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CHILD CARE BILL SUMMARY |
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| Below is the Childcare Bill Summary provided by SureStart. To access and or download this information and more information in relation to the Act, please refer to the useful information section. Childcare Bill Summary THE EARLY YEARS AND CHILDCARE - SETTING THE SCENE Top • Early childhood is a time of vital importance in children’s development. Children’s experiences in the earliest years of their life are critical to their subsequent development – quality early education is the most important factor bar none in determining a child’s life chances. They should be enjoyable, secure years, but full of fun and challenge. They are a time when children develop rapidly - physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially. • Children’s earliest experiences of learning should be happy and positive. The quality of early years experiences is the most important factor bar none in determining a child’s life chances. THE CHILDCARE BILL Top • The proposed Childcare Bill, introduced to Parliament on 8 November 2005, will enshrine in law parents' legitimate expectation of accessible high quality childcare and services for children under 5 and their families. • The Bill would confirm the vital role of local authorities as strategic leaders, working in partnership across all sectors to shape the future provision of childcare and delivery of early childhood services, raising quality of provision and improving outcomes for all children. • The needs of children and their parents are at the heart of the proposed legislation, with local authorities as the champions of parents and children, ensuring that their views are heard in the planning and delivery of services which reflect the real needs of families. • What this means for parents, whatever their background, is the certainty of knowing that high quality local services will be provided to support them and their children in ways that suit their needs. HOW THE CHILDCARE BILL WILL ACHIEVE THESE AIMS Top The proposed Bill would achieve these aims through new statutory duties which would build on local authorities existing roles and responsibilities. It will: • require local authorities to improve the outcomes of all children under 5 and close the gaps between those with the poorest outcomes and the rest, by ensuring early childhood services are integrated, proactive and accessible • place a duty giving local authorities the lead role in facilitating the childcare market to ensure it meets the needs of working parents, in particular those on low incomes and with disabled children • ensure people have access to the full range of information they may need as a parent • introduce the Early Years Foundation Stage – to support the delivery of quality integrated education and care for children from birth to age 5. • lead to a reformed, simplified, childcare and early years regulation framework to reduce bureaucracy and focus on raising quality New 0-5s Outcomes Duty Top Summary of the outcomes duty A statutory duty on top tier local authorities (LAs) in England to improve the Every Child Matters outcomes for all under fives and reduce inequalities in achievements, through helping them to access to integrated, pro-active early childhood services. In discharging these duties, LAs and their partners in the NHS and Jobcentre Plus will work together and have regard to statutory guidance which will indicate how services will be delivered through children’s centres. LAs must improve the well-being of young children and reduce inequalities in relation to - • being healthy - physical and mental health and emotional well-being • staying safe - protection from harm and neglect • enjoying and achieving - education, training and recreation • making a positive contribution to society - support for the vulnerable and positive outlooks • social and economic well-being - parents in employment Integrated early childhood services must include - • early years provision (integrated childcare and early education) • social services • relevant health services e.g. health visitors, ante-natal, post-natal care • services provided by Jobcentre Plus to assist parents to obtain work • information services (under the revised duty in clause 12) LAs and their partners must deliver early childhood services in ways that - • are integrated - to facilitate access and maximise benefits to users • include pro-active outreach – to ensure that those families needing services are identified and helped to access them, and that fathers as well as mothers are reached and engaged • involve fathers and mothers in service planning and delivery • involve other providers, including from the private and voluntary sectors Key Messages • The duty will put early childhood services in the main stream of local authority activity. The aim is to provide certainty that the level of early childhood services created through targeted Sure Start funding will be sustained through children’s centres fro the long term • What this means for parents, whatever their background, is certainty that early childhood services will be provided through children’s centres in ways that suit their needs. • LAs and their partners will have considerable flexibility to design the delivery of services that take account of local circumstances, within the broad framework to be established by the new duty. • The outcomes duty will be funded from within the additional funding that local authorities have already been allocated in this area and future funding levels determined through the spending review processes. Why are we legislating? • To ensure that outcomes for the youngest children are given the legislative importance and status they deserve, enabling professionals working in early childhood services to promote these services on an equal footing with those for older children and young people. • Sure Start Services driven through central targets linked to hypothecated grant funding was appropriate in the early phases of service development, but the remaining challenges, as children’s centres are created for all communities, require greater flexibility and scope for locally determined action. • Statutory underpinning of these activities as they mature, would facilitate their incorporation into mainstream funding and performance management systems What’s wrong with the current system? • The current centrally-driven approach has been successful in growing the childcare market, especially in disadvantaged wards. However it does not give local bodies the flexibility to use resources to design and deliver services that meet the particular needs of local communities. • Parents and service providers currently have no certainty of support from the Government. There has been significant investment in early years services since 1997, the Bill will ensure that this investment is secured for the future. • Placing early childhood provision on a statutory footing will also assure local authorities and practitioners of the Government’s commitment to improving early years provision by giving it the same status as the more established schools sector. New Childcare Duty Top Summary of the Childcare Duty This part of the Childcare Bill places a new duty on the 150 top-tier local authorities to secure, as far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient childcare to meet the needs of working parents and those making the transition to work. In fulfilling this duty, local authorities will have to have specific regard to the need for childcare that is eligible for the childcare element of the Working Tax Credit and for childcare that is suitable for disabled children. The effect of “reasonably practicable” is to allow the local authority to take into account their resources and capabilities in making decisions about when to intervene to address gaps in the childcare market. They will have to meet needs as far as they are able to within those constraints but it allows some flexibility – what might be practicable will depend on the particular circumstances of a local authority. The duty will give local authorities the power to assist, and make arrangements with, any childcare provider or potential childcare provider. Local authorities will also be under a duty to carry out an assessment, at least every three years, of the local childcare market to develop an overall picture of supply of, and demand for, childcare in the local area. The Role of the Local Authority To fulfil their new duty to secure, as far as reasonably practicable, sufficient childcare to meet the requirement of working parents (particularly parents on low incomes or who have a disabled child), local authorities will need to: • Carry out an initial assessment to determine how much, what types and in what patterns childcare is needed, having regard to: o the views of parents – both fathers and mothers, children, carers, providers and the community, the availability of childcare eligible for Tax Credits, and the requirements of all children aged up to 14 and up to 16 for disabled children, o current childcare provision, and, o socio-economic data and labour market patterns, including working hours. The assessment should be kept under review and a full assessment should be repeated at least every 3 years in line with regulations and guidance. • Work with local partners to fill gaps in the market as far as is reasonably practicable, by continuing to shape and support the market using a range of mechanisms such as: o business advice o access to training routes both for Early Years and Business skills, o start-up funding (capital and revenue) o other subsidies including sustainability funding. • A local authority may only provide childcare itself if there is no other provider willing to provide or if the local authority considers, in all the circumstances, that it is appropriate to do so. Guidance will indicate circumstances that should be taken into consideration that might include issues around cost, quality or particular groups of childcare users. Why are we legislating? We want to ensure that mothers and fathers are able to access childcare locally that meets their needs and enables them to make a real choice about work. Local authorities are better placed than central government to understand and respond to local needs. Duty to Provide Information, Advice and Assistance Top Summary A statutory duty on top tier local authorities in England to provide an information service for parents and prospective parents on the range of support services available to them in caring for children and young people aged up to 20; to provide advice and assistance for parents who are finding it difficult to access childcare (a brokerage service); and to take account of the needs of local parents in delivering the information service. The local authority will also have the power to provide information to other people it considers appropriate. • High quality information services helps mothers and fathers take advantage of the increased range of choice they have over services. Parents would be able to get information on the range of local services in their area, for example, child care and early years provision, health services, schools and family support. They would be able to access information where they need it, when they need it and in a format that suits them. • Research shows that 75 percent of parents and carers say that they feel there are times in their lives, or the lives of their children, when they need access to additional information or support. • The duty set out in the Bill would ensure that all local authorities provide comprehensive information on local services and support to parents, prospective parents. It would also make sure that authorities provide parents with the information they need through a range of outlets that are easily accessible. • Parents experiencing difficulty finding childcare will be able to access information about local providers from the brokerage service. It will help them broaden their search, including approaching providers on the parent’s behalf if necessary. Introduction of The Early Years Foundation Stage Top Overview The Ten Year Strategy for Childcare – Choice for parents, the best start for children published in December 2004 acknowledged that education and care for the youngest children could be brought together in a more coherent way. The proposed reforms support action under Every Child Matters and the Children Act 2004 to improve outcomes for children. Specifically the strategy committed Government to introducing a new a single quality framework for children from birth to five What are we doing? The Childcare Bill will introduce a new regulatory and quality regime for early years provision which will support the delivery of quality integrated education and care for children from birth until the point when they begin Key Stage 1. The new regime will be called the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). All settings which offer provision for children from birth until the point when they begin Key Stage 1 (subject to certain exceptions) will be required to deliver integrated care and education in line with the EYFS. We have adopted the term ‘early years provision’ to refer to integrated care and education. The free entitlement to nursery education will be recast as an entitlement to early years provision. The Ten Year Strategy made the commitment to increase the minimum free entitlement from 12 ½ hours a week for 33 weeks a year currently, to 15 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year by 2010; with the aim of 20 hours a week in the long term. We know from the Effective Provision of Early Education study that a broad, balanced play-based curriculum leads to gains in literacy and numeracy which last at least to the end of Key Stage 1. It is intended that the EYFS will further strengthen children's development in all areas. The current frameworks for literacy and mathematics predate the Foundation Stage and therefore take reception as their starting point. Mathematical development and communication, language and literacy form part of FS from the age of 3 – under the EYFS the revised literacy and numeracy frameworks will also start from the age of 3, so extending the approach. Our aim is that the sections of the literacy and numeracy frameworks for 3-5 year olds will mirror the appropriate strands of EYFS. This will mean that the literacy and numeracy frameworks are in widespread use throughout the early years sector, broadening their use. Why are we doing it? The existing legal framework makes a distinction between childcare and education, with separate requirements for each. Childcare providers are required to register with Ofsted and comply with the National Standards for Day Care and Childminding. Maintained schools and providers of the free entitlement to nursery education must follow the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage. Non-maintained providers of the free entitlement must also meet any additional conditions set by their local authority. There are also separate inspection regimes for childcare and for nursery education. Many providers offer both childcare and nursery education and are therefore subject to both regimes. However, for young children, care and learning happen together and are indistinguishable. Recent research has shown that settings which fully integrate care and education promote better intellectual and social development in children. The EYFS will be a distinct and coherent birth to five phase, and will better reflect the way in which children learn and develop. Reform Of The Regulation And Inspection Of Childcare Overview The Ten Year Strategy for Childcare also acknowledged that the current regulatory landscape is particularly complex. Proposals under Every Child Matters committed the Government to: • introducing a new legal framework for the regulation and inspection of early education and childcare services • reviewing the scope of regulation to make sure that different types of setting are each subject to appropriate standards The Bill will introduce a reformed and simplified, childcare and early years regulation framework which focuses on quality, ensures children are safe and simplifies the existing bureaucratic regime. This means: • all early years settings will be required to deliver and be inspected against the early years foundations stage • childcare settings catering for school age children will be judged against a streamlined set of common standards either though school inspection or a new Ofsted Childcare Register. School Age Provision What are we doing? All childcare for school age children from the beginning of Key Stage 1 to age 8 will be required to comply with streamlined standards that ensure provision is safe and secure and that providers are suitably qualified and adhere to child:adult ratios. These criteria will be the requirements for entry on to a new Ofsted Childcare Register. For childcare for school age children, the OCR standards will replace the current national standards for daycare and childminding as well as the myriad of other schemes for enabling access to tax credits for childcare for children over 8 (including the Childcare Approval Scheme) Any childcare provided as part of an extended school for children from the beginning of Key Stage 1 to 15 (16 if disabled) will be required to comply with the OCR standards – whether provided by the school or by a voluntary or private sector partner. Where a school’s Governing Body provides the childcare it will be included in school inspection activities and not required to be registered separately with Ofsted. Other providers of childcare for children from 8 to 15(16 if disabled) will be able to choose to join the OCR provided they meet the required standards. Parents of school age children will only be able to access tax credits and the income tax and national insurance concessions from employer supported childcare schemes if they use extended school or OCR registered childcare. Why are we doing it? Our plans will create a regime that delivers safe, quality and reliable childcare while reducing bureaucracy for providers so regulation is proportionate to risk and settings are subject to appropriate standards. The childcare market has grown over recent years and is now reaching maturity. Further measures of this Bill (LA duties to secure sufficient childcare and to improve early years outcomes) will continue that development. Full regulation and inspection was important in the early stages but the evidence shows us is no longer necessary in all situations. For school age children, in the context of the expansion of the offer of childcare through extended schools, the regime needs to capitalise on existing school inspection arrangements and be proportionate. The new Ofsted Childcare Register standards will ensure the safety and sustainability of care for this group. The Ofsted Children Register standards will be compulsory for all childcare settings caring for children under 8 and any childcare offered as part of an extended school. Other providers may voluntarily join the Ofsted Childcare Register. If parents are to make a real choice on how to balance their work and family lives they need to know the childcare they have access to is safe and of a quality that supports the development of their children. There is currently no regulation of care for over 8s. Proportionate regulation will free up providers to concentrate on delivering quality childcare to the needs of the children, not merely following prescriptive regulations. We are creating a robust and appropriate mechanism for providing financial support for parents through working tax credits and employer supported childcare schemes. The extension of the voluntary register will widen the financial support available, by enabling parents of children over 8 who attend registered childcare to claim tax credits. |
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