Free childcare pioneers fear income shortfall

From September 2013, 20 per cent of two-year-olds from the most disadvantaged communities will be entitled to 15 hours of free childcare each week, rising to 40 per cent in 2014 – a total of 260,000 children.

A survey published by the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) last month revealed that in principle, nearly two-thirds of nurseries are keen to deliver places for two-year-olds. But within the 131 responses, the general enthusiasm was tempered by concerns over funding, training and support.

Claire Robson, senior manager at Places for Children, a nursery in Newcastle, is in no doubt that investing in childcare for two-year-olds is good for children and families.

“We have been piloting the two-year-old offer for two years,” Robson says. “It has been a great start for the children in terms of social interaction and learning and for staff to be able to identify any early support that they might need.”

Extra responsibilities
But with the benefits come additional responsibilities. “You get allocated the funding for the child’s place, but if they have additional needs and require one-to-one help, you haven’t got the money to provide that,” Robson says. “A lot of the two-year-olds we are targeting have complex needs or social issues so it is creating extra paperwork and meetings and therefore does have a lot of extra admin costs that the funding doesn’t cover.”

Robson is committed to continuing to offer places for two-year-olds as the programme expands, but is cautious about the numbers her setting can take on.

“We would take more children, but only a maximum of eight, as we feel we could manage and provide the best care for them.”

Sandra Haynes, owner of Bungalow Day Nursery, in Denton, Tameside, has been piloting the offer for about 18 months.
 
“We have certainly seen an improvement in most of the children’s development,” she says. “Apart from one child, all have stayed on with us when they have turned three, which is good because we know where they are in terms of development when they join our pre-school room.”

But money is also a big concern for Haynes, who says uncertainty over local authority funding and the financial circumstances of parents who pay for places is holding her back from increasing her capacity.

“At the moment, the rate we get from Tameside council covers our hourly rate, but we are concerned about what would happen in the future,” she explains.

“Nobody is quite sure what is going to happen from next year and how much funding there will be. We have looked at whether we can expand, but have decided not to because we didn’t want to do a huge capital outlay and then find we couldn’t fill the spaces.”

Meanwhile, the price of physically extending premises is a worry for Alice Bennett, managing director of the Madresfield Early Years Centre, in Malvern.

“I have spent thousands of pounds getting plans drawn for a new nursery in the inner city of Worcester where we own a farm that would have catered for 24 two-year-olds, bridging the gap between the inner city and the farmland,” she says.

“Now I have got planning permission, but because of changes to VAT and other additional costs, I cannot move this project forward. I have been priced out of the market. I am waiting to see if there will be a level playing field with VAT in the future or any capital funding from local authorities.”

Bennett’s commitment to offering places for disadvantaged two-year-olds stems from her belief that social mobility can be boosted from a very early age.

“I am absolutely convinced that the targeting of children from often very young and inexperienced mothers is the right use for this money,” she says. “Some parents have so little knowledge, experience or support that they are just unaware of some of the things that others take for granted.

Teething problems
“One young mother had a little girl who had spent most of her life strapped in a push chair, so at the age of two she is not able to stand or walk. We have negotiated special boots to be made so she can stand, and have given her a programme of physical skills so she has now caught up with other children her age.”

But despite her enthusiasm for the two-year-old offer, Bennett says there are still teething problems to be ironed out.

“One of the issues is that we build up a relationship with the mums and work on the transition into ages three and four, but at the age where they can transfer to nurseries attached to schools, the schools muscle in,” she says.

“We have had cases of parents starting a term with us and then moving over to the school without realising they have to give us notice before they leave, because they don’t have an obligation to us if they see the childcare as free. If you have four children referred through the two-year-old funding and they all leave at age three, then I am overstaffed and it does affect my sustainability.”

Free entitlement

• £760m annual investment for the two-year-old offer by 2014/15
• 260,000 two-year-olds will be entitled to 15 hours of free childcare by 2014/15
  
• 64% of nurseries say they are very likely to offer places for disadvantaged two-year-olds

Source: Department for Education and NDNA survey of 131 members