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We Asked
We asked parents with children aged four or
under about their current and future use of childcare provision. We wanted to
know this in order to better understand the future demand for the additional 15
hours of free childcare to be introduced in September 2017, for 3 and 4 year
olds.
The consultation ran from the 22 February 2017 –
5 April 2017 with an online questionnaire (anonymous responses) being available
during this period on the council’s Engage Barnet website available to all
stakeholders. A document with information on the 30 hours of free childcare and
eligibility criteria for parents to qualify for the additional 15 hours was
available.
You Said
Overall we received 49 responses.
Of these, 78% had accessed some form of
childcare in the past 6 months. The majority that answered questions on their
current childcare answered that: their child attends a nursery school,
playgroup or pre-school; they currently receive free childcare and their
child(ren) attend for 8-14 or 15-20 hours a week; they pay for childcare from
Monday to Friday, paying more than £161 a week and that it was easy for them to
find a childcare provider at suitable times and dates.
Of the 7 parents that answered a question on if
they plan to access formal (i.e. nursery) childcare in the next 18 months, 6
agreed they would.
Most parents said it was very likely that they
would use the additional 15 hours of childcare if these were available now and
most would access 11-15 hours of this a week. Most would switch to another
provider to access this if their current provider couldn’t offer the additional
hours, but would only use one provider for all their children.
Most respondents
were currently in work and had a partner in work. Most agreed that the
additional 15 hours of childcare would benefit them to increase their working
hours and reduce the cost of childcare to their household.
We Did
The results of the
consultation were presented to a 30 Hour Working Party on 19 April 2017 in order to
plan future provision. This party included representatives from across the
Early Years sector in Barnet, including nursery and daycare managers and
reception teachers.
