South Tyneside Council to undertake ‘early years sufficiency assessment’ following childcare extension

The council has welcomed the proposal to extend children in stages from April 2024 and will carry out an assessment to judge the impact that it will have on the amount of childcare hours that are available.

During the Spring Budget, the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, announced 30 hours of free childcare for all under-fives from the moment that maternity care ends, where eligible.

Mr Hunt said the policy would be introduced in stages to ensure that there is “enough supply in the market”.

Under the proposals, free childcare for working parents will be available to those with two-year-olds from April 2024, but it will initially be limited to 15 hours.

Then from September 2024, the 15-hour offer will be extended to children aged nine months and over, with the full 30-hour offer to all under-fives coming in from September 2025.

Figures from the Department of Education show there were 2,358 places for early years childcare in South Tyneside as of December 2022 – but it is not clear what that relates to.

The data doesn’t disclose whether it includes all childcare provisions such as childminders and private providers, along with South Tyneside Council’s STANLEY’s childcare and school based nursery classes.

It also doesn’t state whether the 2,358 are full time or part time childcare spaces.

At the time of writing, there is surplus childcare spaces in South Tyneside; however, the local authority has expressed concerns at how flexible childcare providers will be once the extension is implemented.

A spokesperson for the Council said: “At the current time there is surplus capacity across a number of our providers and so no shortage of places overall in the sector for parents who want one.

“The issue – rather than being purely about the increase in hours – is about how much flexibility providers can give in operating hours to accommodate a greater range of parental working hours and patterns.

"Whilst the proposal to extend childcare in stages from April 2024 is welcome, more detail is required to establish whether the government funding will be sufficient to cover providers’ actual costs.”

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