Key areas covered under the Act:
- The childcare sector and childminder agencies
- The right to request flexible working
- Statutory rights to leave and pay for parents and adopters
- Adoption and children in care
- Children and young people with special educational needs
Childcare sector
Schools and childcare providers can now set up childminder agencies. The agencies are designed to ‘support childminders with training and business advice while providing parents with easier access to high-quality childcare’ according to the Government. Childminders who are signed up to these agencies will not be individually registered and inspected by Ofsted, instead, the agency itself will receive a grade.
The act paves the way for nurseries and childminders to request an Ofsted inspection outside the inspection cycle for a set fee.
This change came after lobbying from the sector, prompted by the Government’s intention to use only good or outstanding nurseries for two-year-olds on its free early years education scheme.
However the fact that some childminders may not have individual Ofsted grades has caused concern about whether local authorities will manage to source quality free early years places if the sector is regulated to an unequal degree.
Another key change is the removal of a legal duty on local authorities to carry out childcare sufficiency assessments. The Act repeals section 11 of the Childcare Act 2006, which means that local authorities will no longer have a duty to undertake an assessment of the sufficiency of childcare in their area every three years.
Work and family life
A key measure aimed at promoting equality was the option of sharing parental leave around the birth of their child (or placement in the case of adoption.)
The right to request flexible working will also be extended to all employees.
Adoption
One aim of the act is to make adoption process more attractive to families.
Looked-after children will now be able to stay with their foster families until they turn 21. When placing a child for adoption, a child’s religious persuasion, racial origin and cultural and linguistic background are now given less priority. Additionally, it must now be decided early whether it is in the interests of each child to be placed for adoption with their sibling or separately. Courts can now decide whether or not a child can have contact with certain individuals following adoption.
The act is designed to encourage more children to be placed temporarily with foster carers who are also approved adopters, which has proved controversial with those who worry about families losing rights over their children. It also introduces adoption leave and pay will reflect entitlements available to birth parents from April 2015.
Special educational needs
The act means young people with SEN now have a single plan for meeting their education, health and social care needs, which runs from birth to 25. This replaces the previous system of statements.
Under the new process, an EHC 'needs assessment' will be carried out by a local authority. The local authority will then decide whether to issue an EHC plan or not. They will then have a legal duty secure the educational provision specified in the plan, while the local health care provider will have the legal duty to arrange the relevant health care provision
The Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE) however has warned that this could mean more than one million children with SEN could lose their right to mainstream education.
They say parents will have to overcome several new hurdles to get their children into a mainstream school, obtaining an assessment of need and funding for support, and that there are fewer opportunities to challenge the system.
And The Pre-school Learning Alliance has raised concerns that the legislative reforms to special educational needs will create more work for already pressurised early years practitioners.
Other key reforms in the Act include:
- aspects of the family justice system
- the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England
- time off work for ante-natal care
