2017 Childcare Sufficiency Assessment the Following Strengths, Weaknesses and Areas for Improvement Have Been Identified in the Action Plan Section 16

2017 - 2022

Childcare Sufficiency Assessment

Conwy County Borough Council RESPONSIBLE OFFICER: DR LOWRI BROWN, HEAD OF EDUCATION SERVICES

PREPEARED BY CONWY FAMILY INFORMATION SERVICE - Old School Lane Centre, Church Walks, Llandudno. LL30 2HL. Tel: 01492 577850 Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Form

Name of Local Authority:

Conwy County Borough Council Government Buildings Dinerth Road Llandrillo yn Rhos LL28 4UW

Name of responsible officer:

Dr Lowri Brown Head of Education Services Conwy County Borough Council

Date of Completion:

March 2017

Principal Statement

The following report forms the Full Childcare Sufficiency Audit 2016 -2017. It builds on the information in the previous Full Childcare Sufficiency Assessment 2014 – 2017 which was completed in April 2014 and on the information in other previous Childcare Sufficiency Assessments. This is the fourth full CSA undertaken in Conwy County Borough. The Childcare Sufficiency Assessment (CSA) is a statutory requirement under the Childcare Act 2006. Section 22 of the Childcare Act 2006 places a statutory responsibility on local authorities to secure, where possible, sufficient childcare to meet demand. The CSA is the tool by which Local authorities can review the supply and need for childcare in the area and thereby highlight gaps in provision and address them where possible.

1 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Contents Page 1. Introduction / Context 4 2. Partnership Working and Consultation 4 3. The Childcare Sufficiency Assessment and Local Well Being Needs Assessment 6 4. Population 7 5. Overview – Childcare Types, Services and Places 14 6. Supply of Childcare 24 6.1. Childminder 24 6.2. Full Daycare 38 6.3. Sessional Day Care 52 6.4. Crèches 72 6.5. Out of School Care 72 6.6. Open Access Play Provision 91 6.7. Nanny 93 7. Understanding the Needs of Parents/ Carers 94 7.1. Overview of Consultation 94 7.2. Current Use 97 7.3. Demand for Childcare 106 7.4. Barriers to Childcare Provision 116 8. Free Nursery Education and Flying Start Provision 126 9. Free Breakfast Club provision 139 10. Working Tax Credit/ Universal Credit and Employer Supported Childcare/ Tax Free Childcare 142 11. Sustainability 145 12. Cross Border 152 13. Workforce Development and Training 153 14. Results of Consultation with Stakeholders (as outlined in section 2) 163 15. Summary - Gap Analysis & Areas for Improvement 166 16. Action Plan 168 Appendix 1 – Parental comments N/A Appendix 2 – Children’s comments N/A Appendix 3 – Strengths and weaknesses – gap analysis N/A

2 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Annexes Annex 1 Childminder Supply Data Annex 2 Full Daycare Supply Data Annex 3 Sessional Day Care Supply Data Annex 4 Crèches Supply Data Annex 5 Out of School Care Supply Data Annex 6 Open Access Play Provision Supply Data Annex 7 Nanny Supply Data Annex 8 and 9 Parental Current Use Data and Parental Childcare Demand Data (these two annexes have been amalgamated). Annex 10 Early Years Part Time Education (Foundation Phase) Provision Annex 11 Flying Start Provision Annex 12 Working Tax Credit / Universal Credit and Employer Supported Childcare / Tax Free Childcare Annex 13 Workforce Development and Training Annex 14 Action Plan

3 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 1. Introduction/ Context

Conwy County Borough Council recognises the importance of quality childcare by working in partnership through the multi-agency Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership (EYDCP). The mission statement of the Conwy EYDCP is that “All children in Conwy have the best possible start in life”. The aim of the EYDCP is to ensure that children in Conwy have access to high quality childcare and valuable play opportunities.

Therefore the objective of the Assessment for 2016 - 17 is to identify gaps in the provision of childcare, including: . Geographical Gaps: lack of childcare by Wellbeing area; . Income Gaps: shortage of affordable childcare; . Specific Needs Gaps: shortage of childcare for disabled children or other specific needs; . Time Gaps: shortage of flexible childcare when it is required, particularly by working parents; . Age Gaps: shortage of care suited to children of a certain age group; . Language Gaps: shortage of Welsh language provision; . Type Gaps: shortage in the type of childcare provision; . Families seeking work gaps: lack of childcare suited to the needs of parents seeking work.

This assessment provides an in-depth view of childcare in the local authority including the supply and demand for childcare and the barriers which may exist to parents accessing the childcare of their choice.

2. Partnership Working and Consultation

Information has been shared with Conwy People’s Partnership Board which consists a number of local authority Heads of Service including Children, Families and Safeguarding, Education, Social Services as well as a number of wider partners from Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and Community and Voluntary Support Conwy.

Consultation took part across the county. Views of stakeholders were obtained through a variety of means including the questionnaires to parents provided for the purposes of the CSA by Welsh Government (see section 7 below). There were also questionnaires to childcare

4 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 providers, play providers, schools, children, employers, voluntary organisations and partners from health services and local authority. A full list of those consulted can be seen below. The results of the consultation can be seen in Section 14 of this report.

The collated data and the results of the consultation were presented to the Conwy EYDCP (Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership) to formulate a draft action plan in readiness for public consultation and for consideration by the Conwy People’s Partnership Board. The questionnaires sent to stakeholders are available on request.

Consultation list: Parents Childcare Providers Children

CSSIW PaCE Let’s Get Working Job Centre Plus Flying Start Schools including primary, secondary, additional learning needs schools and inclusion centres Conwy Healthy and Sustainable Pre-School Scheme Children with Disabilities Team Health Visitors Team around the Family Flying Start Conwy Early Education Team Early Years Development Childcare Partnership (EYDCP) Conwy Outcome Group 1 (Children and Young People) of Conwy People’s Partnership Conwy Community Development Service – Leisure Play Development Team

Gwynedd Child Development Officer Denbighshire Child Development Officer Gwynedd Family Information Service (FIS) Denbighshire Family Information Service (FIS)

5 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Childcare umbrella organisations: Mudiad Meithrin – Cymraeg i Blant Cwlwm Wales Pre-school Providers Association (WPPA) Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY)

Voluntary organisation:- SOVA Creatasmile SCOPE / Face 2 Face AFASIC Homestart Conwy Referral and Support Scheme

3. The Childcare Sufficiency Assessment and Local Well Being Needs Assessment

The purpose of this report is to provide an up to date, evidence based account of the childcare market in Conwy County Borough. The guidance provided from Welsh Government indicated that the majority of the childcare data should be taken from the anonymised breakdown of the Self-Assessment of Service Statements (SASS). This information was provided by Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW) in an anonymised form which was received by Conwy Family Information Service (FIS) in October 2016. This data has been broken down further into the 5 Local Well Being Needs Assessment Areas of Conwy County Borough (see Section 4 Population below). The Wellbeing Assessment was recently undertaken by the Conwy and Denbighshire Public Service Board.

The templates and annexes provided by Welsh Government for the purpose of the completion of the Childcare Sufficiency Assessment have been used wherever possible.

In addition to childcare data the assessment contains updated demographic data and evaluates factors which could affect the demand for childcare. The assessment includes data on the settings which have opened and closed since the last CSA refresh in 2015 - 16, qualification of childcare staff and a training needs audit as laid out in the SASS return.

As previously stated Section 26 of the Childcare Act 2006 requires local authorities to undertake a Childcare Sufficiency Assessment to identify gaps and establish plans to meet the needs of parents.

The data collection for this full assessment was delayed due to the difficulties encountered in the implementation of the new SASS system for childcare providers and the consequent delay in the data being received by the local authority. However preparations and work on the

6 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 consultation process was started in June 2016. A full list of those consulted is provided above which includes consultation with parents and carers, childcare settings, local employers and children and those working with families and childcare providers.

Although the process of analysing the results has been very complex and onerous the consultation with parents and providers has been illuminating and informative for future planning. The end result will be invaluable for future consideration for developing childcare services in Conwy County Borough.

4. Population

4.1. Geographical area & population served Conwy County Borough is centrally located in North Wales. The County Borough has an area of 113,000 hectares and a population of 116,250 residents (mid-2015 estimate) which, with 99 people per square kilometre, is less densely populated than Wales as a whole. Approximately 38% of its area and 4% of its population are within the Snowdonia National Park.

The narrow coastal belt contains 85% of the County Borough’s population with Llandudno and Colwyn Bay as the two main urban areas. Other significant settlements are Abergele, Conwy, Kinmel Bay, Towyn, Llandudno Junction, Penmaenmawr, Llanfairfechan and Penrhyn Bay. The remainder of the county is a large rural area the main settlements of which are the market town of Llanrwst and the scattered villages of Betws- y-Coed, Betws yn Rhos, Eglwysbach, Llanfairtalhaearn, Llansannan, Llangernyw, Pentrefoelas and Cerrigydrudion. Its population is widely dispersed and is predominantly Welsh speaking.

As part of the Local Well Being Needs Assessment recently undertaken by Conwy and Denbighshire Public Service Board, Conwy County Borough has been divided into five areas as follows:

Area 1 - Coastal West Area 2 - Creuddyn Area 3 – Coastal Central Area 4 – Coastal East Area 5 - Rural 1. Bryn 5. Conwy 14. Llandrillo yn Rhos 21. Llanddulas 27. Caerhun 2. Pandy 6. Gogarth 15. Mochdre 22. Pentre Mawr 29. Eglwysbach 3. Pant-yr 7. Mostyn 16. Rhiw 23. Abergele Pensarn 30. Llangernyw Afon/Penmaenan 8. Tudno 17. Glyn 24. Towyn 31. Betws yn Rhos 4. Capelulo 9. Craig-y-Don 18. Eirias 25. Kinmel Bay 32. Llansannan 10. Deganwy 19. Colwyn 26. Gele 33. Trefriw 11. Marl 20. Llysfaen 34. Betws-y-Coed 12. Pensarn 35. Gower 13. Penrhyn 36. Crwst 28. Llansanffraid 37. Uwch Conwy 38. Uwchaled

7 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017

8 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 The County Borough’s 27% of the population aged 65 and over compares to just 20% in Wales as a whole and 18% across the UK. There are 21,700 residents aged under 18 which accounts for 19% of the total population in Conwy County Borough (Wales = 20%, UK = 21%). Of these, 18,900 are under the age of 16 which is about 16% of the total population (Wales = 18%, UK = 19%). The number of children and young people in the population has been in long-term decline, the total number of under 18s has fallen by over 1,350 or 6% since 2001. By far the youngest age profile in the County Borough is in the Llysfaen ward (Area 3 Coastal Central), with over 24% aged under 16. Glyn, Mochdre, Colwyn (Area 3 Coastal Central), Gower (Area 5 Rural), and Tudno (Area 2 Creuddyn), wards also have a higher proportion of under 16 year olds in their population than the UK average.

The Number of pupils attending the primary schools in Conwy County Borough during the period when the CSSIW SASS (Self-Assessment of Service Statements) was undertaken:

Primary Schools by Wellbeing No. of pupils excluding nursery No. of pupils including Area nursery A total of 7911 pupils (not including Nursery) and a total of 9028 (including nursery)

The total number of children attending Year 7 at Area 1 Coastal West 550 628 Secondary School is 1,071 across the county. Area 2 Creuddyn 2528 2872 The number of children attending Additional Area 3 Coastal Central 2388 2723 Learning Needs School is 204. Data source, Area 4 Coastal East 1310 1515 Conwy PLASC 2016 Area 5 Rural 1135 1290

Total 7911 9028

4.2 Future population Predicted population numbers for Conwy County Borough Data source: 2014 based population projections principal projection, Welsh Government

2014 2019 2024 2029 2034 2039 Change

2014-2039 All people 116,300 117,000 117,900 118,500 118,600 118,200 1,950 1.7% Aged 0-15 18,900 19,100 19,200 18,700 18,300 17,900 -1,050 -5.7% Aged 0-17 21,700 21,500 21,800 21,400 20,900 20,500 -1,250 -5.8%

9 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 The latest set of population projections produced by Welsh Government predict a steady growth in the total population of Conwy County Borough until the mid-2030s, and then a gradual decline in population levels at the end of the 2030s. By 2039 it is expected that population totals will be approximately 2% higher than they were in 2014.

This overall growth is not evenly spread across all age groups, and the numbers of young people aged under 18 are expected to decline by approximately 6% or -1,250 by 2039. There has been a long-term trend towards lower fertility rates across the UK which means fewer babies are being born. This trend is compounded in Conwy CB as there is a net-outmigration trend amongst young adults who tend to leave the area for higher education, employment and other social opportunities. As well as being the basis of the working age population that drives our economy, they are also the people who will become parents. Fewer babies being born because of an ‘absent’ parental cohort means even fewer young adults in the next generation, which then becomes a compound effect on the age imbalance in the population.

The live birth rates for Conwy County Borough over the last 5 years is listed below: Data source, Office for National Statistics:

Year Live Births 2015 1,117 2014 1,106 2013 1,070 2012 1,178 2011 1,187

Growth is predicted to be primarily in the older age groups, particularly the post-retirement population.

4.3 Welsh language The 2011 Census estimates that in Conwy County Borough there are 30,600 people aged 3 or over who are able to speak Welsh. This is 27.4% of the population. For Wales as a whole only 19% of the population are able to speak Welsh. Only slightly more than half of the population of the County Borough were born in Wales (54%), which in part accounts for the lower proportion of the population who are able to speak Welsh when compared to the neighbouring districts to the West (Gwynedd contains 65% Welsh speakers).

In general, the incidence of both Welsh speakers and those born in Wales increases towards the west, and as one travels inland. The ability to speak Welsh is at a peak in the rural southern ward of Uwchaled in Area 5 Rural (71% Welsh speaking), and at its lowest in the community of Towyn & Kinmel Bay within Area 4 Coastal East (less than 12%).

Only 13.1% of pupils in Conwy County Borough Council schools are fluent in Welsh, compared to a Welsh average of 16.2% (PLASC 2015/16). 15.6% of pupils are in Welsh medium schools, which is higher than the proportion of fluent Welsh speakers, and a further 22.9% of pupils are

10 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 educated in schools which provide significant schooling through the medium of Welsh. Three out of five pupils are in English medium schools. Two of the 7 secondary schools and 23 of the 55 primary schools provide Welsh medium or bilingual education.

In the 2014/15 school year, 21.5% of school pupils at Key Stage 2 and 19.4% of school pupils at Key Stage 3 took their exams through the medium of Welsh. During academic year 2014/15 78.2% of pupils were following a Welsh second language course at Key Stage 2 and 80.5% at Key Stage 3.

4.4 Employment The employment structure in Conwy County Borough differs from that of Great Britain (GB) as a whole. The production base has declined considerably over the past twenty or so years to approximately 4.3% of employees by 2015, and there is a heavy skew towards the service industries and the tourism sector.

The 2015 STEAM report estimates that around 9,850 jobs are provided directly by the tourism industry and a further 2,250 jobs are indirectly supported by tourism, over 12,050 jobs in total, which is well over a quarter of all employment in Conwy County Borough. Tourism brings in around £820 million each year to the local economy.

Rural Conwy is a mainly agricultural area with limited alternative employment and few development pressures. Rural areas and their communities are dependent on agricultural and forestry activities, even though these sectors do not provide a high level of direct employment. Levels of part-time working are high in Conwy County Borough, 41% of employees work part-time compared to 32% and 30% in Wales and Great Britain respectively. The levels of part-time working are highest for female workers.

4.5 Unemployment The claimant count unemployment rate for November 2015 was 2.1%, similar to the same period in the previous year. Unemployment in Conwy County Borough is generally seasonal, at its highest in the winter months, usually peaking around February. In June 2014 the rate dropped below 3.0% for the first time in over five years, meaning unemployment had fallen back to the levels it was at before the 2007/08 economic downturn. The overall figure is comparable to that for Wales but higher than the GB level. However, whilst unemployment rates have generally fallen, the reduction is not as sustained or stable as for the GB rate, possibly due to the seasonal nature of tourism-based employment patterns in the County Borough of Conwy.

At electoral division (ward) level, the claimant count unemployment rate is significantly above the County Borough average in the following areas: Glyn (Colwyn Bay) 5.7%, Abergele Pensarn 4.8%, Llysfaen 3.8%, Pant-yr-afon/Penmaenan (Penmaenmawr) 3.6% and Tudno (Llandudno) 3.6%. Tudno is within Area 2 Creuddyn, Glyn and Llysfaen are within Area 3 Coastal Central and Abergele Pensarn in Area 4 Coastal East.

11 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 4.6 Deprivation Four of Conwy County Borough’s Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) are amongst the top 10% most deprived in Wales, according to the 2014 Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD). These are Abergele Pensarn 2 (Area 4 Coastal East), Glyn 2 (Area 3 Coastal Central), Tudno 2 (Area 2 Creuddyn), and Llysfaen 1 (Area 3 Coastal Central). A further six LSOAs are within the top 20% most deprived, Rhiw 3 (Area 3 Coastal Central), Towyn, Kinmel Bay 1 (Area 4 Coastal East), Tudno 1 (Area 2 Creuddyn), Pentre Mawr 1 and Kinmel Bay 3 (Area 4 Coastal East).

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) data shows that there are 4,615 children in Conwy County Borough who are living in poverty. This is 21% of all children in families which are eligible for child benefit, and is above the average GB rate of 19%. The wards of Tudno (Area 2 Creuddyn), Glyn (Area 3 Coastal Central), Kinmel Bay (Area 4 Coastal East) and Llysfaen (Area 3 Coastal Central) all have more than 250 children living in poverty.

Another useful indicator also published by the HMRC is the number of families with children who are claiming tax credits. There are approximately 14,100 children in Conwy County Borough living in families that receive tax credits to help supplement their wages or benefit income. This is about 65% of all children, which compares to a GB figure of 59%. The majority of these children (9,635) are in families that are in work but on low incomes and for this measure the rate is significantly higher than the GB level, 44% of all children compared to the GB figure of 39%.

The Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC 2016) data shows that in the primary sector, the schools with the highest level of pupils eligible for free school meals (above 25% the County Borough average is around 15%) are Ysgol Swn y Don (Llysfaen), Ysgol Cystennin (Mochdre), Ysgol Ffordd Dyffryn (Llandudno), Ysgol Maes Owen (Kinmel Bay), Ysgol Morfa Rhianedd (Llandudno), Ysgol Nant y Groes (Colwyn Bay), Ysgol Sant Elfod (Abergele), and Ysgol Babanod Mochdre. In the secondary sector the schools that have a free school meals entitlement above the County Borough average of 13.3% are Emrys ap Iwan in Abergele (24%), Ysgol Aberconwy in Conwy (14.3%) and Ysgol Bryn Elian in Old Colwyn (13.9%).

4.7 Ethnicity / English second language All figures are pointing to growing diversity in our population:

. The White British ethnic group made up 95.4% of the population in Conwy County Borough according to the 2011 Census (Wales = 93.2%, England & Wales = 80.5%). In 2001 this group made up 96.8% of the population. . The ‘other white’ ethnic group including Irish, other white Europeans, white Australians, and white people from the Americas was 2.3% of the population or 2,650 people in 2011 compared to 2.2% in 2001. The 2011 figure for Wales was 2.4% and 5.5% for England & Wales. . People with mixed ethnicity accounted for 0.8% of the population in 2011. This compares to 0.4% in 2001. This is about 1,650 people in 2011. It compares to percentages of 1.0% in Wales and 2.2% in England & Wales as a whole.

12 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . All other ethnicities together were 1.5% of the population or approximately 1,800 people, increased from 0.7% of the population or 750 people in 2001. This compares to 2011 Census results of 3.4% across Wales and 11.8% for England & Wales. The largest ethnic group within this total in Conwy CB is Chinese with 0.3% of the population or about 400 people.

The 2011 Census also identified that about 2% of the total population of the County Borough has a main language other than English or Welsh. For those aged 3-15 the figure was 1% or about 170 children. Conwy has experienced an increase in the number of pupils who have neither Welsh nor English as a first language.

. Information on the number of children with disabilities The number of children under 16 who are claiming disability allowance in Conwy is 820. Data source: Disability Living Allowance statistics for May 2016, as produced by the DWP and available from the NOMIS system.

. Number of children with special educational needs or a disability

Special Education Need Stages by Sector - PLASC - 12th January 2016 SECTOR SEN STAGE TOTAL

A P S Primary 940 1059 36 2035

Secondary 631 632 80 1343

Special 0 0 208 208 Total 1571 1691 324 3586

A – School Action P- School action Plus S – Statement of Special Educational Need

Data source: Conwy Pupil Level Annual School Census 2016

13 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 5. Overview – Childcare Types, Services and Places

5.1 Number of Childcare Providers & Type of Services (Registered and Unregistered/ Approved)

Childcare Type Registered Unregistered/ Childcare Services Offered Registered Unregistered/ Approved) Approved Childminder 45 Full day care throughout the year 44 Half day care throughout the year 35 Before school 31 After school 26 Wrap Around 32 Holiday Provision 24 Other 29 Day Care Full Day Care 31 Full day nursery throughout the year 26 Half day nursery throughout the year 19 Before school 17 Morning Playgroup/ Cylch Meithrin 7 Afternoon Playgroup/ Cylch Meithrin 6 After school 20 Wrap Around 22 Lunch 15 Holiday Provision 17 Crèche 1 Other 0 Sessional Day Care 30 Morning Playgroup/ Cylch Meithrin 24 Afternoon Playgroup/ Cylch Meithrin 12 Wrap Around 5 Lunch 9 Other 1

14 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Crèches Operates Full Day 0 Operates Mornings 0 Operates Afternoons 0 Holiday Provision 0 Other 0 1mobile crèche Out of School Care 20 4 Before School 3 After School 15 3 Holiday Provision 8 1 Playscheme sessions 0 Other 0 Open Access Play Provision 2 providers at Before School various locations After School around the Holiday Provision county Playscheme sessions 1 (20 locations) Other 1 Rural Play provision at 5 primary schools during school holidays Nanny 6 Full day care throughout the year Half day care throughout the year Before school After school Wrap around a part time Early Education placement, e.g. playgroup or school nursery Holiday provision in the school holidays Other 6 TOTAL 126 12

15 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Geographical Distribution of Childcare Providers & Services provided (Registered and Excepted/ Approved)

Registered Childcare by Childminders Full Sessional Creche Out of Open Access Nannies TOTAL Area Daycare School Clubs Play Area 1 Coastal West 5 1 3 0 2 0 0 11 Area 2 Creuddyn 10 12 5 0 8 0 0 35 Area 3 Coastal Central 12 10 6 0 3 0 0 31 Area 4 Coastal East 10 5 5 0 1 0 0 21 Area 5 Rural 8 3 6 0 5 0 0 22 TOTAL 45 31 25 0 19 0 0 120

Unregistered/Approved Full Out of Open Access Childcare by Area Childminders Daycare Sessional Creche School Clubs Play Nannies TOTAL Area 1 Coastal West 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Area 2 Creuddyn 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Area 3 Coastal Central 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Area 4 Coastal East 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 Area 5 Rural 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 TOTAL 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 4 Explanatory comments One charity There are 6 runs a club Nannies on for children the with Voluntary One additional Play provision approval mobile needs during at 20 locations scheme we creche school on a rota cannot from holidays at a during identify outside of few locations summer where they the county on a rota holidays operate.

16 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 5.2 Childcare Places – Supply and Demand per Childcare Type

Providers have been inconsistent in the way they have answered these questions on the SASS return, some have not put a figure against Max Capacity column.

N.B. The waiting list question on the SASS return was asked and broken down per term which means that the ‘Numbers of children on Waiting List’ column (below) would not correlate precisely to the other data columns which was asked in relation to the SASS period itself (during August 2016). Therefore we have decided to take the figure from the summer term to avoid double counting.

Registered Provision – Term Time

Childcare Type Places as per Term Time registration Maximum Capacity Number of Number of Number of children Number of childcare (Column CA of of childcare places Children using Vacancies on Waiting List places required the SASS) available daily service Childminder 315 519 309 290 7 316 Day Care Full Day Nursery 1357 3709 2355 2498 40 2395 Sessional Day Care 728 1165 976 466 7 983 Crèches 0 0 0 0 0 0 Out of School Care 723 707 782 678 9 791 Open Access Play 0 0 0 0 0 0 Provision Nanny 0 0 0 0 0 0

Excepted and Approved Provision – Term Time

Childcare Type Term Time Maximum Capacity Number of Number of Number of children Number of of childcare places Children using Vacancies on Waiting List childcare places available daily service required Childminder None in Conwy Day Care

17 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Full Day Nursery None in Conwy Sessional Day Care None in Conwy Crèches Mobile crèche only Rarely used within county boundary Out of School Care 64 42 22 0 42 Open Access Play Provision None during term time Nanny See section 6.7 unknown below

Registered Provision – School Holidays

Childcare Type Places as per School Holidays registration Maximum Capacity Number of Number of Number of children Number of childcare of childcare places Children using Vacancies on Waiting List places required available daily service Childminder 315 231 881 290 22 903 Day Care Full Day Nursery 1357 981 3364 2498 Nil response 3364 Sessional Day Care 728 24 18 466 (this figure Nil response 18 appears to relate to term time only as most sessional settings are not open in holidays. It was a combined question of term time and holiday vacancies on the SASS.)

18 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Crèches 0 0 0 0 0 0 Out of School Care 723 397 2086 678 Nil response 2086 Open Access Play 0 0 0 0 0 0 Provision Nanny 0 0 0 0 0 0

Excepted and Approved Provision – School Holidays

Childcare Type Term Time Maximum Capacity of childcare Number of Number of Number of Number of childcare places available daily Children using Vacancies children on places required service Waiting List Childminder None in Conwy Day Care Full Day Nursery None in Conwy Sessional Day Care 0 Crèches 0 Out of School Care 16 (specifically for children with 16 0 0 16 additional needs in specific area and age group) Open Access Play Maximum capacity does not apply to 1012 n/a n/a but FIS has See Section 6.6 Provision providers in Conwy. many queries below during school holidays Nanny See section 6.7 below

19 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Geographical Distribution of Childcare Places per Childcare Type – Supply and Demand – Term Time

The demand column shows the total of the maximum attendance figures and the vacancies for the Summer Term, one term was used in order to avoid double counting:

Term time - Supply and Data from Data from Data from SASS Data from Data from Annexes Demand of Childcare Places SASS return SASS return return Annexes by Geographical Area

Area 1 Coastal West No. of Registered No of Children Capacity Demand Providers Places who use the service Childminders 5 33 45 35 39 Full Daycare 1 26 55 78 165 Sessional 3 69 96 135 115 Out of School clubs 2 135 79 67 97 Total 11 263 275 315 416

Area 2 Creuddyn No. of Registered No of Children Capacity Demand Providers Places who use the service Childminders 10 75 74 132 55 Full Daycare 12 489 825 1447 902 Sessional 5 17 257 268 261 Out of School clubs 8 221 341 225 341 Total 35 802 1497 2072 1559

Area 3 Coastal Central No. of Registered No of Children Capacity Demand Providers Places who use the service Childminders 12 82 83 85 82 Full Daycare 10 510 724 1439 700

20 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Sessional 6 172 213 284 250 Out of School clubs 3 208 198 224 172 Total 31 972 1218 2032 1204

Area 4 Coastal East No. of Registered No of Children Capacity Demand Providers Places who use the service Childminders 10 64 50 78 72 Full Daycare 5 262 440 520 542 Sessional 5 125 183 180 183 Out of School clubs 1 39 88 71 63 Total 21 490 761 849 860

Area 5 Rural No. of Registered No of Children Capacity Demand Providers Places who use the service Childminders 8 61 62 186 74 Full Daycare 3 70 130 70 364 Sessional 6 189 193 298 174 Out of School clubs 5 120 167 120 119 Total 22 440 552 674 731

Recent changes in supply of registered childcare in Conwy County Borough, and due to the large number of de-registrations it was felt that it was important not only to report on the figures from the previous CSA review but also the figures since the SASS was completed. The number of changes in registrations are as follows:

. New - 1 new childminder registration in Area 2 Creuddyn with an additional 5 places. . De-registered - 9 childminders have ceased operating – 1 within Area 1 Coastal West – 9 places. 2 were within Area 2 Creuddyn – 12 places. 2 in Area 3 Coastal Central with a total of 7 places and 4 in Area 4 Coastal East with 24 places. 1 Out of School Club has closed in Area 1 Coastal West with the loss of 19 places.

