Childcare champions project a success

The National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) has been carrying out a project with the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) to look at the impact of childcare champions in communities.

Networks were set up in five local authority areas comprising of local authorities, children's centres, parents, daycare providers and Jobcentre Plus.

The networks recruited and trained childcare champions to promote childcare and make people aware of the financial help available to families not using childcare or hard-to-reach families.

In each area the champions shared information about childcare through open days at children's centres, at the school gates, and during drop-in sessions at Jobcentre Plus centres.

Initial feedback from the project, which has been running since early 2008, has been positive, the NDNA said.

Comments made highlighted how the champions helped dispel some of the myths around formal childcare and improve parental understanding and confidence. Nurseries said their involvement in the network and contact with the childcare champion helped them increase take-up.

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of NDNA, said: "Some positive comments and outcomes have already been achieved in the areas piloting this approach and we look forward to seeing how this initiative can develop even further."