Council offers training grants to increase childcare capacity

Locals can apply for funding worth up to £1,000 to help the Yorkshire authority meet its target of 500 additional staff, who will provide up to 15 hours of free childcare a week to the area’s 20 per cent most disadvantaged two-year-olds from September.

The additional staff will be spread across existing council-run nurseries, pre-schools and children's centres and independent sector providers judged good by Ofsted.

In May, the council's children's services committee warned more than 2,600 two-year-olds living in some of Bradford's most disadvantaged areas were at risk of not being able to access the government-funded entitlement.

The authority’s workforce development unit hopes the additional £300,000 of funding will ensure there is enough provision for all two-year-olds who need it, and that there are sufficient places available for when the entitlement is extended to the 40 per cent most deprived two-year-olds in September 2014.

Bradford Council’s workforce development manager Tina Lafferty said: "We are working to expand and develop the number of places we will need, and of course we need more early years practitioners with the right skills to deliver childcare for those children.

"We want to encourage more people to consider working with children, and we’re planning a programme of recruitment events that will offer more information and advice to people who are interested.”

As well as recruiting more people, the council plans to use the money to fund training for existing staff, particularly teaching them how to work with more vulnerable children.

The authority’s director of children’s services Kath Tunstall said: "Good quality childcare can be so important for children’s education, and supports their long-term progress at school. We want to develop the very best childcare we can.”

A report published by the council's children's services committee in May said one of the causes of the capacity shortage in Bradford was the location of existing early years settings.

Bradford Council has also tried to meet the demand by transferring £500,000 of funding intended to create non-statutory places in preparation for the 2014 entitlement to its capital funding budget to help meet the target.