More Affordable Childcare
Background
More Affordable Childcare incorporates the Government’s response to the consultation earlier this year on the role of the local authority in the early years.
More Great Childcare set out plans to:
-Reformearly years qualifications and introduce Early Years Educators and Early Years Teachers
-Strengthen the inspection regime, making Ofsted the sole arbiter of quality
-Introducing new Childminder Agencies, to increase the number of childminders and improve the training and support they can access.
More Affordable Childcare builds on this, setting out plans to:
-Help families to meet the costs of childcare
-Increase the amount of affordable provision
-Give parents the right information so they can make informed choices about childcare
Challenges
4.2m families in England use childcare, whether informal arrangements with family members and friends, or more formal care such as nurseries, after school clubs and childminders.
Many people who want to work find it too difficult because of prohibitive childcare costs. It is not always available when parents need it, and the traditional school hours of 9am-3pm do not fit with working parents.Only half of parents are able to find suitable term-time childcare to fit their working schedule.
Needs of parents
Over half of stay-at-home mothers would prefer to be in paid employment and nearly a quarter of employed mothers would increase their working hours if they could arrange reliable, convenient, affordable, good quality childcare.
There is not enough before and after school care for children aged 5-11. Nearly two-thirds of parents of school-age children say that they need before or after school or holiday care to combine family and work.
Better regulation of childcare is also required to avoid confusion for parents and inefficient processes.
Costs of childcare
A 2011 survey found over a quarter of families found it difficult or very difficult to meet childcare costs.
According to the Family and Childcare Trust, the average price of a nursery place for a child under two in England is now £4.34 an hour. This is around £5,600 per year for a nursery place of 25 hours p/w.
According to Family and Childcare Trust figures, over the last decade childcare costs have increased significantly; rising by more than inflation since 2003, and faster than earnings since 2008.
Proposals in More Affordable Childcare
‘More affordable childcare’ sets out the government’s plans to help working parents access the childcare they need when they need it, in particular by:
- helping schools to offer affordable after school and holiday care, either alone or working with private and voluntary providers
- enabling nurseries to expand by reducing red tape and removing planning restrictions
- ensuring that childminders and nurseries that are good or outstanding can automatically receive government early learning funding for 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds
- supporting parents to access more informal care
More funding
This year will see funded early education places for 2 year olds from 20% ofthe lowest income families – rising to 40% next year.
There will be an additional £200m of support for lower income families within Universal Credit from April 2016, which could raise the childcare element of Universal Credit to 85% of costs for eligible families.
A new Tax Free Childcare offer for working families not receiving tax credits or Universal credit, will see government cover20% of childcare costs (worth up to £1,200 per child). Under 5s will be eligible from autumn 2015 building up to under 12s in future years. The scheme will benefit 2.5m working families.
More newchildminders
The government is making £2 million available over the financial year 2013-14 to help parents set up new childcare businesses. For potential new childminders, grants of £250 are available to help with start-up costs, such as training, Ofsted fees, or insurance. For those looking to start a nursery or after school club, grants of £500 are available.
Informal childcare, by friends or neighbours, will only be required to register with Ofsted if they are offering at least 3 hours of regular care instead of 2.
Less restrictive regulation
Greater clarity is required because childcare providers are not always clear about what the law requires them to do and what they have discretion to decide.
There is unnecessary complexity over different childcare registers as providers look after different age children and then must follow different rules. A new childcare registration scheme will lead to single, consistent welfare and safeguarding requirements for all childcare providers.
Registered childcare providers will be able to register more than one set of suitable premises in a single process, and to notify Ofsted of any new premises without completing a further registration process.
In June, a new DBS Update Service started. Employees and volunteers working closely with children only have to apply once for a certificate and can choose to subscribe to the Update Service. An employer or other organization can then go online for an instant check to see whether the certificate is up to date. This will mean childcare registration and employment checks will take less time and cost less.
Children enrolled in a school reception class do not need a duplicate ‘learning offer’ from an early years provider they attend before or after their school day therefore providers offering before and after school and holiday care for four- and five-year olds in reception will no longer have to meet the early years foundation stage learning and development requirements for these children.
Local authorities as champions of disadvantaged children and families
Local authorities have responsibility to support the weakest providers to improve quality and as champions of parents and children especially the most disadvantaged, in narrowing the gap.
Whilst Ofsted will be solely responsible for inspecting provision there is an expectation that local authorities will work alongside Ofstedto improve the quality in those settings deemed less than good.
Local authorities should only fund early learning places for two-year-olds in settings judged to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.
The government will remove local eligibility criteria from LAs so they can’t refuse to fund a place at good or outstanding sites.
New role for school sites
Families should see their children’s primary school as a single-site location of their child’s education as well as before and after school childcare.
The government wants to see primary school sites open for longer, 8am – 6pm if possible, offering a blend of education, childcare and extra-curricular activities. Schools can now open & close when they see fit and have freedom to arrange term and holiday dates. Looking at the length of the summer holiday period may help parents manage the costs and practicalities of expensive holiday childcare.
More information for parents
The government will commission an independent organisation to look at how information is presented to parents.
DfE survey shows 38% of parents say there is not enough information available to them about childcare in their area.
The DfE wants to ensure that there is transparency about public funding for early education. Ithas published data online which allows comparison of how much local authorities pay childcare providers for each early education place.