The Final Report of the Childcare Working Group: A Flying Start Childcare for children, parents and communities

I was pleased to take responsibility for childcare into my portfolio in January.  I will be looking for opportunities to strengthen the connections between all the elements of my remit.  I have gained this responsibility at an exciting time when we can now publish the final report of the Childcare Working Group.

I am delighted to attach the Childcare Working Group’s Final Report entitled “A Flying Start Childcare for children, parents and communities.” The valuable work of this Group, chaired by Dr Brian Gibbons AM, builds on the Childcare Action Plan that the Assembly Government published in 2002.   We have implemented that plan.  We worked with the New Opportunities Fund, now the Big Lottery Fund, to create more than 24,000 new out of school childcare places.   We are now working with the Fund and local partners to establish at least one integrated children’s centre in every local authority area. We introduced the Cymorth grant scheme, so that childcare is supported within an innovative programme looking at the needs of children in the round, especially in our disadvantaged areas. We have seen new Children’s Information Services created in every local authority.

We are taking forward two new major investments in childcare.  Firstly, we have made a successful bid for £12.5 million over three years under Objectives 1 and 3 for the purpose of increasing the contribution of European Structural Funds to childcare provision across Wales.  This project, Genesis Wales, will help provide advice, guidance, support and childcare for people wishing to access work, training or learning opportunities.  The overall aim of the project is to remove barriers to people finding employment and, as a result, to improve the economic activity of people in Wales.  Secondly, the Welsh Assembly Government has agreed the principles of a new initiative for Early Years, and has made available £50 million over the two years 2006-07 and 2007-08.  

We also launched an innovative project in the Torfaen area in September 2004.  The Community Focused Schools Childcare Pilot will test the assertion that lack of affordable, accessible childcare is a significant barrier to work by providing the childcare which lone parents need to enter employment. The Department of Work and Pensions has made funding of around £529,000 available to Wales for this 18 month project.   We see good quality childcare as a key factor in helping to reduce worklessness, tackling poverty and promoting growth and opportunity.

In December 2003, the Assembly Government decided to review progress and support further implementation of the Childcare Action Plan through the creation of the Childcare Working Group. We are grateful to Brian Gibbons and the Group for discussing a wide range of issues, both social and economic, relevant to childcare. The breadth of this report is impressive.

We owe thanks to the Daycare Trust, contracted to draft the Group’s reports and keep us informed of emerging good practice.  The resulting final report sets out ten key issues affecting childcare in Wales as identified by the members, and proposes a total of 77 recommendations arising from those key areas.  

The Group recognises that we must keep children at the centre of our thinking in making childcare policy, with all action rooted in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

I am pleased to point to the important links the report draws out between our education programmes and childcare. We are currently piloting the new Foundation Phase, which, subject to a full evaluation we aim to roll out to all schools from 2008. By defining a Foundation Phase, we can raise its status, give it a distinct identity and provide this critical period of a child’s development with the recognition and curriculum it deserves.

The importance of the early years to a child’s personal and social development and to their attitudes and approach to learning in later life cannot be underestimated. Every child is different and it is vitally important that the opportunities they are given provide a positive attitude to learning. I believe that the future benefits of this approach to learning in young children will surely contribute to a reduction in disaffection later in that child’s school career.

Our schools are a tremendous resource and we must make sure that the opportunity provided by the Community Focussed Schools Programme is fully taken up. We want to see a much closer relationship between schools and the communities they serve and to see schools acting as a community resource – not just in school hours but out of hours and also in vacations.   The Group’s report challenges us to develop the Foundation Phase and childcare closely together, with a shared philosophy and a focus on play.    Our Integrated Centres already include Early Years education, childcare and play together, and we will consider whether linkages can be made stronger.

Through the spring, we will be moving forward by considering the Working Group’s recommendations as we develop a full plan for childcare. There will be an opportunity for a debate in plenary session of the Assembly.

The Assembly Government views the excellent work of the Group, and the public consultation on the earlier interim report, as an important move forward in developing a childcare strategy. It is an example of policy making which brings together a wide range of Ministerial portfolios, Assembly sponsored bodies, local government and voluntary sector partners.  Many organisations  were either represented within the Group or took the chance, along with individuals, to give us their views.  This way of working will help us to ensure that our families get the best possible childcare in the future, and our children receive the flying start they are entitled to.