Increases to the amount of free childcare on offer for local parents comes amid closures of providers across Staffordshire, a report has revealed.
From September 2024, babies as young as nine months old would receive 15 hours a week free, with the figure doubling to 30 hours a week the following year.
Other changes will see children as young as two receiving up to 15 hours of free childcare a week form April 2024, doubling in September 2025.
Currently those who claim certain benefits are able to claim up to 15 hours’ funded childcare a week for two-year-olds under the Think Two scheme.
But a Staffordshire County Council report said that while the Government’s announcements were welcome they arrive against a “backdrop of a market already struggling to be sustainable”.
It comes as figures reveal that between August 2022 and July 2023, 21 group-based providers closed in the county without another operator opening on site. Of those, two are in Lichfield with a total of 77 places lost.
The average percentage of providers with vacancies across Staffordshire is 24%, the report presented to the county council’s safeguarding overview and scrutiny committee revealed this week.
Staffordshire’s Early Years Service has been brought back “in-house” at the authority, following the transfer of the team from Entrust, the committee was told by cabinet member for children and young people Cllr Mark Sutton.
The report said:
“We want to make a commitment to change the way we currently deliver services to early years settings, families and children.
“We understand the significant expansion of the recently announced early years entitlements and the vital role childcare plays in enabling parents to work or take on new opportunities – it is more important than ever that we get the delivery model right.
“We know there will be more families requiring childcare places and therefore ensuring we plan effectively and develop team capacity to create sufficient high-quality places is central to our purpose and the success of the extended new offer for families.
“In the spring budget, the Chancellor announced transformative reforms to childcare for parents, children and the economy. This investment will provide additional funded hours for childcare, helping working families with their childcare costs and empowering them to progress their careers and support their families.
“The new entitlements will be introduced in phases. The Government will soon be funding up to 80% of all childcare places in England, up from 50% before the spring budget.”
Staffordshire County Council report
Committee member Cllr Paul Snape highlighted some of the challenges faced by early years settings.
He said:
“My daughter-in-law is a finance manager for a nursery. The nurseries are getting about £4 an hour, then they’ve got to man it up themselves, and people are saying they can’t afford to do it.
“Have you spoken to nurseries and taken their feedback about staffing costs etc? If we’re asking for SEND or babies going in without nappies changed, from September 2024 it’s going to need perhaps two or three staff per child as opposed to the current position.
“If you want to put your child into one of the nurseries you’ve often got to buy the whole week’s places – you can’t just buy two or three days. The nurseries and providers have got to look at that.”
Cllr Paul Snape, Staffordshire County Council
Cllr Sutton responded:
“The rates are set by national Government – we have a role in doing that and I have spoken and written to ministers and the Secretary of State about what we believe is the rate being too low in Staffordshire, particularly in comparison to some of our adjoining authorities.
“Post-Covid, we’ve had a particularly low rate of providers failing in comparison to other places. But I accept the rates nurseries get make it particularly difficult for them, particularly if the’re not able to cross-subsidise.
“One issue that has cropped up is that the market in under-twos has dropped because more parents are staying at home and thinking they can look after little Johnnie or Jill while they’re working.
“If that funding for nurseries drops to a certain level they can’t afford to do it for anybody – if so, there is a resilience issue there and that impacts on the overall efficiency of the nursery.
“There are lots of moving parts to this. I think that’s particularly why the Government were keen to introduce this over a number of stages, so it didn’t all come in in one go.”
Cllr Mark Sutton, Staffordshire County Council
“Preventative work”
Cllr Gillian Pardesi said that while it was “a no-brainer” to offer more free childcare, the funding needed to be there to support it.
“If we don’t pay for this now, we are going to be paying in more ways than one in the not too distant future.
“Nurseries are amongst the places which are good at picking up on healthcare issues and family support, so there is that preventative work that takes place as well.”
Cllr Gillian Pardesi, Staffordshire County Council
Cllr Johnny McMahon asked:
“Do we have a plan for significant market failure? Parents will become dependent on this because of work commitments – if there is a market failure of some substance, it will have an impact on the local economy and the welfare of the child.”
Cllr Johnny McMahon, Staffordshire County Council
Natasha Moody, assistant director of wellbeing and partnerships, said it was unlikely all families would want to take up the new childcare offer.
“I don’t think a lot of parents will take it up for the younger children – one of the key reasons we get when it’s the two-year-old entitlement is that parents will say they’re too young to go to a setting.
“It will be interesting to see parental response to this, because I don’t think it will be as unilateral as other entitlements, like three and four-year-olds for example.
“We’re planning for a proportion to take up that entitlement and we’re erring on the side of caution. We want to make sure we have increased capacity in terms of funding sufficiency and market development.
“We are fortunate in that we were recently commended by Ofsted at our regional conversation with them about the fact we hadn’t seen the same level of closures as other local authorities. I think that gives us some assurance that the team are doing the right kind of things, we just need a bit more of it.”
Natasha Moody
