Cookies help us to understand how you use our website so that we can provide you with the best experience when you are on our site. To find out more, read our privacy policy and cookie policy.
A cookie is information stored on your computer by a website you visit. Cookies often store your settings for a website, such as your preferred language or location. This allows the site to present you with information customized to fit your needs. As per the GDPR law, companies need to get your explicit approval to collect your data. Some of these cookies are ‘strictly necessary’ to provide the basic functions of the website and can not be turned off, while others if present, have the option of being turned off. Learn more about our Privacy and Cookie policies. These can be managed also from our cookie policy page.
Skip To
Page Outlines
Loading...
IE10 and below are not supported.
Contact us for any help on browser support
This consultation has now closed.
The council is currently analysing the results.
Overview
All Local Authorities have a new requirement to secure an additional 15 hours of free childcare for 3 and 4 year old children of eligible working parents.
This will come into effect from September 2017 and will provide the eligible parents with a total 30 hours of free childcare per week, over 38 weeks.
The aim of the 30 hours free childcare is to support and enable parents back into employment or to work extra hours, supporting an improvement in the standard of living for parents and children.
The 30 hours freeContinue reading
The council is currently analysing the results.
Overview
All Local Authorities have a new requirement to secure an additional 15 hours of free childcare for 3 and 4 year old children of eligible working parents.
This will come into effect from September 2017 and will provide the eligible parents with a total 30 hours of free childcare per week, over 38 weeks.
The aim of the 30 hours free childcare is to support and enable parents back into employment or to work extra hours, supporting an improvement in the standard of living for parents and children.
The 30 hours free childcare is available through all formal childcare providers as outlined below:
You can find you out more about the eligibility criteria required for the additional 15 hours free childcare here.
As part of securing this additional childcare we are currently consulting with parents to gain a better understanding of the current and future childcare use, and to help gauge what the future demand could be for the additional 15 hours free childcare.
Why we are consulting
We wish to hear from all parents with children aged four or under about their current use of childcare provision and their future use.
We are particularly keen to hear from you if you are currently:
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.
This consultation is Open for contributions.
22 February 2017
Contributions to this consultation are closed for evaluation and review. The Project team will report back on key outcomes.
5 April 2017
The final outcomes of the consultation are documented here. This may include a summary of all contributions collected as well as recommendations for future action.
15 May 2017
Phone | 020 8359 6315 |
earlyyears@barnet.gov.uk |