Free childcare needs to be more flexible
Cathy Wallace
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Nurseries need to move away from a rigid, take-it-or-leave-it attitude if they are to deliver the extended free childcare entitlement flexibly, a local authority has warned.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has said the free entitlement, to be increased from 12.5 to 15 hours a week by 2010, must be delivered flexibly and has said local authorities piloting the extension can decide how to go about this.
But Colin Davison, pathfinder project officer at Peterborough City Council, one of the authorities chosen to pilot the extended free entitlement, has warned daycare settings in particular must be prepared to move away from a rigid, 8am to 6pm model.
A DCSF official told CYP Now: "Most local authorities fund 38 weeks for 12.5 hours a week but some recently lobbied the department that due to local demand they wanted to spread the entitlement over a different period. The DCSF is sympathetic to this."
A spokesman for the DCSF said pilot authorities, including Peterborough, had been given the opportunity to choose how they delivered the flexible entitlement, and said once the pilots were over the department would discuss the best way forward.
Davison said the experience in Peterborough had showed some providers needed to move away from a "they come to us" attitude with parents and accept their role is to work around the needs of parents.
"Now a lot of providers are realising they have to respond to parental need. Some day nurseries may say, we're flexible already because we're open from 8am to 6pm but in fact, some have been finding parents wanted them to open earlier, for example at 7am."
He added good publicity for the extended free entitlement was essential for local authorities to ensure parents were aware of what was available. Peterborough has been using a special Pathfinder Bus, which advertises the extended free entitlement and Davison said many parents had responded well to this form of publicity.
But he said he was surprised at the lack of communication Peterborough had received from the 20 local authorities recently announced to be the next to implement the 15-hour free entitlement (CYP Now, 14-20 November 2007).
