30 Hours, Part 4: Northumberland - Help out there

With its moors and mountains, isolated farmsteads and scattered hamlets, Northumberland is an obvious choice when it comes to testing out issues around rurality. As the least densely populated county in England, with an average of 62 people per square mile, Northumberland is looking at how it can meet the needs of its most geographically isolated families during its trial of the 30 funded hours for three- and four-year-olds.

The first task for the local authority was to come up with a definition of rurality, to ensure it was targeting the right cohort of parents. Take-up was then rolled out gradually, starting with the most rural. A digital system developed by the council meant a parent could only start the application process if they were eligible, in order to manage expectations. Within the first 45 minutes of opening the digital system, 50 families had applied. The council is now able to use the system to communicate directly with parents who have taken up the offer.

‘Rural parents have different working and childcare patterns from more urban families,’ says Eve Sinclair, early years sustainability officer at Northumberland County Council. ‘They don’t just use the childcare on their doorstep, so we didn’t want to say you can only use provision in rural areas. Some are driving up to an hour and a half to work, and they drop the child at childcare on the way, so this trial would only work if we were delivering it right across the county. Some parents want the childcare to be near their work so they can pick up straight away if there is a problem.’

The council is using the trial to gather data on how far parents are travelling to access childcare. ‘It is very different from the two-year-old entitlement, where parents’ choice of childcare is generally in pram-pushing distance,’ says Ms Sinclair.

In Northumberland, it was initial interest from some providers, who saw the trial as a business opportunity, that prompted the local authority to apply for the pilot. The council sees the 30 hours as an opportunity to build the sustainability and viability of the local childcare sector. ‘We wanted to respond to and support the interest from providers, support working parents with flexible and educational childcare, stimulate the market and build capacity,’ says David Street, commissioner for early years and primary education at Northumberland County Council. ‘There are a lot of hand-to-mouth operations going on in Northumberland. We felt the extended entitlement would offer more work, as well as improve overall outcomes – for example, around school readiness.’

Selling the 30 hours

While some providers had already expressed an interest, others had reservations. ‘There is some competition between schools and PVI settings, and some settings ask, “Are schools going to go to 30 hours tomorrow and put PVIs out of business?”,’ says Mr Street. ‘We have been brutally honest with providers from the start. People said, “Will it put me out of business?” Well, it might. Or it may be an opportunity to grow your business, or you may go out of business without this opportunity.’

‘We were hyper-aware that some people would be negative, so we used the technique of “selling not telling” about the entitlement,’ says Ms Sinclair. ‘We had to show what it meant to businesses, not just to parents. We offered in-depth business support to settings, and partnership support around localities, bringing providers around one table and discussing issues such as how to prevent schools setting up 30 hours when it is not needed.’

Partnership working is key, she says: ‘There is not the viability for one provider to be doing everything.’ Of the 470-odd children who have taken up the offer, approximately 150 are using more than one provider. Since the DfE upped the number of places to 575 in Northumberland, the council is in the process of further rolling out the pilot.

The rate Northumberland receives from the government is £4.01 per hour, of which £3.74 is passed on to providers. The council has taken the approach of adding the funding for the extra 15 hours to the existing rate for the initial 15 hours, and then dividing it out again, meaning providers delivering the 30 hours get more money for the first 15 hours than previously. ‘If settings don’t think it will be affordable, we say let’s look at your business model and find a way it can be affordable,’ says Mr Street. ‘We know it is difficult, but let’s find a solution together. It is important to reflect and refine solutions if they do not work.’

CASE STUDY: DIANDJIMS CHILDREN'S DAY NURSERY, PRUDHOE AND HEXHAM

Di Richardson and her husband Jim have been delivering professional childcare since 1995. They currently run two nurseries in Northumberland – Hexham looks after children from birth to five, and Prudhoe from birth to eight years old (older children are siblings of younger children at the nursery and are picked up from school by setting staff). The team also runs a before- and after-school club, for children up to the age of 13.

For Ms Richardson, the 30 hours is a mixed blessing. ‘It depends how near you are to a school, as to whether you benefit or not, as around here many children move to school nurseries at the age of three,’ she says. ‘We are pretty busy with funded two-year-olds but then it drops off. It has especially hit us since schools have started a rolling intake of three-year-olds at Christmas and Easter.’

However, Ms Richardson says, ‘Some have been with us from the beginning, and they have carried on with us to do the 30 hours, because it suits them and they don’t want to have to worry about having their children picked up from the school nursery and moved here. Taking three ten-hour days might suit their working needs better than five shorter sessions.’

The local authority is hoping that PVI settings like DiandJim’s and local schools will be able to work in local partnerships in order to cut down on overlap and provide flexibility for parents. DiandJim’s is in a good position to do this since staff already pick children up from local schools for wraparound care. ‘If the school could promote the fact that our setting is available in the holidays it would be helpful,’ says Ms Richardson. ‘In the holidays our staff are still here, but numbers drop because of the two-year-olds funding.’

Parents who do not use their full 30 hours can accumulate free hours to use in the holidays. ‘Calculating that has been quite a mind-boggling thing,’ she says. ‘If someone is just using five hours a day in term time, what have they accrued to use in the holidays we have to calculate. We have just started a new system of invoicing, which helps.’

The setting benefited from downloading an ‘Excel-ready reckoner’, developed by the local authority, which helps parents and providers see how many hours are being taken, especially when they are being taken across more than one provider.

As things stand, DiandJim’s can manage on the existing 30 hours rate. The settings charge parents of funded children for nappies and food. ‘It will never be enough, but we are happy with the amount that is coming in as long as we can keep busy through the day with our under-threes,’ Ms Richardson says. ‘There are costs involved such as covering staff when they go down to the school to pick children up. But we decided that if we don’t do it, we wouldn’t have the children we’ve got.’

DOUBLE TIME

James Hempsall, who has the support contract to aid delivery of the 30 hours, talks digital communications

Northumberland were certainly first off the starting blocks when it came to getting the message out, the IT system up and running, and parents applying. It’s impressive that within minutes of the system being set up, parents were logging in.

This experience has demonstrated the huge need for effective communications with parents, so they are told about the entitlement and understand how to apply. And digital processes have the added value of being a means of collecting data for analysis.

Providers all across the country will experience a steady growth in questions from parents until September and beyond. For isolated rural areas it is imperative providers respond helpfully, as a source of face-to-face childcare information. Local authority and provider communications and relations are absolutely key – settings meet parents and are essential message givers. Communications from councils need to be positive so this energy is passed on in all transactions.
 
30 hours information events can bring new partnerships and collaborations.  In rural areas this does require smaller sessional settings and childminders to join up, perhaps with the local school, to develop solutions and options for families wanting their hours flexibly, across the whole year, or across non-traditional hours.

Such partnerships need to think differently: it isn’t about what the PVI can do to wrap around a school, or pick up the bits schools can’t or won’t do. Instead it’s more about how the two providers can creatively work together so everyone benefits. If this has not started already, it needs to – everywhere, now.

Everything I have seen here, and in the other early implementers, leads me to expect high demand for 30 hours across the country. Parents in rural areas cover relatively large distances and have long commutes. And working parents tend to travel further than non-working parents, because they have to, and they have to budget for it. High demand drives supply, which in turn drives demand.

www.hempsallconsultancies.com