Agenda item

Report by Director of Children, Young People and Learning.

The Committee are asked to consider the draft Early Years and Childcare Strategy 2024-2027.

47.1     The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Learning and Skills, Cllr Russell, introduced the report highlighting that the first few years of child’s life lays the foundation for a child’s physical, emotional, social, educational and economic future and investment at this stage of their lives will result in long-term positive change.  The strategy links to the Council Plan and the Children and Young People’s Plan. 

47.2     Members of the Committee asked questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows.

47.3     It was acknowledged that the high-level draft did not clearly lay out the importance of support in the home environment on the development of children.  However, this was embedded in the priorities and the wording would be amended to better reflect this.

47.4     Children with SEND will be identified and providers will be encouraged to be ambitious for all children, recognising needs and supporting all children to ensure they have the best start to their education journey.  Training will also be provided to recognise that disadvantaged children will need extra support but may not have a particular SEND need.

47.5     There are challenges nationally on the recruitment of staff, but the process is under way to recruit to unfilled posts and will continue to be regularly monitored.  The service is in a good position to implement the strategy from April 2024.

47.6     It was recognised that Good Level of Development (GLD) for last year for all children in West Sussex was in line with national figures, however the performance by disadvantaged pupils, 42.3%, was lower than nationally, 51.6%.  The delivery plans will specifically target work to improve outcomes at the Reception year through priorities 1, 3 and 6.

47.7     It was acknowledged that getting disadvantaged children into an early years setting that helps them would be beneficial.  The Strategy and increased funding will give opportunities to more children.  Early Years care advisers can support families to get children into appropriate provision.

47.8     Members asked if there would be an analysis by geographic area, showing areas of the strength or weakness of provision, to aid levelling up.  Officers reported that this would be possible and could be reported on as part of the roll out of the Strategy.  A lead officer for wrap-around childcare would be undertaking exploration and analysis as the offer rolls out to children who are 2-years-old to check provision is in the right place and support providers who need to be better.  It was recognised that not all child minders take up the funded entitlement and the service does not have to support those providers. However the service is looking to recruit more advisers so that more work can be put into building links with non-funded child minders in order to help them improve the quality of the service they offer.  This will be covered by workstream 6. 

47.9     Members were assured that Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) would be developed that linked to the 8 priorities of the Strategy. 

47.10  The governance arrangements for the Strategy would be that a working group would be developed which would then feed into the Children’s First Partnership Board.

47.11  The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Learning and Skills, Cllr Russell, thanked the Scrutiny Committee for their comments which would be fed into the Strategy and looked forward to bringing the next progress update back to the Committee at the end of the academic year.

47.12  Resolved – That the Committee:

1.   Welcomes and supports the proposed Strategy and the work undertaken to bring Early Years Provision into one place, recognising that these are high level priorities and asks to see the delivery plan and key performance indicators once developed. 

2.   Recognises the need for strong partnership working for the delivery of the Strategy. 

3.   Highlights that support in the home environment can help to deliver better outcomes for children and asks that this is more explicit in the Strategy. 

4.   Highlights that early identification of SEND and gifted and talented children as well as support in transitions into school are important parts of the Strategy.

5.   Would like to see there is explicit reporting around the progress of Good Level of Development for West Sussex Children within the Strategy Delivery Plan. 

6.   Suggests that there is exploration on any patterns or trends on impact of Good Levels of Development for disadvantaged and SEND children by type of educational setting, and geographical location.

7.   Highlights the quality of childminding by those who do not provide funded places and welcomes that this will be addressed through the Strategy.