Ten-year Strategy for Childcare
Early education and childcare is a crucial part of the Every Child Matters programme of change to improve outcomes for children. We know that children's experiences in their earliest years have a real influence on their achievements as they grow up.
Published in December 2004, Choice for Parents, The Best Start for Children: A Ten-year Strategy for Childcare, sets out the Government's commitment to invest in childcare, early education and work-life balance so that families are able to secure the best start in life for their children. The goal is for all parents to have access to good-quality early education and childcare for their children and for childcare provision to be flexible, of good quality, affordable and accessible, fitting into the lives of families.
Schools and local authorities will have a crucial role in delivering the strategy, though the question is not one of teachers providing childcare. Many schools will make partnership arrangements with voluntary and private-sector providers who will deliver the service on the school premises, or nearby with supervised transfer arrangements for children. Other schools may wish to recruit additional childcare staff to provide the offer and will also wish to consult with existing support staff who may be interested in taking up new opportunities. Many schools will also work in clusters to deliver provision.
In addition, the DfES wants all schools to offer wider extended services including parenting support, study support and swift and easy referral systems to multi-agency support, as well as opening up their facilities such as ICT and sports to the wider community. Again, not all schools will offer all services but the offer should be available across local clusters of schools or other providers. The local authority will have a key role in strategically planning and supporting schools in developing the services, for example by using the children's trust approach to develop multi-agency referral teams for schools.
Among the key elements of the strategy are:
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Extension of the maternity-leave entitlement to nine months' paid leave from April 2007, with a goal of a full year by the end of the next Parliament.
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More financial support for parents, through an increase in the limits of the childcare element of Working Tax Credit to £300 a week (£175 for one child) from April 2005.
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The current free entitlement for three— and four-year-olds to nursery education will be extended to 12½ hours, 38 weeks a year from 2006 and 15 hours a week by 2010 with a long term goal of 20 hours free early education and childcare a week.
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By 2010 there will be a Sure Start children's centre in every community, offering access to integrated early-years activities, childcare and family services. We expect children's centres to be developed from existing Sure Start Local Programmes, Early Excellence Centres and the mini Sure Start Local Programmes in many areas.
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For older children and their families, extended schools will provide a gateway to local services and, for primary-school children, a guarantee of care out of school hours and during the holidays between 8:00 am and 6:00 pm.
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A new duty on local authorities to secure provision of childcare, complementing authorities' existing responsibilities in relation to early education. Authorities will need to work with local communities, schools, private and voluntary-sector providers and other key partners to develop accessible, integrated services which meet the needs of local families.
Last updated: 20 Novermber 2006
