Labour creates taskforce to find sustainable childcare solutions

One of the few policy announcements made at the Labour Party annual conference was for the creation of a taskforce to review its policies on early education and childcare.

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner told party activists gathered in Liverpool that the childcare taskforce would identify ways to "transform early years provision for every family".

"Our aim will be to provide the care and support for every child to fulfil their potential and to help parents back to work," said the Ashton-under-Lyne MP.

"Access to affordable, high-quality childcare and early years learning is one of the most effective drivers of social mobility. Getting it right will improve the life chances of countless children across the country. That must be our mission."

Chaired by Liz Snape, deputy general secretary of public services union Unison, Rayner said the taskforce will also include Labour's shadow education team and childcare experts.

Children's centre cuts

Central to the taskforce's work will be defining the future role of Sure Start children's centres.

Rayner claims that 800 of 3,631 children's centres have closed since 2010, with "more to come - shutting the door in the faces of our children and their parents".

The Department for Education and government refutes the figures.

The DfE's own database shows there are 3,265 children's centres or "linked sites" in operation.

A DfE spokesperson says: "Many councils are merging centres to allow services to be delivered more efficiently. Where they decide to close a site, they must demonstrate that the outcomes for children would not be adversely affected and will not compromise the duty to have sufficient children's centres to meet local need."

However, earlier this year, CYP Now revealed that 1,006 centres had been closed or downgraded between 2010 and 2015.

This consisted of 295 closed buildings and 731 sites where services have either been merged or reduced to such an extent that they can no longer technically be called a children's centre and so have been "de-registered".

In addition, CYP Now analysis in April showed that in 2015/16, cash-strapped councils had announced proposals to close a further 400 centres.

At the conference, Rayner said the support she received at a children's centre when she was a teenage parent had played a pivotal role in life.

"I left school at 16, pregnant, with no qualifications," she said. "Some may argue I was not a great role model for today's young people. The direction of my life was set, but something happened.

"Labour's Sure Start centres gave me and my friends, and our children, the help and support we needed to grow and develop. They changed the lives of three million children and their parents."

The taskforce review will be taking place at a time of great uncertainty over the government's plans for children's centres.

In addition to council budget cuts and closures, a consultation on the future of the role of centres is yet to materialise, despite the government announcing last year that it would be published by the end of 2015.

Meanwhile, Ofsted suspended inspections of centres in April 2015 pending the launch of the consultation.

Left to their own devices, councils have been developing new ways of organising and delivering children's centres services, such as offering targeted support instead of universal access, and bringing in charges for some provision.

Others have developed models that have seen centres' services incorporated into children and family hubs, providing a much wider range of provision to the most vulnerable families.

Michael Pavey, director of campaign group Labour Friends of Sure Start, says Rayner's speech would boost the profile of children's centres.

"This is an opportunity to bring early years to the forefront," he says. "It is very sad that centres are closing - it should always be the last resort as demand is still sky high.

"There needs to be a strong funding commitment from the government so councils don't feel the pressure to close centres."

He wants the taskforce to consider how children's centres can better share facilities and services with public health.

"The future of early years provision has to be about getting collaboration and integration of services," he adds.

Free childcare funding

On free childcare, Pavey warns against Labour getting drawn into a "bidding war" on the number of free hours children are entitled to, as happened at the 2015 general election.

Instead, he wants the taskforce to look at how the free entitlement can be delivered sustainably and broaden the debate to consider how it helps public health and not just its role in supporting parents into work.

"In 2015, we were getting feedback that Labour's policy [25 hours of free childcare] was going to be difficult to deliver. We need to try to come up with a feasible solution," he adds.

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, agrees with Pavey that the taskforce needs to find long-term answers to free provision.

"In the run-up to the last election, political parties on all sides made promises to parents on childcare that were not necessarily feasible, sustainable or, crucially, in the best interests of children. This approach must change," Leitch says.

"We hope the taskforce will work with the sector to ensure that any early years policies developed by Labour are directly informed by those working on the frontline, and have the needs of the child at their core."

Megan Jarvie, head of policy and public affairs at the Family and Childcare Trust, says: "The current government's record in investment recognises the importance of high-quality childcare.

"However, too many families struggle to access childcare that boosts children's outcomes and fits with parents' working hours and pay packets.

"Childcare is part of our infrastructure: we need to make sure it works for children, parents and society as a whole."

The DfE spokesperson adds: "Giving children the best start in life and supporting working families with the costs of childcare is at the heart of the government's agenda.

"That is why we will invest record amounts in childcare, increasing spending to more than £6bn by 2019/20."

‘Taskforce must meet the changing needs of families'

By Denise Burke, former Labour parliamentary candidate and non-executive chair of Poppy and Jacks

The announcement by Labour's shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, to set up a childcare and early years taskforce must be welcomed, but it does feel a little deja vu.

When Labour was last in government, one of its major successes was the National Childcare Strategy launched in May 1998 and the creation of universal Sure Start children's centres following the 10-year childcare strategy in 2005.

The strategy was the kick start for childcare providers to set up new provision to provide parents with accessible, affordable high-quality early years and childcare. The number of childcare places more than doubled.

Many families benefitted from the wealth of services provided by children's centres - including Angela Rayner herself, and she now wants more families to have similar opportunities.

But government priorities changed. Many children's centres have closed and many of those that remain are little more than ghost ships.

Policies and initiatives have been and gone, but demand for childcare has not just grown, it has also changed. For example, parents now work much more flexibly, but childcare is still based largely on the 9-5 working model.

The plan by Labour to bring together experts to create a childcare taskforce is laudable, but it should not be about trying to reinvent the wheel. It should be about being very clear about the needs of families, unmet needs, what has worked in the past and what didn't.

The outcome must be ambitious for children and families and universal, while ensuring that resources and funding are targeted at those families that need help most.

There were some fundamental mistakes made previously - initiative followed initiative, bolt-on without integration, funding seemed to be plentiful yet some families fell through the gaps. But when it worked, it worked well.

There will be lots of ideas pushed by experts on the taskforce, but it also needs to hear from parents facing the daily childcare challenge. In addition, the taskforce must look and learn from further afield to countries where it is taken for granted that high-quality childcare and early years services are the main driver for social mobility.

Enormous challenges

The sector-wide challenges are enormous. Much early years provision is now provided by schools, which has a direct impact on nursery sustainability. The proposed early years national funding formula may help provide a more level playing field and some schools may not see it so financially appealing to offer pre-school provision going forward.

We know that the most vulnerable families did not attend children's centres without the support of outreach workers, so it is not simply a case of re-opening centres. Consideration has to be given to the role of local authorities and the third sector to support families.

One failure of the National Childcare Strategy was not creating adequate provision to help families with children with additional needs. Finding suitable childcare is not an option for many parents.

But ultimately, the taskforce's biggest challenge will be funding a new strategy. It is easy for experts to compile a wish list that could transform early years provision for every family in the 21st century. But Labour should not raise expectations and promise a childcare strategy in its manifesto that it cannot deliver.

In Numbers

3,265
Children's centres or "linked sites" on the DfE's database

800
Number of children's centres Labour claims have closed since 2010

£674m
The amount councils plan to spend on children's centres in 2016/17 - 12 per cent less than last year and half that spent in 2011/12

Source: Department for Education, Labour Party, local authority section 251 returns 2016/17