Kirklees is litmus test for the value of free childcare

Should free childcare be the sole preserve of the early years? Kirklees Council thinks not. In a bold three-year experiment, it is investing £8.6m into providing up to 25 hours of free childcare for disadvantaged families with children up to the age of 14, and up to the age of 18 for families of children with disabilities or special educational needs.

Whatever its success, Kirklees should provide a fascinating case study for the country at large. Its move is a whole-hearted recognition that childcare at whatever age is valuable to the entire family, providing jobless and under-pressure parents with the space and resource to find training and work opportunities, and children with all the social and educational benefits.

In so doing, it could prevent larger sums having to be spent on addressing deeper-rooted social problems further down the line. The investment could also provide a vital lifeline for households that the council will have identified as “troubled families” and do something to break the inter-generational cycle of low aspirations, if not worklessness.

Children from disadvantaged families have the lowest levels of take-up of the free early years entitlement, so Kirklees will need to work hard to ensure its intended families benefit from the initiative.

Evidence of the benefits of free childcare beyond age five is scarce, with both the National Audit Office and the House of Commons public accounts committee calling on the government to implement robust measures to demonstrate the longer-term rewards. The Kirklees experiment will have much to contribute to this debate.


Street play should be second nature

Several urban areas are following in the footsteps of Bristol’s Playing Out initiative in carving out designated areas for children to play on the streets, as we have reported this week, and in our play feature on Hackney in the previous edition. The obstacles to such initiatives have tended to come from motorist-sympathising council highways departments and some risk-averse housing associations.

Street play is a fundamental public health issue. It should be second nature for many children to be able to play outside their homes. As well as providing an outlet for regular physical activity and an alternative to the couch-potato syndrome of video games, it binds neighbourhoods together and helps foster a climate of trust and togetherness. But as Dr Fraser Brown makes clear, this requires a major shift in attitudes. The Playing Out experience is certainly the way to go, gaining low-key play street orders and the buy-in of local residents, rather than calling on the local authority to impose blanket measures. It takes a particularly negative mindset and view of public space to deny children such a fundamental right. Let’s hope many more areas are able to make the breakthrough that children and communities deserve.

ravi.chandiramani@markallengroup.com