Summary of Findings
Supply
Overall, the borough has maintained a diverse and comprehensive childcare offer, with the quality of provision high. The Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) continues to complement the borough’s childcare offer. Workforce and rising costs are seen as significant challenges by providers and are likely to remain issues in the immediate term. A minority of settings reported that they were concerned about their financial sustainability, the expansion of the early years entitlements may support the financial sustainability for some providers. A minority of settings are not confident they will be able to meet demand for places in the future, with providers in the North West displaying the lowest levels of support. Staffing remains an issue across group providers and alongside the availability of premises, remains the biggest barrier to expansion amongst settings. The combination of these factors has the potential to impact upon sufficiency of childcare places in the longer term, particularly with the final phase of the expansion of the early years entitlements generating additional demand. The expansion of the under 2 entitlement represents a challenge as there are fewer providers delivering 2 year old provision and fewer places available as a result.
The local authority will monitor provider numbers to ensure continued choice and sufficiency of childcare for families, with particular emphasis on out of school provision.
Demand
The demographic information suggests the number of children in North Tyneside is likely to continue to decline slowly for a number of years. However, the expansion of the early years entitlements has significantly increased demand amongst the relevant age groups and the expansion of the entitlements for under 2s, will see further growth in demand. The highest demand for formal childcare will continue to be concentrated in the coastal areas, although demand exists across every ward. The impact of new housing developments in the borough may alter the geographic distribution of demand at a local level but will not necessarily result in significant additional demand. The proportion of eligible children taking up their funded early years entitlements remains high, suggesting demand can currently be met. Almost all children access their government funded entitlement in high quality provision. The local authority will continue to promote the support available to families to help them meet the cost of childcare.
SEND
The quality of childcare provision is high, and most children access their early years entitlements in settings rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. Support to enable early years children with lower level and emerging SEN to access childcare, is established and effective. The proportion of children with SEND accessing the Government funded early years entitlements are broadly in line with regional and national averages. The local authority and its partners will continue working to ensure children are able to access high need provision, where appropriate. The launch of the local authority’s Early Years Inclusion Service is supporting children to access their early years entitlements by building the capacity of providers. The service is supporting schools and PVI settings to build their skills, knowledge and expertise to support early years children with SEND across North Tyneside.
Conclusion
North Tyneside retains a strong network of providers able to deliver high quality places. The local authority will continue to support and engage the sector, to help it meet the challenges of the future and support the needs of families. North Tyneside currently has sufficient childcare provision to allow eligible families to take up their funded childcare entitlements and meet the needs of working parents with children during the early years. However, the final phase of the early years entitlements expansion will create challenges for the sufficiency of places for under 2s. The Local Authority will work with providers and partners to address barriers around places, which could prevent settings from expanding to meet increased demand.