Children at the centre

December 2007 - Posts

• 2007 Year of Revolution in Early Years and Childcare

  Since my last post I've been thinking about wjat has been going on in childcare in the last yera.   The whole childcare sector is in tumult.  Many private childcare businesses are going to ashes, completely subverting the image of fat cat owners making money exploiting parents and staff.  Whilst in the maintained sector it's arguable that nursery education has never experienced so much pressure.  As for childminders, they seem to be dissappearing rapidly, in my Children's Centre area there used to be almost 10 childminders operating, but now there's only a couple struggling on.   Will there be a Phoenix rising from the ashes - can the sector and industry begin to re-invent itself in 2008?   What's going on?  In the private sector all but niche providers or those operating in very prosperous neighbourhoods are really up against it financially.  For example, in 2007 the Leapfrog chain had to be sold at a knock down price to stave off financial meltdown.  Chains in trouble tend to make the headlines, but all over small providers are experiencing secere financial pressures caused by the extension of Nursery Education Grant at lower than viability levels, over-provision and rising staff costs.  In an industry that is highly sensitive to the state of the wider economy with the widely expected recession just around the corner the future looks bleak.  Many people won't lament this.  Lets face it it will be a good thing for children if some substandard providers go under.  Anybody who has worked in childcare for any length of time will be pleased to see the back of nurseries operated in rickety converted building with children kept all day in rooms upstairs with hardly any opportunity to go outside, or those providers who warehouse children in huge barns on industrial estates.   And the maintained sector?  In 2007 the government announced that from 2011 all early years settings, maintained or PVI, should receive funding on an equal basis from local authorities.  As well as this the trend for primary schools to now take a single intake of children into reception in September now means that there are simply less 4 year old children to attend sessional nursery care.  Sometimes going to a nursery class or school evokes nostagia in me for my own childhood, takes me back to the 1970s - comforting, safe, but hopelessly out of date!  I often asked myself in 2007 'What use are sessional maintained sector nurseries to anybody?'  For working parents this part of the sector is completely inaccessible - only open for 2 1/5 hours a day 38 weeks of the year and liable to close at the drop of a hat for staff training - it's not exactly flexible provision.  And for non-working parents this kind of provision doesn't exactly support those in our children's centre area with seeking work or attending courses.  Unless the maintained nursery radically changes its function in the next few years I can see it becoming something of a rarity.  There is a huge downside to this as many nursery schools particularly are real centres of excellence, packed full with excellent practitioners - I do hope that some of these teachers will be able to adjust to the new reality.   So where does this leave us in 2008?  Well... has the situation described above occurred because of laissez-faire government policies leading to chaos or does the government have a plan?  It's a plan I think: Children's Centres, the future?  In 2008 Children's Centres have to come to the table, the rate at which things are moving in the sector means that Children's Centres will be the only game in town soon.  In 2008 Children's Centres really need to come to the party and offer parents the best elements of both the 'old' private and maintained provision: flexibility and customer focus as well as excellent child-centred practice; together with a third element - easy acess to integrated child and parent support services.  I hope that we will not dissappoint, if we don't the overall situation for parents and children could be a lot worse than it is now after this past year of quiet revolution.   Posted Dec 16 2007, 05:15 PM by The Leveller with 1 comment(s) Filed under: childcare nursery maintained early education children's centres

• Quality childcare going for broke

  Here at The Leveller’s Children’s Centre we’re going broke.  It’s four months until the new financial year and I’ve had to tell the staff to stop spending and freeze recruitment. The reason - like most Children’s Centres our childcare provision is running at heavy financial losses.  Daycare in Britain is in a muddle and a mess.  As Steve Alexander, Chief Executive of the PLA, said in Children & Young People Now recently he doesn’t know anybody that is making money at the moment.  The plain fact is that most providers are either only just breaking even or making losses.  Whilst it is still possible for daycare to be viable and profitable in more affluent areas where demand is high and fees can be set at a reasonable level, in less affluent or disadvantaged areas the likelihood is that providers will be set for losses, job insecurity and financial ruin. Why is this?  Providers seem to be faced with heavy pressures on all sides. Over provision of places.  Whilst Sure Start and Children’s Centres policy has as one of its main aims to support parents (mainly mothers) back into work it hasn’t happened in the numbers that government hoped and as a result many new nurseries are undersubscribed.  In the more disadvantaged areas of cities where Children’s Centres are cheek by jowl with one another and with existing maintained or private provision nobody is full and it seems likely that a major cull of places will be needed.Hardly surprisingly many local authorities have been reluctant to plan proactively for this, waiting to act until the wheels fall off – we need some real leadership in the sector here. Rising costs – in the search for quality Children’s Centres have often offered staff higher salaries than the private sector whilst charging lower fees.  No-one can argue against paying the childcare staff a decent wage for a job that has responsibility for safeguarding and educating the nation’s future, but the sums don’t add up. Tax credits.  For many, indeed for those families that it is particularly designed to help the childcare tax credits system hasn’t worked.  Many parents are simply just not organised enough to manage their affairs, and can you really blame them?  Low wages, often long hours or shift work and young children to care for.  As a result parents become indebted and we end up send the debt collectors after them – a real case of the reality not living up to the grand vision.  Parents resent paying £150 a week for childcare is over £7,500 a year – you can get a place in most decent prep schools for that never mind in a backstreet nursery.  As a result some won’t pay, some can’t pay and some just don’t pay.  Financial mismanagement.  It’s interesting to note the emergence of some very large providers coming into the sector – the reason economies of scale.  Quite rightly Children’s Centres often like to see themselves as all unique and special.  Why not?  Its makes for a hopeless business model – if every centre has its own cook, on-site administration and no-fallback position to cover absences costs soon escalate.    So what’s the solution, the leveller doesn’t want to be accused of being negative? A review and reduction in early education and childcare places – I dare to suggest that the main area to be reduced should be the maintained sector as the model of sessional early education for three year olds 38 weeks a year does nothing to support parents into work and thereby regenerate disadvantaged communities. Payment direct of tax credits to providers to cover fees.  This would avoid the prospect of tax credits being used for other household expenses and prevent parents getting into financial difficulties with the Children’s Centre, the very people who are there to support them.   Relaxing the adult: child ratios for daycare.  We estimate that even when our 0 – 2 area is full we still lose £1,000 per year per place on this age group.  Paradoxically in the better-funded maintained sector ratios are lower.  In addition, if ratios were lower it would allow providers to pay staff better wages that in turn could lead to better quality. If the current situation is allowed to continue it could be a disaster for staff, parents and children reliant on those services.  It can be argued that the current structures offer terrible value for money.  Sure Start and Children’s Centres have been criticised for not reaching the most vulnerable children, yet it seems likely that millions are being used to subsidise day care within Children’s Centres that are chiefly used by working parents choosing the better resourced and higher quality on offer at Children’s Centres and who generally do not require the services.  We need a debate.    Posted Dec 05 2007, 08:48 PM by The Leveller with 1 comment(s)