Weather disruption
Winter weather is causing disruption to services in some parts of the county. Find out what services may be affected in your area.
The Childcare Act 2006 requires all local authorities in England to ensure there is enough registered early years childcare where reasonably practicable, for working parents and those parents studying or training for employment. Sufficient childcare in a range of high quality settings should be available for children aged 0 to 14 (18 for those children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities), children who are entitled to 2 year old funding, 3 and 4 year old funding universal Early Years Entitlement (EYE) and the recently introduced (April 2024) extended 30 hours entitlement. This additional expansion is likely to lead to more demand across the sector.
Our commitment to give children the best start in life is embedded into our 10 year Children and Young People’s Plan 2023 which includes the ambition to give every child the best start in life from pre-birth through to the phase transfer into their formal education. We reflect this ambition in other areas of work, for example, the Dorset SEND Strategy and the emerging Social Mobility Strategy. We believe every child and family in Dorset should get the right support, in the right place at the right time.
The data contained in this assessment was collected from a family survey and two provider surveys between July 2023 and December 2023. From the family survey responses there was an increase of 34% more respondents than the previous survey with 518 total responses giving a broadly representational view from families.
From the provider surveys (group settings, childminders, school managed provision) there was a response rate of around a third over the two surveys.
Recent years have proved very challenging for the early years and childcare sector. It’s still not clear what the long-term outlook is going to be for the sector and if there will be a change in demand for places.
The main issue currently affecting places is the recruitment and retention of suitably qualified staff to work in the sector. It is recognised that many staff have left the sector over the last few years and there is a national decline in practitioners joining the sector, particularly childminders.
The demand for childcare continues to fluctuate according to family circumstances including financial and employment changes with many parents changing their working patterns. Many parents and carers continue to work at home or access a hybrid model of working resulting in less childcare requirements.
Good progress has been made against the 18 recommendations made in the previous Childcare Sufficiency Assessment 2022/2023. Further actions have been embedded this year to complete the remaining recommendations. So far the progress is:
Recommendations not yet started have been carried forward into this year’s action plan.
Key findings from the 2023/2024 assessment are:
Localities and strategic leaders should:
Localities and strategic leaders should:
Localities and strategic leaders should:
Localities and strategic leaders should:
The total population of Dorset at the last census data collection (March 2021) was 379,600, an increase of 4% over the last 10 years, lower than the southwest increase overall (7.7%) and places Dorset 18th in England for population size. By 2029 the Dorset population is projected to grow by 4% compared to 5% nationally.
Dorset has a smaller than average under 5's population at 4% with England and Wales at 5.4%.
The annual number of births in England and Wales continues its recent decline, with 2022 recording the lowest number of births since 2002. Dorset reflects this picture with a significant decline in the last 10 years of 25%. Birth rates started falling then and have continued to fall at a steady rate. Dorset saw a lower number of births in 2022 (2,615 births down from 2,755 the year before), than in any year since at least 2013. The current birth rate is 6.9% in Dorset compared to 10.3% in England and Wales.
Source: Office for national statistics
Our data dashboard tells us the East, followed by North and Chesil, continue to have the most births by locality. This information helps us to predict areas population and potential childcare needs in the future.
Dorset has good levels of employment compared to other councils in the Southwest .2.9% of people are unemployed in Dorset (compared to 3.7% nationally) at the end of November 2023. This shows a slight rise since a year earlier.
79% of people aged 16 to 64 are ‘economically active’ and are either employed (77%) or seeking work (2%). Of those not employed or seeking work, reasons include being retired, looking after the home or family or being temporarily or long term sick and disabled.
Source: Office for national statistics
50% of the parents who responded to the recent surveys said they needed childcare to increase their current hours at work.
11 areas (out of a total of 219) in Dorset are in within the top 20% the most deprived nationally, 10 of these areas are within Weymouth and Portland and one in West. With 46% of the Dorset population living in rural areas, barriers to housing and essential services are significant in Dorset reflecting the rurality and distance from services.
Source: Deprivation topic data Dorset Council
This data provides much to consider in terms of quality of childcare providers in these areas, cost of childcare on offer, labour market support by providing wraparound services and sufficient free childcare for those wanting to work/train.
An online survey was sent out to families via all local providers, social media, local leisure centres, council newsletters and the Dorset Parent Carer Council. There were 518 responses, an increase of 34% more respondents than the previous survey giving a broadly representational view of family needs.
From the parental survey responses, overall, in Dorset:
The main options families report as missing for childcare in Dorset are:
The main reasons families need childcare are:
The majority of the families need this childcare weekdays, school holidays and term time. The main reasons people choose their childcare is that is suits their child’s needs, fits the hours they need and is close to home and/or close to work.
Over half of the families surveyed find their childcare through recommendations from others. A further quarter use a search engine. Few families (17%) use the Dorset Council Family Information Directory. Most families say that finding childcare is not difficult.
58% have enough suitable childcare options, the most rated missing options are:
The main additional barriers include:
57% have enough suitable childcare options, the most rated missing options are:
The main additional barriers include:
In Weymouth, 69% have enough suitable childcare options, the most rated missing options are:
The main additional barriers include:
In Portland, 87% have enough suitable childcare options, in terms of the missing childcare options not enough responses were collected to this question to conclude. The main additional barriers identified were that childcare is ‘too expensive’ and ‘local providers are not close enough and I cannot travel’.
66% have enough suitable childcare options, the most rated missing options are:
The main additional barriers include:
73% have enough suitable childcare options, for the remaining respondents only 12 parents said ‘before and after school care for school aged children was missing.
The main additional barriers are:
80% have enough suitable childcare options, for the remaining 20%, in terms of the missing childcare options not enough responses were collected to this question to conclude.
In summary Dorchester and West have the biggest gaps in terms of demand from parents requiring missing childcare options to meet their needs.
‘Before/after school care’ remains the highest gap for provision in Dorchester & West and Weymouth, with ‘Childcare for babies’ as the main need in the North.
In all four localities issues around cost of childcare, local providers being full and sessions not being available at the times needed, are the same common barriers identified.
Recommendation: Encourage providers to open for longer hours and for more weeks of the year where possible to meet the needs of parents.
There is a search facility for parents to be able to find early years providers in the new Family Information Directory it will have the options of searching by age range of children making it easier for parents to search for childcare.
230 early years providers advertise their local offers through the Dorset Family Information Directory and indicate, using a specific ‘flag’, how their provision provides for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Recommendation: Work with the Family Information Service to ensure families can easily access the information they need regarding childcare provision and the specific offer for children with SEND.
In addition to ensuring enough childcare places, the ‘sufficiency duty’ means that places are good quality, accessible, affordable, and inclusive. There is also a statutory requirement that all childcare providers must fulfil their obligations under the Early Years Foundation Stage guidance (where appropriate), the Equality Act 2010 and the SEN Code of Practice.
The local authority expects all childcare and education settings to be inclusive and provide a graduated approach to support the needs of children that have SEND within the high-quality provision. To support settings to do this, the local authority provides support and advice, and allocates resources based on a child’s need.
There is an expectation that settings will usually meet the needs of children through their ordinarily available provision, that is the range of support, strategies and activities that are available as part of basic good practice in early years settings to support young children with additional needs without the need for formal diagnosis or specialist support.
Children’s needs may change over time and are identified at different ages and stages. The majority of children with SEND will have their needs met within mainstream provision with access to SEND support that is ordinarily available. Children that require additional support may need an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) and, in some cases, access to specialist provision.
Recommendation: Provide support and challenge to providers to ensure they are meeting the needs of all children.
The fund is available to ensure the inclusion of children under 5 who:
The aim of the Early Years SEND Support funding is to support settings to provide enhanced provision and intervention that will impact on the children’s progress and outcomes. The ‘support’ may take the form of training, physical or sensory adaptations, small group or targeted interventions, or additional targeted adult time to enable the child to meet their targets.
Where a child has a draft or final EHCP in place settings can request additional funding to support the child to provide the additional provision and support needed as outlined in the child’s EHCP plan.
Over the last two years 553 children have been funded to ensure SEND provision and support is in place.
An understanding of the range of needs of children in the Early Years is important to support the local authority to plan and allocate resources to meet the needs of children with SEND currently attending provision, as well as the future demand for SEND support and school places. We continue to work with providers to ensure a fully graduated approach is in place and evidenced in all settings so that all children are benefitting from a fully inclusive environment before funding is sought to further enhance this provision.