21 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Geographical Distribution of Childcare Places per Childcare Type – Supply and Demand – School Holidays

The Demand column shows the total of the Maximum attendance figures and the Waiting lists figures for the Summer Holidays only, thereby avoiding double counting:

Holiday - Supply and Data from Data from Data from SASS Data from Data from Demand of Childcare SASS return SASS return return Annexes Annexes Places by Geographical Area Area 1 Coastal West No. of Registered No of Children Capacity Demand Providers Places who use the service

Childminders 5 33 45 27 29 Full Daycare 1 26 55 26 0 Sessional 3 69 96 0 0 Out of School clubs 2 135 79 89 41 Total 11 263 275 142 70

Area 2 Creuddyn No. of Registered No of Children Capacity Demand Providers Places who use the service Childminders 10 75 74 52 39 Full Daycare 12 489 825 394 275 Sessional 5 17 257 0 0 Out of School clubs 8 221 341 66 401 Total 35 802 1497 512 715

Area 3 Coastal Central No. of Registered No of Children Capacity Demand Providers Places who use the service

22 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Childminders 12 82 83 64 51 Full Daycare 10 510 724 352 225 Sessional 6 172 213 0 0 Out of School clubs 3 208 198 160 244 Total 31 972 1218 576 520

Area 4 Coastal East No. of Reg Places No of Children Capacity Demand Providers who use the service

Childminders 10 64 50 33 58 Full Daycare 5 262 440 155 179 Sessional 5 125 183 24 18 Out of School clubs 1 39 88 16 12 Total 21 490 761 228 267

Area 5 Rural No. of Reg Places No of Children Capacity Demand Providers who use the service Childminders 8 61 62 55 23 Full Daycare 3 70 130 70 194 Sessional 6 189 193 0 0 Out of School clubs 5 120 167 66 13 Total 22 440 552 191 230

23 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 6. Supply of Childcare

6.1. Childminder

6.1.1. Analysis of supply of Childcare Provision

The Childminder data provided from the SASS return as seen in Annex 1 shows that the supply of Childminder provision across the county totals 45. However the lists provided to Conwy Family Information Service (FIS) by CSSIW on a weekly basis show that there are 66 Childminders with a total of 447 registered places. Therefore in the following analysis it must be taken into consideration that not all childminders in Conwy County Borough were able to complete the SASS. The SASS results are as follows: Language The language breakdown of the 45 Childminders is shown in the following pie chart:

Childminder Language Welsh 2 providers also mentioned that they had knowledge of other 2% Welsh & English languages namely Polish and French. 13%

English & some English bilingual 58% elements 27%

Welsh Welsh & English English & some bilingual elements English

24 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Range of services provided From the SASS data on the breakdown of the range of services it appears that most Childminders provide a broad range covering all the service types as shown below. A greater number of Childminders offered Full Daycare than holiday provision. More services are provided in the ‘English’ category than in any other language category. However due to the way the questions were asked on the SASS most of these services would be used by the same child e.g. a child going to part time school could take up a Before School, After School, Wrap Around or Half Day place. The data is not consistent. But in looking at the number of Full Daycare capacity across the 5 areas, versus the attendance – there is little spare capacity during school summer holidays in Area 1 Coastal West and Area 4 Coastal East.

Type of Childminder services by language and type

Other Holiday Provision Wrap Around After School Before School Half Day Care (pm) Half Day Care (am) Full Day Care

0 10 20 30 40 50

TOTAL English English & some bilingual elements Welsh & English Welsh

25 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017

Total number of services by language provision

TOTAL 303

English 111

English & some bilingual elements 72

Welsh & English 34

Welsh 7

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Geographical distribution Of the 45 Childminders who completed the SASS the percentage and number breakdown for each Wellbeing area is as follows:

Childminders per area Area 5 Rural, 8, Area 1 Coastal 18% West, 5, 11% Area 2 Creuddyn, 10, 22% Area 4 Coastal East, 10, 22% Area 3 Coastal Central, 12, 27% Area 1 Coastal West Area 2 Creuddyn Area 3 Coastal Central Area 4 Coastal East Area 5 Rural

The least number of Childminders is to be found in Area 1 Coastal West. The main towns in this area are Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan. FIS have previously identified a shortage of childcare in these towns.

26 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Childminder by language and geographical area

TOTAL English English & some bilingual elements Welsh & English Welsh

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Area 5 Rural Area 4 Coastal East Area 3 Coastal Central Area 2 Creuddyn Area 1 Coastal West

The only ‘Welsh’ language provision is in Area 5 Rural, 1 childminder. There are 4 providers of the ‘Welsh with some English’ language category in Area 3 Coastal Central and 2 in Area 5 Rural. This supports previous assessments which indicates that Welsh medium Childcare provision is scarce.

Of the 7 Childminders who provided services in Welsh (1 being ‘Welsh’ category and 6 being ‘Welsh and English’ category) there was a poor return on the question of capacity and attendance in Areas 1, 2, and 4. Of those who responded in Area 3 they indicated 27 ‘Welsh and English’ places with 32 attendances and in Area 5 there were 60 ‘Welsh’ places and 71 ‘Welsh and English’ places with 10 and 24 attendances respectively. Queries received by Conwy Family Information Service (FIS) and the demographic information in Section 4 Population (above) indicates that many parents choose Welsh medium education for their children and it appears there is insufficient Welsh medium Childminder provision to complement this. The range of services when broken down by geographical area is as follows:

27 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Range of services by geographical area

Holiday Provision Wrap Around After School Before School Half Day Care (pm) Half Day Care (am) Full Day Care

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Area 5 Rural Area 4 Coastal East Area 3 Coastal Central Area 2 Creuddyn Area 1 Coastal West

Capacity and Attendance Capacity and Attendance – Language Although the capacity and attendance figures in Annex 1 Childminder appears to show there is sufficient capacity in all areas this may not be the case for those wishing to access services in the Welsh language. As previously stated, the only area with a ‘Welsh’ medium provision is Area 5 Rural. However this provider does not appear to be operating at full capacity. Although the full capacity figure for this provider is 60 – each range of service has a capacity of 10. The attendance figure for this provider is 10 part time which could suggest the provision is operating at full capacity. However the results from the SASS as they stand for term time are shown in the following table:

28 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Capacity and Attendance by Language of Provision

309 TOTAL 519 162 English 215 81 English & some bilingual elements 146 56 Welsh & English 98 10 Welsh 60

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

TOTAL NUMBER OF CHILDREN ATTENDING TOTAL MAXIMUM CAPACITY

Capacity and Attendance Term time and Holiday time Data from the SASS return seem to suggest that during Term time there is sufficient capacity in most areas. The Term time and Holiday attendance and capacity breakdown per area is:

29 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Capacity and Attendance Term time

Area 5 Rural 74 186 Area 4 Coastal East 7078 Area 3 Coastal Central 8285 Area 2 Creuddyn 50 132 Area 1 Coastal West 3539 0 50 100 150 200

Attendance Capacity

Capacity and Attendance by area School Holidays

103 Area 5 Rural 55 240 Area 4 Coastal East 33 243 Area 3 Coastal Central 64 186 Area 2 Creuddyn 52 162 Area 1 Coastal West 27

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

Attendance Capacity

The data totals from ‘Capacity and Attendance School Holidays’ section outlined in the Annex provided by Welsh Government seems to suggest more children are attending than there is capacity. However this is not the case when each school holiday is taken into account separately, see figure below. The total capacity is given as 231.

30 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Attendance figures during school holidays

TOTAL NUMBER OF CHILDREN ATTENDING 881

May Half Term 150

Easter Holiday 138

February Half Term 154

Christmas Holiday 110

October Half Term 144

Summer Holiday 185

0 200 400 600 800 1000

However from enquiries received by FIS and from the parent questionnaires some parents experience difficulties. This is reflected in the capacity data when broken down by area and language. For example only Area 5 Rural has ‘Welsh’ medium holiday provision and Area 3 Coastal Central has a ‘Welsh and English’ provision. This is expanded upon in section 7.4.1 Accessibility of Childcare Provision. The SASS data returns show that of the 45 Childminders who completed, 44 provide for Full Day care. However as Childminders are restricted on the combination of age ranges they are allowed to care for at any one time in the pre-school age group, they may not be able to be full to this capacity if the children are under 3 years of age. Additionally if children attend on a part time or ad hoc basis as shown in the attendance figures in Annex 1 and those Childminders who have made a commitment to families to cater for this, they may then feel they cannot offer full time places to new prospective customers. Waiting lists and Vacancies The information provided by Childminders on the SASS return in the waiting lists and vacancies section was incomplete (see Annex 1). This appeared to be particularly true of ‘waiting lists’. From consultation with partners and in particular FIS it is thought that should parents find that their preferred choice of childcare is full they will not ask to be placed on a waiting list as their childcare requirements are more immediate. The SASS data may not therefore accurately reflect the true need for childcare of the Childminding type.

31 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Age range The number of responses to this section of the SASS was poor. Of those who responded none cared for the older age group of 15 – 17 year olds and only 8 cared for 12 – 14 year olds. However Childminders do seem to be one of the few childcare types who will care for children of the older age group. The number of children cared for at Primary school age and in the pre-school age of over 12 months constitutes the bulk of the age ranges provided for by Childminders. The lower attendance figure of the 0 – 12 months age may reflect the limit placed on the number of other pre- school age children which can be cared for by Childminders under CSSIW regulations (referred to earlier under Capacity and Attendance section). Also individuals choosing extended maternity leave is becoming more common. Hours and Days of operation – term time The data referring to hours of operation on the SASS return was incomplete. Many providers did not give a finishing time. Only one Childminder in the ‘Welsh’ medium category responded. The earliest start time available across the County was 7.30am with the latest finishing time being 6.00pm. Of those who responded all operated Monday to Friday. Throughout the county only one Childminder provided care at the weekend, namely an ‘English’ language category provider in Area 5 Rural. Hours and Days of operation – school holidays Opening hours during school holidays remained similar to those during term time with 7.30am being the earliest and 6.00pm the latest. The number of weeks Childminders were open during school holidays were reported as follows:

32 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Number of weeks open 6 5 4 3 2 Childminders 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 week weeksweeksweeksweeksweeks week weeksweeksweeksweeksweeks week weeksweeksweeksweeksweeks Welsh & English English & some bilingual elements English

Summer Holidays October Half Term Christmas Holidays February Half Term Easter Holidays May Half Term

N.B. No ‘Welsh’ medium provider indicated they were open. There appears to be less ‘Welsh’ Language provision and only 4 Childminders are open for the full 6 weeks of the Summer Holidays. The days of the weeks when Childminders offered services seemed to vary considerably during the holidays. There was a reduction in the number who indicated they were open on a Monday but this may well be due to the fact that more Bank holidays fall on a Monday. Most Childminders do not open on Bank holidays. Other than in Area 5 Rural there were no responses in the ‘Welsh’ medium category. Unsociable hours care From the data the least number of unsociable hours care providers are in the ‘Welsh’ language category. There was a nil response to Overnight care. The most common unsociable hours care was before 8.00am in the morning, although this may only be from 7.30am as indicated in the previous section.

33 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Only one provider was prepared to offer weekend care. This is surprising as much of the employment in the region is to be found in the tourist industry as indicated in the population section of this report. Conwy FIS also reported that low paid workers often prefer Childminder care due to it being cheaper and more flexible for those working within the care and retail sector. These parents are often required to partake in weekend working and unsociable hours working patterns. The tables below show that provision of this type is scarce throughout the county. There is none in the ‘Welsh’ language category and only one in the ‘Welsh and English’ language category.

Unsociable hours care - term time 15 11 10 6 4 5 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 Noof Childminders Childcare before 8am Childcare after 6pm Overnight Care Weekend Care

Welsh Welsh & English English & some bilingual elements English TOTAL

Unsociable hours care - school holiday 10 9 8 6 5 4 3 2

2 1 1 1 1 1 Noof Childminders 0 Childcare before 8am Childcare after 6pm Overnight Care Weekend Care

Welsh Welsh & English English & some bilingual elements English TOTAL

34 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Childcare Costs The SASS responses to the question of cost varied greatly from those who gave a daily rate for full / half day care and sessions of Before, After and Wrap around, to those who gave an hourly rate for Full day care or Sessions. Also the cost data does not always correlate with the session times which makes it difficult to understand what constitutes a half-day session. However in general the assumption has been made that a full day is 10 hours and a half day is 5 hours. The average daily and hourly costs are shown in the tables below. Very few stated that they charged for any additional services. Only 2 charged for nappies. However it is normal practice for parents to supply their own. 4 charged for transport and 5 charged for meals and snacks. Some charged for outings or for taking children to playgroup and one stated they charged for wet wipes. The information provided on sibling discounts is also difficult to collate as there were only 8 responses in total. However it appears that there was no option for Childminders to state that they gave no discount at all. Therefore the results of the SASS can only be used to give a flavour of the type of discounts given. Sibling discounts varied from 10% to 30% provided the children attended on a full time basis.

Average Cost per hour

Holiday Provision am £4.11

Wrap Around £3.81

After School £4.17

Before School £4.18

Half Day Care pm £4.14

Half Day Care am £4.14

Full Day Care £3.90

35 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Average Daily sessions costs

ay am £17.42

sion

Provi Holid

nd £23.00

Arou Wrap

ol £10.20

Scho

After e

ol £4.08

Scho Befor pm £17.36

Care am HalfDay £18.47

£31.86

Full

Day Care

£0.00 £5.00 £10.00 £15.00 £20.00 £25.00 £30.00 £35.00

Of the costs given the most expensive daily cost was in Area 1 Coastal West with the cheapest in Area 4 Coastal East.

Additional Needs Again very few responses were received to this question which may support the general view from consultation with partners, FIS and parents that the supply of Childminders who can offer care for children with specific needs is limited. . From the SASS data received, no responses were given in the ‘Welsh’ medium provision category. . Only 2 responded in the ‘Welsh and English’ category – one cared for a child with a specific learning need and one for a child with a visual difficulty. . In the ‘English with some bilingual elements’ category one cared for a child with autism, one for a child with a hearing difficulty and one with for a child with a non-specified need. . In the ‘English’ category Childminders were providing care for 3 children with speech and language difficulties, 1 with diabetes and 1 with visual difficulties.

Despite the above breakdown the number of those who responded to the number of children either statemented or awaiting an assessment totalled 10. Again it brings into question the reliability of the data from this section of the SASS. It could be that a child is being assessed for more than one condition or need, but this is pure speculation.

36 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 No Childminders specified that they provided Funded Part Time Education. It is however known that one Childminder is registered with the Early Education team but has not had a qualifying child in her care during the last year.

6.1.2. Summary of key strengths and weaknesses Strengths: . Childminders provide a broad range of services, with most providing a choice of full or part time care. . Childminders appear to offer flexible hours and there are only a few who change their opening hours during school holidays. . There appears to be sufficient capacity within those providers who completed the SASS return as there are no waiting lists. This appears to suggest that those providing a Childminding service at this time are sustainable. . On a cost basis, Childminders appear to be one of the cheaper options. . Childminders will consider caring for children in the older age group.

Weaknesses: . There is little or no choice of Childminder care particularly when either language, holiday, unsociable or weekend care is also considered. . The supply appears to have reduced across the county since the previous CSA review but also since the SASS itself was completed. The number of changes in registrations are: New - 1 new Childminder registration in Area 2 Creuddyn with an additional 5 places. De- registered - 9 Childminders have ceased operating – 1 within Area 1 Coastal West – 9 places. 2 were within Area 2 Creuddyn – 12 places. 2 in Area 3 Coastal Central with a total of 7 places and 4 in Area 4 Coastal East with 24 places.  The range of ‘Welsh’ language provision is weak in most areas. 15% of providers categorised themselves as ‘Welsh’ or ‘Welsh and English’. The number of parents who choose Welsh medium or schools who provide significant schooling through the medium of Welsh totals 45.5% of the school population.  Geographically there is a shortage of Childminders in Area 1 Coastal West. Since the SASS returns were received FIS report a further reduction of provision in this area particularly in the towns of Llanfairfechan and Penmaenmawr. Area 2 Creuddyn has 10 Childminders (some of which may be assistants). This area has some of the most densely populated areas of the county and FIS have reported parents experiencing difficulties in finding Childminders who can pick up from some schools in their area.  Holiday childminder care is scarce in the ‘Welsh’ medium. For example only Area 5 Rural has a ‘Welsh’ medium holiday provision and Area 3 Coastal Central has a ‘Welsh and English’ provision.  Only one provider across the county offered weekend care; none offer overnight care.  Very few appeared to offer care for children with additional needs although this could be due to lone working where 1:1 provision may be required. This would not be sustainable for a Childminder.

37 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017

6.2 Full Daycare

6.2.1 Analysis of Supply of Childcare Provision

The data provided from the SASS return as seen in Annex 2 Full Daycare shows that the supply of Full Daycare provision across the county totals 31. However the lists provided to Conwy Family Information Service (FIS) by CSSIW on a weekly basis show that there are 46 Full Daycare registrations with a total of 1853 registered places. Therefore in the following analysis it must be taken into consideration that either not all Full Daycare providers were able to complete the SASS or they have completed as a sessional provider. The SASS results are as follows: Language: The language breakdown of the 31 Full Daycare providers is shown in the following pie chart:

Full Daycare by language English Welsh 16% 3% Welsh & English 26%

English & some bilingual elements 55%

Welsh Welsh & English English & some bilingual elements English

38 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Range of services provided: In the section showing the type of Full Daycare provision provided, only 26 stated they provided Full Day Nursery care. The rest were clearly Cylchoedd Meithrin or Playgroups who have been registered as Full Daycare due to the nature of their opening hours and the services they provide. This can vary from a Morning and Afternoon session and Wrap around care for those attending part time school. These would normally be a different set of children in each session and would not constitute Full Daycare during school holidays.

Type of Daycare service by language and type

Crèche Holiday Provision Lunch Wrap Around After School Before School Playgroup/Cylch Meithrin (pm) Playgroup/Cylch Meithrin (am) Half Day Nursery (pm) Half Day Nursery (am) Full Day Nursery

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

TOTAL English English & some bilingual elements Welsh & English Welsh

39 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Total number of Daycare services by language provision

TOTAL 169

English 29

English & some bilingual elements 101

Welsh & English 36

Welsh 3

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Geographically the range of services was fewest in Area 1 Coastal West where there was only one service which stated they provided Full Daycare, Half Daycare and Before School but no other service. Areas 4 Coastal East and Area 5 Rural also seem to have limited choice particularly in the ‘Welsh’ medium category. Geographical distribution Of the 31 Daycare providers who completed the SASS the percentage and number breakdown for each Wellbeing area is as follows:

40 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Full Daycare per area Area 5 Rural, 3, Area 1 Coastal 10% West, 1, 3%

Area 4 Coastal Area 2 Creuddyn, East, 5, 16% 12, 39%

Area 3 Coastal Central, 10, 32% Area 1 Coastal West Area 2 Creuddyn Area 3 Coastal Central Area 4 Coastal East Area 5 Rural

The least number of Full Daycare providers is to be found in Area 1 Coastal Area West. The main towns in this area are Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan. FIS have previously identified a shortage of childcare in these towns. There is also very little provision in Area 5 Rural. Due to Area 5 being a large area geographically and a less dense population than in the other areas of the county, the location of a childcare provider may not be suitable for all families living in this area. Coupled with a variety of patterns of people travelling to work means the sustainability of a Full Daycare provider in some locations would need to be carefully considered.

41 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Full Daycare by language and geograhical area

Area 5 Rural

Area 4 Coastal East

Area 3 Coastal Central

Area 2 Creuddyn

Area 1 Coastal West

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

English English & some bilingual elements Welsh & English Welsh

The only ‘Welsh’ medium provision is in Area 3, Coastal Area Central and there are 8 providers who categorised themselves as ‘Welsh and English’ with at least one being in each of the 5 Wellbeing areas. However the greatest number of language provision type is ‘English with some bilingual elements’. These figures seem to support previous assessments, that there is a shortage of Welsh medium childcare. However in Area 2, Creuddyn a new Welsh medium Day Nursery has opened, situated close to one of the Welsh medium schools in the county. This has been a much welcome addition to Welsh medium Childcare The demographic information in Section 4 Population (above) indicated that many parents choose Welsh medium education for their children and it would appear there is insufficient Welsh medium Full Daycare provision to meet this demand. There is certainly no choice of ‘Welsh’ category Full Daycare provision. The range of services when broken down by geographical area is as follows:

42 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Range of services by geographical area

Crèche Holiday Provision Lunch Wrap Around After School Before School Playgroup/Cylch Meithrin (pm) Playgroup/Cylch Meithrin (am) Half Day Nursery(pm) Half Day Nursery(am) Full Day Nursery

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Area 5 Rural Area 4 Coastal East Area 3 Coastal Central Area 2 Creuddyn Area 1 Coastal West

Capacity and Attendance Some of the capacity and attendance data received from the SASS returns appear to be incomplete. For example a provider in the ‘Welsh’ medium Term time category has stated a capacity of 52 but a nil attendance. This may be due to the fact that their provision is stated as “Playgroup” and that the SASS was conducted during the school holidays (August 2016). It is also difficult to assess how this question was answered in relation to the Before and After School section, as the timing of the SASS may have been confusing for providers to give an accurate attendance figure for term time. Language Again the above issue has affected the attendance figures for ‘Welsh’ medium provision. It shows a capacity of 52 ‘Welsh’ medium with no attendance. Although feedback from FIS suggests that parents wish to use Welsh medium care and presumably a provider would find it difficult to remain viable without any children attending. As mentioned above the timing of the SASS could have influenced the way this section was completed by providers.

43 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Capacity and Attendance by Language

2355 TOTAL 3709

344 English 355

1195 English & some bilingual elements 2648

816 Welsh & English 654

0 Welsh 52

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000

TOTAL NUMBER OF CHILDREN ATTENDING TOTAL MAXIMUM CAPACITY

Capacity and Attendance - Term time and Holiday time by area. The Term time and Holiday attendance and capacity breakdown per area is as follows:

44 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Capacity and Attendance Term time

304 Area 5 Rural 70

529 Area 4 Coastal East 520

673 Area 3 Coastal Central 1439

902 Area 2 Creuddyn 1447

165 Area 1 Coastal West 78

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600

ATTENDANCE CAPACITY

Capacity and Attendance by area School Holidays

194 Area 5 Rural 70

936 Area 4 Coastal East 155

1113 Area 3 Coastal Central 352

1188 Area 2 Creuddyn 394

0 Area 1 Coastal West 26

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400

Attendance Capacity

45 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Data from the SASS return seems to suggest that during Term time there is sufficient capacity in all areas. Area 2, Creuddyn and Area 3, Coastal Central seems to have excess capacity which would suggest plenty of parental choice. But again there is very little ‘Welsh’ medium provision in all areas. The data totals from ‘Capacity and Attendance School Holidays’ as it is laid out in the Annex provided to Local Authorities seems to suggest more children are attending than there is capacity, as in the table above. Total capacity is given as 981. But this is not the case when each school holiday is looked at separately, see below:

Attendance figures during school holidays

Total 3364

May Half Term 571

Easter Holiday 532

February Half Term 549

Christmas Holiday 379

October Half Term 549

Summer Holiday 784

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000

However from enquires received by FIS and from parent feedback the evidence suggest that some parents experience difficulty. This is reflected in the capacity data when broken down by area and language. There is no ‘Welsh’ medium provision when broken down into the 5 Wellbeing areas during school holidays. On the return for Area 4, Coastal East the ‘English with some bilingual elements’ has a capacity of 54 but the attendance figures for the Summer Holidays are: 6 Full time, 52 Part Time and 19 Ad hoc. If more than 2 children of the Ad hoc type required a full time place the settings would be at full capacity. Similarly Area 5 Rural with a total of 70 places has attendance figures of 1 full time, 117 Part time and 1 Ad hoc. The possibility is that if all 117 required the care at the same time, they would not be able to accommodate them all. The SASS data was inconsistent as some providers did not complete the Maximum capacity section.

46 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Waiting lists and Vacancies The information in the ‘Vacancies’ section of the SASS return appears to show a high level of vacancies in the Full Daycare sector (2948) However as the total number of registered places is 1357 this would appear to be incorrect. The total vacancies for Full Day Nursery is 1217. The question of vacancies for Full Daycare of the SASS return, showed zero vacancies, this brings into question the reliability of the data from the SASS return in this section. The data on waiting lists given from the SASS also appears incomplete. There were no responses from providers in Areas 1 Coastal West, Area 2 Creuddyn or Area 5 Rural for term time and no responses at all for Holiday time. From consultation with partners and in particular FIS it is thought that should parents find their preferred choice of childcare is full they will not routinely ask to be put on a waiting list as their childcare needs are immediate and they will seek alternative options. Age Range 29 of those who completed the SASS responded to this section. By areas the age range breakdown was as follows:

Age range by area 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Under 12-18 19-23 2 years 3 years 4 years 5-7 8 - 11 12 - 14 15 - 17 12 months months years years years years months

Area 1 Coastal West Area 2 Creuddyn Area 3 Coastal Central Area 4 Coastal East Area 5 Rural

There was only one provision for ages 15 – 17 years in Area 3 Coastal Central and none in any other area. This was in the ‘English and some bilingual elements’ language category so there is no option for Welsh medium childcare in this age range.

47 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Only 2 areas had a choice of provision for the 12 – 14 year olds with only 3 areas having any provision at all for this age group. Area 1 Coastal West and Area 5 Rural again appeared to be the areas with the least choice of Full Daycare available. Again there is no ‘Welsh’ medium childcare for any age range in Areas 1, 2 and 4 and only ages 2, 3 and 4 in Area 3. There is some provision in the ‘Welsh & English’ category. The Age Range usage data of Annex 2 shows that there is slightly less usage of services by children aged Under 12 months. This may be due to parents taking extended maternity leave. Usage also decreased once children reached the age of 8 years. The use of Full Daycare by those who are over 11 years of age was low. FIS reports that parents say they do not feel Full Day Nursery care is appropriate for those in the older age group and that children in this age group do not want to attend settings alongside very young children. Some parents who have used After School Clubs have reported to FIS that they struggle to find care once their children start to attend High School, particularly during school holidays. Hours and Days of operation – term time From the SASS data received the earliest opening time during term time was 7.00am and the latest opening time was 11.00am (it can be assumed this is a Playgroup / Cylch which runs two sessions a day). Most providers were open from either 7.30am or 8.00am, although none of the ‘Welsh’ or ‘Welsh and English’ providers in Areas 3 Coastal Central were open before 8.30am which could make travelling to work outside the immediate area a challenge for a 9.00am start. The latest finishing time given across the county was 6.30pm which was in Area 4 Coastal East. Most providers did not stay open later than 6.00pm. Hours and Days of operation – School Holidays The range of open and closing times are similar to those during term time other than those that are clearly Playgroups or Cylchoedd Meithrin who did not respond to this section. Of those who responded to the number of weeks providers were open during school holidays, most Full Daycare providers said they were open for the full 6 weeks of the Summer Holidays. One appeared to open for 5 weeks. About half the respondents were open for 1 week over Christmas and about half were open for the full two weeks; only one was closed for the full 2 weeks. All respondents were open for the duration of other school holidays. The days of the weeks when they were open also appeared to be consistent from Monday to Friday. Only one provider was open on a Saturday and none on Sundays. This provider is located in Area 4 Coastal East and is of the ‘English with some bilingual elements’ language category.

48 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Unsociable hours care . From the data the least number of unsociable hours care providers are in the ‘Welsh’ language. . There was no difference between term time and school holiday provision. . There was a nil response across all areas for Overnight care. . The most common unsociable hours care was before 8.00am although this may only be from 7.00am as previously stated. . Only one provider who is located in Area 4 Coastal East provided care until 18.30 and this same provider was the only one across the whole county who offered care on a Saturday. . There was a nil response from any providers in the Area 1 Coastal East and Area 5 Rural.

The lack of unsociable hours care in a region where much of the employment is based around care, retail or the tourist sector where weekend and unsociable hours work patterns are common seems to reveal a gap in provision across all language categories and areas. Childcare Costs The SASS responses to the question of cost varied greatly. Some gave an hourly rate although most appeared to give a daily rate. The average daily cost is shown in the chart below. The most expensive daily cost given was £41.00 in Area 1 Coastal West. This is the only Full Daycare provider in this area. The average half day costs (£28.29 and £28.27) appeared to be little cheaper than the average full day cost of £37.18. Once a provider has filled even a part time place the possibility of filling that place again for the remainder of the day is unlikely. However half day Holiday provision appeared to be cheaper at £18.90 and £18.91. Presumably the staff ratios required for the older age group may influence this price.

49 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Average Daily costs

Holiday Provision pm 18.90 Holiday Provision am 18.91 Crèche 0.00 Wrap Around 14.14 Play Group/Cylch Meithrin pm 6.01 Play Group/Cylch Meithrin am 18.27 After School 11.99 Before School 6.65 Half Day Nursery pm 28.27

Half Day Nursery am 28.29 Service Service from Fulldaycare Full Day Nursery 37.18 0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 35.00 40.00 Average costs per day in £

Additional costs Only 3 providers across the county answered this section. Two in Area 3 Coastal Central and one in Area 2 Creuddyn. All three stated they charged for Nappies, Transport, Snacks, Meals and Outings. Sibling discounts, this data is difficult to collate due to the variances. It has been assumed that those who did not complete this section do not give a discount. A flavour of the discounts given is as follows:

 £1.00 discount only  Discount of £4.00 off Full day and £2.00 off half day  5 providers gave a 10% discount  One gave a 20% discount for 3 days or more  No discounts were stated in Area 1 Coastal West.

Additional Needs The total number of Children with Special Educational Needs or Disability cared for across the county was 52.

50 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Of these the language breakdown of the care was 0 in the ‘Welsh’ category, 5 ‘Welsh and English’, 37 ‘English and some bilingual elements’ and 10 in the ‘English’ category. Geographically the breakdown was; . Area 1 Coastal West (nil return) . Area 2 Creuddyn – 16 children . Area 3 Coastal Central – 15 children . Area 4 Coastal East – 20 children . Area 5 Rural – 1 child

On the type of disability or need, 43 responses were received. The most common conditions were as follows: 13 Speech and Language difficulties, 4 specific learning difficulties, 4 hearing difficulties, 5 learning difficulties (e.g. global development delay etc.), 1 visual, 7 Emotional and behavioural difficulties, 3 physical disabilities, 3 autism and 3 various medical conditions. Two children with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities were receiving Funded Part Time Education. Both were in ‘English and some bilingual elements’ settings – one in Area 2 Creuddyn and one in Area 3 Coastal Central.

6.2.2. Summary of key strengths and weaknesses Strengths: . The Welsh medium day nursery has been a positive addition to Welsh medium childcare in Area 2 Creuddyn. . Data seems to suggest that there is sufficient capacity within the providers who completed the SASS. . There appears to be vacancies in all areas with very few placed on waiting lists. . The majority of data for children with additional needs appears to be in this type of provision.

Weaknesses: . Geographically the least number of providers and therefore the least range of services was in Area 1 Coastal West where there was only one service which stated they provided full daycare, half daycare and before school but no other service. The main towns in this area are Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan. FIS have previously identified a shortage of childcare in these towns. . Areas 4 Coastal East and Area 5 Rural also seem to have limited choice particularly in the ‘Welsh’ medium category. . There is also very little provision in Area 5 Rural. Due to Area 5 being a large area geographically and a less dense population than in the other areas of the county, the location of a childcare provider may not be suitable for all families living in this area. Coupled with a variety of patterns of people travelling to work the sustainability of a full daycare provider in some locations would need to be carefully considered.

51 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . The capacity data for Holiday care when broken down into area and language along with enquires received by FIS seems to suggest that some parents experience difficulty. There is no ‘Welsh’ medium provision when broken down into the 5 Wellbeing areas during school holidays. . Supply for the older age group appears limited but few of the older age group wish to attend this type of provision after the age 12. . Unsociable hours care is limited. Only one provider was open on a Saturday and none on Sundays. This provider is located in Area 4 Coastal East and is of the ‘English with some bilingual elements language category. There is no overnight provision. . The average half day costs (£28.29 and £28.27) appeared to be little cheaper than the average full day cost of £37.18. Few discounts appeared to be on offer.

6.3 Sessional Day Care

6.3.1. Analysis of Supply of Childcare Provision

The SASS returns were completed by Childcare providers between 11th July and 15th July 2016 and consequently the following analysis and figures refers to information taken during that time.

No providers said that they provided their service in the language ‘Other’. Consequently this has not been included in this Analysis. The only area that provides holiday care is Coastal East. Therefore if no holiday information was included on the SASS no holiday information is included on the annex and template. All information referred to below can be seen in greater detail in Annex 3.

The SASS results show that in Conwy there are 30 Sessional Day care providers with a total of 738 registered places. Of these Sessional Day care providers the geographical breakdown is as follows:

Coastal West 3 Creuddyn 7 Coastal Central 6 Coastal East 5 Rural 9

Of these Sessional Day care providers the language breakdown is as follows: Welsh 8 Welsh and English 6 English and some bilingual elements 11 English 5

52 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Number of Sessional care providers by language

0% 17% 27%

36% 20%

Welsh Welsh & English English & some bilingual elements English Other

However this figure differs from the weekly information that Conwy Family Information Service receives from CSSIW. For the corresponding period these lists show that Conwy had 59 Sessional Day care providers with a total of 1489 places. This means that of the 59 known registered Sessional Day care providers only 50% of them completed the SASS. Range of Services provided Within Sessional Day care 51 services are provided, broken down as follows: Morning Playgroup / Cylch Meithrin 24 Afternoon Playgroup / Cylch Meithrin 12 Lunch 5 Wrap Around 9 Other 1

53 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Range of Sessional Day Care Services

18%

47% 10%

23%

Morning Playgroup/ Cylch Meithrin Afternoon Playgroup/ Cylch Meithrin Lunch Wrap Around Other

Services by Language Within this division the language breakdown is as follows:

Welsh 16 Welsh and English 5 English and some bilingual elements 21 English 9

The figure below shows the language breakdown of the services as a percentage.

54 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Range of Sessional Day Care by Language

21% 30%

9% 40%

Welsh Welsh & English English & some bilingual elements English Other

The figure below shows the number of individual services broken down by language

55 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Number of Sessional Day Care services by language

15 11 10 6 4 4 4 4 5 3 3 2 2 3 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 Morning Afternoon Lunch Wrap Around Other Playgroup/ Cylch Playgroup/ Cylch Meithrin Meithrin

Language of Provision Welsh Language of Provision Welsh & English Language of Provision English & some bilingual elements Language of Provision English

Services by geographical distribution Coastal West 7 Creuddyn 10 Coastal Central 12 Coastal East 8 Rural 14 Other 0

56 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Number of Sessional Day Care Services by Geographical Distribution 16 14 14 12 12 10 10 8 8 7 6 4 2 0 Area 1 Coastal Area 2 Creuddyn Area 3 Coastal Area 4 Coastal Area 5 Rural West Central East

From these figures we are able to ascertain that the Sessional Day care is spread evenly across the county and there are no areas that are showing a shortage of Sessional Day care although there is less in Coastal West and Coastal East. This corroborates the view already held in the county that there are no real shortages of places available in Sessional Day care. Number and Type of Childcare places filled Number of childcare places. Within the 51 Services provided by the Sessional Day Care providers there is the capacity for 1165 children to attend and 976 children currently use the various services during term time with 18 children using one service during school holidays. This is an ‘English ‘ with some bilingual elements’ service. The children only attend during the summer holiday with two of them attending full time and 16 attending part time and this is in the Coastal East area. This confirms what was already know that the Sessional Day Care is predominantly term time only. Number of childcare places by language Of the capacity of 1165 the language breakdown is as follows: Welsh 307 (26%) Welsh and English 117 (10%)

57 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 English and some bilingual elements 551 (47%) English 190 (2%)

Childcare places by language and service type 400 288 300

200 136 145 78 83 95 94 80 100 39 34 38 42 0 13 0 0 0 Morning Playgroup/ Afternoon Playgroup/ Wrap Around Lunch Cylch Meithrin Cylch Meithrin

Language of Provision Welsh Language of Provision Welsh & English Language of Provision English & some bilingual elements Language of Provision English

Nearly 50% of the Sessional Day Care places are in settings that operate through the medium of ‘English with some bilingual elements’. When this is combined with the ‘English’ sessional Day care places this gives a figure of 63%. In comparison 23% of Sessional Day care places are in settings which operate through the medium of ‘Welsh’. When this is combined with the places in the settings that operate through the medium of ‘Welsh and English’ this gives a figure of 37% Childcare places by geographical area Of the capacity of 1165 the breakdown is as follows: Coastal West 135 (11.6%) Creuddyn 268 (23%) Coastal Central 284 (24.4%) Coastal East 180 (15.5%) Rural 298 (25.5%)

58 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017

Childcare places by geographical area 350 298 300 284 268 250

200 180

150 135

100

0 Coastal West Creuddyn Coastal Central Coastal East Rural

From the above chart it is evident that the largest number of Sessional Day care places are available in Area 5, Rural which have the largest number of services (14). Creuddyn which includes the town of Llandudno and Coastal Central which includes the town of Colwyn Bay also have a large number of places again consistent with the number of services that operate in each area. 10 in Creuddyn and 12 in Coastal Central. In comparison Coastal West which includes the towns of Llanfairfechan and Penmaenmawr has the lowest number of Sessional Day care places (135) which again is in line with the lower number of services (7). Coastal East also has fewer services (8) and a lower number of Childcare places. (180). This evidence is in line with other findings in the CSA which shows that Coastal West and Coastal East have less services as a whole than the rest of the County. In Coastal West none of the providers provide their service either entirely through the medium of ‘Welsh’ or through the medium of ‘English’. The largest number of places is provided through ‘English with some bilingual elements’ (111) and ‘Welsh and English’ (24) In Creuddyn 26 places are provided through the medium of ‘Welsh’ and 52 through the medium of ‘Welsh and English’ (Total 78) and 118 through the medium of ‘English’ only and 72 through the medium of ‘English and some bilingual elements’ (Total 190) In Coastal East none of the providers provide their service entirely through the medium of ‘Welsh’

59 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Childcare Places filled by Geographical area It is difficult to determine exactly how many childcare places have been filled from the information gathered from the SASS as there is a danger that the places have been counted more than once. For example a child that attends a morning session and an afternoon session will be counted twice in the SASS return. This explains why when evaluating the ages of the children attending the resulting figures do not correlate with the number of places filled. Childcare places filled by type and language Term time The SASS breaks the attendance figures down to Full time places, Part time places and Ad hoc places. An analysis shows the following: Geographical Coastal West - Full time 6.1%; Part time 93.9%; Ad hoc 0% Creuddyn - Full time 28.7%; Part time 69.7%; Ad hoc 1.6% Coastal Central - Full time: 37.2%; Part time: 60.4%; Ad hoc: 2.4% Coastal East - Full time: 32.2%, Part time: 67.3%; Ad hoc: 0.5% Rural – Full time: 48.9%; Part time: 47.7%; Ad hoc: 3.4%

Language Welsh – Full time places 35.8%; Part time places 63.3%; Ad hoc places 0.9% Welsh and English – Full time places 36.6%; Part time places 62.4%; Ad hoc places 1.0% English and some bilingual elements – Full time places – 28.4%; Part time places 69.3%; Ad hoc places 2.3% English – Full time places 36.8%; Part time places 61.6%; Ad hoc places 1.6%

School Holidays In all areas apart from Rural the take up is greatest for Part time places which would be expected. In Rural the figures are almost the same for Part time and Full time places. Across all language types the take up of Part time places is the greatest. Vacancies and Waiting Lists These figures cover both term time and school holidays and are as follows:

60 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Language There are 466 Sessional Day care vacancies across the County. These are broken down by language as follows: Welsh 99 Welsh and English 40 English and some bilingual elements 225 English 102

Geographical distribution Of these 466 Sessional Day care vacancies the geographical breakdown is as follows: Coastal West 102 Creuddyn 140 Coastal Central 68 Coastal East 41 Rural 140

These figures appear to be quite high considering that there is the capacity for 1165 children to attend. However from the SASS is it known that 976 children are attending these sessions, so that suggests that there aren’t a large number of actual vacancies. The high figures gathered from the SASS could be because each vacancy has been duplicated having been counted separately across the range of services. Waiting Lists Very few Sessional Day care providers reported that they had a waiting list. There were no responses from either Coastal Central or Rural. The others responded that their waiting lists were mainly for morning sessions. In Coastal West it was reported that 3 children had been on the waiting list in the spring term and 4 were on the waiting list for the Autumn term; in Creuddyn 7 had been on the waiting list in the Spring term and in Central East 2 were on the waiting list for the Autumn term. The language breakdown was 3 on the waiting list for ‘Welsh provision’, 7 for ‘English and some bilingual elements’ and 6 for ‘English’. There are no waiting lists during the holidays as very little sessional care operates during the school holidays. Age range of Childcare provision Sessional care provides for children aged from 2 – 4, although some providers appear to only care for children aged 2 and 3. In Coastal West, 1 ‘Welsh’ and English’ and 2 ‘English and some bilingual element’ settings provides for 2 - 4 year olds.

61 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 In Creuddyn, 1 ‘Welsh’, 1 ‘Welsh and English’, 2 ‘English and some bilingual element’ settings and 3 ‘English’ settings provide for 2 – 4 year olds. In Coastal Central 2 ‘English and some bilingual element’ settings provide for 2 – 4 year olds and 1 ‘Welsh and Englis’h and 3 English and some bilingual element’ settings provide for 2 and 3 year olds. In Coastal East 1 ‘Welsh’ and 1 ‘English and some bilingual element’ setting provides for 2 - 4 year olds and 1 ‘English and some bilingual element’ setting and 2 ‘English’ settings provide for 2 and 3 year olds. In Rural 6 ‘Welsh’, 1 ‘Welsh and English’, 2 ‘English and some bilingual element’ settings provide for 2 – 4 year olds. Age Range of Childcare provision by language 8 Welsh settings provide for 2, 3 and 4 year olds 1 Welsh and English setting provides for 2 and 3 year olds 3 Welsh and English settings provide for 2, 3 and 4 year olds 9 English and some bilingual element settings provide for 2, 3 and 4 year olds 4 English and some bilingual element settings provide for 2 and 3 year olds 3 English settings provide for 2, 3 and 4 year olds 2 English settings provide for 2 and 3 year olds

Some of the settings only cater for 2 and 3 year olds. This could be because the 4 year olds are being catered for in the Nursery class attached to the Primary Schools. It appears that Coastal Central (4) and Coastal East (3) have the largest number of settings that only cater for 2 and 3 year olds.

62 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Age of Children by Geographical location and language The figure below shows the number of children aged between 2 and 4, by language type who attend Sessional care in each of the geographical areas

No.of children aged 2 - 4 attending Sessional Care by language and geographical 200 163 144 150 111 100 76 61 52 57 52 41 39 50 32 28 15 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Coastal West Creuddyn Coastal Central Coastal East Rural

Welsh Welsh and English English and some bilingual elements English and some bilingual elements

63 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 The figure below shows the number of 2, 3 and 4 year olds attending Sessional care by geographical area.

Number of 2, 3 and 4 year olds attending Sessional care by geographical area

120 110 106 100 84 88 80 72 65 66 55 60 48 49 50 40 30 31 17 20 13

0 Coastal West Creuddyn Coastal Central Coastal East Rural

2 year olds 3 year olds 4 year olds

64 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 The figure below shows the number of 2, 3 and 4 year olds attending Sessional care by language.

No. of 2, 3 and 4 year olds attending Sessional care by language 180 168 160 140 115 113 120 100 73 80 68 59 54 54 60 46 42 40 26 20 20 0 Welsh Welsh and English English and some English bilingual elements

2 year olds 3 year olds 4 year olds

Age Range of Childcare provision in the holidays The only information during the holidays is for Coastal East where 17 two year olds and 15 three year olds who attend an ‘English with some bilingual elements’ setting. As outlined above in the Childcare places filled this does not correlate with the number of places filled. Opening Hours – Term time From the way that this information was presented in the SASS the deduction would be that this was a free text box rather than a drop down box. There are such a range of different opening areas across the five geographical areas and the four language types that it is impossible to summarise them. However it can be seen that not all the settings answered the questions about opening hours of the sessions. For example in Coastal Central of the 5 ‘English and some bilingual element’ settings only one completed the questions about opening hours.

65 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 For detailed information please refer to Annexe 3 Sessional Day Care Supply Data – Hours and Days of Operation – Range of Opening Hours – Term Time. As a generalisation the information can be summarised as there are morning only sessions, morning sessions that cover lunch times (wrap around) and afternoon sessions that cover lunch times (wrap around), lunch time sessions and afternoon only sessions. Flexible Childcare The table below shows flexible childcare in terms of lunchtime care and Wrap around care.

Childcare Type and Language of Provision Services Welsh Welsh and English and English English some bilingual elements Area 1 Coastal West Lunch 0 0 1 0 Wrap Around 0 0 1 0 Area 2 Creuddyn Lunch 0 0 0 1 Wrap Around 0 0 0 2 Area 3 Coastal Central Lunch 0 0 1 0 Wrap Around 0 0 2 0 Area 4 Coastal East Lunch 0 0 0 0 Wrap Around 1 0 0 0 Area 5 Rural Lunch 2 0 0 0 Wrap Around 3 0 0 0

66 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Flexible childcare by language Lunchtime care 1 ‘Welsh’; 2 ‘English and some bilingual elements’ and 1 ‘English’ provider Wrap Around 4 ‘Welsh’, 3 English and some bilingual elements’ and 2 ‘English’ providers Flexible childcare by Geographical distribution Coastal East 1 lunchtime and 1 wrap around provider (‘English and some bilingual elements’)

Creuddyn 1 lunchtime and 2 wrap around providers (‘English’)

Coastal Central 1 lunchtime provider (‘English and some bilingual elements’)

Coastal East 1 wrap around provider (‘Welsh’)

Rural 2 lunchtime and 2 wrap around providers (‘Welsh’)

According to the SASS only a few providers offer lunchtime and wrap around care and no ‘Welsh and English’ providers offer either lunch or wrap around care. Opening Hours – School Holidays There is very little provision during the school holidays. The only information provided is that there is a 9.00am – 12.00noon session in an ‘English and some bilingual elements’ setting in Coastal East during the Summer holidays for 5 days a week on a Monday and a Wednesday Childcare operating outside of Normal Working Hours No sessional Childcare operates outside of normal working hours.

67 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Range of session lengths From the information received via the SASS the length of each session can vary greatly. For example having analysed the session lengths provided by the ‘Welsh’ sessional providers, morning sessions can vary from between two hours and three hours; lunch time sessions between one and a half hours and two hours; and afternoon sessions between two hours and two and a half hours. The figure that appears most constant is for wrap around care which only varies slightly between two hours forty minutes and two hours fifty minutes. These figure are replicated throughout sessions run by all the language providers. The figures for each length of session haven’t been included here but are available if required. Childcare Costs – Term time It is difficult to summarise the costs as some providers have given the information as an hourly cost whilst others have given it as a sessional cost. The figure below gives the average hourly costs for each type of provision.

Average cost of sessional care per hour £4.00 £3.50 £3.50 £3.00 £3.00 £2.46 £2.53 £2.50 £2.00 £1.50 £1.00 £0.50 £0.00 Morning Playgroup Afternoon Playgroup Wtap Around Lunch / Cylch Meithrin

68 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 The figure below shows the average sessional cost.

Average cost of sessional care per session £14.00 £12.00 £12.00

£10.00

£8.00 £7.40 £6.53 £6.00 £5.50

£4.00

£2.00

£0.00 Morning Playgroup /Afternoon Playgroup Wrap Around Lunch Cylch Meithrin / Cylch Meithrin

Although it is difficult to compare figures because ‘like’ is not being matched with ‘like’, it appears that Rural is the cheapest area for Morning sessions for both hourly (£2.40) and sessional prices (£6.00), It is also cheapest for hourly rate for sessions (£6.50) held in the afternoon and for hourly wrap around sessions (£2.30) Coastal East appears to be the most expensive for both hourly (£3.40) and sessional (£8.37) rates for Morning sessions. It is also the most expensive for sessional rates (£8.38) for Afternoon sessions. Coastal Central is the most expensive for hourly rates (£3.36) for Afternoon sessions and the most expensive for sessional rates (£13.50) for wrap around care. Additional Costs to the service user Very little information has been provided here. One ‘English and some bilingual elements’ provider in Coastal Central said that they charged for nappies, transport, meals, snacks and other incidentals.

69 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Sibling Discounts Again very little information has been provided here. One ‘English and some bilingual elements’ provider in Coastal West said that they would give a 50% discount for the second child in the case of twins. One ‘Welsh’ provider in Rural said that they would give a £2.00 discount per session for a sibling. Number of places filled by children who have Special Educational Needs The figure below shows the number of children with Special Educational Needs who attend Sessional Care.

Number of children with special educational needs or disability by geographical area and language

Area 5 Rural

Area 4 Coastal East

Area 3 Coastal Central

Area 2 Creuddyn

Area 1 Coastal West

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

English English & some bilingual elements Welsh & English Welsh

By Geographical area The number of children with Special Educational Needs who attend settings in each geographical area is as follows: Coastal West has 4, Creuddyn 10, Coastal Central 5, Coastal East 0 and Rural 5.

70 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 By language type The number of children with Special Educational Needs who attend settings by language type is as follows: ‘Welsh’ 5, ‘Welsh and English’ 2, English and some bilingual elements’ 12 and ‘English’ 5. It is impossible to further divide by specific Special Educational Need as the figures from the SASS are confusing. It is difficult to ascertain to whether the figures on the SASS refer to one child who has several disabilities or several different children who have one or more disabilities. Number of children in Funded or Part time Education with Special Education Needs or Disability There are three children in Creuddyn who have a Special Educational Need or Disability. 1 attends a ‘Welsh’ setting – Early Years Action. 1 an ‘English and some bilingual elements’ setting – Early Years Action Plus and 1 and an ‘English’ setting – Statement of Special Educational Needs. There are also 3 children in Coastal West who all attend an ‘English and some bilingual elements’ setting and have a Special Educational Need or Disability. 1 each for Early Years Action, Early Years Action Plus and Statement of Special Education Needs. 6.3.2. Summary of key strengths and weaknesses

Strengths: . The information gathered about Sessional Day Care in the SASS supports what was already known in Conwy County Borough, namely that there are no real shortages in the county. . Sessional Day care is spread evenly across the county. . There is a wide range of language provision with the main areas of ‘Welsh’ provision being in ‘Rural’. . There appears to be enough provision with very few children on the waiting list. The figure might be even less than documented as it is difficult to tell whether the vacancies refer to different children or to the same children. . Sessional Day care provides a wide range of services. . Sessional care providers offer a choice of full time, part time and ad hoc places. . Range of services across all language types. . Good opening hours, open Monday – Friday. . There is sufficient capacity.

Weakness: . 39% of the services are run in ‘Welsh’ and ‘Welsh and English’, compared to 61% in ‘English’ and English and some bilingual elements’. . Likewise with the number of Childcare places, 37% of them are provided by ‘Welsh’ and ‘Welsh and English’ providers compared to 63% provided by ‘English’ and English and some bilingual elements’ providers. . In Coastal East none of the providers provide their service entirely through the medium of ‘Welsh’ or ‘Welsh and English’.

71 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . Coastal West has less Sessional Day care places than other areas. This is in line with the lack of services in Coastal West in general. . There is very little provision during the school holidays. Anecdotal evidence from a Playgroup leader suggests that some children benefit from the Playgroup / Cylch being open throughout the holidays as this gives them the continuity and routine that they require. . No sessional Childcare operates outside of normal working hours. . Lack of wrap around care for 2 – 3 year olds (Source: Parent Survey) . Not able to access Early Years Education due to cost of wrap around care (Source: Parent Survey)

6.4 Crèches

6.4.1. Analysis of Supply of Childcare Provision

From the SASS return and from Conwy Family Information Service data there are no Crèche facilities within Conwy County Borough.

However a mobile crèche facility is registered on the Conwy FIS database which purely operates for the purposes of the local theatre at Venue Cymru for when children are performing at the theatre.

6.4.2. Summary of key strengths and weaknesses

Not applicable

6.5 Out of School Care

6.5.1. Analysis of Supply of Childcare Provision

The SASS returns were completed by Childcare providers between 11th and 15th July 2016 for term time childcare providers and from 1st to 5th August 2016 for holiday childcare providers. Consequently the following analysis and figures refers to information taken at this time. No providers said that they provided their services in the language ‘Other’. Nor did any providers say that they provided Playscheme sessions or ‘Other’ sessions. Consequently these have not been included in the analysis. The SASS results show that in Conwy there are 20 Registered Out of School Providers and no Excepted Out of School Providers. They provide 26 services in total, with a total of 707 registered places. However it appears on further analysis that One Out of School provider in

72 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Coastal West has answered the main question about their services in the SASS by saying that they provide no Out of School provision whatsoever. However they have answered other questions giving information about their services, therefore have been included in the full analysis. Of these Out of School care providers the language breakdown is as follows: Welsh 3 Welsh and English 6 English and some bilingual elements 6 English 5

Number of Out of School providers by language

15% 25%

30%

Welsh Welsh & English English & some bilingual elements English

However this figure differs from the weekly information that Conwy family Information Service receives from CSSIW. For the corresponding period these lists show that Conwy had 35 Out of School care providers with a total of 1353 places. This means that of the 35 known registered Out of School care providers only 57% of them completed the SASS and the figure of 707 registered places is only 52% of the actual figure provided by CSSIW.

73 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Clybiau Plant Cymru Kids Club also provided information on the Excepted Out of School providers in the county, although as explained above, this information didn’t appear in the SASS. Three After School Clubs are Unregistered and one Holiday Club, for children with additional needs. The maximum places available in all of the clubs is 16. The average places used in the After school clubs is 16 in one and 5 in the other two. The Average places used in the Holiday club is 16. One of the After school clubs and the Holiday club has no places available while the other two After school Clubs have eleven places available in each. Range of services provided Within Out of School care 26 other services are provided, broken down as follows: Before School 3 After School 15 Holiday provision 8

Range of Out of School care services

3, 11%

8, 31%

15, 58%

Before School After School Holiday Provision

74 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Services by language Within this division the language breakdown is as follows. Welsh 4 Welsh and English 7 English and some bilingual elements 6 English 9

Range of Services by language

4, 15%

9, 35%

7, 27%

6, 23%

Welsh Welsh & English English & some bilingual elements English

75 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Range of Out of School Services by language and type

English

English & some bilingual elements

Welsh & English

Welsh

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Holiday Provision After School Before School

Services by geographical distribution Coastal West 3 Creuddyn 8 Coastal Central 5 Coastal East 3 Rural 7

76 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Number of Out of School Care services by geographcial distribution 9 8 8 7 7 6 5 5 4 3 3 3 2 1 0 Area 1 Coastal Area 2 Creuddyn Area 3 Coastal Area 4 Coastal Area 5 Rural West Central East

From these figures we can see that although there is Out of School Services in all of the geographical areas there are less in both Area 1, Coastal West and Area 4, Coastal East. The fact that there are less services in these two areas is something which is continually being highlighted during the analysis. Number of Childcare Places Term time Within the 26 services provided by the Out of School Care providers the capacity of childcare places is 707. The SASS shows that 782 children are using the various services. Some of these children will be the same children using different services School holidays Within the 26 services provided by the Out of School care providers the capacity of childcare places is 397. The SASS gives the number of children accessing these places each holiday as follows: Summer holiday 403 children October Half term 329 children Christmas Holiday 302 children

77 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 February Half term 315 children Easter Holiday 459 children May Half term 278 children

This gives a total figure of 2086 children accessing the 397 places over all the 6 school holidays. Again some of these children will have been counted more than once if they are using different services and during different holiday periods. The SASS breaks these figures down into Full time places, Part time places and Ad hoc places. Understandably during term time the majority of the places filled are part time places (68%); 17.5% of Full time places and 14.5% of ad hoc places are filled. During term time the breakdown is as follows: Full time (56.7%); Part time (32.8%) and ad hoc (10.5%) Number of childcare places by language Term time Of these 707 places the language breakdown is as follows: Welsh 143 (20.2%) Welsh and English 144 (20.4%) English and some bilingual elements 263 (37.2%) English 157 (22.2%)

78 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Childcare places by language and service type - term time

TOTAL

English

English & some bilingual elements

Welsh & English

Welsh

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700

Playscheme sessions After School Before School Maximum Capacity

Nearly 60% of the childcare places are at services which operate through the medium of ‘English’ and ‘English and some bilingual elements’. Whereas 40% of the childcare places are at services which operate through the medium of ‘Welsh’ and ‘Welsh and English’. School Holidays Of those 397 Holiday places the language breakdown is as follows: Welsh 16 (4%) Welsh and English 66 (16.6%) English and some bilingual elements 169 (42.6%) English 146 (36.8%)

Nearly 79.4% of the holiday childcare places are at services which operate through the medium of ‘English’ and ‘English and some bilingual elements’ whereas only 20.6% are services which operate through the medium of ‘Welsh’ and ‘Welsh and English’.

79 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Childcare places by geographical area Term time Of the 707 Childcare places the breakdown is as follows: Coastal West 67 (9.4%) Creuddyn 225 (31.9%) Coastal Central 224 (31.7%) Coastal East 71 (10%) Rural 120 (17%)

Out of School Chilcare places by geographical area - term time 250 225 224

200

150 120

100 67 71

0 Coastal West Creuddyn Coastal Central Coastal East Rural

From the chart above it is evident that the largest number of Out of School Care places are in Creuddyn with 225 places and Coastal Central with 224 places. The figures for Creuddyn are compatible with the number of services (8) whereas Coastal Central only has 5 services. Interestingly although Rural has only 120 places it has the second largest number of Out of School Services with a total of 7. Coastal West and Coastal East again have the fewest places which is compatible with their number of services – 3 apiece. This evidence is in line with other findings throughout the CSA which shows that Coastal West and East have less services as a whole than the rest of the county.

80 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 It is only Creuddyn and Rural that has childcare places that are provided by ‘Welsh’ only settings and Coastal West and Coastal Central don’t have any childcare places that are provided by ‘Welsh’ only settings. Childcare places by geographical area School holidays Of the 397 childcare places the breakdown is as follows: Coastal West 89 (22.4%) Creuddyn 66 (16.6%) Coastal Central 160 (40.3%) Coastal East 16 (4.03%) Rural 66 (16.6%)

The graph below also shows how many Holiday provision settings there are in each area. However as outlined in the introduction the information on the SASS shows some discrepancies which were discovered whilst analysing the data.

Holiday Provision by geographical area 3.5 3 3

2.5 2 2

1.5 1 1 1 1

0.5

0 Coastal West Creuddyn Coastal Central Coastal East Rural

81 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 At the time of the completion of the SASS, Coastal West had the second largest number of Out of School Care places in the County accounting for 22.4% of the places. There was holiday childcare available throughout all the holidays including the Christmas holidays. (‘English and some bilingual elements’ setting) The 89 childcare places had a total of 149 children accessing them throughout the year (NB Duplication in counting children more than once) however since then an Out of School Club has stopped operating. This Out of School Club was registered for 19 places. Creuddyn – the holiday care was provided by an ‘English’ only setting and was available throughout all the holidays including Christmas. The 66 childcare places had a total of 401 children accessing them throughout the year (NB Duplication in counting children more than once) Coastal West – the holiday care was provided by an ‘English and some bilingual elements’ setting and was available throughout all the holidays including Christmas. The 160 childcare places had a total of 1511 children accessing them throughout the year (NB Duplication in counting children more than once) Coastal East – the holiday care was provided by a ‘Welsh’ setting and was only available through the summer holidays. The 16 childcare places had a total of 12 children accessing them throughout the year. Rural – the holiday care was provided by a ‘Welsh and English’ setting and was only available through the summer holidays. The 66 childcare places were accessed by 13 children. It would appear that the ‘Welsh’, and ‘Welsh and English’ settings had capacity for the children accessing them. Childcare places filled by type The SASS breaks the attendance figures down to Full time places, Part time places and Ad hoc places. An analysis shows the following. Geographical – Coastal West - Full time 18.2%, Part time 66.4%, Ad hoc 15.4% Creuddyn - Full time 8%, Part time 63.1%, Ad hoc 28.9% Coastal Central - Full time 73.6%, Part time 21.1%, Ad hoc 5.3% Coastal East - Full time 100% Rural - Part time 100%

Language Welsh 100% Full time places Welsh and English 100% Part time places

82 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 English and some bilingual elements – Full time places 71%, Part time places 23.8%, Ad hoc places 5.2% English – Full time places 11.9%, Part time places 60.1%, ad hoc places 28%

It appears that there is no geographical pattern to the take up of Full time, part time and ad hoc places. In some areas the take up is greatest for Full time place and in others for part time places. There is a good take up of Ad hoc places in both Creuddyn and Coastal West. Again it appears that there is no language pattern to the take up of full time, part time and ad hoc places either. ‘Welsh’ settings have a 100% take up of full time places; ‘Welsh and English’ settings a 100% take up of part time places; ‘English and some bilingual element’ settings a greater take up of Full time places and ‘English’ only settings a greater up take of Part time places. Vacancies and Waiting Lists Language The vacancies information covers both term time and school holidays. There are 678 Out of School care vacancies across the County. These are broken down by language as follows: Welsh 87; Welsh and English 163 English and some bilingual elements 309 English 119

Geographical distribution Of these 678 Out of School vacancies the geographical breakdown is as follows: Coastal West 54 Creuddyn 166 Coastal Central 292 Coastal East 13 Rural 153

These figures for vacancies appear to be very high (678), considering the number of registered places is 707. This is implying that only 29 of the Out of School places are filled which obviously can’t be the case. When the information is analysed further more discrepancies become obvious. The number of vacancies in both ‘Welsh and English’ settings and English and some bilingual element’ settings is higher than the number of actual registered places. Consequently this information cannot be deemed either reliable or accurate.

83 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 The data on waiting lists given from the SASS also appears incomplete. There were no responses from providers in Areas 1 Coastal West, Area 3 Coastal Central or Area 5 Rural for term time and no responses at all for Holiday time. From consultation with partners and in particular FIS it is thought that should parents find their preferred choice of childcare is full they will not routinely ask to be put on a waiting list as their childcare needs are immediate and they will seek alternatives. Age Ranges Analysis from the SASS shows that Out of School care providers cater for ages ranging from 3 – 14 although the most common age range is from 4 to 11. 8 Out of School providers have said that they cater for three year olds. 3 of these are in Coastal West, 2 in Creuddyn, and 1 each in Coastal East, Coastal Central and Rural. Of the 8, 3 provide their service through ‘English and some bilingual elements’; 3 through ‘English’; 1 through ‘Welsh and English’ and 1 through ‘Welsh’. At the other end of the age range, 10 provide for 12 year olds and of these, 2 for 13 year olds and 1 for 14 year olds. This supports the anecdotal evidence received from the Family Information Service who are aware of the lack of Childcare for children over the age of 11. They report, as do parents in the Parent Survey, how they often have problems in finding Out of School care for this age range. Of the 10 providers who offer care for 12 year olds, 5 are in Creuddyn, 2 in Rural and 1 apiece in Coastal West, Coastal Central and Coastal East. One of these providers in Coastal Central also provides for 13 year olds and one in Rural also provides for 13 and 14 year olds. The language breakdown is as follows: 1 ‘Welsh’, 2 ‘Welsh and English’, 3 ‘English and some bilingual elements’ and 3 ‘English’. Understandably a lot of Out of School Care providers do not provide for the older age ranges. They may feel that there is a lack of demand as once children start High School they are often reluctant to attend Childcare as they feel too old to do so. Further analysis of the age ranges show that the most common age for children to attend Out of School care during term time is 5 – 11 which is in line with children either attending Out of School Childcare, situated at their Primary Schools or going to a particular Out of School provider which collects from their Primary School. The same is true during the school holidays with the most common age range attending being 5 – 11. The total figures of children attending are much less. This could be due to the fact the Out of School Club isn’t open, parents take leave to cover the holidays or make alternative arrangements.

84 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Range of Opening Hours and length of sessions Term Time On the whole there are two distinct groups of Opening Hours – Before school and After school. Most After School care started at 8.00am and cared for the children until they start school at 9.00am. The earliest opening hours were 7.30am and the latest was 8.30am, both were ‘English and some bilingual settings’ and both were in Coastal Central. The length of sessions therefore varied from 30 minutes to 90 minutes. Most afterschool sessions started at 2.45pm or 3.00pm and finished at 6.00pm. The latest time that an Out of School provider closed was 6.30pm. This was a ‘Welsh and English’ setting in Rural. The length of these sessions therefore varied from 30 minutes to 3 and a quarter hours. According to the SASS, all the settings were open Monday to Friday apart from one ‘Welsh and English’ setting in Rural which was closed after school on a Wednesday and another that was closed after school on a Friday. This could be because there was no demand on these days. Unfortunately it is impossible to ascertain the exact reasons from the SASS. Having looked at the opening hours in further detail they confirm the fact that there is no Before school care in Coastal West or Creuddyn. School Holidays. Eight Out of School Care Providers completed the SASS with their holiday Opening hours. To summarise the results: 1 ‘Welsh’ provider was open in the summer holidays from 8.00am until 6.00pm. 1 ‘Welsh and English’ setting was open in all the holidays and provided three different opening times; 8.00am – 1.00pm; 8.30am – 3.30pm and 1.00pm. – 6.00pm. 2 ‘English and some bilingual elements’ settings were open all holidays, one from 7.30am – 6.00pm and the other from 8.00am – 6.00pm. 3 ‘English’ settings were open all holidays one from 8.00am – 6.00pm, another from 8.15am – 6.00pm and a third which provided three different sessions – one from 8.30am – 12.00noon, one form 8.30am - 5.45pm and another from 1.00pm – 5.45pm. Another setting was open from 8.30am – 5.30 only during the summer holidays. The length of sessions was normally 10 hours per day, but the shorter sessions mentioned above ranged from 3 and a half hours to five hours for a half-day session and from seven hours to nine and three quarters for a full day session.

85 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Number of weeks open during the school holidays Unfortunately the information from the SASS on the number of weeks open during the school holidays was analysed it was found not to be consistent with the information provided on the opening hours during holiday time (please see above) Some settings gave no information at all whereas others who had said that they were open during the summer holidays did not give the number of weeks they were open. Apart from the one ‘Welsh’ setting answering that they were open for 4 weeks during the summer holidays and the 4 ‘English’ settings responding by saying that 3 of them were open for 6 weeks and the other for 7, it was felt that this information couldn’t be regarded as being very accurate and gave no clear picture as to the number of weeks that settings were open. Days of operation All Out of School care providers appeared to be open Monday to Friday apart from Bank Holidays when they were closed. Range of Opening hours / Number of weeks open and days of operation Geographical distribution On further analysis some of the information isn’t totally consistent with information in the previous section on Out of School holiday opening hours and some of the providers haven’t completed the section saying how many hours they were open. However all 8 Holiday care providers have supplied information which is detailed below. It would appear that there is at least one Out of School – Holiday care provider in each geographical area. 7 out of the 8 are open every holiday – the remaining one is open for four weeks in the summer. On the whole they are all open Monday to Friday apart from one in Coastal East whose opening hours are quite varied. Coastal West There is an ‘English and some bilingual elements’ setting which is open Monday – Friday from 8.00am – 6.00pm every holiday. Another ‘English’ setting is open every holiday from 8.00am – 6.00pm, although the days that it is open are more varied. However as it is now known, one of these settings has since closed since the SASS was completed. Creuddyn Three ‘English’ settings had completed this section. One is open from 8.15am – 6.00pm and is open every holiday. Another has three sessions – 8.30am – 12.00noon, 1.00pm – 5.45pm and 8.30am – 5.45 and is open every holiday. The third is open from 8.30am – 5.30pm and is only open during the summer holidays. Two of the settings are open for a week at October, February and May half term and one is open for a week at Christmas. One is open for two weeks at Christmas and two are open for two weeks at Easter and all three are open for 6 weeks during the summer holidays.

86 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 All the settings are open from Monday – Friday with the occasional variance for Bank Holidays. Coastal Central Two settings operated in ‘English with some bilingual elements’ provided information on the SASS. One was open between 8.00am and 6.00pm and the other from 7.30am to 6.00pm. They are both open during all the school holidays; for a week during all the half terms; for two weeks at Easter and Christmas and for 6 weeks in the summer. All the settings are open from Monday to Friday with the occasional variance for Bank Holidays Coastal East The SASS results showed that only one setting was open in the summer holidays for four weeks, Monday to Friday. Rural One ‘Welsh and English’ setting provided information saying that they are open for 3 sessions; 8.00am – 1.00pm; 1.00pm – 6.00pm and 8.30am – 3.30pm. This setting is open during all holidays from Monday to Friday (apart from the Bank Holiday Monday during May half term). The question on the number of weeks has not been completed. Childcare Outside of Normal working hours There is no Out of School childcare outside of normal working hours.

87 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Childcare costs The costs for childcare on the SASS have not been broken down into term time costs and holiday costs. It is difficult to summarise the costs as some providers have given the information as an hourly cost whilst others have given it as a sessional cost. The figure below shows the average hourly costs for each type of provision. For the purpose of analysing the costs, Before school care is being regarded as one hour.

Average cost per hour £4.50 £4.00 £4.00

£3.50 £3.20 £3.00 £2.50 £2.28 £2.00 £1.50 £1.00 £0.50 £0.00 Before School After School Holiday provision

88 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 The figure below shows the average sessional cost.

Average cost per session £30.00

£25.00 £24.00

£20.00

£15.00

£10.00 £8.40

£5.00 £4.00

£0.00 Before school After school Holiday provision

The costs are all very similar across all language and geographical types. The only inconsistency seems to be the price charged by the ‘Welsh and English’ provider in the Rural area. Here the cost of Holiday provision is £35.00; whereas other holiday provision ranges from £20.00 to £25.00. As outlined above this setting provides sessions of various hours, the longest being from 8.00am until 6.00pm. However these are no longer than any other sessions in other settings. Additional Childcare Costs Hardly any of the Out of School care providers charge any additional costs. One ‘English with some bilingual elements’ provider in Coastal Central charges for sundries including transport, meals and snacks. Sibling discounts Providers in Creuddyn, Coastal East and Rural give a discount for siblings. The amount of discount ranges from a reduction in the hourly rate (between £1.00 and £3.00 sometimes varying between term time and holidays) to providers saying that it depends on the circumstances. As to be expected the reductions are across all language types.

89 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Number of places filled by children with additional educational needs The figure below shows the number of children with special educational needs who attend Out of School care.

Number of children with special educational needs or disability by geographical area and language 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Coastal West Creuddyn Coastal Central Rural

Welsh Welsh & English English & some bilingual elements English

The children with additional needs or disabilities who attend Out of School care have a wide range of needs including specific learning needs which could include dyslexia, ADHD and dyspraxia, Emotional and behavioural difficulties, ASD, speech, language and communication difficulties and learning difficulties such as global development delay. The children attend settings which operate under all language types and all the geographical areas apart from Coastal East. For this reason Coastal East has not been included in the graph above. None of these children were accessing funded part time Education at Out of School Care which would be expected, as it is not the norm for them to access it at Out of School Care.

6.5.2. Summary of key strengths and weaknesses

Strengths . Out of School care provides a wide range of services. . Out of School care providers offer a choice of full time, part time and ad hoc places. . There are Out of School services across all geographical areas.

90 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . During term time range of services across all language types. . Good opening hours, open Monday – Friday . Provide for children from 3 + and 10 Out of School care providers offer care for children up to the age of 12. . It would appear that there is at least one Holiday care provider in each geographical area. 7 out of the 8 are open every holiday – the remaining one is open for four weeks in the summer. . Hardly any of the Out of School care providers charge any additional costs. . There is sufficient capacity.

Weaknesses . Less Out of School care in Area 1, Coastal West and Area 4, Coastal East than in any other areas. . No Before school care in Coastal West or Creuddyn. . Coastal West and Coastal East again have the fewest places in term time which is compatible with their number of services – 3 apiece. . Only Creuddyn and Rural have childcare places that are provided by ‘Welsh’ only settings. Coastal West and Coastal Central don’t have any childcare places that are provided by ‘Welsh’ only settings. . School holidays – only 4% of the childcare places are in Coastal East (only available during summer holiday) . In ‘Rural’ area the holiday childcare is only available during the summer holidays. (Clybiau Plant Cymru suggested that ‘In the areas of the County where there is no provision it is down to lack of demand and the rural nature of the area.) . During holiday time nearly 80% of services operate through the medium of ‘English’ / ‘English and some bilingual elements’. . Lack of care for older age ranges – this was a view that many parents commented on in the Parent Survey. . There is no Out of School childcare outside of normal working hours. . The fact that some villages have no rural Out of School care e.g. Llansannan and children have to be transported to Out of school care in other villages. E.g. Eglwysbach. . Lack of Out of school care in Glan Conwy and Llandudno Junction (source Parent Survey) . Fear of sustainability of rural Out of School care

6.6 Open Access Play Provision

6.6.1. Analysis of Supply of Childcare Provision There is no registered Open Access Play provision within Conwy. Therefore there was no data from the SASS return for this category.

Opening hours:

No open access play is available other than during the school summer holiday time. There is no weekend or unsociable hour’s provision. 2 excepted provisions are run within the county during the summer holiday.

91 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . Playing Out Provision is run in partnership between Conwy County Borough Council and Conwy Voluntary Services Council. Sessions of 1 hour and 55 minutes s are run across several locations over 5 weeks of the Summer holidays. Provision is delivered by two teams in various locations; two sessions per day over the summer holidays. Weekdays only. . Rural Summer Activity club funded via Community Councils and grants. Rotate around 6 locations in Area 5 Rural during Summer holiday only. Operates for a 4 week period, two sessions per day over the Summer holidays. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Geographical distribution:

Respondents did not specify where the children had attended. However one provider is only providing in Rural Area 5. The Playing Out sessions are run in Areas 2, 3 and 4. Therefore Area 1 (Coastal West) was not covered by either of these projects which both rely on Community council funding and grants.

Language:

Both provisions fall into the ‘Welsh and English’ language category and are totally open access. Therefore they were unable to complete the capacity section of the questionnaire. They reported that 1012 children attended the sessions in total. Rural Area 5 had a total of 120 children attending on an Ad Hoc basis during the summer. Areas 2, 3 and 4 had a total of 832 children attending on an Ad Hoc basis during the summer.

There was no provision for those under the age of 5 to attend without an adult. Areas 2, 3 and 4 provided Open Access Play for young people up to the age of 15. .

All provision is free to the parents.

Children with additional needs are welcome at all activities. Prior contact is suggested but not required to ensure activities are appropriate to their needs. A special requirements form is available online for parents to complete, to request a one to one worker to enable children to attend sessions.

6.6.2. Summary of key strengths and weaknesses Strengths:

. Activities are free to parents. Prior booking is not necessary. Available in the ‘Welsh and English’ language category. Can offer extra support to children with additional needs with prior arrangement. . The schemes operate to facilitate child led, freely chosen play with trained and experienced playworkers.

92 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Weaknesses: . Only available in some areas. Only available during Summer holidays. Not open all day.

6.7 Nanny

6.7.1. Analysis of Supply of Childcare Provision

The data for Annex 7, on the supply of Nanny services is taken from the Voluntary Approval Scheme data which is provided to the Family Information Service by CSSIW on a monthly basis. There was no Nanny data on the SASS returns.

The data does not provide details of language provision. The services provided under the scheme will vary from family to family depending on their needs and each provider may change the type of provision they are prepared to provide from one employment to another. This would include costs and hours of provision.

Of the six entered on the list, five had expired during the period during which the SASS was undertaken. But these may well be open to re- approval should an employment situation arise. Of the six listed on the Approval Scheme the geographical breakdown of their home addresses were located across the county with one in each of the five Wellbeing areas of Conwy County Borough.

6.7.2. Summary of key strengths and weaknesses

Strengths: . Primarily this is an option which suits those who work unsociable hours. . Voluntary Approval Scheme allows families who use the scheme to access childcare element of working tax credits

Weaknesses: . Generally Nannies are only able to work for one family at a time as the children are cared for in their own home. . The unsociable hours and the low ratio of Nanny to children may mean that this type of childcare is comparatively expensive. However the terms and conditions are entirely between the parents, as the employer, and the Nanny as the employee. . FIS are contacted for Nanny information from time to time but it is difficult to keep this information current.

93 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 7. Understanding the Needs of Parents/ Carers

7.1 Overview of Consultation

Status Number Parent/ Carer in work (not expecting a baby) 164 Parent/ Carer in education or training (not expecting a baby) 6 Parent/ Carer seeking work (not expecting a baby) 4 Parent/ Carer seeking education or training (not expecting a baby) 0 Expecting or on maternity/ paternity leave with first child 2 Adopting first child 0 Parent/ Carer expecting or on maternity/ paternity leave with 11 additional children Adopting or on adoption leave with additional children 0 Parent/ Carer not in work 14 Parent/ Carer not in education or training 1

Respondents by annual household income

Average Annual Household Income Number £0-£10,000 13 £10,001-£20,000 24 £20,001-£30,000 27 £30,001-£40,000 27 £40,001-£50,000 42 £50,001-£60,000 19 £60,001-£70,000 11 £70,000+ per annum 11 Prefer not to say 28

94 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Respondents by Ethnic Group

The following table reflects the ethnicity questions as asked in the parental questionnaire:

Ethnic Group Numbers White 197 Any other White background 4 Welsh / English / Scottish / Northern Irish / British 193

Mixed 2 White and Asian 1 White and Black Caribbean 1

Any other Asian background 2 Asian / Asian British 1 Chinese 1

Black 0

Other 0

Language of Respondents (primary language spoken at home)

Language Number Percentage Welsh only 20 10% English only 114 57% Bilingual 65 32% Other languages 2 1%

95 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Respondents’ children by age group

Age Number Under 12 months 18 12-18 months 13 19-23 months 6 2 years 33 3 years 30 4 years 29 5-7 years 74 8-11 years 90 12-14 years 43 15-17 years 32

Respondents with children who have special educational needs or disability

Special Educational Needs/ Disability Number Speech and language 21 Specific learning (dyslexia) 8 Hearing difficulties 3 Learning difficulties 8 Visual difficulties 0 Emotional and behavioural difficulties 16 Physical 5 Medical condition 6 Other (specify) 5

96 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 7.2. Current Use of Childcare

7.2.1. Analysis of Current Use of Childcare Provision

Conwy County Borough Council and Conwy People’s Partnership recognises and values the benefits of consultation, participation and involving people in our decision making processes to assist in delivering future service provision for the local needs of the County. (Conwy People’s Partnership Participation Strategy is available; http://conwy.gov.uk/doc.asp?doc=26613&cat=7959&Language=1 http://www.conwy.gov.uk/doc.asp?doc=26613&cat=7959&Language=2) The parent survey conducted in Conwy County Borough Council (CCBC) to complete the Childcare Sufficiency Assessment this year received a very low response rate in comparison to previous years, although the consultation period was for a two month period (28th September until 30th November 2016) and promoted widely across the county. During 2016, 202 online responses were received; in 2014, 384 responses and in 2010, 2288 responses. This has been reflected by other Local Authorities across Wales this year. There may be a number of contributing factors such as the Welsh Government launching a parent questionnaire on the new 30 hours childcare offer which was implemented during the same time as Conwy County Borough Council’s online questionnaire which may have affected numbers, as well as the complexity and size of the new questionnaire developed this year. When the results of the Parent Survey were analysed it was discovered that the post codes which parents had been asked to supply weren’t appearing. This means that it hasn’t been possible to break the parents’ responses down by geographical areas, so the results have been considered for the county as a whole. In analysing further it was felt that parents could be confused by the Childcare terminology for different types of Childcare. Throughout this analysis reference will be made to the results of the survey which have been collated within Annex 8 and 9 Parental Use and Demand. When referring to the statistics the number of the question will be included within the body of this text. The Parent survey looked at both the current use of Childcare and the demands for Childcare. Parents were asked whether they used childcare. Two of the parents hadn’t responded to the question, ‘do you use childcare?’, so the table below is based on the 200 parents who answered this question. When quotes from parents are being included in this assessment they are included exactly as they appeared in the Parent Survey. No grammatical or spelling changes have been made.

No, I don’t use childcare 90 45% Yes I use childcare for all of my children 70 35%

97 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Yes I use childcare for some of my children 36 18% Yes, I’m expecting a baby and use childcare for all/some of my children and intend to use childcare for my unborn child in the future 4 2% Grand Total 200 100%

Of those 200 parents who answered this question 45% didn’t use childcare. 35% used it for all of their children and 18% for some of their children which gives a total of 53%. Another 2% said that they were expecting a baby and either used childcare for some of their children, or all of their children and intended to use childcare for their unborn child in the future. Type of Services being used; The parent survey showed that the following type of services are utilised in Conwy County; childminders, day care, sessional day care, crèches, out of school care, open access play provision and friends and / or family. The majority use out of school care (51%), 39% use day care, 39% use friends and family, and 11% use childminders.

If you use childcare for all of your children, what type of childcare do you use? No. % Childminder 8 11% Day Care 27 39% Sessional Day Care 5 7% Crèches 2 3%

Out of School Care 36 51% Open access play provision 1 1% Nanny (Voluntary Approval Scheme) 0 0% Friends and / or family 27 39%

Range of services being used The parent survey show the different services that parents use within the Childcare types. See Annex 8 and 9 Parental Use and Demand – Q.14. As noted above the majority of parents use Out of School Childcare, followed by Full Day care. Of the parents who use the Out of School Childcare, 36 of their children attend Breakfast Clubs, 47 make use of After school care and 28 access holiday childcare. It must be

98 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 noted that some of these children will be the same children using several of these services. 32 children attend Full Day care, 6 children attend Full Day care at a Childminders and 27 children are looked after by family and friends. Some parents gave examples of how they use Childcare. One parent said that her two children would go to a Childminder for 2 – 3 days during a half term holiday and for ‘some’ days during the summer holidays.

Another one said that they were trying to use family as they can’t find After school care. Others talked about using FIT sessions and holiday camps at the Leisure Centres as this encouraged activity

Number and type of child places used (full time, part time, ad-hoc) Parents were asked to complete the age of their children who attended childcare, the type of childcare they attended and the whether they attended on a full time, part time of ad hoc basis.

Type of child place used Number of responses Full time places 44 Part time places 96 Ad hoc 36 Not completed 15 TOTAL 191

The results of this question are shown at Q. 15. To summarise, parents use a whole range of services and often use more than one service for the same child. Nine parents with children under the age of 12 months responded. Two of them use Childminders on a Part time basis. Five used day care – 3 full time and 2 Part time and two more use Family and friends on a part time basis. 7 parents with children between the ages of 12 and 18 months responded. 4 used Day care – 1 on a full time basis and 3 on a part time basis, 1 used family and friends on an ad hoc basis and 2 used a combination of Day care and family and friends. By the time children have reached the age of three the number of different services that are used by individual families for individual children has increased. Ten parents responded to say that they used one type of childcare for their children - 4 used Day care – 1 on a full time basis and 3 on a part time basis; 1 used a Childminder on a full time basis; 3 used Sessional care on a part time basis and 2 used family and friends. However 11 parents responded to say that they used two or more services for their three year olds. For example two parents said that they used Day care, sessional care and family and friends.

99 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Two parents commented on this issue: ‘Not enough options for childcare for ages 2 - 4 and wrap around care for nursery children that fit in with working day. E.g. playgroups only available 9.00 – 11.00am and wrap around nursery only available until 2.45pm which makes it hard for working parents working 8.30-5.00pm.’ ‘Unable to access free early years education as I'm unable to take them there and then transfer them to nursery. If I wanted to use the Cylch sessions I would need to drop both children off at 9:00 so could not start work till at least 9:15. I then would need to pay for a full day of nursery if they would collect from Cylch as it’s only 2.5 hours, also would need to pick eldest up at 3:00 or pay for after school care. This would mean reducing my hours to 5 hours a day which is not enough to cover the cost of childcare. Currently I drop children off at 7:45 (nursery) and 8 (school) which allows me to work 6 hour day, I still pay full day nursery and she misses out on early years education but I earn enough to cover school holidays, not ideal!’ Children in the older age ranges used Out of School Care on the whole. 17 children aged 5 – 7 use Out of School care ( 2 on a full time basis, 13 on a part time basis and 2 on an ad hoc basis) and 11 more used Out of School care and family and friends, on a part time basis. 18 children aged 8 – 11 use Out of School Care (14 on a part time basis and 2 on an ad hoc basis) and 10 more use Out of School Care and Family and friends (6 on a part time basis and 2 on an ad hoc basis) The parents of all children over the age of 12 reported that they used family and friends on an ad hoc basis. One of the main things that stands out from this analysis is the amount of care undertaken by family and friends. According to the survey 92 children are looked after for part of the time by family and friends. A lot of parents commented on this: ‘I use family and friends as well as full day care for my child as I find that full day care alone would be very expensive’ ‘We use parents or friends as to access childcare provision is unaffordable on current’ Other parents commented on the lack of a support network: ‘As two full time parents child care is one of the areas that is difficult for us to arrange especially as we have no family in the local area. We are having to rely on friends and this can be complicated to arrange and sometimes does not work.’ Number of places required for children who have special educational needs or who require specialist care due to a disability; According to the survey a total number of 72 children have a disability or additional needs. 21 had Speech and language needs, 16 had emotional and behavioural problems and 8 had learning difficulties. For more information on the breakdown please refer to Q. 3. Some parents of children with disabilities expressed their views on Childcare.

100 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 ‘We also use direct payments for 3 hours childcare for our disabled son on a Saturday. He attends nursery at Ysgol y Gogarth during the afternoons on weekdays. We use a day nursery for my daughter during weekday afternoons for respite as our son doesn't sleep much.’ ‘Child care is not available in our area for children with special needs. When my son went to playgroup last year, we couldn't find anywhere in our area to accommodate his needs so had to travel out of area every day for playgroup with his one to one. We travelled from … to …. And back every day. He does not use childcare now for this reason.’ Number of places used by language category; Unfortunately there was a particularly low response to this question, with only 18 people answering the question. No real conclusion

Language Category No. % English Medium 9 50% Welsh and English Medium 7 39% Welsh Medium 2 11% Grand Total 18

Age range of children using / not using childcare; Parents completing the Parental Survey were asked how many children they had by age. The results are shown in the table below.

Age Range No. Under 12 months 18 12 - 18 months 13 19 - 23 months 6 2 years 33 3 years 30 4 years 29 5 - 7 years 74 8 - 11 years 90 12 - 14 years 43

101 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 15 - 17 years 32

Parents were then asked how many of those children were a) using childcare and b) not using childcare. The table below shows the results. *1 shows the ages of those children who don’t use Childcare and *2 shows the ages of those children who do use childcare. As it was impossible to break these figures down into the language of the type of Childcare provision they are using, it is broken down into the language type spoken at home. The table below shows that more children are not accessing childcare than are accessing it. However it appears that out of the 202 parents who completed the survey several of them could have been parents of older children as the table shows results for 12 – 17 year olds (47 in total). From anecdotal knowledge it would not be expected that these older children and young people would be accessing childcare.

Age Welsh Bilingual English None / Other Total Total language not using using childcare childcare *1 *2 *1 *2 *1 *2 *1 *2 *1 *2 12months 0 0 2 0 3 2 0 0 5 2 12-18months 0 0 1 0 6 0 0 0 7 0 19-23months 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 7 0 3 0 0 3 0 6 1 0 0 9 1 4 1 0 2 0 5 22 0 0 8 22 5-7 0 4 0 3 0 5 0 1 0 13 8-11 4 2 15 5 17 6 0 1 36 14 12-14 5 1 5 6 12 2 0 1 22 10 15-17 1 0 9 6 11 0 2 0 23 0 Not applicable 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 4 0 TOTAL 11 7 37 20 72 39 2 3 122 63

102 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Reasons for using childcare; The majority of parents use childcare to go to work (96%), whilst 6% use it for social and or learning benefits for their child or children, and 4% use it whilst pursuing their studies.

Reasons for not using childcare The reasons why parents do not use childcare is very varied. 38% of parents said that they did not use childcare because either their partner or family or friends looked after their children. 32% said that childcare was too expensive and 28% said that their children were old enough to look after themselves. This ties up with the figures above regarding the number of children and young people over the age of 12 not accessing childcare. The table below lists the various reasons cited.

Reasons No. % My children are old enough to look after themselves 35 28% I am/my partner is a stay at home parent and I have no need for childcare 18 14% My partner / family / friends look after my children 48 38% There is no childcare available at the times that I need it 11 9% There is no childcare that can cater for my child’s/children’s additional needs 6 5% There is no wrap around or after school club at my child/children’s school 7 6% There is no childcare that is in the right location 4 3% There is no suitable Welsh Medium provision 1 1% Childcare is too expensive 40 32% I have problems with transport 4 3% Other 14 11%

Accessibility / availability and affordability of childcare provision; Those parents who didn’t access childcare were asked to list the times when there was no childcare available when they needed it. 41 parents responded. 17% said before 8.00am, 8% after 6.00pm, 7% weekend care and 1% over night care.

103 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Parents were also asked how accessibility / availability and affordability of childcare provision could be improved. The table below shows the results regarding times that services are open. 24 parents said that no improvements were needed in opening hours during term time and 18 said the same for the school holidays. 37 parents would have liked more availability before 8.00am in term time and 20 said the same for the holidays. 12 parents would have liked more availability between 3.30pm and 6.00pm during term time and 14, availability after 6.00pm during the holidays and 13 said the same for term times during the School holidays. It was interesting to note that very few parents said that they would like Overnight care and weekend care.

Term Time School Holidays No improvements needed 24 18 Available before 8.00am 37 20 Available before school 7:30am – 9.00am 21 3 Morning 9:00am-12:00pm 2 4 Lunch time 12:00pm-1:00pm 2 6 Afternoon 12:00pm – 3:30pm 2 6 After School 3:30pm – 6.00pm 12 9 Available after 6.00pm 14 13 Full Day Care 8.00am-6.00pm 10 10 Overnight Care 5 5 Weekend Care 3 0

Location Term Time School Holidays Closer to Home 4 4 Closer to work 4 2 Closer to study 1 1 Closer to siblings’ school 5 5 Childcare that is better at meeting my 5 3 child / children’s individual needs Availability of Welsh medium Childcare 0 0 Availability of English medium Childcare 1 1 Availability of bilingual Childcare 13 9 More Affordable 51 41 Other 3 2

104 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Very few parents expressed views on the location of their Childcare. See above. However 51 parents said that they would like childcare to be cheaper during term time and 41 said they would like it to be cheaper during holiday times. As part of the Survey parents were given an opportunity to express their views on Childcare. The cost of childcare was something that was commented on by many parents. ‘Childcare is extremely expensive to the point it impacts on our life, we can't afford to eat probably most of the time due to the high costs of childcare.’ ‘I don't know how we would manage without the help of grandparents, the cost of sending a child to full time nursery is more than our mortgage.’ ‘There is no financial assistance for parents who work fulltime. We pay £550 a month for 1 child and have chosen not to have another one because it is very expensive.’ Parental view on the childcare on offer; Parents were asked for their general views on Childcare. The total responses are available at Q17 and the highlights are listed below . 94% of parents are satisfied with the quality of childcare during term time . 83% are satisfied with the quality of childcare during school holidays . 74% of parents consider childcare too expensive . 58% of parents agree that there is little choice in the types of childcare available and the services offered . 59% of parents know where to find out information about childcare . 38% of parents consider childcare isn’t available at the time required . 52% of parents don’t know where to find information on financial assistance for childcare 38% of parents don’t think there is enough Welsh medium childcare available . 61% of parents consider childcare is well located

One thing that should be highlighted as it doesn’t appear to be covered elsewhere in the Childcare Sufficiency Assessment is the feeling amongst working parents that they receive very little help from Welsh Government or CCBC and they are in some way penalised for working hard and it would be to their advantage to work part time. Some parents felt that the Childcare offer is not fair, some wanted free childcare similar to breakfast clubs and others wanted help from School Transport, transporting their children from a village where there was no childcare to a village where their children attended an After School Club. One parent also raised a very good point about the raising of the retirement age. They felt that this might impact on working parents who relied on grandparents for Childcare.

105 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 ‘The cost of childcare is unsustainable and need addressing by the Government, the offer of 30 hours free for aged 3-4 is not fair, this funding should be spread evenly across all age groups pre full time school. We are also concerned that this will result in an increase in fees, which will be difficult for parents whose children do not fall into the 3-4 age bracket.’ ‘Free childcare should be available via employer CBCC’ ‘I feel we are discriminated against or punished for working hard, which seems ridiculous. Please help!’ ‘Eglwysbach children need county school transport support to provide a 5 day service with contingency.’ ‘I don't know how we would manage without the help of grandparents, the cost of sending a child to full time nursery is more than our mortgage. Increasing the retirement age will impact on working parents who would depend on grandparents for child care. I would not be able to work full time without the grandparents help.’ ‘I feel more could be done to provide out of school child care and opportunities for children in rural areas and that Conwy need to be looking more in depth into the viability of small rural schools and whether some can be amalgamated in order to increase numbers and the opportunities for the children within the school as well as ensuring that additional resources such as after schools clubs are more sustainable.’ ‘There is no financial assistance for parents who work fulltime / More help should be given to those who work’ ‘Costs of services despite being a working mother I have no assistance with finances I work in the public sector and do not feel that there is incentive for many to work full time as assistance is available to those in part time employment.’ ‘Childcare should be provided until 6pm during term time Free of charge as per the Breakfast club model to support working parents.’ 7.3. Demand for Childcare Provision

7.3.1. Analysis of Demand for Childcare Provision

As part of the Parent Survey parents to be, or those on maternity / paternity leave or adopting / on adoption leave and / or those intending to use childcare for their child / children in the future were asked to give their views on their future childcare needs. They were asked to indicate what type of childcare they intended to use in the future. 23 people responded to this. The table below shows the results received in answer to this question.

106 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Childcare usage in the future No. % Childminder 4 17.4% Day Care 7 30.4% Sessional Day Care 1 4.3% Crèches 1 4.3% Out of School Care 3 13% Open access play provision 0 0% Nanny (Voluntary Approval Scheme) 0 0% Family and / or friends 7 30.4%

The majority of parents intend to use either Day care or family and friends (30.4%) and 17.4% intend to use Childminders. These parents were also asked what their main reason was for using childcare. 17 parents said that it was because they either go to work or they are planning to go to work and one parent said that it was for the social and learning benefits for their child. (See Q.13) Range of Services required These parents were then asked to highlight all the range of services within each childcare type that they intended to use. Full details can be seen at Q.9. Of the 7 parents who intended to use Full day care, 7 intended to use a Full Day Nursery with one of those also intending to use an After School Club and another intending to use a morning session of a Cylch Meithrin or Playgroup. The 4 parents who were planning to use Childminders, intended to use a range of services. 2 intended to use Full day care, 1 half day in the mornings, 1 half day in the afternoons, 2 Before school and 2 After school. The 1 parent who said they were planning to use Sessional Care said that they were intending to use both morning and afternoon sessions at the Cylch or Playgroup and also wrap around care. Of the 3 parents who intended to use Out of School Care, 2 were intending to use Before School care, 3 were intending to use After school care and 2 were intending to use Holiday care, Number and type of Childcare Places required and age of children The parents were asked at what age their child / children would be starting childcare, the type of childcare they would be attending and whether it would be on a full time, part time or ad hoc basis. 29 parents responded to this question about full time, part time and ad hoc places. 59% of them said that they intended to use part time childcare.

107 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 No. responses Full time places 7 Part time places 17 Ad hoc 5 Total 29 The results of this question are shown at Q. 10. It would appear that most parents are intending to use just one service. Some of them have said that they are going to use a range of services. This is not as many as those already using Childcare (see Current use of Childcare) – however this could be because as yet they are not using Childcare and do not know what their exact needs are going to be. 11 parents with children under the age of 12 months responded. 4 are intending to use Full day care – 2 on a full time basis, 1 on a Part time basis and 1 on an ad hoc basis. 1 is intending to use a Childminder and 3 are intending to use family and friends – 1 on a full time basis and 2 on a part time basis. 1 was intending to use a mixture of Childminders and Full day care on a part time basis. 1 parent with a child between the age of 12 and 18 months and 1 with a child between the age of 19 and 23 months are intending to use childcare on a part time basis. 1 parent with a 2 year old, 3 with 3 year olds and 1 with a 4 year old are intending only to use family and friends on a full time and ad hoc basis. Once the children reach school age parents are intending to use a range of services. 2 parents of 5 – 7 year olds are intending to use Out of School care, 2 a combination of Out of School care, Sessional and Childminders and 1 family and friends. Of the 8 – 11 year olds one parent is intending to use family and friends and 1 Out of school care and interestingly enough one parent with a child aged 12 – 14 is intending to use a combination of full day care and family and friends. Of the 32 parents who gave information about the age that their children would start and the type of service that they would use, 37.5% were intending to use family and friends to provide all their childcare or as part of their childcare arrangements. Special Educational Needs From the parent responses received no children had special educational needs or required specialist care due to a disability. Number of places required by language category Unfortunately there was a particularly low response to this question, with only 18 people responding. As a result it is impossible to draw any conclusions.

108 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 No. % English Medium 9 50% Welsh and English Medium 7 39% Welsh Medium 2 11% Grand Total 18

Childcare Times The table below shows the times that the parents would be looking for their childcare. Unfortunately only 18 parents completed this question. On the whole they would be looking for Childcare throughout the day Monday to Friday 8.00am – 5.00pm. (45.6%) and for early morning care - 7.00am – 9.00pm (27.8%). Considering the anecdotal evidence received from FIS about unsocial hour’s childcare, only two of the 18 parents said that they would be looking for childcare after 6.00pm, Monday to Friday and only three parents said that they were looking for Childcare on a Saturday and Sunday. Two of these were looking for early morning and also from 3.30pm until after 6.00pm.

Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun All day 8.00am – 6 8 8 9 10 1 1 6.00pm Early 7.00am – 5 5 5 5 5 2 2 Morning 9.00am Morning 9.00am – 3 3 3 3 3 0 0 12.00noon Lunchtime 12.00noon 3 3 3 3 3 0 0 – 1.00pm Afternoon 1.00pm – 3 4 3 4 2 0 0 3.30pm Evening 3.30pm – 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 6.00pm Evening After 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 6.00pm Overnight 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

109 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Location of Childcare From the parent responses received, 11 parents wanted childcare near their home, 5 near their place of study and 2 near their children’s school. Of the five who wanted childcare near their work, one was in a rural area and two were in the postal code LL22 (Abergele). Of the parents who wanted childcare near to their children’s school, one said that they would like childcare in Llandudno Junction and the other said that they would like childcare at a rural school (Eglwysbach). Parental views on childcare on Offer From analysing the Parent Questionnaire and survey it appears that parents who weren’t currently using childcare weren’t asked their opinion on Childcare. Parental views on Use and Demand of Bilingual Childcare

Parents were asked a series of questions about bilingual childcare which is included in this additional section which covers both the supply and demand of childcare. There were asked whether they wanted their child or children to be bilingual in English and Welsh. 199 parents responded to this question. 87% said that they wanted their children to be bilingual and 13% said that they didn’t. (Q.13) They were then asked two separate questions, were they intending to send their child / children to a Welsh medium Education setting and does their child / children already attend a Welsh medium Education setting. It is felt that these questions were confusing and the resulting figures are not accurate. 196 parents responded to the question about intending to send their child to a Welsh medium setting and 199 parents responded to the question about their child already attending a Welsh medium setting. As only 202 parents in total and only 23 parents who were intending to use childcare responded to the survey these two figures do not add up. It is felt that the parents probably answered both questions whether they intended to send their child or whether their child already attended a Welsh medium setting. However to give an indication of parents views the responses have been included in the tables below:

110 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Q 33. Are you intending to send your child/ children to a Welsh medium education setting?

Don't Know 15 8% No 80 41% Yes 101 52% Grand Total 196

Q 34. Does your child / children already attend a Welsh medium education setting?

No 87 44% Yes 112 56% Grand Total 199

In both cases over 50% of the respondents were intending to use or are already using Welsh medium Education Parents were also asked if they were facing any barriers to accessing Welsh medium Education. Over 56% said that they weren’t. The barriers cited by those who were having difficult included that it was not available for the hours required, it was not available locally, it was not age range appropriate and the cost. Q 35. Are there any barriers affecting your ability to benefit from Welsh medium childcare provision?

No 109 56% Age range not appropriate 4 2% Cost 4 2% Not applicable 46 24% Not available for the hours required 9 5% Not available locally 12 6% Other 10 5% Grand Total 194

111 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Ten parents gave the barrier as other. The reasons cited here included: . Lack of schools which teach through the medium of Welsh . Poor quality of the local Welsh school . Additional needs and medical needs. One parent said that their child had additional needs and they struggle with English. This parent felt that introducing another language would be too difficult . Not knowing about any Welsh medium holiday clubs . The fact that one of the parents came from another English speaking country.

201 parents completed the question on the primary language at home which is shown in the table below. Q 36. What is the primary language spoken at home?

Any other languages 2 1% Bi-lingual 65 32% English only 114 57% Welsh only 20 10% Grand Total 201 100%

7.2 and 7.3. Summary of key strengths and weaknesses

Having analysed and summarised the key findings from the Parent Survey it was felt that the current use of childcare provision and the demand for childcare provision were so similar and closely related that it made sense to include the strengths and weaknesses in one section rather than it two separate sections. The strengths and weaknesses have been identified from the Parent survey and also from anecdotal evidence from Conwy Family Information Service. Many parents who commented as part of the survey had very strong views on Childcare and welcomed Conwy undertaking the survey. These views can be seen in Appendix 1; Comments from Parents and area also included in ‘Barriers experienced by specific target groups’ 7.4.2

112 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Strengths From the Parent Survey, of the parents who used Childcare . 94% of parents are satisfied with the quality of childcare during term time. . 83% of parents are satisfied with the quality of childcare during school holidays. . 61% agreed that Childcare is well located . 66% thought that there was childcare available for the age of their child. . 71% thought that Childcare catered for the needs of their child. . 58% were happy with the amount of hours that their child / children attended childcare. . 75.5% had no concerns about their Childcare arrangements breaking down. . 72% of the parents said that Childcare was not a barrier to them accessing training or employment. . 59% of parents said that they knew where to find information about childcare. . 57% thought that there was enough childcare available in the language of their choice.

When parents were asked to comment further there was some very positive feedback including the following: . Excellent Welsh medium Nursery in Llandudno Junction. . Excellent Day Nursery – ‘my child is happy there, feels valued and enjoys the holiday activities’ . Kids Kamps run at Leisure Centres during the holidays. . Excellent Welsh speaking Childminder.

Positive quotes from the survey include the following: ‘There are not very Welsh nursery around the Conwy area but the one I have found in Llandudno Junction is amazing and have brought out the Welsh language in my two children amazing.’ ‘Breakfast club is a god send free and you know they are having something healthy and enjoy having breakfast with their friends.’ ‘Childcare is generally well provided in Conwy.’ ‘My daughter is six years old and currently attends the after school club situation in Ysgol Glan Morfa, Abergele as they speak welsh there keeping the consistency for my daughter and as it is for Ysgol Glan Morfa children, she is guaranteed to know the children attending.’ ‘Rwyn ffodus iawn fod gennyf warchogwraig plant bendigedig. Mae hi'n Gymreas yn ddibynadwy ac yn annwyl iawn.’

113 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 ‘My child attends LD sports camps throughout the summer holidays and half terms this is amazing price wise and have fab staff and gets the kids active all day instead of ipads etc.’ Anecdotal evidence from Conwy Family Information Service . Parents who put children down on a waiting list because of the reputation of the Childcare provider. . That family and friends are able to provide so much childcare. This probably helps with unsocial hours Childcare.

Weaknesses From the Parent Survey of the parents who used Childcare . 64 % of parents didn’t consider that there was a good choice of childcare in the County. . 47% of parents said that Childcare wasn’t available at the time they needed it. . 58% of parents agree that there is little choice in the types of childcare available and the services offered . 74% thought that Childcare was too expensive. . 52% didn’t know where to find information about financial assistance for Childcare.

Of the parents who didn’t use Childcare. . 32% said that Childcare is too expensive . Only 3 parents were looking for weekend Childcare.

Parents may assume that there won’t be registered weekend Childcare, therefore make alternative arrangements with families and friends. When parents were asked to comment further there was some very strong feedback. The main criticism was to do with the cost of childcare however there were comments on many other topics including the following: . Lack of Welsh language provision . Very little Welsh spoken in settings that would describe themselves as Bilingual and the Welsh that is spoken is of a poor standard . Lack of holiday care for older children . Childcare can be difficult to access . Problems of childcare only being available if there is enough demand. . Lack of Out of School Clubs. Eglwysbach does not have an Out of School Club. . Children cannot attend activity clubs at local schools as they have to attend an Out of School Club in a different village. . Criticism of the Tax Credit system.

114 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . Some Out of Schools not being registered which means that parents cannot use Childcare vouchers. . Concerns with transport to Out of School Club. . No Secondary schools have Out of School Clubs. . Care for children with disabilities. . Lack of wrap around care for 2 – 3 year olds. . Need for Kids Kamps for younger children. . Lack of Out of School care in Llandudno Junction and Conwy. . No childcare in Llansannan . Cost of After school care – have to pay for the session whereas may only use an hour of the session. . Not able to access Early Years Education due to cost of wrap around care. . Lack of childcare in rural areas and sustainability of schools and Childcare services. . No financial assistance for parents who work full time. . Variance in quality of care. . Lack of Forest schools, Montessori and Outdoor Educational facilities.

Negative quotes from the survey include the following: ‘The nursery we use has hiked its prices from £38 to £42.99 within a 12 month period, how much more do they think families can pay, mortgages and rental costs are already consuming around half of most household incomes. It is very worrying, and prevents some families from having more children.’ ‘My concern is once my child goes to year 7 the summer childcare gets much harder - a lot of summer clubs don't go beyond primary and yet they are too young to be left and they get bored with grandparents - they want to be with their friends doing activities’ ‘The local holiday club only offers Tues, Wed and Thurs *if* there is sufficient demand. My work is full time in holidays so Mondays and Fridays become complicated.’ ‘However, more Welsh nurseries is needed down the coast, as many nurseries advertise bilingualism, but in fact the Welsh is of very poor standard. Also, there is a lack of after school clubs.’ ‘Can only ask so much of grandparent summer camp is a necessity, shame it can't be available for all holidays.’

115 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Quote from Parent on Full day childcare; ‘Have used afterschool but at the moment after this half term i can’t find childcare for my 3 year old at ………….. One club won’t collect anymore due to difficulty in transporting children from one site to another and the other didn’t collect from playgroup/Cylch and when i asked last week i was told they may collect from next week but she didn't know if they had spaces.’ ‘There is no financial assistance for parents who work fulltime. We pay £550 a month for 1 child and have chosen not to have another one because it is very expensive.’ ‘Request for more Montessori / Forest Schools and Outdoor educational opportunities for children.’ Anecdotal evidence from FIS Parents don’t look for their options early enough. Sometimes they leave it too late when choosing Childcare. Parents sometimes don’t consider the options, for example they will decide to choose a Day Nursery without considering a Childminder. Parents sometimes don’t consider their childcare from the long term perspective. E.g. they will decide on childcare for babies without considering where they are going to attend Playgroup and school.

7.4. Barriers to Childcare Provision

7.4.1. Accessibility of Childcare Provision

In this section consideration has been given to the consultation with partners, stakeholders and parents. Although the response to the questionnaire to parents was limited the comments made are very useful as an indication of parental experience and feelings when seeking childcare. The results have been included above. The various comments by parents can be found in Appendix 1 but several have been included here along with comments from childcare umbrella organisations which follow common themes including flexibility, affordability and accessibility of childcare.

The main barriers appear to be cost, opening times, difficulty in accessing childcare to deal with particular needs and location.

7.4.2. Barriers experienced by specific target groups

The comments from stakeholders and parents have been used in the bullet points below

116 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 (i) Working Parents Geographical barriers: From stakeholders:

‘The further away from the coast you go, the more difficult it gets.’ From the parent questionnaire: . 3% responded there is no childcare that is in the right location . 3% responded - I have problems with transport

‘My main problem is that we both work and we find childcare extremely difficult to find for our village.’

‘No transport on Monday….’

‘Living in a rural area it can be very difficult to find childcare within the area.’

Cost: Several of the childcare umbrella organisations welcomed the Welsh Government move toward the 30 hour a week 3 year old childcare funding offer as a way of reducing childcare costs for parents. A local employer stated that ‘Childcare costs are high in comparison to local salaries.’

From stakeholders:

‘Prices vary across the county depending on where you live e.g. OOSC can be £6 - £15 a session?’

‘Flexibility having to pay if on holiday etc.’

‘We know that some parents use the summer holiday open access play schemes as informal childcare arrangements for older children who can come and go as they please.’ ‘Costs and not being certain which childcare fees they would have to cover themselves and which would be paid for.’ ‘Working families (over 16 hours a week) should benefit from the proposed 30 hours childcare offer’. ‘Those working less than 16 hours may be helped by providers charging hourly rates but this may not be practical for all providers as it may threaten sustainability.’

117 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 ‘gellir edrych ar oriau fwy hyblyg o ran darpariaethau ond unwaith eto mae’n rhaid i’r darpariaethau hynny fod yn hyfyw’. ‘The government has recognised the importance of a mixed economy in childcare and the contribution that will be needed from the private and voluntary sector to ensure high quality, flexible, accessible and affordable early learning and childcare to enable them to achieve the 30 hour commitment.’

From the parent questionnaire: . Those who do not access childcare - 32% - childcare is too expensive . Those who already access childcare – 74% - childcare is too expensive

Here is a flavour of some of the comments given from parents during consultation. The full set of comments can be found in Appendix 1:

‘Can’t afford child care, my mum looks after them for 1 hour a day until dad comes home’. ‘The summer holiday is particularly stressful to juggle full time work and childcare provision. Childcare is too expensive so have to rely on Family.’ ‘I use family and friends as well as full day care for my child as I find that full day care alone would be very expensive’ ‘My daughter goes to nursery 2-3 days per week, and to my parents 2 days per week. We use our annual leave to take every other Friday off to reduce our childcare bill, this means that we rarely have time off together as a family or a whole week off from work. The nursery is too expensive and we would consider ourselves to have a very good household income (approx. £60k between both of us working full time), it must be impossible for those on lower incomes. The cost of childcare is unsustainable and need addressing by the Government, the offer of 30 hours free for aged 3-4 is not fair, this funding should be spread evenly across all age groups pre full time school. We are also concerned that this will result in an increase in fees, which will be difficult for parents whose children do not fall into the 3-4 age bracket.’ ‘There is no financial assistance for parents who work fulltime. We pay £550 a month for 1 child and have chosen not to have another one because it is very expensive.’ ‘Childcare is extremely expensive to the point it impacts on our life, we can't afford to eat probably most of the time due to the high costs of childcare.’

118 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Type: From stakeholders:

‘When we are working with childcare settings on play work quality assurance we find that parents really appreciate childcare settings putting an emphasis on freely chosen, child led play.’

‘Many parents prefer a nursery for just under 5 and no older children at the nursery.’

From the parent questionnaire. The full set of comments can be seen in Appendix 1 . 6% said “There is no wrap around or after school club at my child/children’s school”

‘During school holidays it is very difficult, he is too old to go to a nursery and there is nothing else on offer for aged 12+. We feel that this is a really important issue which doesn't get enough attention, thank you for carrying out this survey.’ ‘Out of term time childcare is expensive and difficult to access at times - especially suitable for my child’ ‘The summer holiday is particularly stressful to juggle full time work and childcare provision.’ ‘My concern is once my child goes to year 7 the summer childcare gets much harder - a lot of summer clubs don't go beyond primary and yet they are too young to be left and they get bored with grandparents - they want to be with their friends doing activities.’ Opening times: From stakeholders:

‘Opening times – parents working on varied shift pattern should be able to use the services.’ ‘Time constraints – not being able to pick up children on time due to work commitments. Traveling time to and from the care services may be an issue.’ ‘Wrap around care provision has improved in recent years but the shorter days in a voluntary setting could be a barrier to some working parents.’ ‘Not all private day nurseries who would be able to offer wrap around care offer the Early Education entitlement.’ ‘Opening hours especially if you work shifts.’

119 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 ‘School Holidays are a nightmare for working parents, if they have no families to help out and support them and the employers are not sympathetic. This can put the parents in a very delicate position when applying/keeping jobs. Maybe a better system to help parents of under three’s?’ ‘Improvements that will support them include flexible opening hours and flexible models of childcare that can be developed to ensure that children can enjoy the opportunities offered in childcare with minimum disruption caused by attending a range of childcare options e.g. one model might be playgroup for the education entitlement and a childminder to wrap around the rest of the parent's working day. ‘Childcare provision in the area is not flexible enough to meet the demands of our workforce (Local employer)’ ‘Most of our queries in the lead up to school holidays are from parents of school age children who struggle to find appropriate childcare or activities for the upcoming holiday period. (Conwy FIS).’

From the parent questionnaire. There were several comments made on opening times particularly regarding holiday care. The full list can be seen in Appendix 1. 9% answered ‘there is no childcare available at the times that I need it’. When parents were asked what time is there no childcare available when you need it? 17% answered before 8am, 8% after 6pm, 7% Weekend care and 1% Overnight care

‘Childcare should be provided until 6pm during term time Free of charge as per the Breakfast club model to support working parents.’ ‘Cover from 0730 would be ideal and during the holidays.’ ‘I start work at 8am and breakfast club starts too late.’ ‘We live in llansannan and there is no facility for childcare locally.’ Language:

From the parent questionnaire:

‘We were keen for our daughter to go to a Welsh speaking nursery but couldn't find one around the Colwyn Bay area. The Cylch Meithrin is available but only for two short sessions and not full time, this is useless for parents who work full time office hours.’ ‘Around Colwyn Bay, there are limited bi-lingual (Welsh/English) day nurseries. Even when they say there will be an element of Welsh, 99% of the staff cannot speak Welsh and very limited impetuous is placed on the Welsh language.’

120 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Information: From stakeholders:

‘Information about available services should be advertised widely in the community.’ ‘It is important that parents know what options of childcare are available and what flexible options they may access in their area or close to their work.’ From the parent questionnaire: Of those who already use childcare 59% agreed that they knew where to find out information about childcare while 32% did not agree. Of those who already use childcare 37% agreed that they knew where to find information on financial assistance for childcare while 52% did not agree.

Some parents will face additional barriers due to their personal circumstances as well as those experienced by working parents (as mentioned above). These additional barriers are listed as follows:

(ii) Parents seeking work or training opportunities From stakeholder feedback:

‘Short term childcare can be a struggle for some children with regards to settling in and where children attend more than one childcare setting continuity of provision can be an issue.’ ‘A lot of parents want to stay with their children however pressure is put on them to return to work and this then causes stress with the cost. At times this can be very daunting first time putting their child into childcare. However, parents wanting to return work should be allowed to train and be helped out with childcare/costs. Sometimes have to commit to a period of having their child attend a certain nursery.’ ‘For a lone parent wanting to retrain in college they can apply for the college childcare grant. This does not cover the whole of the childcare for the course and there will be a short fall of about 10-15%, the learner will have to find this money from their benefits. This then puts them off and college seems further away to them. If the shortfall could be met somehow, I think more young lone parents would like to retrain and from that they would hopefully find a meaningful job.’ ‘We have found that any courses aimed at parents work significantly better if they childcare attached or the option to bring children along to them. Parents wishing to develop skills both in parenting and for their carers find it very difficult to get childcare to cover their training time.’

121 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 ‘Is there a chance for continuity of service, i.e. if my child will get used to the nursery, and after progressing to work I will have to remove them from there, how will they accept it.’ ‘Flexibility for the number of hours that childcare can be accessed will help. The PaCE project will help by paying for childcare while parents are in training or seeking work. Parents may need financial support for childcare while they attend training/interviews and during the first weeks of employment. There have been some effective models of this.’ From the parent questionnaire: On the question of ‘thinking about the childcare that you use for your child/children’ 72% of those who answered this question felt that a lack of childcare was a barrier to them accessing employment or training.

(iii) Unemployed Households From stakeholder feedback:

Cost was the main theme from those stakeholders who commented on unemployed households: ‘Cost would be a problem however childcare is good for socialisation of the child teaching parents the benefits for themselves and their child. This is hard when parents do want to return to work but realise that all their money will go on childcare costs puts them off.’ ‘If you don’t live in a Flying start area you have no means of free childcare, surely this should be done on a need basis? I know of families that are both working, both on a good wage but use the flying start free childcare, surely this is not fair? Also families that struggle to work but have no free child care.’

(iv) Low income families

Most of the comments from the parental questionnaire are regarding costs (see Working families section above)

From stakeholder feedback:

‘Flying Start has enabled families who may not have accessed childcare previously the opportunity to have 12½ hours per week childcare. This has been proven beneficial in terms of a child’s development and any early interventions. However, as not all childcare settings offer the 10 hours Early Education there is not always a smooth transition to Foundation Phase. The majority of childcare settings also charge a top up fee for Early Education and this has been a barrier for many Flying Start families who do not have the finances to pay this top up. ……. the children who are then withdrawn from childcare due to this top up fee are often the most needy and the result is a gap in provision which contravenes the principles of Flying Start.’

122 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 ‘Parents become confused by the charge of a top up fee for what is commonly referred to as “free childcare for 3 year olds” but which is in fact the Early Education for 3 year olds delivered in a childcare setting.’ (Conwy FIS) ‘Costs is a big problem. Understanding the benefits of their child attending some childcare and how it would help them personally.’ ‘Due to Xxx’s needs, no nursery/after school clubs/holiday clubs available as the ratio of staff to children isn’t enough. I have to save the small amount of direct pay I receive to cover school holidays if I can’t get time off.’ (Parent of child with Additional needs) ‘We have found that when offering play sessions (normally open access) it is vital to stress that they are free. Even when it is clearly stated on publicity as free parents are concerned about hidden costs and don’t want to be ‘caught out’ be having to pay for activities.’ ‘Fear of not being able to meet additional needs, such as additional costs of trips out, additional activities etc.’ ‘Child care fees and travelling costs.’ ‘The Welsh Government's childcare offer will, when rolled out, help to tackle poverty especially for those who experience "in-work" poverty across the whole of Wales. Financial support would benefit low income families who need support for childcare in the early weeks of starting a new job - we understand that this may be partly met by the PaCE project. Funds for assisted places are limited and therefore need to be prioritised and may result in some children missing much needed opportunities for socialising and learning through play. For providers, more support could be offered to help practitioners understand and support specific needs of low income families.’ ‘Gwelliannau i deuluoedd incwm isel 30 awr am fod o Gymorth os fyddant yn gweithio yr oriau penodol.’ ‘With regards to the Welsh Government’s ambition to support children and families by extending free early years education and childcare to 30 hours per week for 48 weeks of the year. Therefore NDNA Cymru would hope that this would support low income families. '

(iv) Families from ethnic minority backgrounds

From stakeholder feedback:

‘Better training for childcare staff in understanding and meeting the needs of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds is required.’ ‘Translation services should be available when dealing with BME clients.’ ‘English/Welsh as an additional language – lack of support for children (e.g. Polish, Russian, and Cantonese) and their parents/carers in pre-school sector.’

123 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 ‘Language/culture/beliefs/values. Many parents use their own families looking after their children.’ ‘Families from ethnic minority background face multiple barriers when accessing local services:’ ‘Communication – they may be either not able to use English or lack confidence to do it. They may be concerned they will not be able to communicate effectively, which may lead to misunderstandings and potential problems.’ ‘Confidence - they may feel uncomfortable, and some of them find it hard to deal with the attention they always attract due to their accent/race/clothing. It may be quite a challenge for them to get in touch and visit for the first time a care provider, as they can feel intimidated by the predominantly white British community.’ ‘Cultural differences - Fear of getting involved in any organisation / project related to children, as they wouldn't be sure if they are getting involved with social services and where it is going to lead. They may feel that their culture and the traditional way of upbringing children and their values may be seen as inappropriate. They may also be concerned about potential comments about their parental skills. In addition, in some cultures parents are not expected to take active interested in child's schooling or educations services.’ ‘Isolation – not being able to find and to understand the information about available services, not knowing anyone who could explain it to them. Sometimes they may experience the lack of support from the family members or even pressure from their own community not to get involved with the local services.’ (vi) Families with children who have special educational needs, or a disability

Shortage of well trained (or sometimes even any) staff to provide 1:1 support for children with additional learning needs. The Conwy Pre-School Support Scheme offer an invaluable service in providing a contribution towards funding support in childcare settings but they struggle each year due to funding being continually reduced. This service is vital in ensuring that all children have access to childcare and also fits well with the early intervention agenda and additional needs support for pre-school children. ‘The worry how they will be looked after whether it will be as well as they provide the care for their child. Ensuring staff are educated with the child’s disability.’ ‘Anxiety of around leaving their child with someone else.’ ‘We have had a few queries about the availability of child care for older children with disabilities.’ ‘Access problems - available transport, costs of the transport.’ ‘Accessing information about the service available.’

124 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 ‘Mae’n anodd egluro pa Gymorth sydd ar gael I ba anabledd a gofynion teuluoedd hefyd yn wahanol – Does dim cyorth fel arfer os o fewn gofal dim ond addysg a Dechrau’n Deg.’ ‘NDNA Cymru are aware that some of the other childcare organisations no longer have the assisted places scheme therefore this is difficult to support families with children with disabilities.’ ‘Childminders and approved nannies as with other childcare providers, are able to include information about their service for parents in the FIS Childcare Directory. The inclusion of approved nannies is welcomed as a possible option to support working families with children with disabilities, as they would be caring for children in their own home, and parents can still access the Tax Free element and employer childcare vouchers.’ ‘This is an area of concern as it appears that children who need one to one support are not currently always able to access this support.’ ‘This is a funding and administration issue and will not be helped when the 30 hour offer is rolled out as current demand for these services are not always met under current arrangements as funding is limited. Many children who require additional support to attend early year’s settings to access the education entitlement are only able to access the minimum offer and not the full 10 hours. This is despite the fact that early intervention is seen as key in a child's development and eventual achievement later on.’ ‘Practitioners will always need support and training so that they can optimise the opportunities for children with disabilities and the more training offered, the better.’ From the consultation with parents of children at Ysgol y Gogarth which is a school for children with additional learning needs the following comments were received:

‘Due to Xxx’s needs, no nursery/after school clubs/holiday clubs available as the ratio of staff to children isn’t enough. I have to save the small amount of direct pay I receive to cover school holidays if I can’t get time off.’ ‘Difficult to place in childcare due to anxieties and behaviour difficulties, unpredictable and impulsive!’ ‘Childcare not suitable for my child. Unable to deal with his needs and behaviour.’ Parent Questionnaire Question – Which of these reasons best describe why you do no use childcare for some or all of your children at this time? 5% responded that “there is no childcare than can cater for my child’s/children’s additional needs.

‘We also use direct payments for 3 hours childcare for our disabled son on a Saturday. He attends nursery at ysgol y gogarth during the afternoons on weekdays. We use a day nursery for my daughter during weekday afternoons for respite as our son doesn't sleep much.’

125 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 (vii) Any other specific target groups relevant to the Local Authority area

The comments made during consultation mention lone parent families, parents with learning difficulties, foster parents and parents facing crisis.

‘Parents with learning difficulties useful for children to access childcare.’ ‘Those parents who have emotional wellbeing difficulties needs to access therapy for themselves and need to have their child looked after when they engage in appointments that are one to one.’

We know from foster carers that they highly value free activities but can sometimes be nervous about taking their looked after children. We have found that it helps to publicise activities directly with them to ensure they know they and their children are welcome and their needs will be accommodated. Occasions where families face an emergency such as suffering a bereavement or chronic illness where childcare has not been an issue in the past. However if the family needs to attend an appointment which is not suitable for children, this may mean they need childcare as a one-off occasion. This may also affect workless households or households where the person providing the childcare is taken ill. (Conwy FIS) ‘I rely on family and friends to help me out as a single mother working 30hrs per week and has gone to term time working due to the cost of child care.’ (Parent)

8. Early Years Part Time Education (Foundation Phase) and Flying Start Provision

8.1. Analysis of Early Years Part Time Education (Foundation Phase)

The Early Years Part Time Education (Foundation Phase) data provided from the SASS return as seen in Annex 10 shows there were 13 Full Daycare and 29 Sessional childcare providers delivering this service.

However the list provided by the Early Years Team providing education support for those on the scheme in Conwy report 52 settings would be able to deliver. 18 were registered as Full Daycare, 33 Sessional providers and 1 Childminder.

The difference between the SASS data and the information provided by the team may be due to the fact that some providers were not able to complete the SASS return or that when the SASS was carried out they had no children who would have qualified for the scheme. It is known that the childminder who offers the scheme within Conwy County Borough did not have children in this category during the SASS period.

However the results of the SASS are as follows:

126 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . Geographical and language distribution

The language breakdown by area and type is shown below.

Full Daycare

Area 5 Rural Area 4 Coastal East Area 3 Coastal Central Area 2 Creuddyn Area 1 Coastal West

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Welsh Welsh & English English & some bilingual elements English

It can be seen from the charts that the majority of ‘Welsh’ medium provision is of the Sessional type in Area 5 Rural.

There is no Full Daycare provision which offers this service in Area 1 and 5. There is no ‘Welsh’ medium provision in Area 1 Coastal West.

127 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Sessional care

Area 5 Rural

Area 4 Coastal East

Area 3 Coastal Central

Area 2 Creuddyn

Area 1 Coastal West

0 2 4 6 8 10

Welsh Welsh & English English & some bilingual elements English

. Number of schools funded to provide Early Years Part Time Education

The number of schools funded to provide Early Years Part time Education is 49 with 1086 children in total for the 2015-16 educational year. Language classification is as per Conwy County Borough Council Schools classification.

128 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Schools

Area 5 Rural Area 4 Coastal East Area 3 Coastal Central Area 2 Creuddyn Area 1 Coastal West

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Welsh Medium Dual Medium Transitional: Welsh medium with significant use of English English Predominantly English with significant use of Welsh Predominantly English medium

. Attendance profile of children attending provision (childcare providers and schools)

The profile of the children attending the childcare settings are as follows:

Area 1 Coastal West There were no 4 year olds attending. The Male 3 year old breakdown was 1 attending a ‘Welsh and English’ setting and 13 attending ‘English with some bilingual elements’ settings The Female 3 year old breakdown was 1 attending a ‘Welsh and English’ setting and 11 attending ‘English with some bilingual elements’ settings.

Area 2 Creuddyn There was 1 Female 4 year old attending an ‘English’ setting There were 6 Male 4 year olds attending a ‘Welsh’ setting The Male 3 year old breakdown was: 9 attending ‘Welsh’ settings, 9 ‘Welsh and English’ settings, 32 ‘English and some bilingual elements’ settings and 15 ‘English’ settings.

129 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 The Female 3 year old breakdown was: 5 attending ‘Welsh and English’ settings, 35 ‘English and some bilingual elements’ settings and 13 ‘English’ settings.

Area 3 Coastal Central The 4 year old Female breakdown was 3 attending ‘Welsh’ settings and 10 ‘English and some bilingual elements’ settings. The 4 year old Males breakdown was 6 attending ‘Welsh’ settings and 4 ‘English and some bilingual elements’ settings. The Male 3 year old breakdown was: 22 attending ‘Welsh’ settings, 7 ‘Welsh and English’ settings and 60 ‘English and some bilingual elements’ settings. The Female 3 year old breakdown was: 19 attending ‘Welsh’ settings, 6 ‘Welsh and English’ settings and 50 ‘English and some bilingual elements’ settings

Area 4 Coastal East The 4 year old Female breakdown was 9 attending ‘Welsh’ settings. The 4 year old Males breakdown was 5 attending ‘Welsh’ settings The Male 3 year old breakdown was: 14 attending ‘Welsh’ settings, 18 ‘English and some bilingual elements’ settings and 13 ‘English’ settings. The Female 3 year old breakdown are: 7 attending ‘Welsh’ settings, 12 ‘English and some bilingual elements’ settings and 14 ‘English’ settings.

Area 5 Rural The 4 year old Female breakdown was 3 attending ‘English and Welsh’ settings. There were no 4 year old Males. The Male 3 year old breakdown was: 19 attending ‘Welsh’ settings, 1 ‘Welsh and English’ settings and 19 ‘English and some bilingual elements’ settings. The Female 3 year old breakdown was: 22 attending ‘Welsh’ settings, 2 ‘Welsh and English’ settings and 5 ‘English and some bilingual elements’ settings.

A total of 1086 - 3 and 4 year olds attended in a school setting. The geographical breakdown of school attendance is:

Area 1 Coastal West Area 2 Creuddyn Area 3 Coastal Central Area 4 Coastal East Area 5 Rural 67 365 311 189 154

The attendance data for language is shown using the Conwy Schools Language categories:

School by language category Number of children Welsh Medium 249 Dual Medium 59 Transitional: Welsh medium with significant use of English 0

130 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 English Predominantly English with significant use of Welsh 328 Predominantly English medium 450

Weekly attendance profile of children attending provision funded by childcare providers: . The weekly attendance figures appeared to show little variance from one day to another. There appears to be fewer children attending on Fridays.

Number of childcare places filled, required and available . The number of childcare places required appears to be sufficient. Of the providers who completed the SASS the total number of registered childcare places was 748. However the number allocated to those qualifying for the Early Education funding would entirely depend on the cohort of children falling into that category at any one time. The Early Education team has not reported that any setting have not been able to accommodate an Early Education place thus far. . The number of childcare places funded in childcare is 303 for the Spring Term 2016 and 534 for the Summer Term 2016.

Note: the number of childcare places available according to the number of settings supported by the Early Years Education Team is 1526.

. Number of parents not claiming their free entitlement and reasoning. Also the Childcare required by parents to enable them to claim their full entitlement

The feedback from the parent survey appeared to show that many parents required further information regarding the scheme. Although some of these parents may not have children who fall within the remit of the scheme and their children may access their Early Education in maintained school settings. Of the 53 responses to the question of “If you have children aged 3 - 4 do you take up the entitlement?” - 19% said they didn’t know and 17% said they didn’t take it up. 57% said they did take up the offer and only 8% said it wasn’t applicable.

Of the 26 parents who answered the question of why they did not take up the entitlement, 54% said they didn’t know about it; 31% said their child was already in full time education; 4% said the timings didn’t meet their needs and the remaining 12% said Other.

Feedback from parents and carers via the FIS has shown parents are keen to take up the offer. However the feedback has been negative on two counts: 1. That settings are now charging a top up fee to cover childcare costs for the Early Years Education scheme is unfair and confusing. However the feedback from settings is, that as the funding to deliver the scheme has not increased since the scheme began, they cannot remain sustainable without charging a fee, since their own costs have continued to increase Several settings have expressed concern regarding continuing to deliver on the scheme without additional funding.

131 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 2. Complicated childcare arrangements whereby a child may attend a childcare provider on a full daycare basis but may need to attend a different setting to access the Early Education scheme at a sessional setting, thus paying a full daycare rate and a top up fee for the sessional setting. Of the 24 parents who answered this section of the survey all said they would need some form of additional childcare in order for them to take up an Early Education place.

8.2 Summary of key strengths and weaknesses

Strengths: . The capacity within Conwy childcare settings appears on the whole to be sufficient for the scheme.

Weaknesses: . Parents did not fully understand or know about the scheme. . Additional costs to parents. . Additional demands on settings. . No increase in funding to settings since the scheme began.

8.3. Analysis of Flying Start Provision

In Conwy, Flying Start is only operational in three of the five areas; Area 2, Creuddyn; Area 3 Coastal Central and Area 4 Coastal East. According to the SASS the number of Childcare providers who are funded to provide Flying Start places is 23. Of these 23 settings, 14 are Full Day / Nursery providers and 9 are Sessional Day care providers. No Childminders responded to say that they were funded to provide Flying Start places. However the local Flying Start team have reported that there are 26 settings who are funded to provide Flying Start places plus one Childminder. There is one other setting which is located outside the Flying Start area where 1 child is currently being funded to attend this setting as the family are receiving Flying Start outreach services. The setting doesn’t receive any training or resources from Flying Start. For the purpose of this template the analysis has been done based on the figures from the SASS. Number of childcare providers funded to provide Flying Start The charts below show the number of providers funded to provide Flying Start by geographical area.

132 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Full Day care

Number of Full day care settings funded to provide Flying Start by area

7 6

Area 2 Creuddyn Area 3 Coastal Central Area 4

133 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Sessional Day care

Number of Sessional Day care settings funded to provide Flying Start by area

2 3

Area 2 Creuddyn Area 3 Coastal Central Area 4

134 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 The charts below show the number of providers funded to provide Flying Start by language type Full Day care

Number of Full Daycare settings funded to provide Flying Start by language

2 1 1

Welsh Welsh & English English & some bilingual elements English

135 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Sessional Day care

Number of Sessional Daycare settings funded to provide Flying Start by language

1 2

Welsh Welsh & English English & some bilingual elements English

There are no Flying Start only settings in Conwy. Weekly attendance Profile of Flying Start places. Further information about the breakdown of weekly attendance is available in Annex 11. From the SASS it is evident that most of the Flying Start provision is available in the morning. Consequently if no children attend in the afternoon, or no children attend a particular language setting no figures are given in the following summary. Geographical breakdown Creuddyn ‘Welsh and English’ – 10 children attend each morning; ‘English and some bilingual elements’ – the average morning attendance figure is 49 and afternoon, 33. ‘English’ – 10 children attend each morning

136 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Coastal West ‘Welsh’ – 7 children attend each morning and 4 children every afternoon. ‘Welsh and English’ – 4 children attend each morning Monday to Friday. ‘English and some bilingual elements’ – The average morning attendance figure is 37 and afternoon, 23.

Coastal East ‘Welsh’ – 11 children attend each morning ‘English’ – The average morning attendance is 14 and afternoon, 10

Language Breakdown

Across the three Flying Start areas the number of children attending each language setting type is as follows:

Welsh setting A total of 18 children attend each morning and 4 each afternoon.

Welsh and English settings A total of 4 children attend Monday – Thursday

English and some bilingual elements settings An average of 43 children attend each morning and 57 each afternoon.

English settings An average of 27 children attend each morning and 10 each afternoon.

Number of parents living in Flying Start accessing free childcare Certain tables in relation to the take up of Flying Start places in Annex 11 have not been completed due to the low return of the Parent Survey. From the results there was insufficient information to form a significant analysis. However the table below shows the information which was acquired from the returns received. Of the 6 people who said that they lived in a Flying Start area, 3 said that they accessed Childcare and 3 said that they didn’t. The reason that these 3 gave for not accessing it was ‘Other’.

137 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Do you have a child aged 2 and do you live in a flying start area?

Don't Know 16 53% No 8 27% Yes 6 20% Grand Total 30 100%

If Yes, do you access free childcare?

Yes 3 50% No 3 50%

If your child does not access free childcare through Flying Start, why is this?

Other 3 100%

Number of places filled and required According to the SASS the average number of places required for morning sessions are 145 and for afternoon sessions, 70. However the figures provided by Conwy Flying Start team (see table below) show that only 102 children have taken up the full childcare offer. These figures cannot be compared. The Childcare providers were asked to give a profile of attendance of their funded places and it could be that they have given figures for both their Flying Start attendance figures and their Early Years part time Education figures, as they are both funded places. Number of parents not accessing free Childcare Conwy’s Flying Start team were able to give the following figures for their take up rate from April to August 2016:

Number of children eligible for childcare in the period 118 Number of children offered a full offer of childcare in the period 118 Number of children taking up full offer of childcare 102 Number of children taking up reduced offer of childcare 2

138 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 This gives a percentage take up of 88.1% overall, or 86.4% if only the children who take up the full offer are considered. When speaking to Conwy’s Flying Start team they said that the reasons that parents gave for not taking up the offer included: . They feel that their child is not old enough / ready to start childcare. . The child is already settled in a non-Flying Start setting and they wish to continue with that provision.

8.4. Summary of key strengths and weaknesses

The strength of the Flying Start initiative is that it offers childcare for all 2 year olds within the post coded Flying Start areas. However this in itself is a weakness as it is not a universal service open to all families throughout Conwy and to children of all ages. FIS reports many enquiries from families who would benefit from the Flying Start initiative but unfortunately do not live in the appropriate postcode area. Concerns have also been expressed that additional Flying Start activities aren’t full and those families who aren’t eligible could benefit in taking up these vacant places.

9 Free Breakfast Club Provision

9.1. Analysis of Free Breakfast Club Provision

Area 1 Coastal West Ward School Number of children attending Bryn Pant y Rhedyn 42 Capelulo Capelulo 34 Pandy Babanod Llanfairfechan 40 Pant-yr-Afon/Penmaenan Pencae 38 Total 4 154

Area 2 Creuddyn Ward School Number of children attending Conwy Gyffin Education Centre 5 Porth y Felin 68 Craig-y-Don Bodafon 42

139 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017

Craig y Don 78 Y Gogarth 34 Deganwy Deganwy 69 Gogarth San Sior 41 Llansanffraid Glan Conwy 44 Marl Awel y Mynydd Infants 58 (Nant y Coed) Awel y Mynydd Juniors 74 (Maelgwn) Mostyn Ffordd Dyffryn 47 Tudno 69 Penrhyn Glanwydden 55 Pensarn No schools in this ward 0 Tudno Blessed William Davies 39 Morfa Rhianedd 40 Total 15 763 Area 3 Coastal Central Ward School Number of Children attending Colwyn No schools in this ward 0 Eirias Babanod T Gwynn Jones 46 Iau Hen Golwyn 78 Glyn Bod Alaw 93 Nant y Groes 63 Llandrillo yn Rhos Llandrillo yn Rhos (Infants) 41 Llandrillo yn Rhos (Juniors) 76 Llysfaen Cynfran 60 Swn y Don 72 Mochdre Babanod Mochdre 24 Cystennin 33 Rhiw Pen y Bryn 153

140 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017

St Joseph 0 TOTAL 11 739

Area 4 Coastal East Ward School Number of Children attending Abergele/Pensarn No schools in this ward 0 Gele St George Controlled 27 Kinmel Bay Babanod y Foryd 28 Maes Owen 68 Llanddulas Llanddulas 79 Pentre Mawr Glan Gele 59 Glan Morfa No provision Iau St Elfod 65 Towyn No schools in this ward 0 TOTAL 6 326

Area 5 Rural Ward School Number of children attending Betws y Coed Betws y Coed 14 Dolwyddelan 18 Betws yn Rhos Betws yn Rhos 0 Talhaiarn 15 Y Plas 20 Caerhun Dolgarrog 22 Llangelynnin 25 Tal y Bont 15 Crwst Bro Gwydir 56 Eglwysbach Eglwysbach 28 Llanddoged 11 Gower No schools in this ward N/A Llangernyw Bro Cernyw 37

141 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017

Pentrefoelas 22 Llansannan Bro Aled Llansannan 18 Llannefydd 7 Trefriw Trefriw 0 Uwch Conwy Capel Garmon 11 Penmachno 21 Ysbyty Ifan 12 Uwchaled Cerrigydrudion 20 TOTAL 18 372

Average Number of Children attending in September 2016 – 2354 Total Number of Settings - 54

10. Working Tax Credit / Universal Credit and Employer Supported Childcare / Tax Free Childcare

10.1. Analysis of Working Tax Credit / Universal Credit and Employer Supported Childcare/ Tax Free Childcare

Annex 12 has not been completed due to the low return of the parent survey. From the results there was insufficient information to form a significant analysis. However the tables below show the information which was acquired from the returns received.

Do you claim the Childcare Element of Working Tax / Universal Credit?

No 143 Not applicable 33 Yes 25 Grand total 201

142 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Do you intend to claim the childcare element?

Do you intend to claim the Childcare Element of Working Tax 1 No 127 Unsure 50 Yes 25 Grand total 203

If you do not intend to claim the Childcare Element of the Working Tax Credit / Universal Credit, which of these statements apply to you?

No. % I do not know about the Childcare Element of the Working Tax Credit / Universal Credit 23 13% I know that I am not eligible 101 56% I am unsure whether I am eligible 47 26% I choose not to claim it 1 1% I find the process too complicated 9 5% I haven’t the time to claim it 2 1% I cannot get the information or advice I need to complete my claim (please contact your local Family Information Services for assistance) 2 1% My circumstances change too often to enable me to claim easily 3 2% I do not pay for the childcare that I use 14 8% Setting not registered / Nannies not approved under Welsh Government’s Voluntary Approval Scheme 1 1% Other 13 7%

143 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Do you claim Tax free Childcare or receive assistance through an Employer supported scheme?

No 162 81% Yes 39 19% Grand total 201

Do you receive any other help towards the cost of childcare?

No financial help received 110 Not applicable 64 Grand total 174

Additionally as shown in Section 4 Population (above) HMRC have published a useful indicator which shows the number of families who are claiming tax credits. There are around 14,100 children in Conwy County Borough living in families that receive Tax Credits to help supplement their wages or benefit income. This is around 65% of all children, which compares to a GB figure of 59%. The majority of these children (9635) are in families that are in work but on low incomes and for this measure the rate is significantly higher than the GB level; 44% of all children compared to the GB figure of 39%.

According to HMRC statistics there are 4,615 children in Conwy County Borough who are living in poverty. This is 21% of all children in families which are eligible for Child Benefit and is above the average GB rate of 19%. The wards of Tudno (Area 2 Creuddyn), Glyn (Area 3 Coastal Central), Kinmel Bay (Area 4 Coastal East) and Llysfaen (Area 3 Coastal Central) all have more than 250 children living in poverty.

Although the number of returns from the parent questionnaires was comparatively low there were some strong feelings expressed around Tax Credits. For example:

‘We use parents or friends as to access childcare provision is unaffordable on current wage i would be working for free with no roof over our heads because of cost it’s a ripoff and the element in tax credits is an utterly useless amount wouldn’t cover a weeks fees for my children.’ ‘Childcare is very expensive. I lose over two thirds of my wages in childcare. Tax credits are a con, I tell them of changes to my circumstance on time and yet still owe them thousands!!’

144 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 ‘One parent said that she had been eligible for Tax Credits but was no longer so, but found it very difficult to manage due to the high Childcare costs.’

10.2. Summary of key strengths and weaknesses

Strengths:

. Parents below a certain income are receiving help towards their childcare costs. . Tax free childcare is a welcome addition for working parents.

Weaknesses:

. Employer supported childcare vouchers are offered by very few employers. One employer in Conwy who employs 6200 staff only has 162 staff members who utilise their voucher scheme. . People do not know about the Childcare Element of the Working Tax Credit. . People are unsure if they are eligible. . Parents find the process too complicated and have experienced difficulties in the past.

11. Sustainability

The Assessment gives consideration to the sustainability of the childcare market, including any factors which have affected the sustainability of existing childcare providers. The following factors have been considered:

. Direct grants / funding for childcare Providers . Funding channelled to parents, as users of childcare (Working Tax Credit, Universal Credit, employer supported childcare, Tax-free Childcare) . CSSIW de-registrations

Childcare providers in Conwy County Borough are offered either a free or subsidised training programme via the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership (EYDCP). Pressure for places on the compulsory courses such as Paediatric First Aid, Basic Food Hygiene and Child Protection is high but it goes some way to support those settings who have little or no training budget as shown by the data collected by the ‘Cwlwm’ consortium.

145 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Training: 2015 - 16 2016 - 17 Total number of settings who don’t have a training 81% 80% budget Total number of staff who are not paid to attend 36% 36% training Total number of staff who are sometimes paid to 20% 0% attend training

Data Source: Cwlwm - Childcare and Early Years Workforce Survey 2016

Conwy County Borough Council is currently able to support the Conwy Early Years Forum which is a voluntary organisation which provides a mobile Toy Library for childcare providers who are members. This provides a supply of quality toys which can be ordered beforehand to suit the themes followed by the providers.

Other projects which enable providers to offer places to children where there may be a barrier to them accessing childcare are:

. Extra Hands – subsidised 1:1 support for children with an additional need within an Out of School setting. . Conwy Pre-school Referral Scheme – subsidised 1:1 support for children with additional needs within a pre-school setting. . Assisted places scheme – can pay a portion of a childcare place for parents who meet particular criteria. . Employment and Skills support projects such as PaCE which can offer financial support to parents in the short term while seeking work or training.

Parents can be supported to pay for childcare by:

. Employers Childcare Voucher scheme – Conwy County Borough Council operates such a scheme for its staff. . Childcare Element of Working Tax Credit (see section 10 above) . Flying Start and Foundation Phase funding is dealt with in section 8 above. Both schemes have strengths and weaknesses with increased responsibilities and requirements placed on providers.

A questionnaire was sent to all childcare providers asking a series of questions including a question on sustainability and the expansion of services. The results were a mixed response and were as follows:

146 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Question 1: What type of childcare provider are you?

Childminder 5 Day Nursery 0 Playgroup 4 Cylch Meithrin 1 After School Club 1 TOTAL 11

Question 2: Do you have any concern regarding your sustainability in the long / short term? Of the 11 providers who responded 5 said they had concerns and 5 said they didn’t.

The providers were asked to expand on this answer and the responses were as follows:

‘Although I don't have any immediate concerns, situations can change quite quickly in childminding. By its very nature, childminding is unsecure in that the circumstances of the families of the children we care for can change meaning that they no longer require childcare. It is easier to predict when children will leave for school, etc. Although it is up to us to maintain a profile and advertise, we rely upon word of mouth in order to maintain numbers.’ ‘Local school has a free breakfast club. New 30 hours free funding.’ ‘Does dime cefnogaeth gen Mudiad. Does dim arian yn dod i fewn i dalu cyflogau. Does dim gweithwyr Cymraeg eisio yr oriau sydd ar gael. Does dim cefnogaeth gen y Sir i dalu am plenty ag anghenion sydd o Sir Ddinbych. Methu dealt sut fod Sir Conwy dal i dalu yr un ffi am blant tair oed am ambell o flwyddyn rwan.’ ‘Yes lack of increase in 3yr funding cannot fail to impact on level of provision offered add that to increase in national living wage , pension provision and now 30 hour provision we are under threat.’ ‘There are concerns over sustainability. Our outgoing costs are ever increasing eg staff wages (inline with the increasing Living wage, pensions etc), also utilities, rent, resources are to name but a few. There is a limit to the amount we can raise fee prices, considering the area that we live in. The ever increasing amount of paperwork required for the running of the group takes the Leader out of the setting, which then requires either paying another member of staff or the Leader to complete paperwork in own time. Our sustainability grant hasn't been raised for a number of years inline with other rising costs of running a Playgroup.’

147 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Question 3: Do you have plans to extend or review your service in the next 12 months? Of the 11 providers who responded 2 answered yes and 9 answered no.

These were the comments received:

‘A proposed house move will allow me to make slight changes in my working practices but numbers won't increase and the age range of children cared for will remain the same.’ ‘Mae’r Cylch yn bendant am gau sessiwn prynhawn flwyddyn nesaf os mae y niferoedd yr un peth ar flwyddyn yma’ ‘Continue to open in both mornings and afternoons.’ ‘Not especially. We react to demand year on year.’ ‘We do not plan to increase the age range of the children that we care for over the next 12 months. Some 2.5 year olds can be very immature, this can have an effect on the group as a whole - taking into account when planning for expected outcomes of activities. Some children are not emotionally ready to leave parents, considering the care side, nappies etc - looking at the bigger picture - would require staff to be 1:1 with children younger than 2.5. We are allowed to take 26 children in our unit, we usually don't have more than 23 in on any one day.’ Question 4: What developments would you like to see locally in the next 5 years to support your business?

These were the responses received:

‘I would like to see the profile of childminders and childminding raised. More often than not, parents looking for childcare will look at nurseries in the first instance as there is little understanding about what home based childcare is and what childminders do. Parents don't always know where to look for childminders unless they know people who already use a childminder. I don't find the childcare directory online easy to navigate either.’ ‘More training.’ ‘Not sure.’ ‘None.’ ‘Grants for existing Childminders. A network for Childminders similar to the old NCMA one.’ ‘Cefnogaeth ariannol i ddatblygu pob plentyn o cefndir gwahanol. Cylch Ti a i fod yn llwyddiannus unwaith eto.’

148 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 ‘Unsure.’ ‘Flying Start area to increase together with funding - we have the facilities to offer placements to more children and there are areas in our vicinity that we feel should be flying start and more children would benefit.’ ‘Increase in 3 yr funding to match flying start funding. Offer training jointly to maintained and non-maintained early years sector to raise standing of non-maintained with maintained. As both sectors Estyn inspected.’ ‘I would like the LEA to take more responsibility for Playgroups, including the financial side. There has been ever-growing expectations from LEA / Estyn for the Early Years within Playgroups and I feel that a committee being responsible for a Playgroup is a little old-fashioned, considering all the changes that have taken place over recent years. Committee members try their best, but often, lack understanding of what is required in the running of Playgroups (taking into account children and their learning, management and staff issues etc). Parents are often very busy with their job responsibilities, families etc, therefore it is difficult for them to give their time for meetings, Treasury responsibilities, Secretary roles, fundraising etc.’ ‘A support worker for childminders.’

Changes in supply of registered childcare.

Due to the large number of de-registrations it was felt that it was important not only to report on the figures from the previous CSA review but also the figures since the SASS was completed. The number of changes in registrations are:

New - 1 new Childminder registration in Area 2 Creuddyn with an additional 5 places. De-registered - 9 Childminders have ceased operating – 1 within Area 1 Coastal West – 9 places; 2 within Area 2 Creuddyn – 12 places; 2 in Area 3 Coastal Central - 7 places and 4 in Area 4 Coastal East - 24 places. 1 Out of School Club has closed in Area 1 Coastal West with the loss of 19 places.

The retention of current providers, particularly childminders appears to be an issue. Reasons given for de-registering varied from late payment of fees by parents and increased demands from parents making last minute changes to times when they required the childcare. This unpredictability leads to bad feeling and a lack of consistency in income for the Childminders. Other reasons were that more parents are asking for part-time childcare and using family and friends for the remainder of the time.

The Conwy Childcare Development Team report that while several prospective Childminders attend briefing sessions, they do not necessarily follow through the various stages to become registered.

149 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Sustainability in rural areas: Consultation was carried out with schools. One school commented on the closure of an after school club which had been run by a private provider on the school site. The club had now closed due to parents finding the provision expensive and consequently leading to a lack of demand. Parents are now making arrangements between themselves to pick the children up from school – see comment below:

‘roedd clwb yma yn yr ysgol, oedd yn cael ei redeg gan feithrinfa xxxxxx, ond oherwydd y gost doedd dim digon o blant yn mynychu i gario ymlaen. Pan ddaru’r clwb gau roedd yn anodd i’r rhieni oedd yn defnyddio’r clwb, ond rŵan mae rhieni yn gwarchod plant ei gilydd ac yn gofyn i aelodau teulu gasglu’r plant o’r ysgol.’ This highlights the issue of sustainability of childcare in the rural area where the numbers of those attending may be lower than in the more densely populated areas of the County.

This is echoed in some of the comments received from the consultation carried out with the childcare umbrella organisations:

‘In the areas of the county where there is no provision it is down to lack of demand and the rural nature of the area.’

Sustainability due to low incomes and increased costs:

The consultation with stakeholders’ particularly childcare umbrella bodies highlighted some areas of concern.

The proposed introduction of the 30 hour a week childcare offer may well influence the number of those wishing to access childcare, although a cautionary note was expressed by one umbrella body:

‘Those working less than 16 hours may be helped by providers charging hourly rates but this may not be practical for all providers as it may threaten sustainability.'

Another commented that there are two elements at work regarding sustainability, one that the provision appears expensive to parents who may be on low incomes but that running a setting may involve raising money to ensure the setting stays open:

. Fforddiadwyedd – mae dau ddarlun – dryd i rieni ond hefyd mor rhad fel nad yw hi bron iawn yn bodib rhedeg fel busnes hyfyw heb godi arain fel elusen. (Mudiad Meithrin) . NDNA’s Wales Annual Nursery Survey 2016 stated “Childcare providers in Wales are struggling to stay in business due to increasing costs and fewer children taking up places.” They state that “Business costs are rising – particularly with the National Living Wage in April set to result in a 13% rise in pay roll costs. Meanwhile, numbers of children attending have dipped to 67% occupancy on average, compared with 69% last year, due to more children starting school at three and unavoidable fee increases making childcare less

150 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 affordable for parents. A total of 23% of the 115 respondents representing 18% of all full Daycare for under eights in Wales said they had very little business confidence. Fewer Nurseries reported to be confident, just 41% compared with 60% last year. (NDNA) . PACEY Cymru requested that Conwy continues to promote to families the importance of using registered Childcare. This in turn will support the sustainability of existing childcare, the problems of which have been highlighted in the PACEY report “Childminder De- registrations in Wales” - February 2017.

Parental feedback – see comments in Appendix 1

The feedback from parents also highlighted some issues which may affect the sustainability of childcare provision and some were critical of tax incentives for working parents:

. Cost appeared to be a huge barrier to regular use of full time childcare (see Section 7 above – Barriers). Parents frequently mentioned using family and friends where possible. This can leads providers to increase their fees to make up the shortfall which then in turn further discourages use of registered childcare:

‘The cost of childcare is unsustainable and need addressing by the Government, the offer of 30 hours free for aged 3-4 is not fair, this funding should be spread evenly across all age groups pre full time school.’ ‘The nursery we use has hiked its prices from £38 to £42.99 within a 12 month period.’ . Some provision is clearly struggling to be sustainable as they only open when there is a demand:

‘The local holiday club only offers Tues, Wed and Thurs *if* there is sufficient demand. My work is full time in holidays so Mondays and Fridays become complicated.” This has a cyclical effect of uncertainty for both parent and provider’ . Parents themselves are also aware of the challenges faced in rural areas:

‘Living in a rural area it can be very difficult to find childcare within the area. We were lucky enough to have a local nursery which my children attended before they started at school full time. We now use the breakfast club and after school club but as it is a small school with only approx 55 children on role and only approx 8 children attending the after school club it is always a worry as to whether the after school club will remain open. If the after school club was to close then we would have to move the children to another school outside of their local community…’

151 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . Parents seemed to highlight the sustainability of holiday care:

‘…..Due to the lack of funding the Clwb is not open during all school holidays and some for the odd amount of days. For example, in the summer they were only open for four of the six weeks and they weren't open during the October holidays. If the clwb could be funded by Conwy somewhat then maybe they could provide more consistency for the children and parents…..’

12. Cross Border

Parents were also asked as part of the Parent Survey whether they used childcare outside the Authority both during term time and school holidays. There were very few responses. All childcare providers in Conwy were asked whether they currently cared for any children outside Conwy, whether they had been asked to provide care for children outside CCBC and whether they had any children from outside CCBC on their waiting lists. Current and future demand for childcare outside of Conwy Of the 201 parents who completed the Parent Survey, two responded to say that they used Childcare in Gwynedd during term time (1% of total number of respondents) and these two parents and one other responded to say that they used childcare in Gwynedd during holiday time as well. (2%) Five parents said that they used a mixture of Childcare – both within Conwy and outside Conwy during term time (2%) and 9 parents said that they used a mixture of both during the school holidays (5%) Gwynedd Childcare Team reported that 14 children who live in Conwy use childcare in Gwynedd. The breakdown of childcare type is detailed below.

Nurseries Childminders Cylch Meithrin / Total Playgroup 11 1 2 14

When the location of the individual settings was analysed it was discovered that they were all in the Bangor area in close proximity to the University, Ysbyty Gwynedd and Parc Menai, a local business park which is home to over 80 businesses.

Similar statistics were not available from Denbighshire.

152 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Current and future demand for childcare within Conwy by parents living outside the Local area From research undertaken it is known that one Childminder in Conwy has two children from Denbighshire. They have been asked to provide care for another and this child is currently on the waiting list. The four Day Nurseries on the eastern and western borders of the county all said that they cared for children outside of Conwy to a greater or lesser degree. One in the East said that of the 150 children they cared for the vast majority were from outside the County whereas the other Day Nursery in the same town said that they only had ten children from outside of the County, which was a small proportion of their numbers. Another Day Nursery said that they wouldn’t be able to stay open if it wasn’t for children out of the County. They had over 40 children from two neighbouring authorities which was a very high proportion of their numbers. They had all received enquiries from outside the Authority but none of them had a waiting list. A Cylch Meithrin reported that they had one child from Denbighshire attending their Cylch. A Cylch Meithrin and Playgroup on the western borders both reported that they currently had no children from outside Conwy attending their sessions although one of them had, had enquiries. The geography is quite different in the East of the County to the West. In the East, the County line is very near to the town of Rhyl whereas in the West, the area abutting the County line is more rural. From the information gathered it appears that there is very little use of Childcare providers outside the local Authority by Conwy families whereas there seems more use of Childcare providers within Conwy by families from other authorities. 13. Workforce Development

This section is an assessment of existing childcare workforce qualifications and training needs across the childcare types with the aim of informing Conwy’s workforce development and training programme. Consideration has been given to the training requirements in respect of the National Minimum Standards for Regulated Childcare (NMS).

The Workforce Development and Training part of SASS contained information on the qualifications held by 479 professionals within the Childcare field in Conwy. The collated information can be seen in Annex 13. In analysing the information, consideration has been given to the ‘List of Required Qualifications to work within the Early Years and Childcare sector in Wales’ produced by the Care Council for Wales and to the qualification requirements in respect of the National Minimum Standards (NMS) required by CSSIW for service regulation. The NMS requires that childminders have successfully completed an appropriate pre-registration course; 13.2 (CM)

153 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 In regard to Day care (DC) providers the National Minimum Standards require the following qualifications recognised on the Care Council for Wales’ current list of Accepted Qualifications for the Early Years and Childcare Workforce in Wales or Skills Active’s Integrated Qualification Framework for Play work (or any lists which supersede them), which is appropriate to the post. These are listed below;

13.6(DC) the person in charge has at least a level 3 qualification.

13.7(DC) (a) at least 50% of the non-supervisory staff holds a qualification at least at level 2. At least half of these have a qualification at level 3

13.7(DC) (b) for full day care at least 80% of the non-supervisory staff holds a qualification at least at level 2. At least half of these have a qualification at level 3;

The Childcare providers were asked to give their highest Level of qualification on the SASS. Very few of them answered the question asking which list the qualification appeared on. As a consequence most of the information recorded on Annex 13 has been included under the Awarding body ‘Other’ Many of the Childcare providers responded by saying that the next qualification they were working towards was lower than their highest level of qualification. Due to the layout of the Annex it is impossible to track each Childcare provider individually via the Annex. Doing this by the SASS would be possible but it would be a very time consuming task. When completing the SASS the Childcare providers had the choice of ‘Not specified’ and ‘None’ in some of the drop down lists. Having analysed the information, it appears that there could also be some confusion about the use of the ‘Not specified’ and the ‘None’ drop down lists. For ease, for the purpose of this template all Childminders discussed in the Childminder section will be referred to as Childminders rather than Childcare Practitioner or Registered Individual (RI) / Registered Practitioner (RP) / Director / Owner or Leader / Manager / Supervisor. Only ‘Relative / Living at’ will be identified separately. Also for ease, for the purpose of this template the following terms will be used in the sections on Full Day Care, Sessional Day Care and Out of School Care. ‘Childcare Practitioners’ will be referred to as such. Whereas ‘RI / RP/ Director / Owner’ will be referred to as the ‘Responsible Individual’ and ‘Leader / Manager / Supervisor’ will be referred to as ‘Leader’.

154 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Childminders This section was completed by 48 Childminders and their relatives. It is a requirement for Registration that all Registered Childminders complete the CYPOP 5 – Understand how to set up a home based Childcare service. Past qualifications that are accepted for regulation are Certificate in Childminding Practice, Diploma in Childminding Practice and Diploma in Home based Child Care (Level 3). A suggested work based qualification for career progression and continuing professional development is the Level 3 Diploma in Children’s Care Learning and Development (Wales and Ireland) QCF and Level 5: Development in Leadership for Children’s Care, Learning and Development Services (Advanced practices) * Source: List of Required Qualifications to work within the Early Years and Childcare sector in Wales’ – Care Council for Wales. In analysing the SASS results it appears that Childminders were unable to record information about the CYPOP 5. The following information is a summary of the Childminders qualifications. Bearing in mind this possible confusion, the highest qualification on the SASS was a Level 6, with 2 Childminders having a level 6. One of these Childminders was working towards a level 7 and the other currently wasn’t working towards anything. One of the 10 Childminders who have a level 5 was also working towards a level 6. The highest level that most Childminders had was a level 3. It is not clear whether this is a full level 3 or whether it is one unit of a level 3, namely the CYPOP 5. 19 Childminders had a level 3 and of these 3 were working towards a level 5, 1 was working towards a level 4 and 4 were working towards a level 3. In total 35 Childminders held a level 3 or higher and 2 more held a level 2. Of the 37 Childminders who supplied specific information on their highest qualification, 16 of them were demonstrating continuous development by working towards the next qualification. (43%) However this figure is likely to be much higher as 7 (14.6%) of the Childminders did not specify their highest qualification, so when they gave the level of the next qualification it was difficult to know whether they were working to a higher level or not. Two more Childminders answered the question about their highest qualification by saying ‘None’. Information was given about one ‘Relative’. The information that was completed was ‘None’ Full Day Care This section was completed on behalf of 317 Full Day staff. 278 had given details of their highest level of qualification. Of these the highest qualification was a Level 7 with one Childcare Practitioner, 1 Leader and 1 Responsible Individual having a Level 7.

155 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 9 Childcare providers had a level 6. Of these 6 were Childcare Practitioners. 2 were Leaders and 1 hadn’t specified their position. According to the information that had been supplied for next highest qualification, none of them were working towards a higher level. Again the highest level that most Full Day care providers had was a Level 3. Of these 120 were Childcare Practitioners, 39 were leaders, 1 was a Responsible Individual and 11 had not specified their position. Of the Childcare Practitioners 12 were working towards a higher level, but 35 had not specified what level they were working to. Of the 39 leaders, 11 were working to a higher level (level 5) but 10 had not specified what level there were working to. This was the same for those who hadn’t specified their highest qualification. In regard to the NMS, 227 staff held a level 3 or higher. Of these 227 staff, 72 have answered that they are leaders, 3 they are Registered Individuals and 135 are Childcare Practitioners. Another 17 have not specified their position. These figures appear to be in keeping with the NMS however it is hard to know whether all these Childcare Practitioners are non-supervisory staff or whether some of them are the ‘responsible person’. It was interesting to look at the figures for staff who had a level 2. Out of the 49, 39 were Childcare practitioners and 3 were leaders. 34 were working towards a higher qualification (69.4%) compared to 13.5% of those who held a level 3. Obviously this does not take into account those who have not specified their highest qualification or the next qualification that they are working towards. This would be in line with 13.7 (DC) (b) of the NMS which requires at least 80% of the non –supervisory staff to hold a qualification at level 2 and at least half of these to have a level 3. Only 2 said that they had a level one, 30 didn’t specify and 9 said none. This means that 87. 7% of the staff who completed the SASS had level 2 or higher and 71.6% had level 3 or higher. These calculations are based on the total figure of 317 day care staff and as those who haven’t specified their highest qualification have been included in the calculation the figures indeed could be higher. Of the 317 Full Day care staff who supplied specific information on their highest qualification, 74 of them were showing continuous development by working towards the next qualification. (23%) However again this figure could be higher as 30 (9.46%) of the Full day care staff did not specify their highest qualification, so when they gave the level of the next qualification it was difficult to know whether they were working to a higher level or not. Nine more Full day care staff answered the question about their highest qualification by saying ‘None’ It would be interesting to know whether staff were already working towards higher qualifications in line with the new NMS regulations which came into force on the 1st April 2016 which extended the age limit for registration of childcare in Wales from 8 years to 12 years. Standard 13.6 13. 7 (DC) states that for those settings looking after children aged between 8 and 12, a lead time of between 3 – 5 years will be provided to enable the person in charge / practitioners to achieve any required qualifications for working with older children.

156 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Sessional Day care This section was completed on behalf of 126 Sessional Day staff. 114 had given details of their highest level of qualification Of these the highest qualification was a Level 7 with one Childcare Practitioner, who stated that they were currently working towards a level 5. 5 Childcare Practitioners and 1 Leader had a Level 6 and 9 Leaders and 1 Registered Individual had a Level 5. Once again more Sessional Day care workers had a Level 3, than any other level. 42 Childcare Practitioners had a Level 3 and 29 Leaders. Of these, 8 Childcare Practitioners and 8 Leaders were working towards a higher level although another 11 Practitioners and another 8 Leaders hadn’t specified what level they were working towards. In regard to the NMS, 97 staff held a level 3 or higher. Of these 97 staff, 46 have answered that they are leaders, 1 is a Registered Individual and 50 are Childcare Practitioners. These figures appear to be in keeping with the NMS however once again it is hard to know whether all these Childcare Practitioners are non-supervisory staff or whether some of them are the ‘responsible person’. It was interesting again to look at the figures for staff who had a level 2. Out of the 16, 11 were working towards a higher qualification (68.8%) compared to 22.5% of those who held a level 3. Obviously this does not take into account those who have not specified their highest qualification or the next qualification that they are working towards. This would be in line with 13.7 (DC) (b) of the NMS which requires at least 50% of the non –supervisory staff to hold a qualification at level 2 and at least half of these to have a level 3. There were no level 1’s, 8 didn’t specify and 4 said none. This means that 90.5% of the staff who completed the SASS had level 2 or higher and 77% had level 3 or higher. These calculations are based on the total figure of 126 Sessional Day care staff and as those who haven’t specified their highest qualification have been included in the calculation the figures indeed could be higher. Of the 126 Sessional day care staff who supplied specific information on their highest qualification, 31 of them were showing continuous development by working towards their next qualification, (24.6%). In the case of Sessional Day care staff 8 hadn’t specified their highest level of qualification (6.3%), so once again it was difficult to know whether they were working to a higher level or not. Only 2 Childcare Practitioners answered the question about their highest qualification by saying ‘none’. Out of School Care This section was completed on behalf of 89 Out of School Care staff. 74 had given details of their highest level of qualification. Of these the highest qualification was a level 7 with 1 Childcare Practitioner and 1 Childcare professional who didn’t specify their position having level 7s. 1 Childcare Practitioner and 2 Leaders had a level 6 and 1 Childcare Practitioner and 2 Leaders had a level 5.

157 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 It has become evident whilst completing this template that Level 3 is the qualification held by most childcare providers. Of the Out of School Care staff, 21 Childcare Practitioners have a level 3, 13 Leaders, 1 Registered Individual and 4 who didn’t specify their position – giving a total of 39 Out of School care workers. Of the Childcare Practitioners only one was working towards a higher qualification although 3 had not specified what qualification they were working towards. Of the Leaders, 2 were working towards a higher qualification but 3 had not specified. In regard to the NMS, 73 staff held a level 3 or higher. Of these 73 staff, 23 have answered that they are leaders, 1 is a Registered Individual, 43 are Childcare Practitioners and 6 have not specified. These figures appear to be keeping with the NMS however as outlined above it is hard to know whether all these Childcare Practitioners are non-supervisory staff or whether some of them are the ‘responsible person’. It was interesting to look at the figures for staff who had a level 2. Out of the 17, 5 were working towards a higher qualification (29%) compared to 17.6% of those who held a level 3. Obviously this does not take into account those who have not specified their highest qualification or the next qualification that they are working towards. This would be in line with 13.7 (DC) (b) of the NMS which requires at least 50% of the non –supervisory staff to hold a qualification at level 2 and at least half of these to have a level 3. There was one level 1, 10 didn’t specify and 5 said none. This means that 82% of the staff who completed the SASS had level 2 or higher and 61.8% had level 3 or higher. These calculations are based on the total figure of 89 Out of School care staff and as those who haven’t specified their highest qualification have been included in the calculation the figures indeed could be higher. Of the 89 Out of School Care staff who supplied specific information on their highest qualification, 12 of them were showing continuous development by working towards their next qualification. (13.5%) In the case of Out of School Care staff, 10 hadn’t specified their highest level of qualification (11.2%), so once again it was difficult to know whether they were working to a higher level or not. 5 Childcare Practitioners answered the question about their highest qualification by saying ‘none’, but of these 3 were working towards level 2. Once again it would be interesting to know whether the staff were working towards qualifications in line with the new NMS regulations which came into force on the 1st April 2016 which was discussed in the section on Full Day care. Unregistered Childcare provision This information refers to Play workers working on the Playing Out Scheme which takes place during the school Summer holidays. During the summer of 2016 there were 2 Senior Play workers, 5 Play workers and 1 Play worker volunteer in post. The highest relevant qualification that they all held was Volunteer in Play. Crèche and Nannies No information was given on the SASS for either Nannies or crèches.

158 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 CWLWM Childcare and Early Years Workforce Survey 2016 Further information about childcare qualifications was included in the CWLWM Childcare and Early years Workforce Survey 2016 which is included in this documentation. The aim of the CWLWM assessment was to develop an accurate and evidence-based picture of the current Early Years and Childcare landscape in Wales whilst also providing information on the levels of qualifications currently held by those in the sector and identifying training needs and exploring issues around access to training’ Within Conwy there were 84 respondents. The graph below shows the breakdown of Childcare and Play work qualifications these 84 respondents hold. The figures in blue are the figures for 2015 - 2016 and the figures in orange for 2016 – 2017.

Childcare Qualifications

Total number holding a Graduate… Total number holding a Graduate… Total number holding a L4/5 Playwork… Total number holding a L4/5 Childcare… Total number holding a L3 Playwork… Total number holding a L3 Childcare… Total number holding a L2 Playwork… Total number holding a L2 Childcare… No Childcare/Playwork Qualifications

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

2016 - 2017 2015 - 2016

No questions were asked about the total number of staff working towards a level 2, 3, 4 and 5 qualification nor the total number working towards a Graduate qualification. Overview of Training To determine the type of additional training that Childcare providers have undertaken, the SASS was analysed. The list below shows the courses that have been completed most widely not taking into account Paediatric First Aid, Child Protection and Food Hygiene. . Manual Handling

159 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . Fire Safety . Risk Assessment . Health and Safety . Positive Behaviour Management . Food Safety . First Aid at Work

A breakdown of the figures can be seen as part of Annex 13. Training Needs The information supplied via the SASS in relation to Paediatric First Aid, Child Protection and Food Hygiene is particularly interesting and will be used to feed into both the Action Plan and consequently the development of the training programme for Childcare providers within Conwy. The figures below show how many Childcare providers by provider type will need to complete training within the next 12 and 24 months as and when their certificates expire. The first figure shows the number of each type of Childcare provider whose certificate is going to expire whilst the second figure, the figure in brackets shows the percentage of that type of Childcare provider whose certificate is going to expire. The figures for certificates due to expire in two years are cumulative.

Certificates due to expire in next 12 Certificates due to expire in next 2 months years Childcare Paediatric Child Food Paediatric Child Food Type First Aid Protection Hygiene First Aid Protection Hygiene Certificate Training Training Certificate Training Training Childminder 22 (46.8%) 16 (34%) 25 (53%) 40 (85.1%) 30 (63.8%) 32 (68%) Full Day Care 154 (48.5%) 119 (37.5%) 113 234 (73.8%) 201 (63.4%) 170 (35.6%) (53.6%) Sessional Day 67 (53.1%) 42 (33.3%) 39 (31%) 99 (31%) 83 (65.9%) 62 Care (49.2%) Out of School 43 (48.3%) 30 (33.7%) 30 64 (71.9%) 54 (60.7%) 51 Care (33.7%) (57.3%)

160 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Average 49.2% 34.5% (38.3%) 65.5% 63.5% 57% percentage figure over all Childcare types

Further information about the Training Needs of the workforce has been taken from the CWLWM Childcare and Early Years Workforce Survey 2016. Due to the way that the information has been presented in the CWLWM survey it is not possible to subdivide into the training needs of each individual Childcare type. As said above, within Conwy there were 84 respondents. The chart below shows the training needs of these 84 Childcare workers, both for 2015 – 2016 (blue figures) and for 2016 – 2017 (orange figures). In nearly all cases the training need has increased substantially from 2015 to 2016. It is only with Health and Safety Training where the need has declined. The percentage increase in training needs seems to be greater in Conwy than the All Wales figures. From 2015 to 2016 to 2016 – 2017 the percentage increase in demand for specific training courses in Conwy is as follows: (The figures in brackets are the All Wales figures) . First Aid 35 % increase (8.0% decline) . Child Protection / Safeguarding 68.4% increase (remains the same) . Early Years Practice 60% increase (remains the same) . Health and Safety – 16% decline (4.4% decline) . Leadership and Management 120% increase (remains the same) . Playwork 113% increase (30.8 increase) . Food Hygiene 58.9% increase (8.33 increase) . Business Support 250% increase (150% increase) . IT / Computer literacy 140% increase (12.5% increase) The increase in demand for both Child Protection Training (68.4% increase) and Food Hygiene Training (58.9%), is in line with the figures that came out of the SASS. The SASS shows that the average percentage figure over all Childcare types for the number of Child Protection Certificates which will expire within the next year is 34.5% and within the next two years 63.5% and for Food Hygiene is 38.3% in the next year and 57% within the next two years.

161 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Training needs of Work force

IT/computer literacy Business Support Food Hygiene Playwork Leadership & Management Health & Safety Early Years Practice Child Protection / Safeguarding First Aid

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

2016 - 2017 2015 - 2016

Conclusions Having analysed the information from the workforce development / training SASS and the information from the CWLWM survey some very useful conclusions have been reached in regard to the future training needs of the workforce. There will be a great demand for Paediatric First Aid courses, Child Protection Training and Food Hygiene training over the next two years. This is already evident with the number of enquiries received about the above training currently been run in Conwy by the EYDCP. This need to meet the demand will be included in the Action plan and will inform the future training courses arranged by the Childcare Development Team. In Conwy the current position on Training courses at February 13th is as follows: . Paediatric First Aid – 2 new course booked for April and June. April course is already full. . Child Protection – 1 course booked for March is already full. Exploring possibility of new provider for 2017 / 18. . Food Hygiene – 1 course booked for March is already full. Exploring possibility of new provider or online courses for 2017 – 2018. . Health & Safety – 1 course booked for March is already full. No more courses currently arranged. Waiting for permission from Head of Service to arrange more courses with same provider for 2017 / 2018. (Same with Fire Safety, Risk Assessment and Manual Handling) . Playwork – Play Development Team training programme has been circulated to all Childcare providers for free courses running from February – September.*

162 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . Business Support – Exploring possibility of course for 2017 / 2018

Early Years Practice, Leadership and Management, IT / Computer Literacy – currently don’t offer these courses * There may be a greater demand for Playwork courses with the introduction of the new regulations in April 2016 which extended the age limit for registration of childcare in Wales from 8 to 12. (A lead time of between 3 – 5 years has been provided to enable the person in charge / practitioners to achieve any required qualifications for working with older children.) The CYPOP 5 courses are currently organised by a Consortium of Conwy, Anglesey, Gwynedd and Flintshire Childcare Development Teams. Up to four prospective Childminders from Conwy can access each of these training courses which are run four times a year. (16 Childminders each year) Staff within all Childcare types met the National Minimum Standards required by CSSIW and many were working towards higher qualifications. It was particularly interesting to look at staff who had a level 2. As would be expected, in all Childcare provider types, a higher percentage were working towards a higher level than any other level. However some caution must be exercised in analysing the information in particular in relation to the CWLWM survey as only 84 PACEY and NDNA Cymru members took part. The percentage return rate is not noted. The Workforce Development and Training part of SASS contained information about 479 professionals within the Childcare field in Conwy. Again we do not know what the percentage return rate is. It was unfortunate that Childcare professionals did not complete the section fully on the name of the Awarding body for their Childcare qualifications and due to the layout of the Annex it was impossible to track each Childcare provider individually. It would have been very informative to be able to do this. It was also difficult to analyse the information with any accuracy due to the large use of the terms ‘Not specified’ and ‘None’ in the drop down lists. 14. Results of Consultation with Stakeholders (as outlined in section 2)

Summary of the key findings from consultation undertaken with key stakeholders

All required consultations to inform the completion of the report have been carried out. The public consultation on the completed report is planned during mid-March to mid-April with a view of taking advantage of existing activities and events taking place over the summer months to continue to gain valuable feedback.

163 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Alongside the consultation the EYDCP Group and Early Years Team will continue to work together to develop a robust action plan for Conwy and report on progress to Partnership Overview and Scrutiny in October in line with Conwy People’s Partnership performance governance procedures.

Parent feedback:

Although the number of parents who responded to the Parent questionnaire was disappointing (Section 7 Parents above) the feedback gained from all consultation with parents is invaluable. Positive feedback was given regarding the quality of the childcare settings that parents were currently using. They also welcomed breakfast clubs and after school and holiday care provision. Some parents raised concerns regarding gaps in the provision where they found it difficult to find childcare to suit their particular circumstances. The section on Barriers (Section 7.3) above is very illuminating regarding the barriers faced by some families.

Childcare Providers . Many were worried by sustainability issues – see Section11 Sustainability (above) . Most did not envisage extending their services . Many commented that they would like more support from the local authority in particular sessional care providers. . Childcare providers in Flying Start areas would like to see the scheme extended to more areas so that more children can benefit from the scheme and remove the disadvantage of living in a non Flying Start post code when there is clearly a need to offer similar support to some families outside the Flying Start area.

Schools . 3 of the schools consulted noted that some parents struggle as there is not an after school club onsite. . 1 school commented that they did not have the space on the school site to accommodate an after school club. . 2 schools felt there was a need to employ more Welsh speakers within the childcare workforce. . 1 school commented that 10 parents had asked for a breakfast club, they already had an after school club. . 1 school said that their after school club which was run by a private day nursery had closed due to sustainability issues. Parents now made arrangements to look after each other’s children.

Children The children who were consulted all returned very positive feedback about their childcare provider. The full responses can be found in Appendix 2.

Employers The responses were insufficient to comment upon.

164 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Work related agencies Many of the agencies working with the economically inactive reported that childcare presented a barrier in certain cases. Those wishing to access training or to partake in volunteering activities found paying for childcare to be a barrier.

Support and Health professionals including Conwy Team around the Family and Children with Disabilities Team Highlighted the need for additional support required to facilitate childcare for children with additional needs.

Early Years teams including Flying Start and Foundation Phase/ COG1/ EYDCP and Conwy People’s Partnership Board All members were involved in the consultation carried out for this report and the comments, data and opinions have been included throughout the appropriate sections of the CSA. The EYDCP facilitated workshops in order to gain feedback on all strengths and weaknesses drawn from the CSA to compile the action plan (Annex 14) in Section 16 of this report.

Childcare umbrella organisations including CWLWM consortium The umbrella bodies were invited to complete the CWLWM questionnaire. Some declined to answer the first section relating to quality, flexibility and affordability of local childcare as they felt it was subjective. Of the 3 who responded these are the results:

Poor Satisfactory Good Excellent Don’t Know Quality of Provision 3 Range of Providers 3 Number of Places 1 1 1 Affordability 1 1 Flexibility of provision and sessions 1 2 Suitability of opening times 2 1 Location and accessibility of childcare 2 1 Bilingual/Welsh Provision 1 2

Most highlighted the need for additional support to ensure the sustainability of childcare providers particularly in areas where demand is low (e.g. rural areas) and welcomed initiatives which support parents with the cost of childcare.

All identified the need for more provision for children with additional needs but that this would require additional investment and support. The shortage of Welsh speaking qualified staff was identified as an issue.

165 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Neighbouring Local Authorities The results of consultation with neighbouring authorities can be seen in Section 12 Cross Border (above). It showed that in the East of the county many families from Denbighshire used childcare providers in Conwy whereas in the West of the county very few families from Gwynedd used Conwy providers. This would be due to the fact that in the East, Conwy County is very close to the town of Rhyl whereas in the West the nearest town of Bangor is approximately 10 miles away and there are less childcare providers as indicated throughout the CSA.

Voluntary groups and bodies: The consultation with all stakeholders alluded to several barriers which can affect the use of childcare in Conwy County Borough. The full findings concerning barriers can be seen in Section 7.3. Barriers above. The primary barriers appeared to be: . Cost . Flexibility of opening times, particularly for those working unsociable hours . Type – flexibility particularly holiday care . Location . Language and Culture – including minority groups . Lack of information . Care for children with additional needs . Care for children where the parents may have an additional needs . Care for children where the family is in crisis

15. Gap Analysis & Areas for Improvement

In Conwy County Borough Council we recognise that the full Childcare Sufficiency Assessments fulfils the statutory duties of the Childcare Act 2006, the Social Care and Wellbeing Act 2014, the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and the Welsh Government Childcare Statutory Guidance (July 2016).

Consideration is given to the Welsh Government Early Years Framework 2015, Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW), the National Minimum Standards for Regulated Childcare (NMS), Welsh Government minimum standards for Family Information Service, and the expected changes to the Health, Social Care and Childcare qualifications to reduce complexity, raise quality and increase coherence for the sector.

Consideration is also given to the Building Resilient Communities and Tackling Poverty agenda, the Welsh Government Taking Wales Forward 2016-2021 programme, Equality Act 2010 and the Welsh Language Standards. As part of the process of conducting the 2017 Childcare Sufficiency Assessment the following strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement have been identified in the action plan Section 16.

166 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017

From the information gathered in the SASS the main gaps in all childcare types in Conwy County Borough is that there is only one childcare provider who will provide unsociable care, and no provision for overnight care. The variances in language provision is so complex and specific to each individual area, there is also a lack of welsh medium provision in some areas within some childcare types, for further details please see the action plan and section six for a detailed analysis.

16. Childcare Sufficiency Assessment – Action Plan

Conwy County Borough Council Action Plan is listed on page 168 and also included in Annex 14.

167 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Childcare Sufficiency Assessment – Action Plan

The Action Plan must detail the actions, priorities and milestones to maintain strengths and address shortcomings identified in the Childcare Sufficiency Assessment.

The tables below identify those areas which must inform the assessment as per the statutory guidance.

Assessment of Demand

Strengths Weaknesses Actions Priorities Milestones . Parental survey . Limited response due to . Utilise the information . Ongoing consultation and . Review by CCBC Partnership undertaken and the value the length and complexity gathered in the CSA to inform development of the action Overview and Scrutiny of the comments received of questionnaire future service delivery. plan. Committee - October 2017 . Review progress in line with CCBC partnership governance procedures – twice a year October and April . The 30 hour free childcare . Not all families will qualify . Assess how many children will . CCBC to keep informed . CCBC is not a pilot area for 3 year olds offer will be for the 30 hour offer qualify within CCBC regarding developments in therefore monitor good available to some parents. pilot areas practise in pilot areas particularly those in cross border areas and who have similar demography – Ongoing Continue to liaise with WG

168 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Assessment of Supply

Strengths Weaknesses Actions Priorities Milestones . SASS used to inform the . Not all providers were able . Identify the gaps of those who . Utilise the additional . Identify those who had CSA and all annexes from to complete the SASS 1 failed to complete the SASS 1 information to the SASS difficulty in completing and WG used in order to show return. Those who did not return. return to inform future review the data accordingly – clear audit trail of could not be identified in actions October 2017 information. the timescales of the CSA due to anonymised data supplied to Local Authorities. . 30 hour childcare offer for . Sufficient supply may not . Early Years Team to support the . Work with EYDCP partners . Keep up to date with 3 year olds will widen the exist at the current time. introduction of the 30 hour to inform, support and developments by: childcare supply options Uncertainty over how childcare offer to 3 year olds advise settings on the - Attendance at AWARE for some working parents much supply will be . Prepare and support settings to introduction of the 30 hour meetings required. be able to provide the 30 hour for 3 year old childcare - Share information from free childcare offer in line with offer. DWP guidance as it HMRC eligibility criteria . Investigate systems to emerges support settings in - Liaise with neighbouring implementing the 30 hour pilot areas to learn from offer e.g. Early Years Module best practice. Capita One Continue to liaise with WG . More opportunities for . Potential childcare gaps . Work with local planning . To keep up to date with . Review Local development new and existing childcare department on the local planning developments plans -September 2017 - providers with respective implementation o and raise awareness of Ongoing new housing potential childcare needs developments

169 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Analysis of supply and demand of overall childcare provision

Category Strengths Weaknesses Actions Priorities Milestones (1) Type of . A range of childcare . Lack of choice of childcare in . Review findings of the CSA . Identify geographical areas Ongoing / May available childcare types allows for parental particular areas 2017 to identify gaps in of particular types – see 2017 e.g. full day care, choice types No. 5. sessional care, after school care, . Childminders provide a . Families, parents and carers . Conwy Early Years . Raise the profile of Ongoing childminder home from home tend to consider Day Development & Childcare childminding amongst (Partnership experience Nurseries rather than Partnership (EYDCP) to families via Conwy Early Scrutiny / childminders promote all childcare Years Team, FIS and other Outreach Events) options partner organisations . Investigate why . Review why prospective October 2017 childminders leave the childminders do not profession. complete the registration process . Utilise information from October 2017 the Pacey Cymru report on childminder de- registrations in Wales . Some secondary schools . No registered childcare . Review the need for . Consult with stakeholders March 2018 have activities after provision for older children childcare provision for older and families school children (2) Childcare . Wrap around care . Wrap around services may . To investigate the supply of . Consult and liaise with March 2018 catering for provides continuity and not be best for young wrap around care in Conwy, existing providers children of a flexibility to enable children identify gaps in wrap around . Keep up to date and specific age, e.g. parents to work . A child may attend several care review developments on from birth, from settings in one day . Consider how to embed the 30 hour pilot in 2 years or over 8 Welsh Government 30 hour neighbouring authorities years offer in Conwy County

170 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . Older age group are . Lack of any type of care for . Review the need for . Consult with stakeholders March 2018 considered by some older children other than a childcare provision for older and families providers few providers children

. Flying Start offers . Flying Start not universal . Keeping up to date with . Attend AWARE meetings Ongoing childcare for all 2 year Welsh Government olds in Flying Start post Initiatives coded areas (3) Affordable . Free breakfast clubs are . Breakfast Clubs opening . Keeping up to date on . Contact Conwy schools for July 2017 childcare positive for children’s hours may not meet the current breakfast clubs up to date information on needs needs of parents to provide running in the County, and existing provision and childcare before school opening times share

. Childcare is available . The cost of childcare can be . Provide information for . Ensure parents are aware Ongoing within the County expensive for some parents parents on help with paying of their entitlements . Flexibility of childcare costs for childcare (childcare tax . Review the CSA in December 2017 e.g. parents only requiring credits) comparison to relative parts of the session / day . Consider affordability of childcare cost / options . Parents can’t always afford childcare options . Signpost to relevant Ongoing to pay the upfront costs . Recognising the barriers agencies that may be able that parents face, and to help explore available options . Working Tax Credit . Working tax Credit system is . Increase knowledge and . Promote WTC to parents Ongoing (WTC) helps working complicated and difficult to awareness of WTC systems via Early Years Team and parents predict the eligibility FIS . Tax free childcare – . New system will take time to . Awareness of the tax free . Ensuring information is Ongoing national initiative embed childcare system available on FIS database . Informing parents of the and webpages new system . Advertising in the CCBC October 2017 . Supporting childcare household bulletin, providers through the Facebook, parent network process of tax free childcare and through outreach opportunities

171 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . Share information on Ongoing HMRC webinars with current providers – EYDCP / FIS and Early Years Team. . Develop links with October 2017 Jobcentre Plus / EYDCP . Early education is . Confusion around the . Review the application form . Provide clear information October 2018 available in the County in Foundation Phase as free and guidance for 3 year old for parents on the Conwy non-maintained settings childcare and the education funding website and on the requirement to pay top up . Foundation Phase to application form fees at most settings explore how other Local . Inform parents of the October 2017 . Parents of Children who Authorities administer the scheme transition from Flying Start scheme to Foundation Phase have to pay a top up fee . Nannies approval scheme . Nannies under the approval . FIS to investigate the . Contacting individuals on March 2018 helps parents wishing to scheme can be expensive provision provided by those the CSSIW list access the childcare due to being employed by on the home based approval element of working tax one family scheme credit . Flying Start offers free . Flying Start not universal N/A childcare for 2 year olds in post coded areas

(4) Times at which . Most provision is . Unsociable hours, overnight . Review and utilise . Review the sustainability March 2018 childcare is available Monday to and weekend care is information gathered in the of provision during available, Friday unavailable CSA unsociable hours. including the need for flexible . Leisure Centre Kids . Not available to younger . Widen the EYDCP . Improving stakeholders July 2017 childcare catering Camps are available for children membership to include relationships around for irregular children aged 5 -12 . Staff may not have a other organisations that holiday activities and play patterns of usage childcare qualification provide activities for across the day, children.

172 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 the week and the year;

(5) Location of . Some childcare available . Area 1 Coastal West has a . Utilise data from the CSA to . Work with umbrella October 2017 childcare in all 5 of Conwy shortage of childcare in address supply and demand organisations to encourage identified wellbeing Llanfairfechan, Dwygyfylchi in these areas developments of provision areas and Penmaenmawr. Area 2 . Investigate links with school in those identified areas . Flying Start is has a shortage of transport . Work with EYDCP / FIS and Ongoing advantageous for those childminders in Llandudno. relevant partners to who live in the post Area 4 Coastal East and area promote childcare as an coded areas 5 rural have limited employment opportunity childcare in some wards such as Eglwysbach . Glan Conwy out of school club may not have spaces for children from Glan Conwy due to children attending from other areas . Transport has also been raised as a weakness in Conwy . Flying Start is not County wide (6) Welsh medium . Parents expressed that . Some areas have no welsh . Review workforce . Work with umbrella March 2018 childcare there are some excellent provision development issues and organisations and partner provision examples of welsh . Shortage of appropriate training needs to encourage agencies to encourage the medium care qualified welsh speaking confident use of the Welsh use of the Welsh language . Benefits the child if they staff Language amongst staff in . Clarity required around the October 2017 are immersed in a . The retention of welsh childcare settings Welsh Government ‘More bilingual environment speaking staff can threaten . Promote the use of the than Just Words Strategy’ the sustainability of settings Welsh language from birth (SSWB Act) in relation to . Utilise programmes such as Estyn Inspection ‘Cymraeg i blant’ and requirements October 2017

173 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 encourage settings to use . Share information on the ‘More than Just Words’ ‘More than just Words’ Strategy (Social Services strategy with EYDCP wellbeing Act) partners. (7) Childcare . Informal support may be . Difficulties for some people . Raising awareness of the . Promote the use of the Ongoing provision for available around who speak other languages ‘Big Word’ Service in Conwy CCBC ‘Big Word’ Service different language language needs other than English or Welsh . Continue to support via EYDCP / FIS and partner categories . The CSA has shown that when accessing services providers as in section 6 organisations in most areas there is . Some areas do not have . Consider embedding December 17 provision in the ‘Welsh / provision in some of these diversity awareness within English’ and the ‘English categories the EYDCP training with some bilingual . Difficult for the childcare programmes elements’ language providers to categorise their . See section 6 categories own service

(8) Provide advice, . FIS has a high profile with . Information confusing for . Conwy FIS to raise . Attend Team meetings / Ongoing & information and professionals, and is parents such as the awareness of the service Head Teachers Cluster review April 2018 Assistance. promoted appropriately difference between services with Local Authorities, Groups . Experience and FIS / Dewis / Team around Health and Voluntary . Conwy FIS to develop and Promote Conwy knowledge of FIS staff the Family Organisations undertake an outreach Ongoing & Family complements the . Conwy FIS to raise programme review April 2018 Information information held on the awareness of the service . Investigate the possibilities Service (FIS) with FIS database with parents, carers and of a National Campaign via October 2017 parents, carers families All Wales FIS Contract and professionals . Utilise Social Media to within Conwy promote information held County Borough by FIS . Online database and . Sustainability of webpage . Investigate alternative . Negotiate costs with October 2017 website fully bilingual, and online database is under funding streams current provider free and comprehensive threat due to lack of funding March 2017

174 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . Investigate alternative . Contact Welsh Data Unit systems (Dewis) for update on development of FIS standalone platform

Issues facing specific categories of parents in relation to availability of childcare provision

*NB - The issues faced by working parents could also be experienced by most other categories of parent If there are other issue specific to individual parent types they have been added under that parent category Please see supply and demand and 1 – 8 sections of this action plan for actions and the priorities to the below)

Category Strengths Weaknesses Actions Priorities Milestones Working parents . Variety of childcare . Some gaps in supply and . Actions identified as shown . Priorities identified as . See above available in most areas. choice of childcare by type in the analysis of supply and shown in supply and . Some financial assistance and geographical area demand and section 1- 8 of demand and section 1-8 of available via tax credit . Opening times – childcare this action plan (see above) this action plan See above system, Flying Start, new not available during tax free childcare initiative required working hours – . Reliance on family and early morning, evenings, friends for childcare weekends and overnight. particularly during school . Cost can be prohibitive holiday period. leading to reliance on family and friends to supply childcare. . Increase costs to families during school holidays. . Parents who work full time feel there is little support for them. . Reliance on family and friends which prohibits

175 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 access to the tax credits system. . Perceived gap in holiday childcare which parents would wish to use on an ad hoc basis. Parents seeking . Support available for the . High deposits and upfront . Work with employment . Review EYDCP group October 2017 work or training economically inactive e.g. fees can be a barrier to support agencies to ensure membership and widen to opportunities PaCE, Let’s get working some taking on a job once parents are seeking include representatives they have successfully appropriate support that support employment secured employment. issues e.g. Jobcentre Plus / . Lack of short term or ad- Let’s get Working hoc childcare to allow for volunteering or training opportunities. . Shortfall in FE college childcare grant. . Uncertainty as to whether they will be better off in employment due to complications of tax credit system Unemployed . Some free childcare . Flying Start not universally . N/A – Flying Start . Keep up to date with N/A households available for 2 year olds available. Programme unable to developments and share living in Flying Start areas. . Children may not access change criteria relates to the information if changes Early Education due to top post coded areas occur up fees charged at non- . Review the application form . Provide clear information March 2018 maintained settings. and guidance for 3 year old for parents on the Conwy education funding scheme website and on the . Foundation Phase to explore application form March 2018 how other Local Authorities administer the scheme

176 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 Low income . See working families above . See working families above . Promote ‘Summer Activities’ . FIS to promote the online July 2017 families . Rely heavily on family and online brochure which information relating to friends. includes activities and play summer activities via their . Reliance on open access opportunities available website, parent network, play opportunities which during the summer holidays Facebook and within the may not be consistently community available. Lone parent . Lone parent may have families difficulty in securing childcare during school holidays as may not be able to share care responsibilities with partner . Pressure increased when child cannot attend childcare due to illness Families from . Language may be a barrier . Refer to section 7 of action . Refer to section 7 of action Refer to section ethnic minority to accessing financial plan above plan above 7 of action plan backgrounds support or employment. above . Cultural differences may not be recognised when accessing childcare. Families with . Some settings are able to . Lack of appropriately . Investigate training . Review assisted places children who provide for specific needs trained staff within requirements of childcare scheme criteria have special . Extra Hands and Conwy childcare sector. staff . Investigate / map existing educational Preschool Referral Scheme . Feel that childcare is not providers from the needs or a can provide some support appropriate for the needs voluntary sector that disability . Family members can often of their child provide a service for offer best care due to . Added expense due to children with additional understanding the needs requirement for 1:1 needs e.g. Afasic of the child support

177 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . Rely heavily on family members to assist with childcare

Other issues to be reflected in action plan

Category Strengths Weaknesses Actions Priorities Milestones Sustainability of . Providers are supported by . Family and friends, free . Maximise parents’ ability to . Ensuring information is Ongoing childcare sector umbrella organisations breakfast clubs in schools pay for registered childcare available on FIS database and free activities are used thereby reducing the and webpages which affects the reliance on friends and . Share information on sustainability of settings family. HMRC webinars with . Demographic variances . Work with childcare current providers – EYDCP can affect sustainability in umbrella organisations to / FIS and Early Years Team rural areas and areas of support members low employment. . Changes to employment laws adds financial burden and increased workload to settings

. Foundation Phase funding . Funding for delivery of . Explore the possibility of . Work with Conwy Healthy March 2018 is an incentive for parents foundation phase requires external funding to assist Pre-school Sustainable when choosing settings a contribution from with costs of healthy snacks Scheme to consider . Flying Start funding is parents to ensure settings . Foundation Phase to explore options utilised to sustain are sustainable how other Local Authorities . Review the application March 2018 provision within specific . Estyn expectations place administer the 3 year old form and guidance areas additional demands on education funding scheme voluntary non-maintained settings . Lack of joint approaches for maintained and non- maintained settings

178 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 working in the early years sector . School modernisation may impact sustainability in some areas. . Foundation Phase and Flying Start put increased responsibilities and requirements on the providers . Subsidised training is . The Early Years Team are . Establish a training sub- . Establish an ongoing April 2017 available via the EYDCP not always able to meet group to the EYDCP training programme for (Summer term Group current training demands . Utilise information from the the sector and July for the due to waiting lists for CSA to address future . Identify cost effective Autumn term some courses such as training needs opportunities by working and December Child Protection and First . Explore joint training with Conwy Social Services for the Spring Aid opportunities Workforce Development term) Team, other local Ongoing authorities, partner organisations and employees in the settings . 30 hour free childcare for 3 . Prepare and support . To keep CCBC informed . Work with EYDCP partners Ongoing year olds will be available settings to be able to regarding developments of to inform, support and to some parents provide the 30 hour free the 30 hour offer in pilot advise settings on the childcare offer in line with areas introduction of the 30 hour HMRC eligibility criteria for 3 year old childcare offer . Investigate systems to Ongoing support settings in implementing the 30 hour offer e.g. Early Years Module Capita One

179 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . N/A . Attendance at holiday . Investigate opportunities . Consult with clusters of March 2018 clubs is sporadic which with Clybiau Plant Cymru out of school clubs and affects sustainability Kids Club on how to investigate joint staffing consolidate after school opportunities clubs during holiday times . N/A . Providing care for some . Investigate additional . Review assisted places October 2017 children with additional training requirements of scheme criteria and needs may incur additional childcare staff investigate other support staffing costs services that is available in the County . Resources available from . Concerns regarding future . Continue to promote . Conwy FIS / Foundation May 2017 Conwy Toy Library for funding for Conwy Toy membership of the Conwy Phase and EYDCP to members of the Conwy Library Early Years Forum promote the service Early Years Forum Cross Border . Gives parents choice and . Awareness needed around . Make parents aware to plan . FIS and partner agencies to Ongoing arrangements flexibility to choose future planning as child for their child’s future raise awareness with childcare close to where gets older and their needs childcare and educational parents they live / work or train change e.g. starting school needs

. Assist settings with . If cross border childcare . No action necessary at this . N/A N/A sustainability issues was not an option settings current time may struggle with sustainability issues . Conwy have funded . Uncertainty if other . Seek clarity from . Discuss with counterparts July 2017 children from authorities would fund neighbouring authorities neighbouring authorities in Conwy children via the 3 regarding the situation relation to 3 year old year old funding scheme funding Workforce . Childminders Quality Mark . Status of Childminding not . Conwy Early Years Team / . Raise the profile of Ongoing Development and viewed as a profession. FIS to continue to support childminding amongst Training childminding as a families via Conwy Early profession. Years Team, FIS and other partner organisations

180 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . Support with training, . Promote Childminding Ongoing registration processes, and start up grants continue to provide . Work with the North April 2017 childminding start up grants Wales Local Authorities who are part of the consortia to continue to provide CYPOP 5 courses. . Staff within all registered . High percentage of . Establish a training sub- . Establish an ongoing April 2017 Childcare meet the required qualifications are group to the EYDCP training programme for National Minimum due to expire in the next . Utilise information from the the sector Standards required by twelve months and twenty CSA to address future . Identify cost effective April 2017 CSSIW and many are four months training needs opportunities by working working towards higher with Conwy Social Services qualifications. Workforce Development Team, other local authorities, partner organisations and employees in the settings . Keep up to date with Ongoing - March developments of new 2019 - Ongoing Health, Social Care and childcare qualifications Partnership . Conwy has an Early Years . There are some gaps in . Establish clear work streams . Review the EYDCP October 2017 Working Development & Childcare representation on the for the EYDCP Group membership and widen to Partnership EYDCP group include relevant representatives from other areas. . N/A . Lack of knowledge and . Partners to share . Utilise the EYDCP meeting October 2017 understanding of partner information based on their and arrange a speed dating roles and responsibilities organisation session with presentations . Partners to share funding i.e. Cwlwm opportunities

181 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017 . CSA has been completed . Due to the complexities of . Feedback to Welsh . COG 1 and CPP Board to April 2017 the CSA process including Government and consider write a letter to Welsh the new SASS system, the streamlining the process of Government highlighting completion of the report completing the CSA in the the positives, negatives was onerous, time future and lessons learnt from consuming and time scales Conwy County Borough were challenging Council perspective

Glossary of terms;

WG – Welsh Government CSA – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment SASS - Self Assessment of Service Statement CSSIW - Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales FIS – Family information Service EYDCP – Early Years Development Childcare Partnership CPP – Conwy People’s Partnership Board COG 1 – Conwy Outcome Group 1 (Focuses on priorities relating to Children and Young People and reports to Conwy People’s Partnership Board) CCBC – Conwy County Borough Council CYPOP5 – (Introductory training in home-based childcare for childminders in Wales)

182 Conwy County Borough Council – Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report - March 2017