28th October

Number of childminders continues to rise
Childminder numbers have continued to increase with nearly 1,500 more registered than in September last year, according to the latest Ofsted statistics.

Since the end of 2008, childminder figures had been falling, but the numbers began to steadily rise again from September 2010.

With the latest quarterly statistics for the three months up to the end of September revealing there are 58,194 registered childminders in England, it means for the first time the total number of childcare providers has exceeded the number registered in December 2008.

Childminders make up 60 per cent of childcare providers registered with Ofsted.

An Ofsted spokeswoman said: "After a long period of decline, the number of childcare providers in England has now risen steadily since September last year." 

But while childminders have boosted childcare figures, the number of larger providers on non-domestic premises, such as nurseries and crèches has fallen, with a net fall of 185 providers during the last quarter – a 0.7 per cent reduction since June.

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now 

21st October

Disabled children turned away from holiday childcare
One in 10 disabled children was refused a place in childcare provision over the summer, according to a survey by the charities Kids and Mencap.

The study of 1,192 parents from across England also found that two-thirds of families found it "difficult" or "very difficult" to find appropriate childcare for their disabled child during summer 2011. This meant that one in three disabled children received no childcare over the summer holidays.

The survey asked parents about their ability to maintain employment and look after their children.

Although 19 per cent of those questioned were able to maintain a full-time job while caring for their disabled child, 41 per cent said they need childcare to be able to work and 43 per cent said they were unemployed due to a lack of affordable, appropriate childcare. 

Kids and Mencap are now calling on local authorities to improve childcare provision to meet the requirements of families with disabled children.

The charities warned that around 20 per cent of parents of disabled children face childcare costs of up to £11,700 per year, compared to the national average of £5,028.

Kevin Williams, chief executive of Kids, said it is "disappointing, but not surprising" that so many families were unable to access childcare for their disabled child this summer. 

"Caring for disabled children without the right support can have significant consequences for a whole family, not just a disabled child," he said. "The effect can be profound: disabled children lose out on opportunities to socialise with peers, relationships between parents can become strained or even break, and siblings or other family members may take on additional caring responsibilities."

David Congdon, Mencap head of campaigns and policy, added: "We know that families with a disabled child have many additional costs associated with their child’s care. Compounding this, parents face a real struggle to juggle caring for their disabled child and finding and maintaining full- or even part-time employment.

"Local authorities have a duty to provide sufficient childcare, which should be a universal service. Too often families of disabled children are let down."

source: Lauren Higgs, Children & Young People

20th October

Sure Start has failed to reach under-twos, says former government adviser
A former government adviser on Sure Start children's centres has claimed that the failure to adequately cater for the needs of children under the age of two has been the programme's greatest challenge.

Naomi Eisenstadt, a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford, said while the programme had achieved many of its aims, the aspiration that it would span children from conception to the age of four had not been met.

The former civil servant who was in charge of overseeing the Sure Start programme under Labour, was speaking at an Institute for Government event about the successes and challenges of the Sure Start programme.

She said: "We lost the babies. We were originally a minus nine months to plus four years programme. I used to say that when I went to the Department for Education in 1999 they thought that children were born at five, when I left they thought that children were born at two, but we did lose the babies."

However, Eisenstadt praised the fact that Sure Start had been featured in all three main party manifestos at the last general election. She added that while rifts had existed between then Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown, they had been united on children’s policy.

"As fractious as the relationship was between No10 and No11 for other bits of policy, for children’s policy it was absolutely fantastic,"  she said. "If you’re an official it cannot get better than having the Prime Minster and the Chancellor fighting for the credit for your policy and wanting to be seen to do the most for young children."

Also at the event was former public health minister Tessa Jowell, who agreed that the Sure Start programme needed to be examined again. She said: "Intervention to support vulnerable, unconfident too-young mothers and their babies in order to prevent the recreation of the circumstances that have shaped their lives in becoming mothers too young; that’s the stage that Sure Start has got to revisit."

Another speaker Jan Casson, children’s centre manager for Northumberland, said the focus of Sure Start should now fall on building resilience in communities, saying it is "about trying to embed the ethos of Sure Start, being innovative and being brave and creative, and empowering  local communities to take some of the control themselves [because] that’s where we’ll see long-term gain".

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

18th October

Cuts hit 47 children's centres, MP's survey finds
At least 47 children's centres in England have either been closed or are being earmarked for closure because of funding cuts, research shows.

The survey by shadow children's minister Sharon Hodgson also suggests eight out of 10 of those who responded have cut funding in the past year.

A further nine out of 10 are planning to do so in 2012.

The government said there was enough money in the system to maintain the network of children's centres.

Ms Hodgson sent Freedom of Information requests to 152 local authorities in England about their plans for the Sure Start children's centres, one-stop support and advice shops for parents and children.

And her office has been gathering in the responses over the past nine months.

All councils responded, but only 92 were able to say whether they were planning closures or not. The rest answered questions on the children's centre budgets.

There are about 3,600 children's centres in England, half of which are in the most deprived areas.

The prime minister repeatedly promised to protect and improve Sure Start in the run-up the general election.

Ms Hodgson said: "These figures confirm what we have known all along - that David Cameron's pledge to parents to protect and build on Sure Start has been well and truly broken.

"Sure Start Centres are closing as a direct result of Tory cuts which go too far, too fast.

"But even these figures don't tell the whole story that parents are seeing on the ground of services withdrawn from centres, opening hours cut and trusted staff sacked."

Children's Minister Sarah Teather said the government was committed to Sure Start children's centres which provide valuable services for children and their families.

"We have ensured there is enough money in the system to maintain a network of Sure Start services across England.

"Local authorities are responsible for spending decisions, but I hope they recognise the priority the government has placed on early education and support for families, particularly the most vulnerable."

She added that she expected local authorities to channel resources "at those who will benefit most from the excellent support children's centres can offer".

The National Children's Bureau, a children's charity, said the centres were a vital source of support to parents with young children.

"They bring together a full range of services such as, health and parenting support in joined-up way to ensure that the needs of children and families are met. Issues can be picked up early and parents can be helped to support their children's development and learning."

NCB chief executive Dr Hilary Emery said cuts to local authority services such as play facilities, support for disabled children and youth services, are all painting a picture of children as the biggest losers of the recession.

Melian Mansfield, chairwoman of the Early Childhood Forum, said: "The emerging evidence that children's centres are closing or drastically reducing their services because of the cuts is extremely worrying, as families will lose the direct access to specialist health, education and safeguarding services and opportunities for early intervention are lost."

source: Hannah Richardson, BBC News

Call to ease childcare burden for full-time working families
Families who work full time and struggle to keep up with childcare costs must be given more financial incentives to remain in work, the government has been warned.

The call comes after childcare providers and child poverty campaigners welcomed this month's announcement that £300m will be used to allow parents working less than 16 hours per week to reclaim childcare costs.

However, the government has now been urged to include some measures within the universal credit that will benefit the majority of families, who work full time, or risk jeopardising parents' ability to pay for childcare and therefore remain in work.

Family and Parenting Institute chief executive Katherine Rake said the extra money for part-time workers is an important first step, but that more families need to be helped.

"The sky-high childcare prices faced by low-income parents in part-time jobs undermine the quality of their family life," she said. "But the overall changes and cuts to tax and benefits families have seen in the past 18 months threaten to eclipse this particular step forward.

"Many more working parents across the UK, even those on middle incomes, struggle to find access to childcare that is both affordable and of sufficiently high quality. This is against a backdrop of the end of universal child benefit, the loss of the child trust fund, restrictions to the Sure Start maternity grant and other cutbacks."

Until April, low-income parents received up to 80 per cent of their childcare costs through the childcare element of working tax credit. Families in receipt of housing or council tax benefit were able to get as much as 97 per cent of their childcare costs covered.

But in April, tax credit allowances were reduced to 70 per cent and will remain at this level when the welfare reforms come into force, while universal credit will absorb separate payments for housing and council tax benefits.

Ryan Shorthouse, researcher at the Social Market Foundation, echoed the concerns of chief executives from a range of children's organisations who said that unless the government increases the amount of childcare costs parents can reclaim back to 80 per cent, some of the poorest families will still lose out.

"Women who are working full time on lower and middle incomes will be hit, whereas those working fewer hours are being helped a little bit more," Shorthouse said. "We are already seeing evidence of women removing themselves from the labour market as a result of a reduction in tax credit support. The majority of parents who have typical childcare costs have been hit badly by the reduction from 80 to 70 per cent and will not be affected by this announcement and the government must now focus on this."

Childcare providers said that extending support to all parents regardless of how many hours they work would help increase parental spending power.

Claire Schofield, policy director at the National Day Nurseries Association, said: "It will help parents afford childcare regardless of how many hours they are working. Clearly there is a need for helping people get back into work, especially if they are getting jobs that are shorter initially as people are starting to return to work after having children."

But Schofield added that more detail must be revealed on how the entire universal credit will be administered. "While we have had this announcement we don't know yet how universal credit is going to work in detail and how childcare will work alongside credit for other areas families need support with," she said.

"The fundamental message we are continuously saying to government is that work must always pay.

"We have reports back from nurseries saying parents don't have an incentive to work more than 16 hours because over that threshold they are not getting enough money back out of what they have earned."

A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: "We know 70 per cent is sufficiently generous to support families in work. Universal credit is designed so being in work pays and that people are better off as they take up more hours."

CHILDCARE SUPPORT

• Parents working more than 16 hours per week are currently allowed to claim credits for their childcare costs
• The latest government announcement means that parents, regardless of how many hours they work, will be able to recoup childcare costs from 2013
• The £300m that has been made available will mean that about an extra 80,000 families could be eligible for support with childcare
• From April this year, only couples with an income of up to £41,000 qualify for tax credits to help with childcare costs
• The exact amount given depends on how much a household earns, but the maximum award is £175 per week for one child and £300 for two or more children
• Families were entitled to claim up to 80 per cent of childcare costs through tax credits, but this reduced to 70 per cent in April 2011

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

17th October

Free parenting classes trial to run in England
Free parenting classes are to be trialled for all parents with children aged five and under in three areas of England, children's minister Sarah Teather has said.

They are intended for parents even if they are not struggling with raising children, she said.

About 50,000 parents in Middlesbrough, High Peak, and Camden will be offered vouchers for the classes from mid-2012.

Labour criticised the government cuts to the children's programme it set up.

The classes, provided by parenting experts, are likely to cover areas such as communication and listening skills, managing conflict and "strengthening positive relationships in the family", as well as the importance of parents working as a team.

There will also be a stress on discipline, with "firm, fair and consistent approaches" encouraged and the importance of "boundaries" being set out for children.

And there will be advice on appropriate play for children's age and development.

"Parenting has to be one of the toughest jobs and it doesn't come with a rule book.”  Sarah Teather Children's minister

Ms Teather said she wanted to get rid of the stigma over asking for help.

"Parenting classes aren't just for struggling families," she said.

"All parents should know it's OK to ask for extra support and guidance when they need it - just as they do when they attend ante-natal classes before their child is born."

The trial will run for two years, with its impact tracked, the department said. It is hoped the results will lead a greater number of parents to seek help and advice themselves.

The government says it is still working on the details but it is likely that the vouchers will be distributed through various routes. It was unknown if health visitors, GP staff or nursery workers would be involved.

Ms Teather added that there was overwhelming evidence that a child's development in the first five years' of their life is the single biggest factor influencing their future life chances, health and education attainment.

"Armed with all this evidence, it is the government's moral and social duty to make sure we support all parents at this critical time.

"Parenting has to be one of the toughest jobs and it doesn't come with a rule book."

Shadow children's minister Sharon Hodgson criticised the coalition's policy towards Sure Start - a children's centre network established by Labour in the late 1990s to give more deprived children a better chance in life.

Some of the 3,600 Sure Start children's centres are being cut because the grant that funds them was cut by 11% in last year's emergency budget, and again in the comprehensive spending review by almost the same percentage.

The government also removed the protection from the Sure Start budget, leaving them potentially at risk as councils seek to make up losses to their central government grants overall.

Ms Hodgson said: "Labour is in favour of support for families and children, but the Tory-led government is completely out of touch if they think this is going to make up for the Sure Start centres that are being closed or hollowed out up and down the country...

"This government's reckless cuts programme is kicking away the ladders for the next generation and the closure of Sure Start centres is just another example of this."

Ed Owen, editor of fatherhood website www.daddybegood.com, said: "Every teacher, psychologist and educationalist will tell you that the first years of a child's life are important.

"Some suggest that the first two years are decisive. This does not mean that every child must be schooled, drilled and disciplined to make them model citizens at this young age. No, it means that in the first years children must be loved."

source: Hannah Richardson, the BBC

14th October

100,000 single parents to be cast adrift if changes to job seeking reforms not delayed
From today Jobcentre Plus will start to inform single parents not in paid work, whose youngest child is age five or six, that they will be required to seek employment or face potential cuts to their benefits. At a time when unemployment figures are at a 17 year high, Gingerbread is arguing that this will put unfair and unrealistic pressure on thousands of families – particularly when they will only be told at very short notice. Gingerbread is calling on the government to delay its plans until the introduction of Universal Credit in 2013, when single parents will be able to access support with childcare costs for part-time jobs.

The Welfare Reform Bill proposes to extend further the numbers of single parents required to seek work. If the Bill is passed unchanged then from early next year single parents whose youngest child is five or over will no longer be entitled to claim income support (IS), but will be required to claim job seeker’s allowance (JSA). Single parents will then face tougher conditionality and payment sanctions if they fail to demonstrate that they are actively seeking and available for work. When previous switchovers from IS to JSA have taken place for single parents they have been given plenty of advance notice, but in this case there would be virtually no gap between the legislation being passed and implementation, giving affected single parents very little time to prepare.

Chief Executive of Gingerbread Fiona Weir said: “The proposed timing of this change is disastrous and will plunge thousands of single parents into a stagnant job market with little prospect of finding work that fits around their caring responsibilities. In previous years single parents have been given plenty of notice of these changes and time to prepare, but the government is rushing this legislation through and will catch single parents unawares. It makes much more sense to delay the change until 2013 when newly-announced childcare support will be available for part-time jobs, which will help single parents of young children balance work and parenting.”

New figures released this week by the Office of National Statistics show that unemployment has risen to 2.57 million, a 17 year high. Alarmingly, most of the recent job losses have been for part time roles. Jobs that fit around school hours are crucial for single parents, but they often struggle to find work that they can balance with looking after their child. The introduction of childcare support for those working under 16 hours from 2013 will make this much easier for single parents to manage.

Gingerbread is urging the government to delay this planned benefit change to align with the introduction of Universal Credit in 2013. This will: ensure that single parents affected are able to access childcare support for jobs of less than 16 hours; save the government the administrative costs of implementing two changes in succession; align the requirements that single parents have to meet in order to receive benefits with similar changes which will affect main carers in couple families under Universal Credit rules; and protect single parents of younger children in what is an extremely challenging labour market.

Fiona Weir continued: “Forcing an extra 100,000 single parents to look for work will not reduce the benefit bill but will leave many more single parents languishing on jobseeker’s allowance. The Welfare Reform Bill provides an opportunity to delay these proposed reforms and avoid putting thousands of families through a highly stressful and wasteful administrative process, whilst giving them the fair chance they deserve to prepare for work and access childcare support when they find a job.” 

source: Gingerbread

4th October

Childcare groups voice concerns over 'weak' EYFS reforms
Support for vulnerable young children and efforts to encourage learning through play, could be undermined by the government's proposed reforms of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), childcare groups have warned.

Pre-school Learning Alliance fears the proposals could undermine efforts to encourage learning through play.

In its response to the government’s consultation on plans to simplify the EYFS, the Daycare Trust said the proposed "light touch" check on the development of two- to three-year-olds will not be robust enough to identify problems at an early age.

The organisation also said the proposals are "generally weak" in offering advice to practitioners on how to support the development and care of children under the age of two and on how to effectively work with parents.

Daycare Trust chief executive Anand Shukla said: "We are pleased that the government has shown its support for the EYFS as a universal framework, and the revised guidance is certainly both simpler and clearer than the original. We cannot give it top marks in all areas, however, and there are aspects which cause us concern."

The Pre-school Learning Alliance is also concerned that the revised framework’s focus on "school readiness" could lead to "intolerable downward pressure being exerted by the schools and the education system on many early years settings, staff and the young children themselves".

The alliance said this could undermine efforts by nurseries to encourage learning through play and lead to a gradual "institutionalisation of early years".

The government’s consultation, which closed on Friday (30 September), follows Dame Clare Tickell’s review of the framework for under fives. Ministers backed her recommendation that the EYFS needed to be simpler. Plans include reducing the six measurements of achievement to three "prime areas" of personal, social and emotional development; communication and language; and physical development.

Her review added that these should be underpinned by "specific areas" of literacy; maths; understanding the world; and expressive arts and design.

source: Joe Lepper, Children & Young People Now

New government unit to co-ordinate help for troubled families
A dedicated family unit is to be set up to co-ordinate intensive support for troubled families across central government departments, CYP Now has learned. The unit is a key part of David Cameron's bid to transform the lives of the 120,000 most troubled families by 2015. 

At present, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), the Department for Education (DfE) and the Department for Work and Pensions all fund various schemes to support families with multiple needs, as do local authorities and charities across the country.

A DCLG spokesman confirmed the unit will be housed in the department. It will synchronise existing work and bring together central government funding streams to fund such initiatives.

Christine Davies, chief executive of the Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People's Services, said the unit has the potential to end the fragmented way in which family intervention work has been carried out to date. "Rather than having a scattergun approach and a series of parallel initiatives, which is a real danger, particularly post-riots, we need to be absolutely clear about what makes a difference," she said. 

"Many governments have spoken about providing a co-ordinated national approach, but have never delivered it. I don't think such a unit should set tight prescriptions about local solutions, but it ought to be clear about the ingredients of any successful local approach, provide advice to local areas and maybe help overcome some of the difficulties there are about pooling budgets locally."

Davies, a member of the National Family Intervention Strategy Group, which advises the DfE, argued that local areas need to base their work with families on the "essential ingredients" of evidence-backed schemes.

"There isn't just one single intervention or agency that makes a difference for families with multiple needs," she explained. "The team around the family concept is at the heart of all these interventions, as is a multi-disciplinary plan, co-ordinated by a key worker. Those are the three essential ingredients, but sometimes we lose our focus on those proven things."

One of many initiatives supporting family intervention work is the Big Lottery Fund's £20m Improving Futures programme. The charity 4Children's Enfield Family Turnaround Project has been shortlisted to receive funding through the scheme.

4Children chief executive Anne Longfield said the unit should look to voluntary sector schemes such as Improving Futures to develop a model for family intervention work that can be applied nationally.

"While I'm sure government wants to keep all its localism principles, the commitment to 120,000 families is something that is going to need a national push," she said. "There hasn't been a lot of national direction about how this work can be implemented. So it will be imperative for the unit to work alongside charities delivering programmes, to make sure local authorities can gain support from those who are testing out new approaches."

David Derbyshire is head of performance and consultancy at the charity Action for Children and another member of the DfE advisory group. He said the government needs to ramp up efforts to increase funding for family intervention work to hit the 120,000 families target by 2015.

"The problem is that family intervention projects and intensive family support services are funded at a relatively small scale," he said. "They tend to be funded to meet the needs of the 40 most expensive or troublesome families in a local authority area within 12 months. Their track record with those 40 families is successful in pretty much every area that they're running. But, of course, they are only meeting the needs of 40, so if the next 40 most vulnerable families turn up, it becomes more of a challenge."

Derbyshire suggested that a lump sum should be pumped into the system to deal with the 120,000 most troubled families and allow professionals to start intervening early with those whose needs are not yet acute.

"If we carry on as we are, services will continue to meet individual needs," he said. "But unless you're going to provide this kind of intensive support on a greater scale, they won't be able to stop families needing intensive support in the first place."

THE CHALLENGE AHEAD

• More than 10,000 families have been supported through intensive family intervention work to date, according to the Department for Education
• David Cameron wants to transform the lives of the 120,000 most troubled families by 2015, which the government estimates cost the taxpayer £4bn every year – between £250,000 and £350,000 for each family
• Community budgets are a key part of the government's drive. They give councils new freedoms to pool local budgets to co-ordinate joined-up intensive support services for families. Sixteen pilot areas started using community budgets in April
• Other examples of schemes working to help families with complex needs include the government-backed Working Families Everywhere initiative, run by Emma Harrison – who founded welfare to work provider A4E – and the Big Lottery Fund's £20m Improving Futures programme.

source: Lauren Higgs, Children & Young People Now