Council officer teams may look different in terms of responsibility for early years, sometimes it might sit in the education team or wider children’s services or early help. Have you identified the officers responsible for early years childcare and education?
Do we have sufficient early years provision in our area?
Councils should produce regular sufficiency assessments to identify whether enough early years provision is available to meet the needs of children and families in their area. Assessments should consider the demand for places versus the supply, for children of different ages and needs, including SEND. Consider also whether spaces are available at atypical hours – many families may need care outside of standard office hours. Do you know who is responsible for the strategic management and operational delivery of the Early Years and Childcare agenda?
Assessments should also look at whether people are able to access their early years entitlements. How many children are eligible for the disadvantaged two-year-old offer, the entitlements for working parents and the universal three and four-year-old offer? How many providers are offering funded places? Assessments will also need to look forward, considering potential changes in both the local population and the provider market. Are market or funding conditions having an impact on providers? Is there a risk to provision going forward?
If there is insufficient provision, what work is being undertaken to improve this? For example, is business advice available to help providers set up or expand? Mixed models of provision can be a helpful way to deliver the entitlements, for example using part of the entitlement with a nursery and the other part with a childminder to cover atypical hours. Do providers need support to offer spaces to children with SEND?
Long term financial challenges in the sector, alongside Covid-19 and recent changes to childcare policy are having an impact on provider sustainability. Are you assured that providers are financially sustainable? Are providers making the most of the support available to them from the local authority to ensure sustainable business planning?
Coram Family and Childcare has toolkits available to support local areas in improving sufficiency, including a sufficiency assessment tool and guidance on mixed models of provision.
Is the childcare in our area of a high quality?
There is evidence that while high quality childcare can support children’s development and increase academic skills, low quality childcare produces either no benefit or even negative effects. The quality of provision locally, therefore, is at least as important as the quantity.
This is reflected in funding guidelines, which state that councils should only fund providers rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, or ‘requires improvement’ where there isn’t enough accessible good and outstanding provision to meet demand. Funding should be withdrawn from any provider rated ‘inadequate’ as soon as is reasonably practicable and when spaces have been found elsewhere for children attending that setting. Councils can place requirements on providers rated less than good in order for them to receive funding, to ensure that they improve as per the Ofsted inspection report, for example insisting that staff members attend training.
The vast majority of early years provision is assessed by Ofsted as being ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’; find out whether this is the case in your area, and if there is provision that is less than good, what support is being given to help improve this? Is lower quality provision concentrated in particular areas?
Speak with your local providers to find out about the quality of staff. The presence of well-qualified staff improves the quality of a setting, however there are concerns nationally about the quality of the workforce, with qualification levels on a downward trend. Is this something your providers are experiencing? If so, can you work with local education providers to improve access to, and take up of, courses? Can you support the continuing professional development of early years staff, for example by commissioning training that local providers can purchase?
Is there a good take up of early education entitlements in your area?
The DfE publishes annual statistics on the take up of early education, entitled ‘Education provision: children under five years of age’. In 2023, 94 per cent of three and four-year-olds accessed the entitlement. Tables are available broken down by local authority, so that you can compare your area to your statistical neighbours.
Find out how parents are informed about the entitlements, including work with partners and marketing campaigns, and how those strategies are evaluated and adapted as necessary. Are you aware of any groups of children or particular areas where take up is lower, and what the reasons for that are?
Are any particular groups of children less likely to be in early education?
Find out whether the children accessing early education in your area reflect the population. For example, are children with SEND, English as an additional language or those from disadvantaged backgrounds less likely to attend?
Does your council have a good understanding of the reasons for variations, and how these compare to statistical neighbours? Is there action that can be taken to improve take up where this isn’t as high as you might expect?
What proportion of disadvantaged two-year-olds in your area take up the entitlement, and is this improving?
Fifteen hours of free childcare are offered to disadvantaged two-year-olds, for example those whose parents are on certain benefits, those in care or those with SEND, to improve their school readiness and social mobility. However, take up of this offer is lower than for three and four-year-olds, with a national take up rate of 74 per cent in August 2023.
If take up of the disadvantaged two-year-old offer in your area is low, what are the reasons for this? What work is being undertaken to identify eligible families early and work with them to improve take up? Are partners engaged in this, for example health partners?
