Department for Children, Schools and Families
The Department for Education and Skills - Five Year Strategy for Children and Learners

The Department for Education and Skills - Five Year Strategy for Children and Learners

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Departmental Strategy


Five Year Strategy for Children and Learners


Chapter 2: Early Years

Goal: Giving every child the best possible start in life, and all vulnerable children the care and protection they need.

1. We know from our analysis that intervening early to give all children the best possible foundation for their learning and development is vital. Early years interventions have been shown to lead to improved health, early development and readiness for school, better relationships between parents and children, and improved social and emotional development. They have been linked to higher earnings in later life, and lower risks of dependence on welfare, unemployment or involvement in crime.

2. There are around 500,000 fewer children living in relative poverty then there were in 1997, and there have been significant increases in child benefit, and more generous support through new tax credits. As a result of the introduction of the Child and Working Tax Credits and other personal tax and benefit measures since 1997, families with children in the poorest fifth of the population will be, on average, £3,000 a year better off in real terms by October 2004.

3. There is now, for the first time, a free early education place for all three and four-year-olds, and over 1.8 million children are benefiting from the additional childcare places created since 1997. 524 Sure Start local programmes have been set up since 1997 and more than 1,100 new neighbourhood nurseries have massively increased the availability of day care.

4. The Children's Fund, which supports a range of voluntary and charitable organisations working with 5-13 year olds to prevent them dropping out of learning or society, is helping over 300,000 children or family members.

Issues and challenges

5. Despite these successes, our analysis shows that we still face clear challenges if we are to deliver a really comprehensive, but personalised and flexible offer:

6. We will meet these challenges and make the following offer to children and parents:

Our offer to children and parents:

What this means in practice

Support in the very earliest years

7. The first year of a child's life is the most important for the child's development and often the most precious for parents. In 2003 we introduced new legislation on maternity and paternity leave and flexible working, and we have said we will not make any further changes before 2006, so that we can see how these changes work in practice. We are, though, continuing to consult employers and parents about how we best help them to make the choices they want to balance family and work. We will explore options for extending support for mothers and fathers in the first year of their child's life, including maternity and paternity pay and leave, and for extending the right to request flexible working arrangements to parents with older children, and increasing support to carers.

8. Parents need to feel confident that the childcare for very young children - which is often relatively informal, and based at home or at someone else's house - is of good quality. From April 2005, there will be a light touch approval scheme for home based childcare, so that parents can be assured that the carer has at least minimum qualifications. Eligible parents will also be able to claim tax credits for home based childcare. We want to build on the success of childminder networks, which have helped reduce turnover 16 and improve quality by providing facilities for childminders to train and gain qualifications.

9. Sure Start has revolutionised provision for very young children and their families in deprived areas. Starting before birth, Sure Start brings together health, early learning and parenting support to meet the needs of local parents, their children and the community they live in. It puts parents in the lead, and uses local people to help support each other. Local evaluations of Sure Start programmes show that they are making an impact in a variety of ways - improving the rates of breast feeding, cutting smoking in pregnancy, reducing post-natal depression, improving speech and language development, and helping parents find work.

10. We want to use Sure Start Children's Centres to spread this successful support so that more families can benefit, while continuing to make sure that those in difficult circumstances have the first call on our help.

Children's Centres to integrate provision

11. Sure Start Children's Centres are one-stop-shops for parents and children, offering early education and childcare, family support, health services, employment advice and specialist support on a single site, with easy access for parents and easy referral between services so that the provision is seamless. Ante- and postnatal care will be linked to Children's Centres, and each family will be supported by a team of midwives and health visitors linked to the Centre. Children's Centres will also provide outreach work to support those children and families who are unwilling or unable to access centre-based services.

12. All Centres will also offer early years education and childcare - mostly on site, but some through networks. They will be the place to go to find out about different types of childcare locally, and will increasingly act as a contact-point for networks of childminders and nurseries, so parents can match themselves up with a childminder who is nearby and suits them. Parents will also be able to get information in Children's Centres about a wide range of other services for children - for example, about local play facilities.

13. By March 2008, there will be a Children's Centre reaching all children in the 20 percent most deprived wards in England. But we want to go further than this and aim for a Children's Centre in every community. 44 percent of all children growing up in poverty do not live in recognised areas of deprivation; and we want all parents to be able to access the services they need in a joined-up way. Some Centres may be created by developing existing nursery schools, Sure Start programmes, Early Excellence Centres, family centres or other community facilities. Some may be located in schools or on school sites, and the eventual aim will be to have a Children's Centre within easy reach of every parent.

14. As well as the one-stop-shop Children's Centres, Extended Schools - both primary and secondary - will increasingly act as hubs for community services, including children's services. Extended Schools are described in more detail in the next chapter, and they will be important not only in joining up services but in delivering high-quality childcare that is linked to education.

Bringing education and childcare together into 'educare'

15. Particularly in the earliest years, children learn through play and exploration, and making an artificial distinction between education and childcare is unhelpful. Our aim is, wherever possible, to bring together nursery education and childcare into a single integrated offer for pre-school children - 'educare'.

Example: Integrated childcare and education in Leeds

Historically, Leeds City Council has always placed a high priority on early years provision and began investing in integrated care and education a number of years ago. The Council currently invests around £13million annually on services for children from birth upwards. It has already developed integrated services in five children's centres which offer care, education, family support and employment opportunities. Families do not have to live in the neighbourhood in which a centre is located to be entitled to benefit from its services, and can access centre based childcare and early education as well as places provided by childminders linked to the centre.

These centres have been created by bringing together school based services and early years centres - sometimes on school sites and sometimes on 'free-standing' sites - and are a product of effective partnership working between the maintained, private and voluntary sectors. In addition to the five designated children's centres, there are a further 34 integrated centres across the authority - not just in disadvantaged wards. A further sixteen children's centres will be operational by 2006.

16. At present, we offer free part-time nursery education to three and four year-olds (before they start full-time in reception classes). In practice, this is usually offered in set sessions - with an entitlement to 2½ a day, almost always during school-type hours. This means that where parents want childcare which goes beyond those hours, children may have to be moved around for their childcare. This often does not suit parents who work part time or do shiftwork and who may want to arrange the hours of free 'educare' differently.

17. We want to transform our offer by integrating nursery education and childcare so that 'educare' is increasingly available on a flexible basis. Parents of 3 and 4 year-olds will still be entitled to the same number of free hours - 12½ hours a week - but they will be able to use these hours flexibly across the week. We will expect local authorities, increasingly through Children's Trusts, to work with early years providers to ensure this flexibility is available as part of the usual offer.

18. Many parents need childcare across a whole day and throughout the year. We will take steps to increase the number of places that can offer integrated 'educare' from 8am to 6pm, 48 weeks a year. This may mean more than one provider offering a service to a family - for example, a childminder associate closely linked to a day nursery - but parents will be able to organise a package through one point of contact. Parents and carers will continue to be able to buy extra hours to add to the free ones - for many, using tax credits - so that they can put together a flexible and personalised childcare package that matches their and their child's needs better.

Tax credits

The childcare element of the Working Tax Credit is worth up to 70 percent of childcare costs for families using formal childcare, up to a limit of £200 per week for a family with two or more children (£135 per week for one child).

This help is available to parents who are both working at least 16 hours a week, or to a lone parent who is working at least 16 hours.

In April 2004, 318,000 lower and middle income families were benefiting from the childcare element of the Working Tax Credit. Total Government spending on the childcare element is now almost £2 million per day.

Example -
how flexible 'educare' and the tax credit will work together

Dave and Emma have one child, Suzie. Dave is a security guard and Emma works as a PA. Their joint income is £21,000.

Suzie is three. At the moment, because of Dave's working hours, the free nursery place Suzie gets doesn't always give Dave and Emma childcare when they need it - often between 5 and 6 o'clock when Dave is going out to work but Emma is still at the office. This means they end up paying for extra hours with a childminder and Suzie has to travel to nursery and then back to the childminder's house, which makes her cross and tired.

With 'educare', Dave and Emma would beable to arrange the free hours when they want across the week. Their local Children's Centre will offer 'educare' all day, so Suzie can go there for her free hours, usually in the afternoons. When Dave's shifts mean he can't look after Suzie during the day, they will be able to pay for extra hours for a week, which would cost around £100. Their childcare tax credit might cover £70 of this, and they would pay the remaining £30.

19. Children's Trusts will need to plan and co-ordinate the arrangements to make more integrated 'educare' available. As well as contributions from Government and parents, we need to explore the scope for:

20. In the Autumn, we will publish a paper setting out in more detail how this 'educare' offer will work in practice, including the mechanisms for helping more places offer 'educare' more flexibly and for 48 weeks a year; and for ensuring that we build on the good private and voluntary sector provision that already exists during school holidays.

Wrap-around childcare in schools

21. The need to link education and childcare is also important when children go to school full time. Parents' working arrangements often mean that they need to arrange childcare outside normal school hours. So we are also developing a model for an 8am to 6pm, 48-week-a-year childcare offer in primary schools either side of the school day.

22. We expect that many schools will develop and deliver this offer in partnership with the private and voluntary sectors, and with local employers, and will often integrate the offer with enrichment activities and study support, including sports clubs, extra art, maths clubs, or music.

23. Parents who want it will need to pay for the childcare guarantee outside school hours, but tax credits could, once again, be used to do this, and this would not mean charging for things - like clubs and societies - that are currently free.

24. 1,000 primary schools will be offering this model by 2008, providing places for 50,000 children. Over time, we expect every primary school either to be making this offer itself, or to be part of a network of schools who provide it between them, so that every primary child whose parents want it can benefit from this wrap-around care either in their own school, or in a linked school, with supervised travel. Over time, we want to extend this kind of offer to secondary schools as well.

The Birth to Three Matters Framework and the Foundation Stage

25. It is important that provision in the early years is not only available and flexible but of high quality. 17 We know the importance of good quality early care for children's development. In November 2002 we launched 'Birth to three matters: A framework to support children in the earliest years' with a set of resources to help those who care for babies and toddlers. There is also a national training strategy alongside the framework.

26. We will also continue to build on the important progress that has been made in shaping and defining the Foundation Stage - for three to five year olds - as a separate stage of education, with its own character, and with clear goals and teaching methods which use play to prepare children well for later learning, and support their social, emotional and behavioural development. We will also continue to improve the Foundation Stage Profile - are cord which shows how well children are developing in these early years - and make sure that as it beds in all teachers can use it in a way that suits them, adds value to the education of the child, and is not too burdensome. The profile gives us and teachers good information about how children are doing, and how to support them to do better.

Personalised support for parents

27. Support for parents and carers is not simply about providing childcare. We know that good parenting has a profound influence on all areas of a child's development and wellbeing. 18 We need to make sure parents feel in control - they must, except in truly exceptional circumstances, be the ones who lead and drive the services their children get.

28. So, using Children's Centres and Extended Schools, we will develop a much more coherent set of services both to support parents and to involve them properly, not just in the early years, but at all stages of education.

29. For every parent and carer, there will increasingly be:

30. This advice and support will complement more specialised services for families and parents, including extra support at difficult times (for example, bereavement or serious relationship conflict); extra support for the most vulnerable children and families (for example, children with disabilities; or children in care); and specialised support for families in very specific circumstances (such as support for parents with mental health difficulties, disabilities, or with problems of addiction), ensuring that links are made between services being provided to an adult who is a parent, and the needs of their children.

Changing the system to underpin our offer

Every Child Matters

31. The Green Paper: Every Child Matters heralded a sea change in services for children, young people and families, underpinned by legislation and regulatory reforms. It set out the outcomes that we want for every child - that they should be healthy and safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution to society and experience economic well-being. The Children Bill creates the legislative spine for developing more effective and accessible services focused around the needs of children, young people and families by ensuring proper accountability and safeguarding of children. Directors of Children's Services will be responsible for all Local Authority children's services, while Children's Trusts will bring together social care, education and health to make sure that competing priorities no longer get in the way of the best deal for children. There will be a new framework for early years services, with a revised Code of Practice for nursery education which takes account of the shift to 'educare'. There will be a new integrated inspection framework, and where services are failing there will be decisive action to put them right.

32. Because we are bringing together support for all children (aged 0 to 19) and families in amore integrated way, the changes described in this section underpin not just early years services, but all the services for children, young and people and families outlined in this and the next four Chapters.

Children's Trusts: Diversity, autonomy and partnership

33. There will be a duty placed on Local Authorities and others to co-operate to secure better outcomes for children. The key vehicle for doing this will be the Children's Trust. Children's Trusts will bring together a range of partners, including the voluntary and community sector, to integrate the planning and commissioning of children's services.

34. Most areas should have a Children's Trust by 2006, and all by 2008.

Features of a Children's Trust

Children's Trusts are not new statutory bodies - they are partnership bodies which give effect to the new duties to cooperate in promoting the well-being of all children. They bring together local partners - education, social care, health, Connexions, Sure Start, and Youth Offending Teams, and the voluntary and community sector - so that they can work better to meet the needs of children, young people and families.

Key principles behind Children's Trusts:

Trusts will need to:

35. Children's Trusts will lead the way in the new kind of public service provision towards which we need to move. Their focus on partnership, and on commissioning rather than delivering, makes them an ideal vehicle for delivering personalised services well. Rationalised funding streams and a minimum of ring-fencing of funding will mean that the Trust will be able to pool resources across boundaries to commission services - so that there is competition to provide services, and children get the best possible deal. In childcare, tax credits are already beginning to ensure that families themselves can use their spending power to choose the providers which serve them best.

A clear framework for children and young people with additional needs

36. A crucial part of Every Child Matters is to improve support for all disadvantaged children, and children with additional needs (from 0 to 19). We need to provide effective support for children who are at risk - whether of poor attainment, truancy, exclusion, substance abuse or youth crime. We will develop a system which helps earlier identification of those at risk, with all those who work with children - in schools, nurseries or elsewhere - better skilled in identifying needs and sign posting parents to advice and support.

37. Better information sharing and increasingly integrated ICT - including a common system for assessing children's needs - will help make sure that different services don't duplicate effort, and that children's needs are picked up early. And the rationalisation of funding streams will enable Children's Trusts to bring together professionals from education, health, youth justice, drug prevention and social care services, currently funded and managed separately, into multi-agency teams (often based in Children's Centres or Extended Schools) to provide integrated, targeted support. Lead Professionals will co-ordinate input when several agencies are involved.

Child Protection

38. For those children and young people who are at risk of harm or have been abused or neglected, Every Child Matters will put in place a stronger statutory and multi-agency framework to protect them from harm, and provide them and their families with services and support. All the changes described above will also help to make sure that children at risk are identified and helped earlier and that services for them are joined up.

39. In addition, we will:

Building workforce capacity

40. To support our reforms, we will invest in the leadership and skills of the children's workforce (approximately 3.5 million strong, of whom 1.8 million are unpaid volunteers). This workforce is very diverse, working in many different areas, with different cultures and practices, and varying levels of qualification. We are committed to encouraging more multi-agency working across the sector - and at the same time making working with children, young people and families a more attractive option.

41. The new Sector Skills Council for children's services will lead in the development of a common core of skills, knowledge and competence for all who work with children, young people and families, and a complementary set of qualifications.

Leadership

42. A cross-sector leadership programme is being developed for Directors of Children's Services and their key local partners including children's leads in Primary Care Trusts, the police and the voluntary sector. We are also developing a leadership programme for leaders of integrated centres. It is initially focused on leaders of Children's Centres but will, over time, be open to others, including the leaders of Extended Schools.

A joint programme of change

43. We will be publishing further details in the autumn of a jointly owned programme of change by the Department for Education and Skills, the Department of Health and other Government Departments to support the implementation of Every Child Matters and the Children's National Service Framework. Autumn publications will give further details on the reforms set out in this Chapter, and will mark the next stage in a continued dialogue with our stakeholders about how to take forward effective change to improve outcomes for children and young people.

Timetable for change

Taken together, our reforms mean that:

Now, in 2004:

By 2008:

Our Long-Term Aim

15 COI/DfES Involving Parents through Information: Desk Research November 2003.

16 Cragg, Ross and Dawson, 'Review of Childminding Networks: Reports on Qualitative Research', DfES.

17 The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) study, for example, demonstrates the importance of the quality of a pre-school.

18 As summarised by Desforges and Abouchaar (2003) in The Impact of Parental Involvement, Parental support and family education on pupil achievement and adjustment: A literature review (DfES research report 433).

 

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