Childcare providers gear up for the influx of two-year-olds

The parents of England's 130,000 most disadvantaged two-year-olds will be able to claim 15 hours of free childcare from their local provider from September. Local authorities have had almost three years to prepare for the entitlement, but with budget cuts and government reforms to the early years sector, will settings be ready in time?

Achieving Two Year Olds (A2YO), the Department for Education's national support organisation for the two-years-old scheme, will assess the nationwide level of take-up next month.

The DfE has informed local authorities of how many two-year-olds it estimates will be eligible for free childcare, which is based on the 20 per cent most disadvantaged households for September 2013, extending to the 40 per cent most disadvantaged in 2014.

This year, eligibility criteria focuses on children entitled to free school meals and lookedafter children. Criteria for 2014 are unconfirmed, but the DfE has signalled it will extend the scheme to working families on low incomes, children with special educational needs and disabilities and adopted children.

Positive early results

James Hempsall, national support director for A2YO, says early results have been positive. In April, self-assessment forms completed by local authorities showed 70,000 places had already been created prior to the legal duty coming into force.

Over the summer, Hempsall predicts another 30,000 will have been established. Data collected from local authorities by A2YO suggests 14,000 providers have each signed up an average of 6.5 children for September. Of these providers, 70 per cent are rated good by Ofsted, 20 per cent outstanding and 10 per cent satisfactory.

Some local authorities have stipulated that only good or outstanding settings can deliver the offer, but satisfactory settings may legally provide the offer where capacity is lacking.

"The government's preference is for good or outstanding (settings) and it is currently considering a timescale to bring this in," says Hempsall.

He says most places have been found in existing, unused capacity by settings remodelling their workforces. The government provided £100m in capital funding for the scheme, which Hempsall says has been used sparingly so far for "small projects such as equipment or minor building adaptations".

"We have seen many local authorities starting to launch grants schemes as this funding will have greatest impact on September 2014 capacity," he says.

In Northamptonshire, the council is offering small grants of up to £15,000 and large grants of up to £150,000 to targeted areas.

The National Day Nurseries Association, which has been working with 85 of the 152 local authorities delivering the programme, has identified concerns among providers.

Chief executive Purnima Tanuku says although authorities are well prepared for the September 2013 intake, the 2014 increase is more challenging.

"There is a belief that take-up of two-year-old places will be high, but there are other factors to be considered such as the potential for children to attend nurseries in different authority boundaries to those where their parents are living and working," she says. Tanuku also says recent concerns in the sector that Ofsted is downgrading settings previously rated good or outstanding, which might make them ineligible to deliver the offer, is also a concern. "This could lead to insufficient places going forward," she warns.

Members of children's services union Aspect have raised concerns about the sustainability of the offer. Clare Dent, Aspect group professional lead for the national committee for early years, says she was told by a private nursery provider in Calderdale that it is likely that nurseries will cease offering the provision next year.

"This year, Calderdale has increased the two-year-old funding for some providers from its deprivation supplement, but the owner fears it won't be able to do that in 2014," she says.

The DfE provides funding of an average £5.09 for each child an hour. But Dent says this is too little to cover the additional staff that settings need to employ to care for two-year-olds.

No obligation

She points out that the majority of early years settings are privately run and under no obligation to deliver the scheme. DfE statistics from 2011 show 61 per cent of full daycare providers are run privately and 31 per cent by voluntary organisations.

Dent has also heard from children's centre staff in Essex of difficulties in publicising the offer to disadvantaged families. "Essex County Council is refusing to share government-issued information about which two-year-olds are entitled, so the children's centre can't go out proactively to tell people about it," she says.

A spokeswoman at the council confirmed it could not share the data with other partners, but said the council had sent letters directly to eligible parents with information on how to contact their local children's centre.

Dent says the process is too complicated for vulnerable families. "It's a problem that there might not be sufficient places, but parents might not even bother to access them because of the application process," she adds.

David Simmonds, chair of the Local Government Association's children and young people board, says local government funding cuts could cause problems for authorities trying to create places for 2014. He expects many will turn to schools and childminders to meet the demand.

Simmonds adds that schools are keen to take up the provision, but could be hit by the same sustainability challenges since early years additional capacity in schools tends to be provided by the private and voluntary sectors.

COUNCILS OUTLINE WHAT THEY ARE DOING TO MEET THE RISE IN DEMAND

Birmingham

Birmingham City Council has offered 15 hours of free nursery education to two-year-olds since 2006. In 2012/13, it offered places to 1,900 two-year-olds. But from September, 4,657 children will be eligible for free childcare. To prepare for this, the DfE provided £18m of funding for child placements and capacity building and capital funding of £3.4m. Since April, the council has allocated places to 900 children. It sent postcards to 5,400 families with information about registering for the offer, prompting them to contact providers and the council. It also advertised the offer on buses and billboards in target locations, held information sessions to raise awareness, and provided online information about the free entitlement on its website. In September 2014, the DfE estimates 10,500 two-year-olds will be eligible.

Tower Hamlets

From September, 1,336 children will be eligible for the scheme in the London borough of Tower Hamlets. The council has identified 500 existing places for two-year-olds, but is unable to say how many new places will have been created by next month. In July, it held an event for childcare providers to publicise the scheme and has also tried to develop provision by creating a training and accreditation programme for childminders - 10 have been accredited so far, with 12 more currently completing their accreditation. As childminders can care for up to three children aged under five, these could contribute 66 places. Tower Hamlets received £6.4m of DfE funding for child placements and capacity building and capital funding of £1.2m. Next year, the number of children eligible for free care will double to 2,800.

Bradford

With potentially six in 10 two-year-olds eligible by next year, Bradford has to create the fifth highest number of places in England - 1,850 in September, rising to 5,200 in 2014. Bradford Council identified that the £1.2m of capital funding it received from the DfE was insufficient to meet this demand and agreed with the department to move £500,000 from the £7.1m it received for child placements and capacity building funds into its capital budget. The authority also added a further £1m from council funds. It has announced training grants to local people of up to £1,000 for 500 people who want to take up a career in childcare. Funding for the grants totals £300,000 sourced from the authority's workforce development unit. The council plans to be able to offer 80 per cent of its target capacity by September 2014 as a result.

Download two-year-old childcare eligibility graphs