Childcare providers are being urged to share their views on what they feel are the main issues facing the childcare sector as part of the work being carried out by the Government-funded early years strategic partnership.
The partnership, which is an alliance of voluntary organisations, will aim to consolidate the early years sector and ensure that it is able to influence Government policy, according to 4Children, the charity that is leading the project.
Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children, believes that with the Government soon to publish its policy statement for the early years, it is crucial for the sector to pull together and make sure that its voice is heard.
'The Government's policy statement for the early years will set out its vision for the sector,' she says. 'It will be a real milestone and the first time that this Government has set out its overarching policy for the early years. So, it is vital to get that insight from the sector.'
The partnership is funded by the Department for Education's £60m Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) grant, which aims to increase the involvement of charities, social enterprises and voluntary organisations in the provision of children's services. Under the banner Foundations for the Future, 4Children was awarded a total of £1m over two years to be the strategic lead of a group of organisations - Children England, Contact a Family, Daycare Trust, Fatherhood Institute and Social Investment Business.
The charity was also awarded £700,000 for a second project to develop leadership in children's centres and business sustainability support.
'Resources for childcare providers are obviously very stretched at the moment, so we will be looking to help the sector develop new thinking and more understanding of business development and sustainability', says Ms Longfield.
FOUNDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE
The Foundations for the Future partnership was criticised by some childcare organisations, among them the Pre-school Learning Alliance, when the details were announced in March, for not including any of the dedicated early years membership organisations in England (News, 2 March).
In response to the concerns raised, Ms Longfield says, 'We wanted to bring together a group of partners that can add value to the early years sector. For example, Contact A Family have a very strong network of parent forums and they have done a lot of work around disabled children and childcare. The Fatherhood Institute is a specialist organisation focusing on fathers, which we knew was going to be a core strand for the work that we want to do.
We wanted a group of partners who could broaden the breadth and reach of the programme.'
She adds, 'We have been in discussions with all of the early years membership organisations and we would be very disappointed if they didn't get involved in the work that we are doing. The fact that we have brought in a broader range of organisations will help the early years sector to build better and more coherent links with the broader support system for children and families.'
SUSTAINABILITY
Ms Longfield believes that the key to ensuring sustainability, often cited as one of the biggest concerns for providers in both the maintained and PVI sectors, is raising awareness of the impact of early intervention in areas such as educational achievement, crime and poverty.
She says, 'Sustainability is about finance and income and how you manage it, but I think it is also about how services are recognised and valued as part of the infrastructure in terms of supporting families. We need childcare and early intervention to be seen as absolutely crucial in terms of preventing families from falling into crisis, preventing children going on the child protection register and helping families out of poverty.
'For example, we are doing work at the moment with the Metropolitan Police, who say that early years is one of most important areas to invest in as a means of preventing crime in later life. If we can get to the stage where we are accessing budgets for things like crime prevention and child poverty, then settings will be more sustainable than if they are relying on just one funding stream.'
MAJOR CHALLENGES
4Children is due to launch its first piece of work as part of the strategic partnership programme this month - a survey that it has sent out to early years organisations to try to identify what providers feel are the major challenges facing their organisations.
Ms Longfield explains, 'We want providers to give their opinions on topics such as Government reforms, or, for example, if they are seeing any changes in the ability of local families to access early years or childcare. We want to identify trends, both locally and nationally, for children and families. This survey is the first of several that will be timed over the course of the two-year programme, and the results will be fed back into Government.'
The charity is also setting up a stakeholder group which will include early years organisations and representatives from other sectors, such as health and education. It will meet regularly to discuss the findings from the surveys.
There will also be a programme of briefings and seminars, which are set to begin this month and cover subjects such as what the key challenges are for the early years sector and how providers can respond.
ONE-STOP SHOP
Some of the funding will be used to develop new resources, including an online gateway which is set to be launched by the end of September and will direct early years providers to key areas of interest that are already published on other websites.
'There are some fantastic resources out there for the early years sector, but they tend to live in different places, and it can be difficult to find what you are looking for,' says Ms Longfield.
'The website will not duplicate existing work that organisations such as the CWDC or National Strategies have published, but it will have signposting within it to take you directly to their site. We hope that this website, which we are calling a "foundations hub", will become a one-stop shop for anyone with an interest in early years.
'We will look to develop new resources in areas where there are gaps, such as in subjects that have only recently come to the fore - for example, payment by results and partnership working with other professional groups. We will look to develop these resources with the sector. As part of our ongoing work with the sector, we will ask people what resources they feel that they need.'
GAINING RECOGNITION
Ms Longfield believes that the work being carried out by the partnership offers the early years sector a vital opportunity to gain recognition and raise awareness of the important of quality childcare and early intervention.
She says, 'The sector is still relatively in its infancy, but it has already proved to be very resilient and able to develop, sometimes against all the odds. We want this to be a very live programme of work; we think that providers are very motivated to take things on to the next stage of change - I think we saw that with the response to the EYFS review. People want change and they want a role in making it happen.
'We feel that the next phase is the sector consolidating its position and focusing on reaching out further to disadvantaged families, working with other professional groups and really working with communities to respond to local needs.
She adds, 'We really want people to take part in the debate and in the development of the sector. If there are fantastic things happening in local areas, we want to know about it so that other areas learn from it. Similarly, if there are problems occurring because of a certain issue, we want those problems to be raised and to hear of others experiencing the same kind of thing. This will help us to understand the patterns that are developing and where Government policy needs to change.'
MORE INFORMATION
For more information about the Foundations for the Future programme, contact foundations@4Children.org.uk
