Funding for two-year-olds – are you reaching the families that need it most?

I was interested to read the results of a recently published study stating that children on free school meals lag just as far behind their more affluent peers in a good school as they do in an inadequate one.

This research underlines what many working in children’s services know already – there is a lot more to closing the achievement gap than the quality of a child’s schooling alone. The right help needs to be put in place for disadvantaged children and their families much sooner than the school years.

The government has introduced a number of schemes designed to improve outcomes for children from poorer families. One of these is around early years funding, which is already enjoyed by all three and four-year-olds and is to be extended to 40 per cent of the most disadvantaged children aged two.

This will be welcome news for many families. But one thing I’ve learnt from speaking to local authorities is that encouraging parents, whose lives may be complicated by many difficulties, to take up their entitlement to funded childcare can be a challenging task.  This needs addressing as providing the right support earlier in a child’s life could play a key role in helping to close the achievement gap.

Simplifying the process

A good place to start might be to make it easier for parents to find out if they qualify for the funding available for two year-olds. In the past, families would need to call their authority or complete a form. But offering this service online means they can quickly check if they are eligible themselves. If they are eligible, they can apply for the funding at the same time, quickly and easily. This helps to speed up the process and saves hours of time for authority staff responsible for processing applications.  

However, there will be some parents who do not have access to the internet or have little or no experience of using computers – these could be among the most deprived families in an area, with children who would benefit from services such as funded childcare.  

Some authorities have been able to get more of these families to apply by enabling a member of staff from the local children’s centre, a social worker or other practitioner the family is already in contact with to log on from wherever they are and guide parents through the whole process. Using one login, they can check a family’s eligibility and apply for a place at a local setting in no time, helping to ensure that the most vulnerable children in the area get the firm foundations they need.

Closing the gap

In some areas there can be a lack of good quality early years provision for young children and it might be this that is behind a slow take up of funded childcare – for some families, driving or paying for public transport to a nursery a few miles away is simply not an option.

Many councils are working hard to respond to the different needs of the most disadvantaged families in their area. This is critical to giving more vulnerable young children a much better start in life than they might otherwise have had.

Phil Neal is managing director at Capita One