12 March 2020
Request
According to the DfE’s Early education and childcare Statutory guidance for local authorities, in accordance to the Childcare Act 2006 and the Childcare Act 2016, LAs are required by legislation to secure sufficient childcare, so far as is “reasonably practicable, for working parents, or parents who are studying or training for employment, for children aged 0-14 (or up to 18 for disabled children)”.
As part of this they should also encourage providers to take a sustainable business approach to planning and signpost providers to resources which can support them.
Local Authorities are requested to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare. LA’s are also obliged to make this data available and accessible to parents.
Therefore, I would like to request your most recent evidence of this reporting, and where parents are able to access this.
Response
Lambeth’s Childcare Sufficiency Assessment reports are published publicly on the following Lambeth web page –
https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/children-young-peopleand-families/childcare-sufficiency-assessment - with the last report being published May 2015.
Information on all Ofsted registered childcare provision is held by the Lambeth Families Information Service (FIS) and the FIS regularly engage with providers to monitor and maintain current data on places, vacancies and costs.
Work on the next CSA has been an extended process since the last published report with Lambeth consulting with the Greater London Authority to help identify and establish a new London-wide template to use for consistent future reporting across local authorities.
The new GLA CSA template, published February 2018, has been used by Lambeth to produce our 2019 report which consists of both locally and nationally held data about childcare provision in Lambeth.
An optional parent survey was undertaken between November 2018 and January 2019 to collate feedback from local parents and carers. A provider survey was carried out between December 2018 and February 2019 to collect feedback and refreshed data from all childcare provider types.
Lambeth’s 2019 Childcare Sufficiency Assessment report was presented to elected council members in September 2019 and is currently undergoing revisions/amendments at the request of elected members to include additional data.
The final draft of the report will be published on the Lambeth website, once signed off by elected members, for parents and carers to access.
Childcare in Lambeth is of an exceptionally high quality and providers are given ongoing support by several services within the local authority to ensure:
- they provide high quality childcare (Early Years and Out of School Quality Improvement)
- private, voluntary and independent (PVI) providers operate sustainable business models and access funding to deliver free early learning (Business and Workforce Development)
- staff have ample training and development opportunities (Early Years Training)
- childcare providers and parents/carers are supported to ensure children with SEND can access appropriate childcare (Early Years SEN)
- providers publish and effectively promote their childcare services to a wide audience, particularly parent and carers (Families Information Service)