Many working parents face a daily dilemma of co-ordinating childcare, but a pilot project in York aims to make life simpler. York's project, called 'A Shared Foundation for Children', is pioneering a model of mixed wraparound care, giving parents a choice of early years education, play and childcare for their children.
At the core is York Local Education Authority's plan to implement a standardised schools admissions policy by September 2003. Children whose fifth birthday falls between 1 September and 31 December will start formal full-time education at the beginning of the autumn term, while those whose fifth birthday falls between 1 January and 31 August will start in January, at the beginning of the spring term.
Parents will have the choice to postpone when their child starts reception class. Taking deferred school entry will mean that children do not have to start school until the term after their fifth birthday. To support this, eventually all 51 of the city's primary schools will work in partnership with network childminders, playgroups, nurseries and out-of-school clubs to offer parents choice and flexibility in wraparound childcare. Each of the partnerships will be different depending on the needs of the particular area.
From the age of three all children in York are entitled to five two-and-a-half hour sessions of free nursery education a week. Parents can then choose how this entitlement is delivered. (This practice is restricted elsewhere in the country but will apply nationwide for all three-year-olds by 2004.) Flexible and seamless
Wraparound care offers numerous benefits for working parents who can use a mixture of linked settings. Esther Hill, mother to six-year-old Oscar and Amelia, three, is planning on returning to work. Both children attend Carr Infants School in York, which is at the early stages of setting up a partnership, and Ms Hill is reassured by the continuity of care linked to the school.
She is particularly interested in the proposed plans for an after-school club on the school premises for Oscar because she feels that, with him being older, it will suit him more than being with a childminder. Amelia attends the school nursery and one of the partnership's childminders will take her to and from home.
Ms Hill believes the flexible, seamless provision will reduce worry and she will know the children are being cared for in quality environments.
'Picking up and dropping off the children all adds to the stress of the day. It's a fine balance to strike and things can become too much,' she says.
Co-ordinating journeys
Ms Hill's sentiments are echoed in research carried out by academics at the University of York. The study, Co-ordinated childcare: a prerequisite for women's productivity and family well-being, looks at how mothers reconcile work and childcare. Forty mothers, each with at least one child under the age of five, living in two areas of a medium-sized city in England - one area made up of mainly private housing and the other a social housing estate - were interviewed.
The research found that working mothers sometimes had to co-ordinate up to 13 journeys per day. All of these trips had to be carefully synchronised, as any delays could leave children without childcare. There is what the research calls 'a restricted time window within which the co-ordination of work, education and childcare arrangements has to take place'.
The report also found that distances between childcare and education settings and home and work were a barrier to employment for parents.
All together
On-site wraparound care can solve the problem of moving children between settings. At York's Tang Hall Primary School the early years unit is in a wing of the school. Pre-school children can attend a lunch club from 11:30-12:30 and an afternoon session from 12:00-3:00pm. There is also an after-school club open until 6pm for older children who attend full-time school.
Early years co-ordinator Barbara Jones says, 'We're very lucky because everything is on-site and parents favour this type of provision because of the extension to the school day. A lot of parents try it once and find it very beneficial. It enables them to start looking beyond the home.' Since this provision started some mothers have begun courses and others have found jobs.
Jemima's Day Nursery in Fulford, York is in partnership with Fishergate School and runs a car service to collect children to and from the school.
Nursery owner Allyson Bolland says, 'The scheme is all to do with making life easier for parents. Parents can mix and match and the children get a good shared experience that also has some structure.'
It is still early days for a full evaluation of the York project, but its intention of offering a mixture of flexible, seamless provision for children is being welcomed by practitioners and parents who are being helped to keep their lives in balance.
Further reading
* Running Around in Circles: co-ordinating childcare, education and work by Dr Christine Skinner. Published on 26 May 2003 for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by Policy Press. Available from Marston Book Services, tel: 01235 465500, priced 13.95 plus 2.75 p&p. A summary of findings can be downloaded from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website: www.jrf.org.uk.
CASE STUDY: THE POWER OF COMMUNICATION
York's Ralph Butterfield and Headlands primary schools both have breakfast and after- school clubs and are also in partnership with two private nurseries, a playgroup and a childminder network so that families in the area can access seamless education and childcare. The partnership will have been operating for two years in July.
Regular information sessions are run for parents in the area so that they are fully aware of the choices they can make regarding their children's care and education, starting from when they are babies.
Nicola Fox, reception teacher at Ralph Butterfield Primary School, says, 'Parents who want to work full time now have choices. Some children are taken to school on their parents' way to work and attend a breakfast club from 8am before doing the school day. They then go to the after-school club, which runs until 6pm. The out-of-school clubs have their own resources, different staff and children have access to drinks and snacks - it should not feel like they are left loitering in a classroom. There is provision for the children to rest if they are tired or want to read quietly.
'Younger children can go to playgroup or nursery and are picked up after the session by a childminder who cares for them for the rest of the day.'
With York's school admissions policy changing in September more families may need to access wraparound care. 'The spring and summer born children will need provision and will need to access childminders or nursery for half a day so that's another reason why it is important for us all to be linked,' says Ms Fox.
'As an authority we feel it is more appropriate for young children to access really good quality early years provision which does not have to be in the form of school. It is possible for children to start too early when they could be attending somewhere more appropriate to their developmental needs with school delayed for a while.'
The partnership meets every six months to discuss long- term action plans and issues such as documentation.
'We don't want to be clones of each other but we plan our objectives and assessments of children so that there is consistency. We also want to make sure that transition records are accurate because a free flow of information is crucial. As a reception teacher I use records to plan for children's needs. That way when a child joins the school from nursery, playgroup or childminder we can continue from where the child is at rather than back track.'
The partnership ensures good communication with families to help children's transition into nursery or school. 'It is also crucial that we educate parents in what high quality education is. Children learn through play.
Parents need to be informed on why the settings provide what they do,' says Ms Fox.
The partnership shares budgets to ensure quality is maintained throughout the settings. Money is invested into buying big equipment that can be rotated between the settings. It also compiles resource boxes that can be borrowed by settings when they are doing linked projects which enhances consistency of quality learning.
