood and Lawrence Hill) with the lowest rates of employment which showed an increase in unemployment relation to the working age population

2. As women are predominantly the primary child carers it is significant to note

that 76% of women of working age are economically active (as compared to 81% of men of working age) and that women earn an average hourly wage of £11.13 per hour (as compared to an average hourly wage of £12.93 per hour for men) . These figures are from the Annual Population Survey Oct 2008 – Sept 2009

3. The average cost of childcare per hour would constitute between 40-50% of

female earnings, with childcare for the under 2’s in daycare being the most expensive and childcare with a childminder the most affordable.

4. Responses from our survey shows that employers are aware and supportive

of working parents and there is a general willingness to find out more about supporting childcare in order to retain and recruit staff. 50 employers asked us for further information which can be summarised as falling within the following themes:

• Choosing Childcare

• Flexible Working Practices

• Paternity Leave

• Salary Sacrifice Scheme

• Tax Credits for Working parents

5. It was interesting to note that the employers who indicated the highest levels of support for working parents were also employers with the highest proportion of female staff

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Support for Working Parents

2.6%

19.1%

0.3%

0.3%

0.9%

0.9%

1.7%

0.3%

48.6%

12.4%

12.7%

28.0%

16.2%

17.9%

7.2%

2.6%

5.6%

24.5%

10.8%

5.9%

3.5%

5.9%

14.7%

5.2%

63.3%

20.3%

13.3%

26.6%

21.3%

21.0%

21.0%

3.8%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Childcare vouchers - incentive

Childcare vouchers - salary sacrifice

On-site childcare

On-site nursery / creche

On-site out of school care

Employer childcare subsidies

Childcare information

Access to a Childminder network

Flexible working hours

Non-statutory maternity leave

Non-statutory paternity leave

Parental leave

Adoption leave

Leave for dependents

Information on WTC and CTC

Other

% respondents

% Female Employees 0-50% % Female Employees 50-100%

Supporting Employers A number of actions have been identified to support working parents through employer support. These include:

• Information to employers about benefits of family friendly working practices • Information to employers on supporting working parents • Working with employers to disseminate information about tax credits • Brokering relationships between employers and childcare providers particularly

in areas where there is relocation of employers • Providing updated information about childcare choices, particularly where there

have been changes to entitlement

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Recommendation 27

The development of an employer support strategy to explore the feasibility of a package of support for employers, including support to meet the challenges of changes in working patterns for staff

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