An unintended consequence of recent changes to early years funding may be, in some areas, a reduction in places for disadvantaged two-year-olds with the introduction of entitlements for 2-year-olds of working parents. How is this being mitigated in your area?
Is early years provision impacting on social mobility?
Analysis by the Education Policy Institute shows that by the time young people take their GCSEs at age 16, those from disadvantaged backgrounds are, on average, 18.4 months behind their peers. Forty per cent of this gap emerges before the age of five. Further research shows that pre-school has almost as much impact on educational attainment at age 11 as primary school. It is therefore vital to encourage children from more disadvantaged backgrounds to attend high quality early years provision wherever possible to help narrow the disadvantage gap before children start school.
EYFS results show the proportion of children eligible for free school meals achieving at least the expected standard in the early learning goals, alongside the proportion of all children achieving this, broken down by local authority.
Nationally, 52 per cent of children known to be eligible for free school meals achieve at least the expected standard, compared to 72 per cent of all other children. What is the gap for your area? Is this improving?
Research shows that PVI settings in deprived areas are more likely to be of poor quality than those in more advantaged areas, offering disadvantaged children a poorer quality early education. Is this the case in your area?
Covid-19 continues to have an ongoing impact on children’s early development, particularly their social, emotional and behavioural development and mental health, physical development and school readiness. Some studies have found this is more likely to impact children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
How are children being supported with their speech and language in early years settings?
Is there a clear strategy to improve speech and language for children in early years settings? Children who are behind in language development when they start school are six times less likely to reach the expected standard in English by the age of 11, and 11 times less likely to reach this standard in Maths.
Does your council have a good understanding of the speech, language and communication needs of children in your area? How is this captured, and how is this information used to inform provision by both the council and local health services?
Are there clear pathways to refer children for speech and language support? And are these effectively communicated to parents, providers and partners? Are sufficient services available to meet local need?
It is also helpful to understand how both providers and parents are supported to help children with their speech and language. Is training arranged for early years practitioners to improve their skills in supporting children to learn? And can parents access information to understand the importance of early language skills and support home learning?
What support is available for parents and prospective parents to understand the early education and childcare available to them?
Councils are required to provide information, advice and assistance to parents and prospective parents, and this is usually done through their family information service.
Changes to government childcare policies, for example the recent entitlement expansion, have resulted in significant additional work for council early years teams. How are your teams managing this? How are families accessing the support that they need?
How do different early years services in your area work together to support families? Do health visitors speak to families about childcare and early education? Can they help to identify families who might benefit from the disadvantaged two-year-old offer, or who might need information on the SEND offer to encourage them to take up their entitlements?
How do parents and children influence service provision?
How do you know whether the provision in your area is meeting the needs of families? What methods are in place to capture this information?
Find out how practitioners in your area listen to the children in their settings. This is important not only to make sure that their interests and perspectives are taken into account, but to support their development and help them to build confidence and critical thinking. Both can be indicators of quality provision.
Parents are a valuable source of feedback on provision, but they may need support to know what ‘good’ looks like in a setting. Is this information available to them? And is it clear how they should raise any concerns?
What support is available for providers, and does the council have a good relationship with them?
Developing and maintaining positive relationships with early years providers will help the council to keep an eye on both sufficiency and quality of provision, and ensure that the support being offered to providers reflects their needs to deliver better outcomes for children.
Is there a clear offer of support in place for providers, and is this developed in consultation with them? Does this cover mandatory training such as first aid, continuous professional development, and business support?
How does the council facilitate networks of providers to support sector-led improvement, professional development and sharing good practice? These are valuable ways to encourage a culture of continuous improvement and to build and maintain skilled, engaged workforce.
Do our looked-after children attend early education provision?
Looked-after children are entitled to 15 hours of early education between the ages of two and four; those in foster care will also be entitled to the expanded offer if their foster parents meet the eligibility criteria.
Do all of your looked-after children access their entitlement, are they in good quality provision and are they getting any additional support they need? As corporate parents, councillors have a responsibility to ensure that looked-after children are getting the best start that they can, and this includes making sure they can take advantage of good early education.
Do you have sufficient wraparound provision available locally?
Is this affordable? Does it respond to parent’s needs? Are children with SEND able to access this provision? Have you considered how to engage with the portfolio holder for culture to bring in broader providers?