Will toddlers save children's centres?

Children’s centres have been on the retreat. More than 400 have closed since the coalition government came to power and local authority funding for Sure Start centres dropped 21 per cent between 2010/11 and 2011/12.

But some professionals see hope in the form of the free childcare entitlement for disadvantaged two-year-olds. The entitlement, which comes into effect this September, will give the poorest fifth of two-year-olds in England 15 hours of central government-funded childcare. There is now a belief that its introduction could help children’s centres stay open.

One of those who believes the entitlement could be a much-needed funding boon for cash-strapped centres is Ivana La Valle, director of the research centre at the National Children’s Bureau. The money from the two-year-old offer will, she says, help some centres become “financially viable”.

Declining provision
“Childcare provision in children’s centres has been declining steadily for the past few years, because it wasn’t viable,” La Valle explains. “Generally, children’s centres are in deprived communities and although they had some funding initially to provide this childcare, the way it was meant to operate eventually was to become self-funding, and they were really struggling with that.”

Many fear funding for the two-year-old entitlement, at £5.09 an hour, is insufficient for the majority of settings. But La Valle says the funding could help some centres in the poorest areas retain their childcare facilities.

“In affluent areas where childcare is very expensive, childcare providers are not attracted by the offer because they don’t think what it pays is enough to cover the cost, particularly given that many of these children might require a lot of supervision,” she says. “But in more deprived areas where childcare costs are low because they’re not driven up by working parents, the two-year-old offer is seen as really helpful to becoming financially viable. It will create an additional, secure and regular source of income.”

Children’s centres are also in a better position to identify children who are eligible for the funding than other early years providers, she adds. “Identifying the children is time-consuming. But because children’s centres do outreach work, they know where the families are and have the trust of some of the families that might not be so keen to contact children’s services.”

Not all centres will, however, be able to tap into the new childcare funding. The charity 4Children’s most recent Children’s Centre Census, published in July 2012, reported that around 2,000 of the 3,350 centres still open in 2012 were not providing childcare. No data is available about how many of those will extend their childcare to two-year-olds, but 4Children’s figures suggest that more than a third of centres could make use of the funding.

These centres should, however, also be better placed than they used to be to provide childcare services because of the cuts, says James Hempsall, the national support director and central region lead for the government’s Achieving Two-Year-Olds project, which is helping local authorities implement the two-year-old offer.

“The fact that resources have been squeezed has inevitably required children’s centres to look at what they’ve been doing, to prioritise and to target their offer,” says Hempsall. “It has resulted in a stronger emphasis on children’s centres using their resources to target those in greatest need.”

Early intervention
The two-year-old offer, he says, has led children’s centres to develop a better understanding of vulnerable families and the benefits of early intervention. “This focus on the two-year-olds has not been done before. It is different from the offer for three- and four-year-olds,” says Hempsall. “It will transform how early years childcare settings team around the child, how they safeguard, identify early and intervene early. Providers are telling me they’re learning so much about the role they could play in working with vulnerable children.”

He predicts the programme will have a lasting legacy: “In time, those ways of working with two-year-olds will carry on to all children who are attending early years childcare.”

Sue Robb, head of early years at 4Children, says the two-year-old offer will also drive new families to children’s centres, helping them to develop their offer and improve sustainability. “It’s something to draw families in,” says Robb. “It will bring families into the centre to maybe access some other services. At the same time, instead of having a room empty at the centre, a room is being used to support the community.”


CENTRES KEY TO HAMMERSMITH’S TWO-YEAR-OLD OFFER

Hammersmith & Fulham Council is putting its children’s centres at the heart of efforts to deliver the two-year-old offer, following a decision to extend its centre contracts for up to two years.

Helen Binmore, cabinet member for children’s services at the London borough, says the move is part of a “massive expansion of our early childhood services”.

The decision to extend childcare provision to two-year-olds is part of a doubling in the number of early years services provided by its 16 centres. As well as care for disadvantaged two-year-olds, the activities on offer at the centres for under-fives and their parents include breastfeeding sessions, baby massage, development checks for two-year-olds and housing advice. Teenage parents can also access support from Family Nurse Partnership nurses.

“We have joined forces with health services and community groups to help with these sessions,” says a council spokeswoman.