April 2016
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Bringing together key policymakers and stakeholders, including local authorities, primary schools and childcare providers, this conference examined key issues for the implementation of Government’s Childcare Act.
Delegates assessed the likely impact of the Act’s extension of free childcare for three and four year-olds to 30 hours a week - including questions about funding and implementation - and recommendations in the Government’s review into the cost of childcare, which call for more flexible models of staffing. There was also an opportunity to assess the impact to date of new childminder agencies (CMAs), introduced at the end of 2014, which provide training and support for childminders and help to match parents with services.
Further sessions considered the preparedness of the early years workforce for the doubling of free childcare provision and discussed steps to raise professional standards, including the requirement introduced in August 2015 for childcare apprentices to have an ‘exit standard’ of a grade C or above in GCSE English and Maths. They also looked at initiatives to increase recruitment, such as the Fatherhood Institute’s scheme to encourage more young men into the childcare profession, where only around 2% of staff are male.
There was also discussion on the early indications of the new Ofsted Common Inspection Framework, introduced in September 2015, which has schools and maintained nurseries judged as ‘good’ or better subject to ‘light touch’, one-day inspections every three years.
