Decision details

(Councillors Brazil, Leaver, Whitton attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and spoke to this item).

The Cabinet considered the Report of the Deputy Director & Head of Inclusion and Learning (Interim) (CS/25/01) which presented  the annual return on the sufficiency of early years and childcare places, circulated prior to the meeting in accordance with regulation 7(4) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012.

The Cabinet noted the statutory duty as set out in Section 6 (1) of the Childcare Act 2006 to secure sufficient, accessible, affordable, high quality early years and childcare places so far as was reasonably practicable and that an annual report was made to elected Members on how the authority was meeting its duty.

The Report provided a summary of the annual Childcare Sufficiency Assessment, setting out the current key findings (detailed in the appendix), the use and leverage of national funding, steps being taken to retain and recruit a qualified workforce and the next steps proposed to maintain and meet the Council’s statutory duty to secure sufficient, accessible, affordable, high quality early years and childcare places so far as was reasonably practicable.

The Report outlined in detail Early years places for under-five-year-olds and Wraparound places for primary school aged children and the proposals moving forward including addressing new entitlements for working parents, Childcare Sufficiency Hot Spots and how the service was pro-actively responding to developing more childcare provision in these areas.

Nationally and in Devon, it was a challenge to recruit suitably qualified and experienced early years and childcare staff and a number of activities had been taken to support the recruitment and retention of staff within the sector, outlined in full at section 2.9.

The Service was taking a number of steps to improve and secure sufficient, accessible, affordable, high quality early years and childcare places. The key actions were provided at section 3 of the Report. Work included the draft Early Years Strategy which was underway to monitor and measure progress against actions relating to sufficiency of places, take up of funded entitlements, engaging with parents, quality of provision, recruitment and retention of staff within the sector and performance and management information.

The 2023/24 Childcare Sufficiency Annual Report (provided in the appendix) covered the period July 2023 to August 2024.

The matter having been debated and the options and alternatives and other relevant factors (e.g. financial, sustainability and carbon impact, risk management, equality and legal considerations and alignment with the Council’s Strategic Plan) set out in the Deputy Director’s Report having been considered:

it was MOVED by Councillor Leadbetter, SECONDED by Councillor McInnes, and

RESOLVED that the Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Annual Report be approved for publication to the Council’s website.