Recommendation: include in the ESS application form an additional section to complete with SEND/Inclusion training they have accessed as part of the graduated approach in support of their application, with an expectation that all early years providers access the Dingley’s Promise Inclusion training prior to applying for the ESS funding. This will be closely monitored by the panel for impact.
From our survey 23% of parents that responded feel an inclusive option for their children with SEND is currently missing from the range of suitable childcare options offered in Dorset and that a child having SEND needs is a barrier in arranging childcare as their child requires extra support.
81% of group providers and 34% of childminders reported having the children attending their setting have SEND. This is a significant increase of 69% more group providers and 27% childminders are reporting children with SEND needs since 2022. How settings are identifying these needs and reasons as to this reported dramatic increase, need further investigation.
19% of pre-school parents responded to our survey to say their child had a special educational need and/or disability. 32% of parents of school aged said their child had a special educational need and/or disability. More work may need to be done here to support parents with understanding what their child’s needs are and how to support any needs that may be presenting.
One of the current challenges for childcare providers in Dorset is around supporting children within mainstream settings with SEND needs and the phase transfer of these children to their school setting. With a limited amount of special school placements available, difficulties around over reliance on the EHCP process and need for specialist school placement prior to school has arisen. In the period between April 2022 and March 2023 SENDIASS (Special educational needs and disabilities information and advice service), reported the highest number of enquiries were related to 4/5 year olds. SENDIASs report this shift in demand was mainly in relation to exclusions and unsuitable placements.
Recommendation: Support all practitioners to view themselves as SEND educators and actively encourage all practitioners to access the role of the SENCo training.
Recommendation: Ensure early years and advice officers are fully trained and confident in supporting the increased need to support children with social communication needs in settings.
Recommendation: Work with schools to increase confidence in supporting the phase transfer process from early years setting to school, especially for children with more complex needs.
From school census data 2023/24 Speech, Language and Communication needs, followed by Autistic Spectrum Difficulties are the main categories for which EHCP’s are awarded in Dorset.
At SEN support level Speech Language and Communication (SLCN) needs outweigh all other needs and is over 5 times more prevalent than the second most identified category of social, emotional, and mental health needs (SEMH). SLCN needs remain a high priority, this number of children as a group has remained stable with 657 in January 2022 compared to 656 in January 2023.
Recommendation: review historic data of children in the early years with an EHCP to investigate how many hours of early education funding they accessed, if they had delayed entry to school and what type of school they attended i.e., Specialist or mainstream.
Recommendation: Work with parents and health partners to support access and promotion of resources and offer within the Balanced System.
Recommendation: Work with early health professionals (health visitors, speech and language therapists, community nursery nurses) and parents, to target early language development.
Recommendation: Carry out an audit of WellComm to understand the impact of the toolkits and training on the impact of children’s outcomes in speech, language, and communication targeting those settings who identified children with an SLCN delay.
Currently all early years providers across Dorset in each locality have access to trained Portage consultants. Portage is an educational service for pre-school children with SEND and their families that provides home visit for some families.
Portage aims to play a part in minimising the disabling barriers that confront young children and their families, support the national and local development of inclusive services for children and work with families and settings to enable and be included in their community.
There are currently 321 cases open for children currently receiving support from a Portage consultant.
Providers that have used this service, rate it alongside speech and language support as the second most impactful after the support received from Early Years and advice Officers. Of the parents who access this service, 79% rated Portage as having ‘some’ or ‘great impact’.
We have recently carried out a review of how we deliver services to support children’s access to early education entitlements and learning and this included the Portage Services. We intend to strengthen our approach. We are in the process of making changes to how we provide information, advice and training to the providers, to ensure more children are supported at the right time with increased access to skilled professionals when they need it.
Recommendation: embed outcomes from formal consultation into CSA.
There are currently (January 2024) 107 children aged 0 to 4 years on a Child Protection plan and 224 within the category Child in Need.
There are currently 27 pre-school children in care all of which have a Personal Education Plan. Early Years Advice Officers attend PEP meetings to support effective target setting for the early years children in their settings. The digital Early Years Personal Education Plan is used to record targets and progress on the PEP and early years settings are offered training through the Virtual Schools Team.
All vulnerable children are clearly known by the early years support team. They are discussed regularly through vulnerable child calls and recorded on the early years dashboard. Children of concern are discussed at the monthly ‘Best start in life’ meetings where a team of professionals examine the provision in place for the child and/or family and the actions needed to secure good outcomes for the child.
