Agenda item
Review of the Policy for the Provision of Early Years Full Time Places
Minutes:
Sue Gates (Head of Integrated and Extended Services) presented a report to the committee on the implementation of the council policy on the allocation of full time Early Years places to disadvantaged children. This policy had been agreed by the Executive in February 2010 and as titled, set out criteria to ensure that full time Early Years places (education places for children aged three to four years old) were offered to disadvantaged children. Prior to this time, the criteria for allocating Early Years places had been determined by each school separately. This had often resulted in Early Years places simply being provided to those who were first to apply, with no prioritisation for disadvantaged children.
Sue Gates explained that the implementation of the new policy had initially been delayed following the receipt of advice from the Schools Forum that a wider consultation needed to be conducted. A further delay had resulted from the introduction of a new statutory duty placed on local authorities requiring them to offer places to all children aged two years old who were deemed vulnerable. It had been determined that there were not enough of these places currently available in Brent to meet the estimated demand. Consequently, several options exploring how the Council would meet this requirement were considered and it had been proposed that children aged three to four years old would only be offered places based on their statutory entitlement of fifteen hours per week in order to free up capacity. However, following consultation with the Schools Forum in June 2011 and in consideration of its strong view against the suggested action, the proposal had been rejected in favour of maintaining provision of full time Early Years places for disadvantaged children. Alternative proposals to ensure that the council was able to meet its statutory duty with respect to vulnerable two year olds were currently being explored
Sue Gates further elucidated that following these delays, the implementation of the Early Years places policy was now underway. It was intended that the policy would be in place for September 2012 and Brent schools were currently being consulted on the proposed arrangements for the admissions process. In particular, views were being sought on what role the local authority should take in administering the policy. Responses to this consultation were pending. The proposed admissions process would allow schools to administer the process of managing full-time admissions themselves with minimal central involvement. A summary of the process and an indicative timetable were set out in the report. The timetable aligned the process with that for statutory school age admissions. If a schools full time Early Years places were not oversubscribed, the proposals set out several options of provision including that of offering of mixed provision of full and part-time places and the switching to part-time provision only. Governing bodies, however, would be encouraged to consider the financial and operational implications of these options before deciding on the type of provision to offer parents from September 2012.
In the subsequent discussion members raised several issues. Councillor Harrison sought clarification on the admissions criteria set out in the admissions process. Sue Gates advised that the first criterion that would have to be met was the one of deprivation. If there were still places remaining after this, there were three further categories by which applications would be prioritised. It was important to note that not every school offered full time Early Years places and several schools had actively opted out of the scheme. Councillor Harrison queried what safeguards were proposed to ensure that the council was meeting its statutory duty. Sue Gates clarified that it was only a statutory duty to offer places to children aged two years old who were deemed vulnerable. She added that there were several mechanisms in place to ensure that the local authority had the necessary information to determine whether it was meeting its statutory requirements and noted that schools were required to provide a certain amount of information to the council for this purpose.
With reference to the report, the Chair noted that parents would have no statutory right of appeal against the decision of the school and expressed her concern at the possible inequality which could result from this arrangement. Sue Gates advised that as the provision of full time Early Years places to disadvantaged children aged three to four years was not a statutory duty, the local authority had no power to implement a statutory right of appeal. Rather, any appeals against a decision to refuse a full time Early Years Place would have to be dealt with by the internal procedures of the school in question. Sue Gates added that the council did not have the staffing to monitor its provision of this non-statutory service. The Chair queried whether the application forms for Early Years places would be provided in a variety of languages to accommodate those families for whom English was not their first language. Sue Gates clarified that application forms would be provided by the schools. The Committee was further advised that the council did not have the resources to provide application forms in several languages.
Mrs Elsie Points sought clarification as to whether all children of the appropriate age would be offered their fifteen hour entitlement. Sue Gates explained that whilst all three to four year olds would be given an education place for their fifteen hours a week entitlement, not every child would be given the often preferred place in a school.
In response to a further query by the Chair, Sue Gates advised that the consultation with Brent schools would conclude in three weeks’ time. The consultation document had only just been recently sent to schools and the total consultation period would be quite short.
The Chair reiterated concerns regarding the equality of access to the full time Early Years places provision. Councillor Arnold, Lead Member for Children and Families, acknowledged these concerns but noted that currently there were no mechanisms in place to ensure prioritisation for disadvantaged children. In order to ensure that the most vulnerable families were aware of the policy and would apply for places, the policy could be promoted via children’s centres. Sue Gates added that front line staff such as social workers and family support workers would be asked to promote the policy to families in need. In response to a query, Sue Gates explained that the council would monitor that the places were being given to disadvantaged children via information collected by the schools during the application process.
Following a query from Dr Levison, Sue Gates advised that the council could not ensure equality in the provision of full time Early Years places to disadvantaged children because the number of places available was not and had never been sufficient to meet demand. Councillor Arnold added that it was good that the council was still able to offer full-time places for disadvantaged three and four year olds, in the current financial climate.
In light of the queries and concerns raised by the Committee, the Chair suggested that a further report be presented to the Committee at its next meeting setting out the following: -
- The outcome of the consultation with Brent schools
- The views of the Schools Forum
- Projections for the provision of places for vulnerable children aged two years old, including the expected demand and the use of children’s centres as a natural provider of advice.
- An overarching perspective of the development/implementation of the policy for full time Early Years’ places, including the embedding of safeguards and how an equal opportunity of access would be ensured. The Chair added that if an equality of opportunity regarding access to the places could not be achieved this should be stated in the report along with the implications of this.
RESOLVED: -
- That the report be noted
- That a further report be presented to the committee at its next meeting setting out the following: -
· The outcome of the consultation with Brent schools
· The views of the Schools Forum
· An overarching perspective of the development/implementation of the policy for full time Early Years’ places, including the embedding of safeguards and how an equal opportunity of access would be ensured. The Chair added that if an equality of opportunity regarding access to the places could not be achieved this should be stated in the report along with the implications of this.
· Projections for the provision of places for vulnerable children aged two years old, including the expected demand and the use of children’s centres as a natural provider.
Supporting documents: