19th December

Nursery occupancy drops due to changing needs of parents
Almost two-thirds of nurseries have experienced a fall in their occupancy rates, according to the latest survey from the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA).

A survey of NDNA’s members found that from 108 responses representing 462 settings, 85 per cent had experienced noticeable differences in the patterns of childcare parents need, with the average occupancy rate at 72 per cent.

Most commonly there has been a decline in the number of hours parents are using, with 84 per cent of settings reporting more children attending part time and 56 per cent claiming an increase in parents only using their free entitlement.

Nurseries also reported that their three biggest challenges were increased staff wages, achieving a profit and delivering a sustainable free nursery education offer.

Purnima Tanuku, NDNA chief executive, said: "The decline in occupancy is worrying but could reflect the current rise in female unemployment as mothers who may have been made redundant are now staying at home to look after their children instead of going out to work.

"In order to sustain the economy for the future, and provide children with the best possible start to their education, the government must provide sufficient financial help for early education to enable mothers to return to work and ensure work always pays."

A further 64 per cent of settings said they had increased their fees in 2011, which may be reflective of increases in costs such as food, utilities and wages.

Eleven per cent of nurseries reported making redundancies in the past year, predominantly due to occupancy levels, with one manager saying: "I lost so many children in September, I’ve had to close one of my sites and make half my staff redundant".

Support from local authorities was also seen to be a problem as 34 per cent said their local authority was either "not very supportive" or "not supportive at all", up significantly from the 19 per cent recorded in September 2010.

A further 34 per cent said they had seen a significant reduction in the funding available to support salaries for early years professionals.

"While we appreciate that local authorities are having their budgets cut, it is important that they still invest in early years to ensure high-quality provision for children and families," Tanuku added. "The government can help with this by ringfencing money meant for early years in the dedicated schools grant."

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

14th December

Sure Start inquiry set to hear local authority evidence
MPs will quiz representatives from three local authorities on their plans for the future delivery of Sure Start services, amid fears that more children's centres are expected to close.

The All Party Parliamentary Sure Start Group will continue its inquiry into the sustainability of children’s centres following its first session in October.

The group has recalled representatives from Manchester council to explain their controversial proposals to focus on outreach services and transform children’s centres into what the council dubs "community assets".

Representatives from the London borough of Richmond and Cornwall Council will also be discussing the delivery models they are undertaking.

Last month, the government confirmed that there were now 124 fewer Sure Start children’s centres than there were when the coalition government was formed last year.

Lib Dem MP Annette Brook , chair of group, said: "With government figures showing that at least 124 Sure Start centres have closed or merged since the coalition took power, there has been concern from MPs across the House of Commons that even more children’s centres will close or merge in the future.

"Following on from the success of the first inquiry session in October, we will be looking at the different approaches to Sure Start delivery taken by various local authorities in these times of constricted budgets and greater localism to assess whether innovative local decision making is protecting children and family services."

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

Female employment hit by public sector cuts and childcare costs
Public sector job cuts and high childcare costs will push up female unemployment in coming months, a thinktank warns before the release of the latest round of UK jobs data.

Unemployment among women is already at its highest level for more than two decades, at 1.09 million, and with jobs going in the public sector and retail industry it is expected to rise further. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) wants to bring the jobless number down with universal childcare, something it argues would pay for itself.

The IPPR said there would be a net return to the government of £20,050 (over four years), in terms of tax revenue minus the cost of childcare for every woman who returns to full-time employment after one year of maternity leave

IPPR director Nick Pearce said: "It is far better for our economy to have people in work and paying taxes than at home claiming benefits. Women will return to work if we can restart growth and give families access to free and high-quality childcare. At a time of severe fiscal constraint, it's vital for the UK to focus resources where they will make the most difference – in helping families with the cost of living and strengthening the public finances over the long term."

At the moment, the employment rate of women with children in the UK is lower than most OECD countries – ranking 19th, the IPPR says. That position is not expected to improve any time soon. Two-thirds of public sector jobs are held by women and positions in retail are similarly dominated by females. With signs that the spectre of a double-dip recession is spooking high-street spending, and predictions from the Office for Budget Responsibility that 710,000 jobs will go from the public sector by 2017, female unemployment is likely to get worse before it gets better.

IPPR says that women in the north of England have been hit hardest so far. Over the last year female unemployment has increased by 23% in the North East and 19% in Yorkshire, it said.

While the future may appear bleak for many working and jobseeking women, over the past year they fared better than men, according to a separate report out today.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) says that while men benefited most during the initial post-recession jobs recovery in 2010, it has been tough for both sexes in the 2011 jobs market.

Its analysis of official statistics suggests that the number of unemployed women has fallen, albeit very slightly, relative to that of men in 2011 and that men, not women, have been hit hardest by the substantial loss of part-time jobs in 2011.

John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the CIPD commented: "What we do know is that the relative position of women has not so far worsened as much as commonly perceived or was widely anticipated given the high concentration of women workers in the public sector and in part-time jobs more generally. This might indicate that the impact of economic austerity will prove to be more gender balanced than at first thought, although it also underlines how tough things are becoming for both sexes in our increasingly depressed jobs market."

For the 2.6m people looking for jobs in the UK, there are signs that those with manual skills may have more success than those with administrative skills. Vacancies are up significantly in manual trades such as welding and construction but are down in administrative roles, sales jobs and customer services, according to a report from Working Links, an employment organisation that helps people to find jobs and to retrain.

Jobs in other hands-on professions like hairdressing, transport driving have also risen on a year ago. But the vacancies picture varies from one region to another.

London, Scotland and Wales have seen the greatest increase in available positions, while the North East, North West, and East Midlands have suffered the greatest slump in available jobs.

source: Katie Allen, The Guardian

5th December

Rising pension age will lead to childcare gap
The charity Grandparents Plus has raised concerns of a 'gap in care', as an increasing number of grandmothers looking after grandchildren will have to work until 67, following the Chancellor's announcement last week to changes to the state pension age.

The grandparents’ charity warns that this will mean that many grandmothers who provide childcare will have to juggle work and care.

Grandparents are also likely to be older and may be in poorer health or have a partner who needs care, which could reduce their capacity to look after their grandchildren.

The charity’s new report ‘Doing it all?’, which compares data from the British Social Attitudes Surveys in 1998 and 2009, reveals that grandmothers aged 55 to 64 provide the most childcare, the group who will be affected by the increase in state pension age.

Nearly two-thirds of grandparents with grandchildren under 16 are providing childcare.

On the Autumn Statement George Osborne said that the state pension age will rise to 67 from 2026, a decade earlier than originally planned.

One in five grandparents provide at least ten hours of care a week to enable parents to work, and half of mothers rely on grandparents to look after their babies when they return to work after maternity leave.

Grandparents Plus warns that without adequate state support for both formal childcare and ‘eldercare’, there is a risk of a serious care gap emerging.

It says that grandmothers could also become increasingly vulnerable to poverty if they leave work early to provide care for their grandchildren.

The report also shows that grandparents are getting older. Eight in ten women aged over 75 are grandmothers, compared to seven in ten in 1998.

Four out of ten grandmothers are relying on the state pension and just less than half of grandmothers are living alone, compared to 38 per cent 13 years ago.

The report also makes a number of policy recommendations including:

• Making sure that Sure Start children’s centres are genuinely welcoming to grandparents, and they support the role which grandparents play in looking after young children.
• Investing more in high quality affordable childcare.
• Removing the requirement for grandparents who are registered childminders to look after children who are not their grandchildren and to make the process for registering as a childminder simpler.
• Ensuring that guidance for job centres from the Department of Work and Pensions recognises the role that grandparents play in providing childcare and supporting families, and that job-seeking requirements do not undermine this.
• Exploring how grandparental care could be recognised, including the question of payment.
• Giving grandparents access to flexible working

Denise Murphy, interim chief executive at Grandparents Plus, said, ‘With childcare costs soaring, many parents are becoming increasingly dependent on grandparents to look after children so they can go to work. 

'But we think one of the consequences of the raising of the state pension age may be more mothers giving up work because grandmothers are no longer available to provide childcare.

‘Take London as an example - where childcare costs are highest, and fewer families have grandparents they can turn to for help. Here, proportionately fewer women are in work than elsewhere in the UK and there are some of the highest rates of child poverty in the UK.'

source: Katy Morton, Nursery World

2nd December

Disadvantaged children continue to fall behind in their development
The majority of early years aged children who are eligible for free school meals are still failing to achieve a good level of development, according to latest Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) figures.

The figures for 2011 show that just 44 per cent of pupils in this group achieved a good level of development in areas such as communication, play and social interaction.

This is 18 per cent below the proportion of pupils who are not eligible for free school meals who attained this level of development.

However, the figures show that the gap is narrowing. Only 40 per cent of pupils who are eligible for free school meals were developing to a good level in 2010 and in 2007 just under 30 per cent of this group achieved this level of development.

Child Poverty Action Group spokesman Tim Nicholls said: "The extension of free childcare to more two years olds is part of what is needed be we also need to look at the situation at home and make sure families have all the resources they need."

The latest figures show that, overall, 59 per cent of all children are achieving a good level of development, compared to 56 per cent in 2010. Girls continue to outperform boys, with 68 per cent reaching this level, compared to only 50 per cent of boys.

The proportion of children from white or mixed race backgrounds achieving a good level of development are above the overall average, while those from black, Asian and Chinese backgrounds are below the average.

source: Joe Lepper, Children & Young People Now