Recommendation: All children in care are eligible for early education funding are attending an early years setting and have a Personal Education Plan in place to support quality outcomes.
Recommendation: EYSAO with lead area for CP, CIN and CIC to ensure all children are accessing their full entitlement and provision for these vulnerable children is carefully monitored to ensure quality of outcomes.
There are a total of 349 childcare providers in Dorset in January 2024 providing approximately 5969 childcare places.
Online surveys were sent to all types of childcare providers including school managed provision in July and December 2023. Respondents told us about:
Engagement across the Private, Voluntary, and Independent (PVI) including the childminding sector, and also school managed early years provision was less than in previous years across the localities; the timing of one of the surveys lead to less engagement than usually expected.
Recommendation: Consult with providers around how the council shares information, surveys, newsletter, updates. Explore alternative methods of communication with them for example social media, reformatted newsletters. Review essential communications we send out over the year asking for information to ensure timeliness and overload.
Despite the overall number of childcare providers falling by 5% nationally in the last year (explained by a 10% fall in the number of childminders), Dorset has remained fairly stable.
The number of places available in our early years settings can be calculated in ratio to the estimated number of children. The higher the ratio, the more places are available per child. This is based on the majority of babies not attending a childcare setting and the number of childcare places increasing as the children get older and ready for school.
The council monitors all areas throughout the year to ensure that there are enough spaces to meet the demand. If there is a higher ratio, this means that there are more spaces available for children in the childcare settings. The localities with a lower ratio of childcare places are Chesil, West and Dorchester, indicating a higher demand in these areas. The data collected on childcare places provided by settings is open to some slight fluctuation as currently a central data record of accurate childcare places held by each setting in one source is not currently held. We intend to address this as part of our review into how we provide advice and support to our settings across Dorset.
Recommendation: Provide targeted advice, guidance, and support to providers to open or expand their businesses in areas (Chesil, Dorchester and then West), where there is insufficient provision or where we need more provision to meet the new entitlements.
Recommendation: Work with commissioner colleagues to develop a new ‘Provider self-update tool’.
There are 127 registered childminders in Dorset whose local authority support is provided primarily by an EYSAO. Specialist advice is also provided by a Portage Consultant or an Educational Psychologist. 59% of Dorset childminders completed 1 of the 2 surveys sent out between July 2023 and December 2023.
Ages of pre-school children on roll with childminders are:
There are no children currently on roll with a childminder that are in care of the local authority. Childminders often continue care for children into their school years. The numbers of children under 12 months cared for is low, however this could be because of maternity leave for working parents being up to 12 months.
87% of childminders responded they operate all year round, with a small number (16%) operating term time only. 1 childminder respondent offers weekend care and 2 offer overnight care. 2 said they would be interested in offering overnight care, with a further 4 saying they would be interested in offering both overnight and weekend care. Only 8 childminders responded to the question on support needed to provide weekend and/or overnight care to children with additional needs, they would like more information on funding and training to provide this service. 34% of childminders report at least 1 child on roll with Special educational needs and/or disabilities. 45% report having at least 1 child on roll with PSED needs and 38% report having at least 1 child with SLCN.
Recommendation: Provide more information and guidance to childminders to enable them to extend their overnight offer of childcare, to include children and young people with disabilities.
Recommendation: Actively promote inclusion with childminders. This should be reflected in the locality early years workforce development strategy.
90% of childminder respondents work alone however a few employ an assistant, increasing the number of children they can care for. Several childminders have commented it is not a financially viable option and very few are interested in finding out more about apprenticeships and extending their workforce.
Childminders:
There are 34 school managed early years providers in Dorset, local authority support is provided primarily by Education Challenge Lead (ECL) as part of the whole school support offer. Specialist advice is provided by an EYSAO at the request of the ECL. Only 6 school managed group providers completed the survey.
There are 183 group providers in Dorset, local authority support is provided primarily by an Early Years Support and Advice Officer (EYSAO). Specialist advice is also provided by a Portage Consultant or an Educational Psychologist. 54% of group providers completed 1 of the 2 surveys sent out between July 2023 and December 2023.
Ages of pre-school children on roll with group providers are:
14 group providers currently support children in the care of the local authority.
66% operate term time only, with 30% operate all year round and 30% operate school hours only.
81% of group providers report having at least 1 child on roll with Special educational needs and/or disabilities. Every setting that responded said they have at least 1 child on roll with SLCN, with several suggesting nearly all the children in their setting has some type of communication needs. 98% report having at least 1 child with PSED needs.
Group providers:
There has been an increase in the number of schools considering opening or incorporating early years provision into their school in the last few years. Schools have seen the opportunity to have control over the quality of the education provided in an attached pre-school, with oversight by qualified teachers from within the school.
Recommendation: Localities should monitor the use and impact of WellComm and Early Talker Boost in their localities. This metric should be included in performance measures.
Recommendation: Alongside communications colleagues, the principal lead for Best Education for All and Education Challenge Leads, consider ways to improve engagement of schools in completing council surveys.
Recommendation: Embed oversight into performance management processes of school-managed early years provision by the Early Years Support and Advice Officers (EYSAO) alongside the Education Challenge Lead (ECL) to ensure they are actively provided with EY news, information and invitations to early years events and training opportunities.
The quality of provision is an integral element in ensuring the sufficiency of places particularly for our most vulnerable children including those eligible for 2 year old funding who should only be accessing their provision at a setting judged ‘Good or above’ at their last Ofsted inspection. Therefore, in addition to the statutory requirements, we also prioritise support to each setting based on a set of criteria, identify those most at risk of losing quality and provide additional support accordingly. Local authorities have a statutory duty to support those settings judged less than good at their last Ofsted inspection and those who have not yet been inspected.
At their most recent inspection in Dorset, of those providers with an Ofsted judgement, 96% of childcare providers nationally were judged good or outstanding.
Currently 15% of providers are awaiting an inspection, 6% ‘met’ and less than 1% ‘not yet met’. There are 3 group settings and 1 childminder currently working at ‘Requires Improvement’.
Support is provided by a team of Early Years Support and Advice Officers offering guidance, support, challenge, and training to ensure the statutory requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) are met.
Our aim is to challenge and support early years providers to achieve and maintain high quality practice and provision for all children resulting in a knowledgeable and effective workforce, leading to healthy, happy, and safe children, who are successful and develop a lifelong love of learning. By developing practitioner pedagogy through Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunities, network meetings and information sharing, we will support practitioners to narrow the achievement gap between disadvantaged children and their peers, and to provide inclusive practice to meet the needs of all children.
Support is targeted to settings to provide information, advice, and training to early years providers who:
Of the support offered to providers by the Early Years and Advice Officers, 82% of providers responding stated that this support has had ‘some / great impact’.
From the family survey, 85.4% of respondents were very satisfied or satisfied with their current childcare provider.
Recommendation: localities continue to prioritise support to those early years settings not yet inspected and those RI with an expectation that all providers should be working at Good/Outstanding.
67.5% of children achieved a good level of development at the end of 2022/23 in Dorset, compared to 67% nationally, however, for children who are eligible for Free School Meals, this reduces to 46% in Dorset (Gov.UK 2022/23).
Whilst broadly in line with national data and the quality of early years provision is mostly good or outstanding, 32.5% of children still did not achieve a good level of development by the end of their reception year, an increase of 4.5% on last year.
Dorset 2022 / 2023:
Recommendation: Contribute to the improvement of the Good Level of Development data working closely with partners to provide support to early years and schools in localities with the greatest area of need.
The early years dashboard sets out the latest data in each of the relevant areas to provide information to inform performance management conversations, ratings, support, and judgements, to ensure easy access to early years data drawn from a number of sources.
The early years dashboard includes:
(All costs are average £ per hour)
Childminder:
Group provision:
Childcare settings are often making charges for meals and snacks. Some childminders make an additional charge to parents for items such as: enhanced resources, art and craft materials, outings, wipes, nappies, snacks and everyday consumables. Some request a voluntary contribution for these items (often to top up the rate funded by the government to the hourly rate they charge).
80% of group provisions and 50% of childminders have increased their fees in the last 12 months.
159 parents who responded said the cost of childcare was too expensive and a barrier to accessing childcare, however 240 parents also commented that childcare was affordable and manageable. The majority of parents said they spend more than £250 a month on childcare.
Recommendation: Increase awareness of help with the cost of childcare. Promote entitlements, stretched funding and tax-free childcare to parents of younger children so they are aware before they reach the age they are used.
