31st July

Best-rated providers to be used for free childcare offer
Only childcare providers rated as "good" or "outstanding" by Ofsted will be used to provide free places for the most deprived children in England, the government has announced.

The news comes after an evaluation of the free childcare for two-year-olds pilots, which found that childcare settings graded any less than "good" did not significantly improve children's social skills such as independence, confidence and speech.

Earlier this year, in its social mobility white paper, the government set out its plans to nationally roll out free childcare for the 15 per cent most disadvantaged two-year-olds in the country.

Children's minister Dawn Primarolo said: "We know that good childcare has a great impact on a child's all important early years and we are determined that all children are given the best possible start in life."

While Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, welcomed the report she said childcare providers needed support to improve.
She said: "Government guidance released in July states that only settings with a ‘good' or ‘outstanding' rating can deliver places. This needs to be balanced with parental choice and accessibility and ensuring that all settings supported to improve to a good or outstanding level."

The report also found that most pilot areas targeted the most deprived families but in some areas local authorities needed to improve their targeting methods.

The report states: "Parents' experiences of the effects of the pilot were mainly positive, with very disadvantaged parents particularly likely to stress the benefits of the pilot in terms of improved parenting capacity and family functioning."

Between 2007 and 2008 there was a five per cent increase in the take up of formal childcare across the country. But research shows more needs to be done to increase the take up of formal childcare among low-income working families.

According to the latest figures from Ofsted, there were 95,535 registered childcare providers on 30 June 2009.

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

30th July

Tax credits worth £315m were given away in error
The government gave away £315m in childcare tax credits mistakenly last year, according to official statistics.

An error and fraud statistics report on child and working tax credits was placed in the House of Commons library last week.

It showed that 260,000 claimants benefited from error and fraud relating to the childcare element of the working tax credit in 2007/08, which amounted to a sum of £315m. In 2006/07, the figure was £320m.

In a statement in the House of Commons, financial secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms said the government had already introduced additional checks to prevent error and detect abuse. But he added: "HM Revenue and Customs will use the analysis published today to refine its strategy."

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said the figures underlined the need for the system to be reconfigured. "These figures do illustrate the benefits of direct payments to providers of tax credits," she said. "Not only would this eliminate fraudulent claims, it would also help vulnerable families who could be confident of taking up their entitlement."

A spokesman for childcare charity the Daycare Trust said: "These estimated overpayments reflect the complexity of the current tax credits system, which can be hard for parents to navigate.

"Of course, any proven fraud must be answered for, but clawing back overpayments from poor families, who are already struggling to make ends meet in the recession, will harm that family and discourage other families from making a claim for fear the same thing could happen to them."

Source: Ross Watson, Children & Young People Now

27th July

STIs still rife among 16 to 24 age group
Young people continue to be disproportionately affected by sexually transmitted infections, the latest figures show.

The 16- to 24-year-old age group accounts for approximately half of all newly diagnosed STIs, despite making up just 12 per cent of the total population, according to The Health Protection Agency (HPA). 

This included 65 per cent of new Chlamydia diagnoses (80,258 cases), 55 per cent of new genital warts diagnoses (51,153 cases) and 47 per cent of new gonorrhoea diagnoses (8,605 cases).

Overall there was an 11 per cent decrease in the total number of new gonorrhoea infections and a four per cent reduction in new syphilis cases.

The agency reported an increase of 0.5 per cent in STIs for all age groups from 397,909 cases in 2007 to 399,738 in 2008.

Dr Gwenda Hughes, head of the HPA's sexually transmitted infections department, said: "While the increase in genital herpes diagnoses in the past few years is probably due to greater use of highly sensitive tests detecting more cases, our data clearly shows that considerable numbers of people, especially those under 25, are getting infected with an STI."
Simon Blake, national director at Brook, said the increase in diagnoses of STIs is slowing down.

"The HPA's findings show that we must continue to support young people to make good decisions that protect their physical and emotional health," he added.

Source: Neil Puffett, Children & Young People Now