Agenda item
Review of policy for the provision of early years full time places
This report responds to matters raised by members of the Children & Young People Overview & Scrutiny Committee held on 6th October 2011.
Minutes:
Sue Gates (Head of Integrated and Extended Services) presented a report updating the committee on the provision of full-time Early Year’s Places to disadvantaged children and responding to issues raised by the committee at its meeting on 6 October 2011.
Sue Gates briefly outlined the background to the policy and explained that in February 2010, the Executive had decided that free full-time (30 hours per week) early years places should be allocated on a priority basis to disadvantaged children aged 3 to 4 years old. However, due to an anticipated growth in demand for places for children aged 2 to 3 years old, an alternative proposal was developed in early 2011. This proposal envisaged the provision of the statutory part-time (15 hours per week) places only but was subsequently rejected by the Schools Forum in June 2011. Consequently, following this, work re-commenced on the implementation of the original decision taken by the Executive in February 2010.
Sue Gates explained that an Early Years Funding sub-group had been established and a two stage admissions process was developed. This process proposed that at stage 1, schools would still apply their own local admissions criteria and those children that met the criteria would proceed to stage 2 of the process. At stage 2, children that lived in Brent and that met the free school meals criteria could be offered funded full-time places. Schools were consulted regarding this proposed process in October 2011. Responses were received from 7 of the schools with full time places and these confirmed that most schools were happy to manage the admissions process locally and merge it with normal admissions practice. Some concerns had been raised regarding the additional administration arrangements and it was felt that advice would be required on validating eligibility claims on dealing with appeals. The committee was advised that the admissions process would be in place for January 2012, for applications for September 2012. Some schools which had been offering full time places had decided to offer only part time places from September 2012.
Turning to the subject of the provision of Early Years Places for children aged 2 to 3 years old, Sue Gates informed the committee that the government had created a statutory entitlement of 15 hours per week of free childcare integrated with early education for children deemed vulnerable. This was due to commence in 2013. It was currently proposed that eligibility for this provision would be determined by the free school meal criteria. Whilst the exact number of children who were eligible for the provision could not be provided, Sue Gates explained that based on the number of children living in the most deprived areas of Brent, it was estimated that there could be around 3,000 children who would qualify for the provision. Based on this estimation, it was evident that there would be insufficient places to meet demand and consequently several options for expanding the number of places available had been explored. The issue was further complicated by the government’s proposal that only ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rated providers should offer the provision for vulnerable 2 year olds. Based on this criteria it had been determined that there were approximately 1880 PVI childcare places that could be made available for disadvantaged 2 year olds. This resulted in a shortfall of places of approximately 1,020. Whilst child-minder vacancies could augment the available places to reduce the shortfall, this provision was not popular with parents and would require considerable additional training of child-minders. Actions to address this shortfall had been initiated and at the beginning of 2011 a strategy to improve the quality of Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) child care providers and child-minders had been introduced. Work was also being carried out to ensure that all relevant professionals were aware of the free entitlement for disadvantaged children so that families could be appropriately advised to apply.
During members discussion Councillor Ashraf raised a concern that with schools managing the admissions process it would result in an inconsistent and unequal system. Sue Gates advised that there were insufficient places for all disadvantaged 3 and 4 years olds and consequently the system had been unfair for many years. The new policy merely ensured that disadvantaged children were given priority. Sue Gates advised that it was important that the professionals who interacted with families in need were aware of the entitlement but that it was not intended to widely promote the scheme to other parents given the shortage of places.
The Chair of the committee noted that she had two concerns; the first of these was that there was no appeals procedure except those put in place by individual schools. The second related to hard to reach vulnerable families including recent arrivals to the country for whom language offered another significant barrier. The committee did not feel that these issues had been adequately addressed by officers. As a result, it was agreed to refer these issues to the Executive.
RESOLVED: -
The Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee agreed to refer the report on the provision of full time early years places to the Executive and recommended that action be taken to address the two issues of concern to members:
(i). That a consistent appeals procedure be put in place in schools offering full time early years places for 3 and 4 year olds
(ii). That steps are taken to promote the availability of places to the most vulnerable families, including those who are new arrivals to the UK where language could be a significant barrier to accessing services.
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