Agenda item

Review of Pre-School Provision

To receive the review of pre-school provision and a scrutiny briefing note on the change of age of admission.

Minutes:

Documents considered:

·         Briefing on the review of pre-school provision

 

Introduction

 

The Director of Education outlined that Powys was one of a few Welsh Authorities to raise the age of admission to school to statutory age.  There are lessons to be learnt about how this was implemented and this will be used to shape how this is progressed.  The change in age of admission resulted in a number of changes to both schools, the provision of high quality early years’ education and childcare sufficiency.

 

Welsh Government have committed to providing access to sufficient childcare for all families by the end of the current term.  The rollout plan has recently been communicated from Welsh Government and for Powys means that 30 hours childcare should be available across the county by April 2019 (having previously indicated it would be piloted in two areas from January 2019).

 

It is recognised that additional work needs to be undertaken regarding the governance of settings.  There are sufficient settings but a number of these have surplus capacity.  It is not sustainable to spend public money on unsustainable settings.  It is positive to record that the 10 regulatory reports received on settings this year record ‘Good’ for standards.

 

The Senior Challenge Advisor noted he had taken Early Years on in June 2018 which was towards the end of the first year of operation.  At present Welsh Government fund 10 hours of pre-school provision.  Powys currently provide 12.5 hours a week. 

 

The service have undertaken a review of the changes regarding pre-school provision.  Setting Leaders reported they had received support from Early Years and Education to extend their age range to 4 year olds.  Schools are working with settings and are meeting the pupils that will be coming into school.  There have been issues regarding governance which need to be clarified.  At present there are three types of governance:

·         Independent (non-maintained)

·         In schools prior to change (Responsible Individual and Management Committee)

·         In schools – new settings (Responsible Individual and Powys County Council governance)

Advice often differs depending on the governance arrangements and reducing the governance types will help simplify this.

 

When the change of age of admission was made savings of £1.5million were expected.  Of these £873k have been achieved in 2017/18.  In 2018/19 £623k were expected of which £397k have been achieved.  Additional costs not originally budgeted for include extra staffing costs when establishing settings, building works to meet Care Inspectorate Wales standards and employment rights which had not been budgeted for.  In addition, the service needs to find £221k of efficiencies during 2018/19.  Welsh Government support for 3 year old funding is provided for 10 hours a week.  At present the schools service is picking up the additional employment support costs but this will need to be included during the review of funding for 3 year old provision.

 

When the arrangements were changed each setting was funded for two staff (up to 16 children).  A number of settings have fewer than 16 children and two settings have agreed for funding to be withdrawn (one with no children and the second with 2 children who can access alternative provision locally).  A further five settings are forecast to decrease to 8 children and the service are keeping these settings under review.  It may be that the change to 30 hours free child care will alleviate the funding issue in some cases.

 

853 children are accessing settings but not all are full time and some are accessing more than one setting.  It had been forecast that there would be over 1,000 children and space was provided for all children.  It was difficult to predict uptake but from 2019 the schools service will be responsible for admitting children to settings which will help track need.

 

It is expected between 40 and 70% of settings will want to take on the 30 hours childcare offer. 

 

Discussion

What evaluation has been undertaken with schools on the impact of this change?

The children who started school in September 2018 were the first cohort to have gone through the new system.  Foundation phase staff have been working with settings with the advantage that they know the children coming in.  During this half term baseline assessment will be undertaken.  There will be some children who haven’t accessed settings and there is a perception that these children have missed a year in school or setting.  The baseline assessments will reveal if this is the case.  Some schools are reporting issues regarding school readiness (including the ability to use the toilet).

 

Are teachers finding the assessments provided to them by settings are correct?

This will be identified during the baseline assessments undertaken this term.

 

Are school staff supporting those settings which are located in schools to the detriment of the school age children?

There are differences in the governance arrangements which need to be addressed and the finance issue is another area which will be reviewed to ensure that settings receive funding to cover for example sick leave.

 

Why were for example employment costs not factored into the original plans?

It is not known why these costs were not included in the original proposals for this project.  Since June when responsibility for this transferred it has been acknowledged that this should have been part of the proposals.  In the meantime these costs have been picked up by the schools service.

 

There are overspends in primary and secondary schools and it appears early years are experiencing a similar position.  What action will be taken to address the savings (both unachieved and identified) for this service?

Whilst there are overspends in the high schools most primary schools are compliant.

Admission to early years settings will be undertaken by the authority to ensure that children are only admitted where there are places available.

The funding formula will be reviewed to ensure that money is targeted where there is demand.

Most capital work has been undertaken.

 

The Portfolio Holder advised that she had expressed concerns regarding this change prior to her taking over the portfolio but these concerns were not addressed.    The availability of Welsh speaking staff had been overestimated.  The project did require more detailed planning.

 

What additional work was needed in respect of Llanelwedd, Llangattock and Llanfyllin and has these been completed?

The additional work in Llanfyllin has been completed, the work in Llangattock is due to be completed by the end of half term and some outstanding work remains in Llanelwedd.

 

Do the changes particularly impact on Welsh learners given that those who are from English speaking homes effectively are starting school one year later?

Terminology for educating children in Powys should reflect if they are receiving a single language education or bi-lingual education.

The Welsh in Education Strategic Plan outlines the way the authority meets requirements regarding the language of education.  There is a need to meet and generate demand for Welsh Medium education and ambition will be needed to get there.

A problem with using the term bi-lingual education is that some schools in Powys have a large proportion of children that do speak a second language which may be Polish or Nepalese and care needs to be exercised in how schools are described.

 

At present there are 51 non-maintained settings, 21 maintained settings and 9 maintained settings with a Powys management responsibility.  What changes are proposed?

Initially it is intended to address the 9 settings that have management committees so this will reduce the governance arrangements to just two options. 

 

It appears that 10-15% of children expected did not turn up.  How were these numbers forecast?

The number of three year olds is provided by Powys Teaching Health Board and there are over 1,000 children in the cohort.  It is parental choice whether or not to send a child to a three year old setting.

 

Is transport available to access three year old provision?

There is no requirement to transport children to pre-school provision as they are under statutory school age.

Cllr M Williams left 12.55pm

 

As the authority move from 12.5 hours pre-school provision to 30 hours free childcare will there be sufficient places available?

If there is an increase in demand it will not be affecting the 12.5 hours a week but may affect the sufficiency of childcare.

 

What are the levels of surplus places?

The 2018/19 school roll figures are just coming through.  It is anticipated that 1047 places will need to be provided next year.  It is possible that there will be some over provision but it is expected that there will be some families who do not realise they should apply for admission to a setting.

 

Of the settings that closed did any have capital money spent on them?

One school based setting had toilets reconfigured.

 

Will the new funding model be trialled?

Officers have researched funding models in the other ERW authorities that offer 3 year old settings.  All of these models base funding on number of children accessing places rather than adult support.

 

Education are not leading on 30 hours child care which is being undertaken under the Start Well Programme of the Public Services Board.

 

Can single parents or parents undertaking full time education access 30 hours childcare?

It was not thought to be the case but would be checked.

 

Outcomes

 

·         There is an acknowledgement by the service that the implementation of the change of age of admission was undertaken in such a way that gave rise to problems which should have been identified.  The lessons learned need to be shared with Officers involved in the roll-out of 30 hours childcare to ensure that the same mistakes are not made and assurance is sought that these lessons have been shared in the appropriate arena.

 

·         To address the problems that have arisen the work identified as necessary in particular around governance and finance needs to proceed at pace for introduction by the start of the next financial/academic year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supporting documents: