Contents

IntroductionPage 3

MethodologyPage 3

BackgroundPage 4

  • What do we mean by Sufficient Childcare?
  • What do we mean by Childcare Provision?

What childcare is available in the city?Page 6

  • Providers and Places
  • Availability
  • Is Newcastle different to the National picture?

What is quality like in Newcastle?Page 9

  • Is Newcastle different to the national picture?

Funded placesPage 11

  • Targeted 2 year old entitlement
  • Universal 3 and 4 year old entitlement

Children who have disabilities or Special Educational needs (SEN)Page 12

What is the cost of childcare in the City?Page14

  • Childminders
  • Day Nurseries
  • Pre-school Playgroups
  • Out ofSchool Clubs
  • Holiday Clubs
  • Is Newcastle different to the National picture?

Sufficient Childcare in NewcastlePage18

Changes which may impact on provisionPage 18

  • School based provision
  • Increase to 30 hours of 3 and 4 year old funding for working parents
  • Review of funding rates

ConclusionPage18

Appendix 1 Duty to secure and assess sufficient childcarePage 19

Appendix 2 StatisticsPage21

Introduction

In this report we have reviewed Newcastle’s childcare provision based on data gathered from childcare providers and information collected by Newcastle City Council. We have found a vibrant and flexible supply of childcare which meets current demand,taking into account that some of this demand may be met by informal childcare or schools.

Based on the evidence we have there is sufficient childcare to meet the needs of parents and carers who are working or training in Newcastle,

Methodology

We collected information about provision, need and availability on an ongoing basis by working with childcare providers and parents or carers looking for childcare. We have two teams that directly support childcare providers; Early Years Sector Support and Sure Start Teachers. They work together to offer business support, advice to prospective and new providers, workforce development and continuing professional development, eligibility checking and data management for funded 2 year old places and support to deliver The Early Years Foundation Stage effectively. This means that we can gather comprehensive information about the supply of childcare, and the demands of the market.

The Information and Admissions Service manage the Family Services Directory which isthe main source of information about childcare in Newcastle. Information and Admissions work with childcare providers to manage that information, they also work with parents to support them to access it. This means that they collect intelligence about what parents are asking for and whether their needs can be met.

Practitioners in the Community Family Hub can offer advice to parents about work, training and accessing childcare. In addition they identify families in their area whose children may be eligible for 2 year old offer and work with them to confirm eligibility and support them to take up places.

By working together we maintain a consistent and up to date working knowledge of both supply and demand in the city.

To support this we use information from the childcare portal which collects data directly from the childcare providers partly to feed into the Family Services Directory.

We have used this data to look at accessibility, availability, quality and cost. We have compared it to the last sufficiency report conducted in the city and to national data and surveys to identify differences or similarities.

Background

The Childcare Act 2006 (section 6)[1] outlined Local Authorities’ statutory duty to:

  • Secure sufficient childcare for the needs of working parents in their area.
  • Carry out a sufficiency assessment of all the childcare in their area.
  • Publish details of their assessments.

Newcastle’s first assessment was published in 2008 and was carried out by an external company. Following this Newcastle employed their own Childcare Sufficiency Team who completed further assessments and reports which were published in 2011 and 2012. The team utilised an annual survey of childcare providers as well as a number of focus groups to look at the demand for and experience of using childcare. Since then we have worked on developing a much more integrated framework which connects support to providers with the need to be responsive to market demand and support and advice available to parents, using Community Family Hub as a central point for this framework. This strong relationship between childcare providers, parents and carers means that we are able to maintain a working knowledge of the market at all times.

What do we mean by ‘Sufficient Childcare’?

In ‘Early Education and Childcare – statutory guidance for local authorities’[2]the Department for Education sets out duties for Local Authorities to:

  • B.1 Secure sufficient childcare, so far as is reasonably practicable, for working parents, or parents who are studying or training for employment, for children aged 0-14 (or up to 18 for disabled children).

To secure sufficient childcare places, local authorities should:

  • B.2 Take into account what is ‘reasonably practicable’ when assessing what sufficient childcare means in their area

Parents use a wide variety of provision including a range of Ofsted registered childcare, school provision, informal childcare and other provision which we may not recognise as childcare, for example homework clubs or sports clubs. However, this duty steers us to focus on Ofsted registered childcare which is on the Early Years Register or the Compulsory part of the Childcare Register and is used by parents who are working or training.

Part B3 places a duty on Local Authorities to report annually on childcare sufficiency. Reporting helps us bring together all of the information to form an overview which we can use to support prospective providers.

What do we mean by Childcare provision?

The sufficiency duty is about managing Ofsted registered childcare on the Early Years Register or the Compulsory part of the Childcare Register. Ofsted defines childcare as:

  • Childminders - look after children from the childminder’s home
  • Childcare on domestic premises - four or more childminders who work together from one of their homes
  • Childcare on non-domestic premises- group childcare
  • Home childcarer - (on Voluntary part of the Childcare Register only) – nannies who look after children in the child’s own home

People who work with or use childcare will recognise the following more common terms:

  • Childminders – look after children from the childminder’s home form birth up to and including school age.
  • Pre-school Playgroups- group care usually for three hour sessions often from 2 years of age.
  • Day nurseries – group care usually from birth to reception age, often offer longer sessions.
  • Out of School Clubs – group care for school age children, often a combination of before and after school and school holidays.

In addition to this we recognise that parents and carers use other forms of childcare. They may access schools for their 3 and 4 year old provision, use nannies or home childcarers, informal care such family or friends or they may use provision which is not necessarily recognised as childcare, for example homework clubs or sports clubs. Although this provision is all part of the spectrum of arrangements that parents make it is outside the scope of this report.

What childcare is available in the city?

Providers and Childcare Places

There are 199 childminders in Newcastle. This number has reduced by 28 since 2012 and represents an ongoing reduction of childminders locally. In the 2012 Childcare Sufficiency Statement[3]we noted that this number has been declining since 2008 although the rate of decline has reduced substantially. The number of day nurseries has risen since the last audit from 37 to 43, a 16% increase. The number of pre-school playgroups has also risen from 47 to 55 giving 17% increase since 2012. In Newcastle the number of Out of School Clubs has remained stable at 39.

By looking at the number of childcare places that are available we can get a clearer picture of what is available for children and families.

We calculate the number of childcare places using the data that Ofsted give us about the amount of places that each childcare provision in Newcastle is registered for. This is the maximum amount of children they can have at one time.

There are fewer places offered by childminders with a 12% reduction since 2012. Day nurseries and pre-school playgroups both show an increase in places which reflects the expansion in these two areas. Although the number of Out of School Club providers has remained stable the number of places has decreased by 8.7% since the last report.

The total number of places in each ward in the city shows that there is a spread of childcare available across the city. The highest number of places is in West Gosforth followed by South Jesmond and the lowest is North Heaton. Although some wards do not have specific types of childcare in them they all have some provision and can access a range of provisionin nearbywards.

Comparing the 0-14 years population (see Appendix 2, page 21) with childcare places shows that there are 7.8 children for every childcare place. Although the 0-14 years population has increased slightly since 2012 the figure for children per childcare place has made a small improvement since the last report when there were 8 children (0-14 years) for every childcare place[4]. This figure does not take into account children who do not need childcareor those who access other forms of childcare such as school provision, nannies and informal care. In addition to this we count places by the number of full time places available each day but many parents use part-time places so this means that more than one child may use one full-time place throughout a day.

Availability

The different types of provision offer varying opening hours and length of day. Day nurseries offer a day beginning between 7am and 8.30am and finishing between 5.30 and 6.15pm. Pre-school playgroups offer core school hours with one or two sessions per day. Before and after school clubs wrap-around the school day while holiday clubs offer care during school holidays. Childminders can offer a very flexible service including an earlier start or later finish for both pre-schoolers and school aged children. The Family Services Directory records that 18 childminders offer overnight care, 32 offer evenings and 19 offer weekends, others may offer some or allthese times by special arrangement.The range of start and finish times offered across the city gives parents a variety of choices that will meet their requirements for work or training.

Is Newcastle different to the national picture?

Every year the Department for Education publishes a Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey[5]. The most recent (2014) reflects the decrease in childminders that we have seen in Newcastle. However it should be noted that it differentiates between all registered childminders and those actively working. Although Ofsted allow childminders to remain inactive while registered for much shorter periods of time than they used to it may still be that a number of our registered childminders are not actively childminding and that the pool we have is smaller than we think.

The survey reports a national increase in the number of day nursery providers although it comments that this is a slowing trend.

The Department for Education’s survey reports a dramatic decline in what it describes as sessional care (this refers to Ofsted’s previous system for identifying different types of childcare where sessional care was generally pre-school playgroup provision) however Newcastle’s findings contradict this. The explanation is likely to lie in a combination of timing of research and the development of the targeted 2 year offer. Although the survey was published in 2014 the data is from 2013 beforethe eligibility criteria for targeted 2 year old offer increased which meant there was an increased demand for places. Currently in Newcastle a high proportion of 2 year old places are delivered in pre-school playgroups, this is also true of 3 and 4 year old places, and this is most likely to account for the 17% increase in pre-school places.

There has been a national focus on the need for childcare for school-aged children and the Family and Childcare Trust have identified continued gaps[6]. Many schools deliver before and after school care as part of their school registration for children who attend the school, there is no requirement for them to have an additional registration for this age group, and therefore they don’t appear in our statistics. In addition many childminders offer a before and after school service for school aged children.

What is Quality like in Newcastle?

Childcare settings on the Early Years Register are subject to inspection by Ofsted. Ofsted grade settings and childminders as Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement (some yet to be reinspected still have Satisfactory) or Inadequate. Childcare providers on the Compulsory part of the Childcare Register (for children aged 5-8 years) are judged Met or Not Met. Ofsted also use Met and Not Met when they inspect a childcare provider on the Early Years Register who has no children on the day of inspection. These judgements are the only measure of quality that Local Authorities can use. Newcastle offers an integrated package of support for all settings with more intensive support around those are gradedRequires Improvement or Inadequate.

The majority of provision in Newcastle is Good or Outstanding and these are spread across all the sectors.

Is Newcastle different to the national picture?

On average there are more childcare settings in Newcastle with anOutstanding or Good grade than in other similar Local Authority areas (statistical neighbours) and the national average.

Funded places

Targeted 2 year old entitlement
The 2 year old early education entitlement is a targeted offer for the most disadvantaged 2 year olds which is nationally defined. Eligible children, who meet the national criteria,are entitled to 15 hours childcare per week during term time (or equivalent stretched over the whole year) with a childminder, playgroup, nursery or school nursery class. It began as a pilot in Newcastle in 2009, becoming a statutory entitlement for approximately 25% of 2 year olds in September 2013. The criteria expanded to the present criteria in September 2014 which we estimate covers approximately 50% of 2 year olds in Newcastle. Children become eligible for the entitlement the term after their second birthday.

The Department for Education’s First Statistical Release[7] tells us:

  • Newcastle achieved 76% take up for January 2015, this is 18% above the national average and 11% above the northeastaverage (national - 58%, regional - 65%)
  • Newcastle is the top authority in the North East and 8thauthority nationally for take up

Universal 3 and 4 year old offer

The universal 3 and 4 year old offer is currently 15 hours of childcare term time or the equivalent over a full year. Most 4 year olds take up their offer in maintained school provision, while provision for 3 years olds is more mixed.

The percentage of 3 and 4 year olds taking up their entitlement in Newcastle is increasing[8].

The Department for Education’s First Statistical Release shows some excellent trends in quality of funded places in Newcastle:

  • 92% of 2 year olds are in good or outstanding settings compared to 91% regionally and 85% nationally.
  • 57% of 2 year olds are in settings with QTS/EYP/EYTS[9] staff compared with 50% nationally.
  • 63% of 3 and 4year olds are in settings with QTS/EYP/EYTS compared with 53% nationally (64% regionally)
  • 56% of 2 year olds are directly supported by staff with QTS/EYP/EYTS compared with 45% nationally.
  • 61% of 3 and 4 year olds are directly supported by staff who have QTS/EYP/EYTS compared with 60% regionally and 49% nationally.

We supported providers with funding for accredited qualifications from the introduction of Graduate Leader Fund in 2008 and beyond its lifetime until 2015. Although this funding no longer continues it seems that the move towards graduate-led settings has become reality for many providers.

Children who have disabilities and special educational needs (SEN).

There are over 6000 children across the city who have an identified disability or Special Educational Need in Newcastle.[10]The proportion of school aged children who are identified with a disability or SEN is much higher than pre-school children. This is because in the pre-school years children’s developmental issues are just beginning to be identified, they may arrive at a pre-school setting without parents being aware that there are any issues and these are identified by childcare practitioners through the process of observation, assessment and planning for next steps that every early years Ofsted registered provision would follow.