Hampshire County Council Sufficiency Update s4

Hampshire County Council Sufficiency Update

Area: New Forest

Period: 01 July-30 September 2014

Report by: Sarah Davey – Childcare Development Co-ordinator for New Forest

Email:

Telephone: 023 80667360

Executive summary

Area demographic profile

This information is provided by the Local Development Team and indicates any known changes in the demographic profile in the area. Some of the data may not be statistical but what is known locally from networking with agencies and settings.

Childcare places analysis

This data is produced by the Local Development Team from known changes in the childcare market that have occurred in the period.

Childcare places analysis (balance sheet)

This data is produced by the Local Development Team from known changes in the childcare market that have occurred in the period. Please also see information in the data set tables below which give the detail. For the purposes of transparency where no details of childcare places have been provided an allocation of 3 childcare places for a Childminder and 1 childcare place for a Home child carer has been allocated.

Availability of places

During this reporting period there has been change in the numbers of registered provision in the New Forest District with gains in places for the full day care provision and the settings that are providing preschool services. The new registrations for day nursery includes a new setting in Fordingbridge but it also includes newly registered settings that have new management, hence there is also a closure. The new preschool registration also includes a new setting in Ringwood North and one other new registration in Hordle which will replace a setting that closed a year ago; some of the closures of preschool provision are due to the new management choosing to provide day nursery provision in future. There is one preschool that have closed since the start of the autumn term and the LDT will monitor the parental demand in this area. This is the second consecutive quarter period with no new child-minding registrations. The LDT will continue to work with our child-minding development worker to promote this sector of the workforce in the areas where there are gaps in the market.

Data sets

New provision

This is data that is known to the Local Development Team of childcare developments that have completed registration in the period. That data includes all types of provision including childminders.

Comment

The table above shows the ward areas where there is new childcare provision. The new provision in Hordle and Fordingbridge both will meet gaps in the market that have been evident since closure of other childcare provision over the recent years. The newly registered provision in Totton East and in Hythe West are as a result of changes in management and many families using the services of the previous provider are planning to continue to take up their early year’s education with the new providers.

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Under three’s new provision

This is based on the places known that have been developed for under threes in the period. The places information will have been extracted from the above table.

Comment:

During this reporting period the new registrations will generate additional places for children under 3 years, all of the new registrations will be taking children eligible for 2 year old EYE funding in their settings. The new day nursery provision in Fordingbridge will have 20 places that are specifically for babies and children under 1 year.

Proposed provision

This data below is known to the Local Development Team of proposed childcare provision that is expected to be developed. It is likely that these provisions have made application to Ofsted.

Comment:

During this reporting period the local development team have been working with newly registered providers who are developing new services to register for delivery of EYE funded places but there are no proposed registrations.

Provision under threat of closure

This data is provided by the Local Development Team to indicate areas where childcare operations that are known to have difficulty in the childcare market.

Comment:

The local development team continue to support the above setting to be able to continue to provide services. Hampshire County Council has put in some temporary measures to support the full day care provision to continue to deliver childcare whilst working together with the landlord to secure a long term solution.

Provision closed

This data provided by Local Development Team of known closures of childcare operations in the period.

Comment:

During this reporting period the losses of out of school childcare places are as a result of the cancellation of a provider who was delivering holiday care during the summer holidays only. Closed provision in Brockenhurst and Totton East has now been re-registered and both new providers are offering similar or additional services from the same premises. One preschool setting in Ringwood South has closed since the start of the autumn term and the local development team will be monitoring if the current market needs stimulation.

The child-minder sector of the market and with no additional child-minding registrations during this period is disappointing. The New Forest district continues to be supported in Child-minder recruitment by a project worker who has been employed to generate additional capacity in this district and another district with pressure on places for 2, 3 and 4 year olds.

Early Years Education

In the New Forest district over this reporting period has grown with 87 group settings from within the private, voluntary and independent sector providing services from the start of the autumn term and 72 child-minders have been providing early years education places for 3 and 4 year old children eligible for up to 15 hours early year’s education funding over 38 weeks.

Over the past 2 years settings in the district have been invited to be part of a stretched offer providing the early years education funding over additional weeks outside the school terms. Currently there are 16 settings in the district providing the 570 hours early year’s education available annually for children aged 2, 3 and 4 years, on a stretched offer which is available in the district with settings operating EYE services between 41 and 51 weeks.

There continues to be more settings working with the local development team to be able to provide places for 2 year old children who are eligible for the early years funding. The New Forest was part of a pilot offer for this funding and there are some ward areas where take up is well established and we are also having considerable numbers of applications from the areas with a high density of young families.

The following table shows the wards where applications for 2 year old funding have be received and awarded.

The following data is based on the settings that are approved to take two year old funded places.

Comment: