Dudley Council Childcare Sufficiency Assessment 2011 – 2014 Childcare Strategy Team March 2011 1 Table of contents 1. Executive summary 2. Purpose 3. Background 3.1 Requirement of the Childcare Act 2006 3.2 Format of the assessment 3.3 Community areas 3.4 Guidance 3.5 Children and Young People’s Plan 2010 -2011 3.6 Links with other local authorities 4. Definitions 4.1 What is childcare? 4.2 What is sufficiency? 4.3 The 9 benchmarks of sufficiency 5. Types of childcare 5.1 Early years register 5.2 Childcare register compulsory and voluntary 5.3 Maintained sector 5.4 Extended services 6. Borough data and information 6.1 Numbers of children in Dudley by township and age 6.2 Ethnicity 6.3 Areas of deprivation 6.4 Children in “Poverty” 6.5 Single parent households 6.6 Unemployment (worklessness) 6.7 Earnings 7. Demand for childcare 7.1 Childcare audit/questionnaires 7.2 Type of childcare available and usage 7.3 Location of childcare 7.4 Childcare provider questionnaire analysis 7.5 Unregistered childcare 7.6 Paying for childcare 7.7 Children with disabilities 7.8 Barriers to childcare identified by Jobcentre Plus 7.9 Childcare quality 7.10 Childcare & Early Years workforce 2 8. Mapping and market managing the supply of childcare 8.1 Childcare by township and type – settings and places 8.2 Childcare costs 8.3 Help with childcare costs 8.4 Childcare information and Working Tax Credits 8.5 The free entitlement for 3 & 4yr olds (Extra time for three’s & fours) 8.6 2yr old pilot (Time for Two’s) 8.7 Children’s centres 8.8. Settings supporting children and young people with disabilities 9. Township profiles 9.1 Brierley Hill 9.2 Dudley Central 9.3 Dudley North 9.4 Halesowen 9.5 Stourbridge Each township section covers a) Economic situation b) Worklessness c) Demand for childcare d) Supply of childcare e) Childcare costs f) Childcare vacancies & percentage of unoccupied places 9.6 Overall analysis of the childcare provision within the five townships 10. Overall children numbers and available childcare provision 10.1 Ratio of places to children 10.2 Registered births 11. Summary 11.1 Observations 11.2 Conclusions 12. Documents 13. Links to useful websites and associated links 14. Appendices 3 1. Executive summary a) The Childcare Act 2006 This is the second Dudley Borough Childcare Sufficiency Assessment (CSA), the first being published in March 2008. The CSA has been prepared to satisfy the requirements of the Childcare Act 2006, which expects all local authorities (LA) to undertake an assessment of the sufficiency of childcare for parents in their area who wish to work or train. The CSA identifies any gaps in provision available and puts forward plans of how the LA intends to meet the needs of such parents. The Childcare Act 2006 states that “the provision of childcare (whether or not by the LA) is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area who require childcare in order to enable them; 1) to take up, or remain in, work; and 2) to undertake education or training, which could reasonably be expected to assist them to obtain work.” It expects that the CSA will take into account the needs of specified age ranges of children and must consider the types of childcare under the following categories: • early years or later years childminding • school term before or after school hours • school hours during school term • outside the school term In addition the CSA is required to analyse the information collected, by community areas as well as across the whole of the local authority area. Dudley borough is divided into the five townships of Brierley Hill, Dudley Central, Dudley North, Halesowen and Stourbridge. Sections within the CSA consider the childcare needs and availability in each of these townships with further assessment of the provision in each of the wards within that township. b) Information about Dudley borough The first part of this CSA gives an overview of Dudley borough and provides a variety of data about the numbers of children, the ethnicity of the children in the area and takes extracts from the Local Economic Assessment for Dudley Borough 2011/12 and the Child Poverty Assessment 2011 to show the economic developments in the borough and the townships as well as identifying child poverty and how Dudley are to ‘narrow the gap’ between children living in poverty and others. Dudley has one of the larger local authority populations being 25 th out of 326 English Local Authorities. The current population totals 307362 by the 2010 mid-year population estimates, a small increase since the last full CSA. Of this population a total of 73,200 are children and young people aged between 0 -19, which is 23.8% of the population. 4 Information from the school and early years census in January 2011, Office of National Statistics mid year estimates (2010) and child benefit data 2009 gives an estimate of the ages of children across the borough (see data below); this shows an overall just over 0.8% increase in children aged 0-14 years from the Census 2001 figures, more precise data will not be available until after 2011 Census data has been collated. The estimates taken from the Office of National Statistics mid year (2010), being more reflective of the current children and young people population, show that for the age ranges specified by the Children’s Act 2006 there are: 11,100 children under 3 years of age 7, 200 children aged 3 – 4 years 10,400 children aged 5 – 7 years 10,200 children aged 8 – 10 years 14,800 children aged 11 – 14 years This gives a total of 53,700 children across the Dudley borough aged 0-14 years that make up 17.5% of the population. Council data on ethnicity shows that there is around 14% of the population aged 0-15yrs that are of minority ethnic origins. Other data on lone parents, unemployment rates, worklessness and income indicates that Dudley is reasonably well placed against other LA’s in the West Midlands. Dudley is neither affluent nor deprived, overall being placed as 100 th most deprived local authority area out of 354 local authorities, but as the township and ward data shows there are areas of the borough that require targeted support and services due to higher deprivation levels. The provision of childcare provision in the more deprived areas will continue to require support, as they are unlikely to be sustainable due to income levels and usage. It is expected that children’s centres will continue to provide outreach facilities to deliver the support needed by parents and other carers. The Dudley child poverty assessment identifies that approximately 14,830 children are living in poverty which is 22.1% of the Borough’s children, just above the England average (21%), for the West Midland average this raises to 23%. c) The demand for childcare An online survey was undertaken by the Childcare Strategy Team during the period August to November 2010, in order to consult with parents of children and young people under the age of 19yrs to assess whether their childcare needs are being met. Questions were set in the context of the Childcare Sufficiency Assessment guidance and 9 benchmarks. (See section 4.3) Despite extensive promotion of this survey through local press and other DMBC publications, the expected response was not achieved. Therefore it is expected that parents may wish to make comments as we continue to share the findings of the assessment over the coming months. 5 d) Mapping the supply of childcare As at December 2010 there were 389 childcare settings in Dudley, which is a decrease on the 2008 CSA of around 10%, these settings provide 10,510 places across the borough which is an increase in places of around 7% on the previous CSA. Maintained early education places of which there are currently 2,958 (3,060 in 2008) are to be found in the 39 maintained nursery classes and 1 maintained nursery school; in addition approximately 1,990 early education places are also available within private or voluntary day nurseries and pre-schools, including some childminders. Therefore the total number of early education places available across the borough is 4,948 Halesowen is the best-served township with access to 2,162 childcare places spread across 98 settings giving a reasonable choice for parents. Dudley North has the fewest total of settings (48) and places (1,785) with just half of the childminders of the next lowest township. Holiday play schemes have the lowest number of places available (670) of all the categories. There are 20 Children’s centres commissioned by DMBC across the borough that play a significant key role in the delivery of the Early Years Outcomes Duty within the Childcare Act 2006. All centres provide a core offer of services to parents and children under 5 years of age; although there are variations in the ‘depth’ of services according to areas of disadvantage. The core offer includes: access to early learning and childcare in the x 6 phase 1 children’s centres located in the 10% most disadvantaged areas of the borough, support for a childminder network, family support and outreach, child and family health services, links to Jobcentre Plus, education and training providers, and signposting to a range of other services such as Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). The provision of extended services in schools for children who are of school age and their parents is wide spread across the borough.