Even my local newspaper, the Eastern Daily Press, ran this front page headline recently: "Race to find child places – challenge of free education for two-year-olds". The article reported that Norfolk County Council will struggle to create enough places in just 20 months.
I’m sure Norfolk is not alone. Many local authorities will find it difficult to find capacity in existing provision or to create new places to meet the target of 15 hours of free early education for 40 per cent of the most disadvantaged two-year-olds by 2014/15.
I’m sure if I trawled through every local authority’s childcare sufficiency assessment, it would show a shortfall in two-year-old places. Indeed, many of these assessments are now out of date and need to be reviewed to give a more up to date picture. The race is on to build capacity while ensuring quality. But I wonder how many local authorities have started to tackle the problem. There’s no doubt the task will be a challenge. Coupled with the increasing birth rate, even more places are going to be needed over the coming years.
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