Sector update: January 2012
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26/1/12 Big Lottery Fund announces
awards for organisations supporting young children and their
families
26/1/12 Ofsted publishes quarterly
statistics on childcare providers
24/1/12 OECD publishes a 'quality
toolbox' for early childhood education and care
19/1/12
Government publishes statistics on families, and on trends in pupil
numbers
19/1/12 DfE announces that
over 3,000 schools have signed up for phonics resources and
training
16/1/12 Communication
Champion launches final report
16/1/12 NCB publishes
report on childminding practice in England
16/1/12
School Food Trust launches new guidelines on food and drink in the
early years
16/1/12 CWDC announces
consultation on Early Years Professional Status standards
review
11/1/12 Report
published by Innovation Unit on transforming early years
services
9/1/12
Consultation on regulation of providers on the Early Years
Register
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26/1/12
Big Lottery Fund announces awards for organisations
supporting young children and their families
The BIG Lottery Fund
(BIG) has announced awards totalling £15.2m across the UK for 17
groundbreaking projects to help support young children growing up
in very difficult family circumstances. These are the first
awards from BIG's
Improving Futures programme, which will provide up to £26
million for more joined-up and earlier support to families with
multiple and complex problems. BIG's backing will see
families being offered tailored support from local voluntary sector
organisations working in partnerships with public services. Each
partnership will receive up to £900,000 over three to five years to
work with families whose eldest children are aged five to ten years
old. Around 8,000 families will benefit from this round of
awards.
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26/1/12
Ofsted publishes quarterly statistics on childcare
providers
On 26 January 2012 Ofsted published Childcare providers and
places, giving statistics for 30 September 2011 to 31 December
2011 (England). Key findings include:
- There are 96,284 childcare providers registered with Ofsted at
31 December 2011, a small net decrease of 212 providers since 30
September 2011. However, total provider numbers are still 2.5%
higher compared with the number registered at the end of December
2010.
- The number of early years registered childcare places reached
1,309,404 at 31 December 2011. Places have increased by 0.8% over a
12 month period; a net increase of 10,560 places on number
registered at the end of December 2010.
- There has been a 0.5% decrease in the number of childminders
during the September-December 2011 quarter. However, childminder
numbers (currently 57,882) are almost 1,000 higher than the level
at December 2010.
- Provider numbers for childcare on non-domestic premises
(nurseries) have been declining since December 2008. There was a
net fall in numbers of 161 providers during this quarter; a 0.6%
reduction since September 2011.
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24/1/12
OECD publishes a 'quality toolbox' for early childhood
education and care
The OECD has published Starting Strong 111. A quality toolbox
for Early Childhood Education and Care. This document aims to
provide tools for policy-makers who are trying to identify the best
policy measures for enhancing quality in early care and education
services. It opens with a clear statement that early care and
education brings "a wide range of benefits" but that these benefits
"are conditional on 'quality'". Where there is high quality, there
are "significant pay-offs". By contrast, "expanding access to
services without attention to quality will not deliver good
outcomes for children or the long-term productivity benefits for
society" - indeed it can have "long-term detrimental effects".
The book, and an online version, includes a series of summaries
of the latest research findings on what best policies are best for
achieving quality provision, as well as reviews of policy measures
that have been adopted across OECD countries, and tips and
checklists for policy success. It covers a very wide range of
policy measures that impact on quality, grouping these into five
categories (which it terms "policy levers"):
- Quality goals and regulations
- Curriculum and standards
- Qualifications, training and working conditions
- Engaging families and communities
- Data collection, research and monitoring.
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19/1/12
Government publishes statistics on families, and on trends
in pupil numbers
The Office for National Statistics has published a statistical
bulletin on Families and
households, 2001- 2011. Findings include:
- In 2011, 38% of married couple families had dependent children,
the same percentage as cohabiting couple families
- There were 2.0 million lone parents with dependent children in
the UK in 2011, a figure which has grown steadily but significantly
from 1.7 million in 2001
The Department for Education has published a statistical release
on Future trends in pupil
numbers. This shows national projections for the number of
pupils in schools by type of school and age group. Projections for
under 5s are given up to 2015. Points from the release include:
- Numbers in maintained nursery and state-funded primary schools
started increasing in 2010 and are expected to continue rising. By
2020, numbers are projected to be 20% higher than in 2011, reaching
levels last seen in the early 1970s
- By 2015, pupil numbers in maintained nursery and state-funded
primary schools are projected to increase by 10%. The number of
pupils aged 5 to 6 will increase by 10%
- The total headcount of pupils aged less than five in maintained
nursery and state-funded primary schools reached 919,000 in 1999,
fell to 838,000 in 2006, rose to 924,000 in 2011 and is projected
to reach 1.04m in 2015 - an increase of around 12% from 2011.
Thereafter it will continue to increase, reaching 1.09m in 2020,
18% higher than in 2011.
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19/1/12 DfE announces
that over 3,000 schools have signed up for phonics resources and
training
The Department of Education has announced that 3,211
schools have taken advantage of the Government's match-funding
scheme to buy phonics resources and training. The products include
a range of teaching resources, including books, software and games.
Additionally, 987 schools have booked phonics training for their
staff. The scheme went 'live' in September last year with the
publication of the phonics catalogue of approved products and
services.
However, DfE also names 10 local authorities that have failed to
fully adopt a government-backed phonics programme, even though
pupils in the local areas leave primary school with below-average
reading skills.
On 16 January 2012 there was a debate in the
House of Commons on the importance of early reading and the early
years home learning environment on children's development and
successful learning.
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16/1/12 Communication
Champion launches final report
The role of Jean Gross, the Communication Champion, was to work
across Government, with health services, local authorities,
charities and stakeholders to improve services for children and
young people with speech, language and communication needs. The
report, Two years on: final report of the
Communication Champion for children, is based on findings from
visits to 105 local authority and NHS Primary Care Trusts. It
highlights areas of best practice and areas of concern. The report
sets out a number of recommendations to government departments,
education, health, local authorities and the voluntary sector.
Recommendations relevant for early years are:
- To fund local professional development for early years
practitioners to enable them to assess and support children's
communication and language development, within the revised Early
Years Foundation Stage
- To ensure that early years settings catering for disadvantaged
two-year-olds have staff with appropriate levels of training in
language development
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16/1/12 NCB publishes
report on childminding practice in England
Childminding Practice
in England: Final report has been published by the NCB Research
Centre. This report presents the findings of an 18-month study of
childminders in England that included a survey with a random sample
of 581 childminders, interviews and observations with 25
childminders and interviews with 20 parents who use childminders.
The research looked in particular at the key elements of
childminding practice; childminders' views and understanding of
children's learning and development and how their practice supports
this; and childminders' views of the Early Years Foundation Stage
(EYFS).
Based on the whole of the survey and qualitative findings, there
appeared to be several key elements of effective childminding
practice. These elements were reported by childminders in the
surveys and interviews, but perhaps more importantly, were also
observed in high-quality childminding homes. The elements
included:
- Sustaining caring, consistent one-to-one relationships with
children
- Tailoring provision to children's interests and needs
- Maintaining flexibility to be responsive to children's
interests and needs
- Embedding learning in play
- Extending child-directed play
- Using community resources
- Being willing to reflect and change practice
- Ultimately, the key to effective childminding practice was
childminders' ability to make learning part of a caring, close
relationship
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16/1/12
School Food Trust launches new guidelines on food and drink
in the early years
The School Food Trust has published voluntary food and drink
guidelines for early years settings. For the first time, childcare
providers have a nationally-recognised source of information about
the foods they should offer young children, and about portion
sizes. There are also sample menus and recipes, advice on tackling
fussy eating, and suggestions for involving children in food and
cooking activities. National Children's Bureau is among
the national organisations endorsing the guidelines and supporting
their implementation.
The publications available
from the School Food Trust are:
- The voluntary food and drink guidelines for early years
settings in England - a practical guide
- Autumn/winter menu and recipes for early years settings
- Spring/summer menu and recipes for early years settings
- Practical support tools are also available
For photographs of the guildelines launch event visit the ECU News
page
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16/1/12 CWDC announces
consultation on Early Years Professional Status standards
review
The Children's Workforce Development Council is seeking views on
the proposed draft early years professional status standards. The
aim is to produce a revised set of standards for endorsement by
Ministers. The closing date for this consultation is
Friday 23 March 2012.
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9/1/12
Consultation on regulation of providers on the Early Years
Register
The Government is publishing a revised Early Years Foundation
Stage and accompanying regulations to take effect on 1 September
2012. Ofsted has now published a consultation on new
regulatory and inspection arrangements for early years settings on
the Early Years Register, to take account of the revisions.
The proposed arrangements will put a greater emphasis on
children's personal development and early education, and providers
will be marked down for failing to ensure that children make
friends, share toys and learn basic words. The closing date
for the consultation is 6 April 2012.
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11/1/12 Report
published by Innovation Unit on transforming early years
services
Transforming
Early Years: different, better, lower cost services for children
and their families, Learning Partner's Final Report
on the Transforming Early Years Programme January 2010 - July 2011
has been published by the Innovation Unit. Using their Radical
Efficiency model, the Unit has worked with six localities around
the UK to find innovative ways of delivering radically better and
more affordable services. The programme has demonstrated
that:
- New service models are on average 25% cheaper than traditional
models
- They reach on average 120% more families, including targeting
those most in need of support
- They will realise unit cost savings of between 30 - 81%
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