Future plans for childcare

Story: Gaby Spinks

With rising numbers of children living in Burngreave, it is vital that affordable support is available for parents.

Nurseries

The 1998 National Childcare Strategy introduced an entitlement for all four-year-olds to a free nursery place. This was extended to 3-year-olds in April 2004. Nursery Education places (5 half days a week) can be in school nurseries or other ‘eligible providers’ – in Burngreave these are Black Women’s Resource Centre, Burngreave Young Children’s Centre (BYCC), Little Tinkers and Ellesmere Children’s Centre.

Take up of nursery entitlement in some areas of Burngreave is as low as 70% for 3-year-olds and 76% for 4-year-olds. Does this mean that the other 30% don’t know about free nursery places or just don’t want them? According to some childcare workers it’s because there aren’t enough spaces in the right areas. If parents don’t drive it can be difficult to get children to the centres.

The opening of the new Burngreave Children’s Centre on Spital Street will provide 30 full-time places, previously provided by BYCC. And with the Black Women’s Resource Centre applying to New Deal for capital funding for fifteen more full-time places, and the future plans for Firshill School, some access obstacles might be removed.

Out of school

Levels of out of school and after school provision in Burngreave are low, with only 4 places per 100 children.

Firshill Community Primary School is seeking to become the first ‘extended’ school in the city – providing qualified care for children aged 6 months to 12 years from 8am until 6pm. Dina Martin, Firshill’s Headteacher said she hopes the construction of a new Community Building to house the out of school club might be underway by 2007, subject to funding.

Levels of childminders are also low in the Burngreave area, with only 2 places per 100 children in the Burngreave area. Childminding is a vocational career and a childminder is never going to get rich on their earnings, charging £2.50–3.00 per hour per child.

Uncertain Futures

Parents are asking ‘How can I work shifts?’, ‘What happens if I work at weekends?’ and ‘Where do I leave my kids after school?’ Parents tend to use each other to find reliable trustworthy childcare solutions. Conversations held at the school gates and playgroups help far more than is recognised by professionals, and maybe their voices should be listened to.

Parents are concerned about patchy after school provision – children can be collected from some schools but not all. Workers at the clubs are also concerned, about their own futures as well as for parents and children.

Out of all the childcare provision in the area, it’s the BYCC whose future is in the balance. By losing 30 of its children’s places to the new Spital Street Centre, it is concerned about how it can stay open in the future, even though it currently has a full intake and more on the waiting list.

The future of out of schools clubs at Firshill and Byron Wood Schools are also threatened. New Deal, who fund the clubs, is putting pressure on the projects to become self sustaining. Projects would have to charge parents more if they are to survive without grant funding, this would seriously affect the number of parents who could afford to use clubs.

The true cost of a whole day of childcare could be as much as £25 a day per child, one local club currently charges £15 per day, and if you have more than one child who needs childcare this becomes unaffordable.