Agenda item

(a)     That the Council’s strategic response to securing sufficient, sustainable and high quality childcare, within the County that was responsive to the needs of children and their families be supported;

(b)     That the on-going work and commitment to the delivery of the Childcare Sufficiency Assessment, every five years and the annual Progress Report be supported; and

(c)     That the Chairs of both the Education & Youth and Social & Health Care Overview & Scrutiny Committees write a joint letter to Gail Bennett, Early Years Family Support Manager, thanking her for the report.

            The Chief Officer (Social Services) introduced the report stating there was a statutory responsibility to refresh the Childcare Sufficient Assessment every year and to develop a new Assessment every 5 years under the Childcare Act which was explained at point 1.02 in the report.  The outcome had been summarised at point 1.08 of the report with some positive messages but there were also challenges with areas that needed improvement.  He paid credit to Gail Bennett and Keith Wynne saying Flintshire had a very active early intervention team at Children’s Services which other authorities did not have, with 12 schemes across the county which had attracted £5m capital one off funding which had been invested in infrastructure in schools together with money for capital grants. The Assessment form was included as an Appendix. 

            The Chair said it was a very comprehensive report and thanks should be given to those who prepared it.  She asked if there was a list of companies who actually provided crèche facilities within their own companies.  The Chief Officer (Social Services) agreed to provide this information following the meeting. 

            The Chair then referred to the reference to one free breakfast club in the whole of Buckley with none in Hawarden or Aston and asked why.  In response the Chief Officer (Social Services) said that affordability of child care was an issue and was expensive but this report assessed the quality and efficiency of the childcare facilities that Flintshire provided and the findings were shown at point 1.08 in the report. He added that maybe affordability could be built into this for future relevance as this was a real issue for parents.   The Chief Officer (Education & Youth) added it was the schools choice whether they wished to take up the breakfast club initiative from Welsh Government which was for 30 minutes for the delivery of breakfast.   The dilemma schools had was with parents using that facility as child care.  Some schools offered the last 30 minutes when the breakfast was delivered as the free element and if parents needed childcare before that time then that was chargeable.  She was sure that schools and providers would want to make it as affordable as possible but it had to be sustainable with the correct ratio of staff and together with adhering to standards etc.   The Chief Officer(Social Services) said the success of the free childcare offer in Flintshire had helped enormously with regard to the affordability and planning of childcare and the scheme had been more successful than envisaged with other councils following our model.

            Councillor Kevin Hughes asked that the Chairs of both the Education & Youth and Social & Health Care Overview & Scrutiny Committees write a joint letter to Gail Bennett, Early Years Family Support Manager, thanking her for the report.

RESOLVED:

(a)     That the Council’s strategic response to securing sufficient, sustainable and high quality childcare, within the County that was responsive to the needs of children and their families be supported;

(b)     That the on-going work and commitment to the delivery of the Childcare Sufficiency Assessment, every five years and the annual Progress Report be supported; and

(c)     That the Chairs of both the Education & Youth and Social & Health Care Overview & Scrutiny Committees write a joint letter to Gail Bennett, Early Years Family Support Manager, thanking her for the report.