A targeted offer of 570 hours per year for the most vulnerable 2 year old children, from the school term after their 2nd birthday is available. The aim is to reduce levels of inequality and narrow the pre-school educational gap between disadvantaged and better off children.
78.6% of 2 year old children benefitted from full 15 hours funded early education in 2023 – 2023 compared to 73.9% nationally.
97.4% of 2 year old children benefited from some funded early education in 2023 – 2023 compared to 93.7% nationally.
90.9% of 2 year old children benefitted from funded early education in Good/Outstanding early years provision in 2023 – 2023 compared to 95.8% nationally.
Whist the percentage of eligible pre-school children taking up funded entitlements remains high, we have seen a significant decrease in the percentage of 2 year old children benefitting from full 15 hours funded early education from last year. We predict to see this increase with the expanded entitlement offer in place from April 2014.
Recommendation: Further investigation into the number of hours eligible 2 year olds are accessing with a focus on disadvantaged children in the Weymouth and Portland area.
The number of children aged 2 to 2.5 years old meeting or exceeding the expected level of development in 2022-23 was lower than in the previous year, new statistics published by the Department for Education (DfE) have revealed. 87.9% of Dorset children tested in their Ages & Stages Questionnaire at 2.5 years are at, or above, the expected level in all five areas of development (Communication, Social, Fine Motor, Gross Motor, problem solving skills)
A universal offer of 570 hours per year for children from the school term after their 3rd birthday. Children receive early education, focusing on the specific learning needs of very young children. The aim is to prepare children so they are ready to go to school and to prepare them for lifelong learning.
From September 2017, children of most working parents became eligible for an extended offer of a total 1,140 hours per year (38 hours per week).
97.4% of children accessed their 3 and 4 year old entitlements in Dorset in 2023 compared to 94% nationally.
88.9% of 3 and 4 year old children benefitting from funded early education in Good/Outstanding provision compared to 93.9% nationally.
All this data helps us to plan for the supply and demand of early years and childcare to meet the needs of families and to manage the childcare market.
In areas where employment levels are low, we would expect more providers to be receiving this funding and we may need to plan for more places for 2 year olds.
In areas of high employment, we know that there are more working families who will be eligible for the 30 hours extended entitlement, and families that need childcare all year round and throughout the school holidays. Therefore, these areas need to have more places for 3 and 4 year olds and for school aged children and places that are available all year round.
We are committed in Dorset to ensuring that our most disadvantaged children can access all the funding they are entitled to access good quality early education and have the best possible start to life outcomes.
At age 5, disadvantaged pupils are 4.8 months behind their peers in 2022, a wider gap than in 2019 (4.2 months) and its highest level since 2014 (when it was 4.9 months). Source: Education Policy Institute, executive summary 2023.
In Dorset between April 2023 and January 2024 we had a total of 800 children in receipt of EYPP.
Only 75% of childminders are routinely checking for EYPP eligibility, with 7% unsure what this is. 83% of group providers are routinely checking for EYPP eligibility.
Recommendation: Further information for settings to actively encourage checking for Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) eligibility. Monitoring spend and impact in using the funding and how it would have the most impact on the children with EYPP eligibility.
Recommendation: Work alongside the Social Mobility Commissioner to develop longer term plans regarding EYPP in the early years.
Recommendation: Further investigate the hours attended by each child receiving EYPP to ensure they are accessing their full entitlement.
Recommendation: Ensure all children eligible for Disability Access Funding are accessing this support.
The government announced in the Spring budget that by September 2025 working parents will be able to claim 30 hours of funded childcare a week and this will be made available for children from 9 months old up until they attend school.
Eligible working parents of 3 and 4 year olds already get 30 hours a week of funded childcare. The increased offer will be rolled out in stages to allow childcare providers time to be able to implement the changes, making sure the places that are needed are available when the offers are introduced.
From:
The implications for early years and childcare in Dorset means there will potentially be a significant demand for childcare from April as we expect more parents to take up places for childcare once their childcare is funded.
52% of parents reported that they intend to take advantage of the additional funding for 2 year olds in April 2024.
35% said they would not be using this funding.
13% were unsure at this point.
67% of group providers responding currently already have a waiting list, 53% of childminders.
27% of parents that responded said a barrier to accessing childcare was that their local providers were often full.
40% of group providers and childminders would like to increase their capacity and most of these have the ability to. However, the predominant reason cited as the main barrier in being able to expand is lack of staff. Larger premises and resourcing are the main areas of support needed in order to be able to expand their provision.
