Agenda item

To consider a report by the Strategy and Development Officer (copy attached) to seek Scrutiny’s views on decision to recommission the childcare elements of Early Education and the Flying Start Programme through parallel formal processes.

 

10.15 a.m. – 11.00 a.m.

The Strategy and Development Officer introduced the report (previously circulated) which presented members with an overview of the proposed process for commissioning the childcare elements of both the Early Education and Flying Start programmes. During his introduction the officer emphasised that both these programmes had a proven track record and were widely appreciated by families, schools and other stakeholders.  He explained that as part of the Council’s work to eliminate poverty these programmes had been reviewed with a view to realising maximum impact in reducing poverty and deprivation in Denbighshire.

 

As part of the childcare offer to be introduced in January 2019 Early Education provides 10 hrs of the 30 hour offer. This provision is part of the Foundation Phase (FP) curriculum for 3 to 7 year olds in Wales. It is a statutory obligation for the LA to offer this provision but it is not compulsory for parents and carer to take up the offer. The Welsh Government (WG) fund 10 hours of education per week per child up to a maximum of two terms following their third birthday.  This education offer can be delivered in various childcare settings i.e. a school. Playgroup, Cylch or private day nursery.  To qualify to apply for the funding the childcare setting was required to comply with Foundation Phase Framework, providing the appropriate environment and trained staff to deliver the framework.  Every child in the county has been able to access Early Education since the introduction of the Foundation Phase framework in 2009.  The childcare offer seeks to enhance support for working parents and provides childcare provision for a further 20 hours free of charge (subject to an earnings cap).  Flying Start on the other hand was a WG funded programme specifically for families with children under four years of age living in the most disadvantaged parts of Wales. This includes Denbighshire and covers parts of Rhyl, Prestatyn and Denbigh.  In Denbighshire, Flying Start (FS) formed part of the Early Help services and the Families First (FF) programme.  In addition to childcare FS also provides parenting support programmes, speech and language support, along with an intensive health visiting service.  The FS scheme funded two and a half hours per day childcare, for five days a week and for 39 weeks a year following the child’s second birthday until the term following their third birthday.  Childcare settings qualifying for this specific funding received support from the FS Advisory Teacher and Teaching Assistants (TAs).

 

Having regard to current arrangements, WG Guidance and its own Corporate Priorities the Council had reviewed its funding mechanisms for both the Early Education and FS childcare services.  As a result it was proposing to recommission both the early education provision and the FS programme on the basis of ensuring:

·         quality care services for children

·         choice for parents and families

·         open and fair access to funding and

·         value for money

 

A joint approach had been agreed between FS and Early Education, which would result in all childcare services being recommissioned through two separate but parallel processes, with all services being recommissioned during 2019.  New agreements would be in place by September 2019, to align with the school year and to reduce potential disruption to children.

 

In response to members’ questions the Lead Member for Education, Children and Young People, the Strategy and Development Officer, the Performance & Business Manager, and Flying Start Education Lead responded:

·         advised that they had been encouraged by the number of new providers that had come forward to register an interest in becoming Early Education childcare providers;

·         confirmed that the local authority was responsible for setting up the Free  childcare scheme in the county, but any changes required would be funded by WG;

·         advised that the local authority was required to continue to  fund the ten hours Early Education childcare from within its Education Budget with the remaining twenty hours being funded by WG;

·         confirmed that the local authority currently had 12 schools  provide Early Education element as an intrinsic part of its FP provision.   In all cases the funding for the provision was delegated to the school’s own budget;

·         advised that WG Guidance was quite specific that the Early Education provision should be delivered by a mixture of private providers and local authority FP provision;

·         advised that some providers only offered the 10 hour statutory education provision.  Also some families only wanted to access the 10 hours provision and did not require or want the additional 20 hours provision that was available;

·         reassured the Committee that both schemes had been operating successfully for a number of years.  If a child moved childcare setting the funding would follow the child to its new childcare setting. It was anticipated that with the introduction of the free childcare offer to all children of eligible age that the take-up would increase;

·         advised that early pilots seemed to indicate that parents who used childcare settings to provide the 10 hour Early Education/FP element but did not provide the additional 20 hours childcare were unlikely to access the latter unless the childcare setting changed their registration to provide both elements.  There were various reasons for this i.e. location of provision, extended family support, parents’ earnings etc.  In order to change their registration in time for when the free childcare scheme commenced the more proactive childcare settings had already applied to be registered to deliver both elements.  The Council’s Family Information Service (FIS) was actively providing support to both childcare providers and parents with respect of registering as a provider and accessing the scheme;

·         advised that in an attempt to reduce the risk of any disruption to service provision and to parents and children caused by the changes, the application process had been redesigned on the basis of the feedback received at the stakeholder events held this has included developing an application process to compliment previous commissioning processes and delaying the application start date in order for settings to become registered for the free child care offer;

·         confirmed that the 10 hour Early Education/FP element was available free of charge to all children aged 3 and above until they entered full-time statutory education.  The additional 20 hours free childcare was available to the children of working parents whose earnings were below a certain threshold;

·         advised that the Flying Start scheme currently funded specific projects in the county’s most deprived council wards in Denbigh and Rhyl for children of two years of age until they were four years of age or attended school.  Currently more than 200 children within the above age group attended Flying Start funded projects in the county.  Flying Start projects were very structured and focussed on improving and enhancing a number of basic skills i.e. mathematical, social, parenting, speech and language development etc. with the aim of improving outcomes for the entire family whilst giving each child solid foundations to build upon during their statutory education phase;

·         advised that it was not yet known whether the introduction of the free child care offer  would have a detrimental effect on Flying Start projects.  Nevertheless, officers were not anticipating any great impact as Flying Start projects in the main provided services for children and families where parents were either not in employment or working only a few hours per week, whilst the child care offer was aimed at families where parents were working at least 16 hours per week.  Information received from areas that had piloted the new scheme seemed to indicate very limited impact on the Flying Start scheme;

·         gave an overview of the monitoring process undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of the Flying Start projects locally and the all-Wales benchmarking system for the Scheme;

·         advised that the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 had introduced a legislative requirement to support all children and young people from birth to 25yaers  with additional learning needs (ALN).  Denbighshire had a proactive ALN team which made every effort to identify any ALN as early as possible during a child’s education in order to assess, plan and facilitate timely and effective interventions and support.  The ALN team worked closely with colleagues in the Health Service with a view to securing the best pathway for each child, be it in Flying Start areas of the county or in other areas. There were higher numbers of ALN pupils in Denbighshire’s more deprived areas in the North of the County due to the higher population numbers. This population density has meant that there is a requirement for a higher level of support, including multi-agency support.  Hence the reason why WG targeted additional financial resources in the form of the Flying Start funding for these areas.  Nevertheless, children with ALNs in other parts of the county would receive the same level of support and intervention, but funding for them is provided by the local authority;

·         confirmed that the Early Years Team worked with the various Cylch/Meithrin/Playgroups operating in non-Flying Start areas of the county and consequently were able to brief primary schools on all children prior to their admission to their chosen school.  Information  provided by the Team to the primary schools gave an early indication of each child’s ability/potential and/or additional support and needs;

·         confirmed that the Council had been receiving Flying Start and Early Education funding from WG for a number of years, but with the introduction of the 20 hours free childcare from WG to complement the 10 hours Early Education entitlement already available a decision had been taken, with a view to realising value for money and maximising the schemes benefits for children and parents, to widen the access to both schemes in line with the statutory early education Guidance(2018) and FS grant criteria via an joint and parallel application process and commissioning process if required.  This approach would enable documentation to be aligned and shared wherever possible.  It would also simplify the process for parents and providers;

·         advised that whilst not all parents would access the additional 20 hours free childcare services, the objective of the WG offer was to encourage parents to work more than 16 hours per week;

·         advised that Estyn’s recent inspection report on the quality of education services in Denbighshire had referred positively to the Authority’s approach to supporting the provision of education for three and four-year-old children in the county; 

·         confirmed that for the Flying Start Scheme the Council was looking to commission a broad variety of providers i.e. public, private and third sector organisations/not for profit organisations to deliver the Scheme in the county’s most deprived wards as young children thrived in different learning and social environments, the same type of provision would not suit every child;

·         advised that public sector providers were not given preferential treatment over private providers in the contract application process.  Each provider would be expected to complete the same documentation when applying for funding.  It was the responsibility of each individual provider to estimate its staffing and accommodation costs as part of their business planning processes.  It was however disappointing that some independent businesses were unable to provide the services which the Council wished to deliver.  The Council had 12 schools who provided the Early Education childcare provision, the majority of which were located in rural areas where no private provision was available, it has also currently commissioned provision from 38 other non-local authority providers.  In addition, new legislation had come into force that would permit private providers to claim up to £12K in business rate relief; and

·         confirmed that ‘credit checks’ would not be undertaken on applicants expressing an interest in providing the services as the preferred process was an application process rather than a tendering process.

As a number of members had queried whether public sector providers were in a more advantageous position when applying for Flying Start and/or Early Education Childcare provision funding the Committee requested that an information report be provided to Committee members on the process to be followed.

At the conclusion of the discussion it was:

Resolved:  subject to the above observations;

(i)           the provision of an Information Report outlining the process to be followed by potential providers when applying for Early Education and/or Flying Start Childcare provision funding and the safeguards within the process to ensure that all applicants, be they public/private/voluntary sector organisations, were given fair and equitable access to the funding and to mitigate against public sector providers being in a more advantageous position;

(ii)          to support the decision to recommission the childcare elements of Early Education and the Flying Start Programmes through parallel formal processes