70% of group providers and 48% of childminders reported that they plant to extend their provision to offer to 2-year-olds in April 2024.
22% of childminders and 63% of group providers intend to extend their offer to 9 months old in September 2024 and continue this offer with the 30 hours offer in September 2025.
The DfE Galaxkey data base estimates 357 places will need to be created in Dorset by September 2025 (26 in April 2024, 52 in September 2024, 357 in September 2025).
The areas that will have shortfall of childcare hours in order of greatest need will be:
Littlemoor & Preston | 1,690 |
Winterborne & Broadmayne | 977 |
Melcombe Regis | 579 |
Sturminster Newton | 305 |
Wimborne Minster | 267 |
Cranborne & Alderholt | 242 |
Charminster St Mary’s | 185 |
Puddletown & Lower Winterborne | 117 |
Lytchett Matravers & Upton | 111 |
Lyme & Charmouth | 107 |
The top 10 highest areas that will have a surplus of supply will be:
Sherborne West | -2,555 |
Gillingham | -2,029 |
Dorchester West | -2,023 |
Corfe Mullen | -2,021 |
Chickerell | -1,752 |
West Purbeck | -1,432 |
Stour & Allen Vale | -1,426 |
Rodwell & Wyke | -1,244 |
Sherborne Rural | -825 |
Wareham | -813 |
Wraparound childcare provides childcare that ‘wraps around’ the conventional school day directly before and after the school day during school term time for school age children. It also refers to provision in the school holidays.
The majority of wraparound school is provided by schools, through breakfast and after school clubs. Provision is not usually separately registered with Ofsted and is reviewed as part of the school’s overall Ofsted inspection. The quality of this childcare for school aged children remains the responsibility of the school, unless Ofsted registered and then EYSAO support the provision.
131 schools in total in Dorset.
Data taken from 41% response from schools replying to survey and Galaxkey data:
Of the schools that responded support needed to develop wraparound offer (in order of most referenced):
41% anticipate some additional barriers in providing wraparound provision for children with SEND and additional needs.
73 providers provided information about their wraparound provision.
Approximately 25% of group providers provide wraparound provision and 63% of childminders.
4 of these childminders say they have the capacity to increase their numbers.
35% of group providers have the capacity to increase their numbers – 28% reference they would need more staff to do this and then larger premises.
363 parents responded to questions about their current wraparound arrangements and potential future needs. 60% currently use wraparound as part of their childcare provision.
Wraparound provision currently used by parents and:
Wraparound provision most needed by parents and:
Most parents need wraparound provision ‘some days term time’ (66%), indicating a need for a flexible booking arrangement with providers.
Where parents prefer to access wraparound provision for their children:
Recommendation: Work with the Family Information Service to ensure families can easily access the information they need regarding childcare options and wraparound provision available. Ensure search options include the ability to search by age range to allow for ease of use by parents.
Recommendation: Work with Wraparound Co-ordinator and early years providers to ensure sufficient wraparound provision is in place for children 0-14 (including for children with SEND up to 18), to ensure parents can access the employment / training where necessary.
Primary reasons for needing wraparound provision are:
Barriers to accessing wraparound provision are:
There are 1629 currently children using some of the extended hours i.e.: they are taking over the free 15 hour entitlement if their parents qualify (working). We are making an assumption that these children are probably likely to need wraparound provision at school age.
810 children are using all 30 hours, this group are highly likely to need wraparound provision.
Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) is part of our wraparound provision for children and young people attending school. School holidays can be pressure points for families due to increased costs (such as food and childcare) and reduced incomes. For some children this can lead to a holiday experience gap - with children from disadvantaged families less likely to access organised out-of-school activities; and more likely to experience social isolation and ‘unhealthy holidays’ in terms of nutrition and physical health. The holiday activities and food programme (HAF) is a response to this.
We have worked with 72 providers this year who have offered just over 30,000 places in venues across the county, approx. 10% increase in the number of providers on last year.
Easter: 1337 children
Summer: 2052 children
Christmas: 983 children
Very importantly around 42% (877) of the children attending the HAF programme during the summer holidays identified with SEND needs.
Due to the overwhelming success of the local HAF offer Dorset Council is fully engaged with HAF 2024 and is determined to make an even greater difference for low-income children.
Key developments for 2023/2024 include: