CHILDCARE SUFFICIENCY ASSESSMENT ANNUAL REPORT 2022

EDUCATION SUPPORT SERVICE

JANUARY 2023

Report by Nicola Sawyer, Early Years Sufficiency and Entitlements Manager

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND……………………………………………………………………………………………….             2

KEY HEADLINES…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………            3

CURRENT MARKET PROVISION

Supply of Early Years and Childcare …………………………………………………………………………………………...     4

Demand for Early Years and Childcare...........................................................................................................................   6

Childcare Business Sustainability……………………………………………………………………………………………..…            7

SUMMARY …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………                9

ACTION PLAN 2023  …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….            12

ACTION PLAN 2022  PROGRESS MADE ……………………………………………………………………………………………    14

ANNEX 1:  ADDITIONAL DATA……………………………………………………………………………………………………………            16

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

This annual report updates elected members on how City of York Council is meeting its statutory duty to secure sufficient early years and childcare provision for children aged 0-14 (and up to 18 for disabled children).

What is Early Years and Childcare?

Childcare is defined in Section 18 of the Childcare Act 2006 as any form of care for a child and includes education for a child and any other supervised activity. In York we refer to Early Years and Childcare as the full range of provision on offer for 0-14 year olds (up to 18 years old for children with Special Educational Needs or a disability) across our Private, Voluntary, Independent and Maintained Sectors.

Childcare Sufficiency Duty

The Childcare Act 2006, Section 6, Duty to secure sufficient childcare for working parents, requires local authorities to ensure there is sufficient childcare to meet the needs of parents who require childcare in order for them to take up or remain in work or to undertake education or training to obtain work.

Local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare and make this report available and accessible to parents. Local authorities are responsible for determining the appropriate level of detail in their report, geographical division and date of publication. The local authority role is one of market facilitation and to:

· Ensure that the childcare is available, accessible and affordable so that parents have the opportunity to use childcare in their area

· Ensure it is of good quality so that it benefits the child

· Provide parents with a choice of childcare so they can choose the childcare that meets their needs.

Assessment Methodology

This annual sufficiency report is informed by the following:

· local parent/carer survey, available via an online survey monkey and in paper format (ran from 7^th July 2022 to 12^th August 2022)

· local provider survey undertaken in September 2022

· local intelligence including from the Quality Improvement Advisers who support early years providers

· York Family Information Service which supports families in finding early years and childcare and offer a brokerage service

· sufficiency data submitted by early years providers

· regular dialogue with providers at information and networking events including the Leaders and Mangers forum

· local datasets including birth data

· planned housing developments across the city

KEY HEADLINES

· There are 256 providers offering 5237 places across the city, which is a slight reduction on last year where we had 273 providers offering 5304 places.

· Good and Outstanding Ofsted Inspections have decreased from 100% to 96.6% (National average 97%)

· Take up of two-year-old early education places has decreased slightly from 97% to 92% (National average 72%)

· Number of eligible two year olds has dropped slightly and is now around 328 compared to 355 in the same term last year.

· There continues to be pressure points in some parts of the city, exacerbated by the current recruitment and retention issues faced by the sector.

· 16 providers have closed their provision during the last year (1 day nursery, 3 playgroups, 11 childminders and 1 out of school club) which has also resulted in a reduction in supply of places.

· 7 providers have opened new provision during the last year (1 out of school club and 6 childminders) and 1 maintained school has commenced offering nursery provision.

· 31 brokerages were supported by York’s Family Information Service.

· There is an ongoing challenge to provide early years and out of school care for children with complex needs.

· There is a mixed picture regarding demand for places. The majority of providers have not seen a change in demand for two, three and four year old places and most providers either saw no change or an increase in demand for baby, paid for and ad hoc places.

· The majority of settings feel that they will remain financially sustainable for another year or longer, one playgroup stated they would only remain viable for a few more months (and have since closed) and several settings were unsure as to future viability.

· Locally and nationally, recruitment and retention of the workforce remains one of the biggest challenges, alongside low numbers and lack of demand for paid for childcare for some providers (mainly childminders and playgroups),

· Historical underfunding and lack of financial support means the market remains fragile especially for recruitment and retention of staff.

· Rising utility costs are seen as the biggest threat to sustainability in the coming months for many providers.

CURRENT MARKET PROVISION

SUPPLY OF EARLY YEARS AND CHLDCARE

Providers submit termly occupancy data which is used to determine average occupancy for each provider and total number of places offered for each age range at ward level. The data below is based on autumn 2022 data for most providers although autumn term data was not available for 23 Childminders and 27 Out of School clubs therefore data from a previous term was used for these settings.Please see Annex 1 for a breakdown of places per sector type and for each ward based on data submitted by providers in autumn 2022.

	2021/2022		2020/2021		2019/2020		2018/19
	Number of providers	Number of places	Number of providers	Number of places	Number of providers	Number of places	Number of providers	Number of places
Childminder	105	549	119	615	123	682	140	815
Day Nursery	39	2122	40	2108	40	2120	42	2155
Pre-School Playgroup	27	594	30	668	30	652	34	828
Maintained Nursery School	7	202	6	203	6	177	6	211
Academy Nursery School	16	461	16	460	16	456	16	447
Independent Nursery School	4	122	4	126	4	140	5	178
Out of School	58	1187	58	1124	58	1134	48	972
Total	256	5237	273	5304	277	5362	282	5606

Early education places for two, three and four year old children

The government funded early education places help ensure that children can access a safe and good quality early years setting for at least 15 hours each week and provides further opportunity to identify speech and language delay very early on, hence supporting improved outcomes and the priority for a best start in life. Take up of funded places for three and four year olds remains very high across the city, although it is not possible to provide an actual percentage take up figure due to migration and children accessing funded places in settings in other bordering local authorities.

Take up of funded two year old places has decreased slightly over the last year from 97% to 92% during the autumn 2022 term. Previously, families identified by the Department for Work and Pensions as claiming Universal Credit and having a two year old child were automatically eligible for a funded place for their two year old.  However, updated government guidance now requires all potentially eligible families to manually apply for a place in order to confirm eligibility, resulting in a slight decrease in the number of families accessing a place. We continue to look at ways to improve engagement with all families and have recently been part of a trial with Nesta, a social innovation agency, to look at whether behaviourally informed communications can increase take-up of the two year old offer. This has meant that despite the change to the application process we are still achieving a very high take up rate of 92%, which remains well above the national average of 72%.

Brokerage Support

In addition to the local online childcare search facility (Synergy - Enquiry (york.gov.uk), York’s Family Information Service continues to offer a free information service for parents and carers of children and young people aged 0-19 (or up to 25 for disabled children) alongside a brokerage service to support families in finding suitable childcare to meet their needs. They also support families who need help in completing the online form application for the funded two year old places. Over the last year, the FIS service supported 31 brokerages, with only one remaining open at the current time.  Support was provided for a range of reasons including the child having additional needs, a place not being available at the preferred provider, 5 were for a two year old funded place of which a full solution was found for all families, short notice or emergency provision being required or the parent/carer requiring a complicated childcare arrangement.

Quality

Ofsted inspections have now resumed following the pandemic with several inspections carried out in York during the academic year 2021-22.

The percentage of providers in York graded as good or outstanding by Ofsted at their most recent Ofsted inspection has decreased from 100% in 2021 to 96.6% in 2022, however, this remains in line with the national average of 97%.

Providers are encouraged to improve the quality of their provision through advice, support and challenge provided by the Quality Improvement Team. However, the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis is already impacting on Ofsted inspection gradings reducing from above national average to slightly below for those providers judged Good or better. A shortage of qualified staff has connotations in regard to providers being fully trained, knowledgeable and competent to deliver the EYFS and fully engage in the Department for Education Covid recovery programmes. This, alongside managers having to be included in ratios, could again result in providers receiving a less than ‘good’ judgement from Ofsted which would impact on the sufficiency of places across the city. 

The 6 year cycle of inspection has now been implemented and this reduction in frequency of inspections could result in quality within settings not being maintained or improved.  In addition, providers judged less than ‘good’ will retain their judgement for a longer period of time which has implications for the setting with regards to being able to receive funding from the Local Authority to deliver funded early education and childcare places for two year olds and could result in children not being able to access local high quality provision.

The focus of support and challenge continues to be concentrated on supporting vulnerable children and those requiring additional interventions as well as prioritising transitions. The emphasis will be to ensure high quality early education places across the market for all vulnerable young children, prioritising communication, language and literacy through the Early Talk for York approach as well as on children’s emotional health and wellbeing.

DEMAND FOR EARLY YEARS AND CHILDCARE

Parent Survey Summary

473 (86%) of respondents indicated that they currently use childcare.  Of these, just over half (55%) could access all of the childcare and / or funded entitlement they needed, 15% indicated that they were not able to access all of the childcare required, either additional ‘paid for’ hours, the funded entitlement or a combination of both and 30% did not provide a response.

Whilst the survey suggests a relatively small amount of unmet need compared to the number of children living in the city, the highest areas of unmet need were for full day care or sessional care for 0–2-year-olds and before /after school provision for 5–11-year-olds, with the following wards noted as areas with the highest numbers of unmet demand:

Acomb (7 families), Bishopthorpe (8 families), City Centre (9 families), Dringhouses & Woodthorpe (9 families), Heworth & Heworth Without (6 families) and Rawcliffe & Clifton Without (5 families)            

Only 3% of the responses had one or more children with SEND, however 58% of families who could not access childcare for a child with SEND or additional needs indicated that this was because they were not confident that the necessary skills, training or resources were in place to support their child.

One of the reasons for the unmet demand is likely due to the recruitment and retention issues currently being experienced by the sector resulting in many providers having to limit the number of places on offer due to staff shortages and this is also adversely affecting some families with children with SEND or additional needs. Many families indicated that they were unable to access flexible childcare to meet their needs so although they may have secured a place for their child it may not be with the required flexibility they ideally need or would prefer.

Many families commented that the cost of childcare was an issue and whilst the majority of families indicated that they were aware of Tax-Free Childcare, nationally there is low take up so this is possible area where families could be supported by raising awareness to increase take up.

When asked about future use of childcare, 27% stated that they planned to use the same amount, 22% planned to use more childcare (this included families whose children were now eligible for funded entitlement hours), 9% planned to use less childcare and 42% stated did not provide a response.

Provider Survey Summary

In the local provider survey, 52% of providers indicated they were unable to meet demand, with the response varying depending on sector type. This figure is higher than last year where only 17% of providers stated that they were not able to meet demand. Most playgroups stated they were able to meet demand however the majority of day nurseries were unable to do so.  Unmet demand was across all age ranges, for both ‘paid for’ and funded entitlement places but most significantly for 0 to 5 year old places.  

Providers were asked “how has parental demand changed over the past 12 months?”

· 2, 3 and 4 yr old funded places – this is a mixed picture with the majority of providers not seeing a change in demand and equal numbers seeing an increase or reduction in demand.

· Baby, paid for and ad hoc places – most providers either saw no change or an increase in demand.

The majority of providers (72%) were not planning on changing their delivery model in the coming year. Those that were looking to change, where considering a variety of changes including increasing opening weeks from term time to 50 weeks per year, extending their age range to reflect demand, more structured planning to show available places and changing session times.

Other Key factors

The birth rate has continued to decline over the last year and hence the total number of 0- to 5-year-olds in the city has reduced by 6.6% from 8206 to 7660.  Forecasts suggest that the birth rate will continue to decline next year, albeit at a slower rate and will remain at a similar rate the following year.

There is a large amount of housing development included in the local plan which, if agreed, will significantly increase demand for early years and childcare places across many areas of the city, however this will be over a period of years.  Where data suggests that existing provision will not support the forecasted increase in demand from a housing development, a contribution for capital funding for the creation of additional early years and childcare places will be sought from the developer as part of the overall request to support the education infrastructure.

CHILDCARE BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY

The ongoing workforce recruitment and retention difficulties and other challenges such as rising energy and salary costs, an insufficient early education funding rate, business rates and inflation does mean that many providers across all sectors continue to face significant financial challenges.

A provider survey undertaken in February 2022 indicated that 40% of settings had recently experienced difficulties in recruiting staff and this remains a significant challenge for the sector, at both a local and national level.  The survey identified the following factors as the main barriers to applicants applying for jobs: level of pay (with other sectors such as retail offering high rates of pay and remuneration packages), lack of interest in the early years and childcare workforce as a career option and access to qualifications. The sector is also losing staff due to early retirement and lifestyle changes, and this coupled with low levels of new practitioners and apprentices into the sector is impacting on the local childcare market

Many providers used savings and reserves to preserve cash flow and maintain sustainability throughout the pandemic when they were faced with a reduced income, and this has left many with greatly depleted bank reserves meaning that future sustainability is a real concern. Many providers have had to reduce the number of places they can offer due to staff shortages and which is reducing their income. It therefore remains a very challenging operating environment for providers. Providers continue to pass some of the increased costs onto families either by increasing the hourly /daily rate they charge or introducing / increasing their charge for consumables (additional extras over and above the delivery of the funded entitlement such as lunch, snacks, nappies, sun cream etc).

There have been several providers close during the past year, (1 day nursery, 3 playgroups and 11 childminders) and one out of school club has moved to school run provision. There have been 6 new childminders to the market in York. 

Provider Survey Summary

When asked how they thought their business or setting would perform this coming year, there was a very mixed response. 14% expected to run at a loss, 36% were expecting to break even, 21% expected to generate a surplus and 28% were unsure, indicating continued uncertainty in the market.

When asked about their confidence in remaining financially sustainable in the future, the majority of settings (74%) felt they would remain financially sustainable for another year or longer, one playgroup felt they would only be sustainable for a few more months (and have since closed) and 25% were unsure.

Providers were asked “if there was any additional support they felt they would benefit from following the impact of covid-19”

· 28% of providers felt they would benefit from additional support, with the majority highlighting financial support,  helping with rising energy costs and/or providing a higher Early Education funding rate, recruitment of staff and support with SEND (financial and training).

SUMMARY AND NEXT STEPS

There remain a number of national and local challenges which continue to impact on the early years and childcare market and have the potential to affect the supply of good quality places to meet demand. Several providers have closed during the last year hence the number of places offered across the city has slightly reduced.  Some providers have reduced the number of places offered due to the recruitment issues and resulting shortage of staff therefore there are currently small areas of unmet demand across the city including for some children with SEND.

Several other areas of uncertainty also pose a challenge to sufficiency including raising inflation and operational costs, underfunding and suitable, affordable premises. The impact of the pandemic and the current economic climate does also mean that we may continue to see potentialchanges in demand from families. In addition, the draft local plan incorporates a large number of housing developments across the city which will likely have a significant impact on the childcare market in future years. Section 106 funding contributions are being requested for housing developments where it can be evidenced that there is likely to be insufficient early years and childcare provision in the local area to support an increase demand arising from the development.  This funding will be used to support capital grants for the development and /or expansion of places through a tender process.

The ongoing staffing recruitment and retention crisis is also impacting on Ofsted inspection gradings as a shortage of qualified staff has implications in regard to providers being fully trained, knowledgeable and competent to deliver the EYFS and fully engage in the Department for Education Covid recovery programmes. Providers receiving a less than ‘good’ judgement from Ofsted will impact on the sufficiency of places across the city. 

There are several nursery chains in York, including multi-academy trusts, national nursery chains and local providers and whilst this does give the opportunity for greater investment and expansion bringing more capacity and choice to the market it does also present a risk to the statutory childcare sufficiency duty if a chain were to experience issues that impact on its sustainability and resulted in sudden closure.

The local authority is not a direct provider of early years and childcare provision, and its role is to facilitate the childcare market. York’s Family Information Service provide support to families who are struggling to find suitable provision and offer a brokerage service to help them find childcare to meet their needs. Where data indicates a larger area of unmet need which supports sustainable provision, the local authority works with providers to encourage the expansion and development of new places wherever possible although this can be challenging due to the limited premise availability, staffing shortages and limited funding available to the sector for development of new places if Section 106 funding is not available for that particular area of the city.

Where providers are experiencing sustainability issues, the local authority works closely with them, providing advice and support and looking at potential solutions including revisiting their business models and staffing structures however a viable business model cannot always be found. Where settings do close or staff face redundancy, they are supported to find a suitable role at another setting within the city. 

The provision of appropriate early years and childcare that meets the needs of children with special educational needs and, or disability continues to be of high importance in York and there are a number of strategies to uphold equity of access for all children.  These include the provision of additional funding for providers where staffing levels are increased above statutory ratios in order to meet the needs of children with SEND. A new model of support was introduced in York in September 2022; the learning support hub aims to build in skills and capacity from birth to 25 for children and young people with identified and emerging SEND. Providers can apply to the hub for targeted intervention which will involve specialist teachers or practitioners from the outreach team to work directly in settings over a prescribed period of time by offering a scaffolded approach to build skills and capacity into the sector to support children with additional needs.   Alongside this there is a universal training offer and a bespoke training offer which can be applied for to meet the unique specific requirements of a cohort or an individual child where the universal training offer does not meet the child or young person’s specific needs. York is working with Best Practice who are delivering the Level 3 SENCo qualification and have increased the number of SENCo networks to an additional network each term.   SENCo training is being co-delivered with St Pauls in Spring 2023.

The Early Talk for York approach trains staff in primary schools and early years settings so they can spot any issues with speech, communication and language early, and work with the child and their family or carers, and other professionals, if necessary, to address them.

Early Talk for York provides a consistent assessment of children’s speech, communication and language which early years and school settings can use routinely to identify any speech, communication or language problems in the children they’re working with.

The approach is being widened across York and early years setting and primary schools are being invited to become involved.

In York the early years and childcare sector is trying the address the current retention and recruitment challenge in a number of ways including offering more flexible hours and/or increasing benefits for employees without paying additional costs, combining age groups for better efficiencies, sharing of staff across sites where appropriate, increased use of Job Centre Plus and recruitment events to attract potential employees and increasing the number of apprenticeships where possible. Nationally, consideration is being given to allowing flexibility on the qualification ratio and allowing those part qualified to Level 3 in Early Years to be counted in the 50% qualification ratio, and to require entry level maths rather than GCSE.  

The local authority is working with colleagues in partner agencies such as the Job Centre Plus, colleges, universities, the Local Government Association and sector organisations alongside ongoing dialogue with the Department for Education to highlight the current staffing crisis and seek potential short and long term solutions. Local solutions within the Early Years Workforce Strategy Plan are also being explored and a social media campaign was launched across the city to promote early years careers, apprenticeships and routes into early years management. Colleagues are also working closely with prioritised settings focused on the optimum ways to deploy staff effectively.

The early years and childcare sector is identified as a key sector in the local authorities Inclusive Growth Strategy and we are working closely with the Economic Growth team and Skills team to identify opportunities for supporting the labour market and promoting the early years as a viable career path. This work includes promoting vacancy and apprenticeship opportunities available within the sector via existing communication channels and key recruitment events and working closely with colleagues, providers, schools and colleges to facilitate the promotion of early years through the careers education network and other local networks.  We are also looking at how we identify any missing skills sets which would support the current recruitment issues being experienced by providers with the aim of linking to potential projects under existing funding streams such as the UK Shared Prosperity Funding and Skills Bootcamp Programme.

Working in conjunction with school place planning, York’s Supplementary Planning Guidance has been updated as part of work undertaken to successfully secure capital funding (Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)) from new housing developments to support the development and expansion of both early years and school places. Local policy on potential yields from housing developments will also be reviewed following publication of updated national DfE guidance. Funding has successfully been secured for 16 new early years and childcare places as part of the Lowfield Green developments, with the procurement for the development of these places currently underway.

To support families with the cost of childcare work, Tax Free Childcare is promoted with via the local authority website and social media sites.  Further work is ongoing to also promote with colleagues in family facing services including our early years providers, the Healthy Child Service, Job Centre Plus, libraries, Children’s Centres and the Customer Finance Team to further increase take up.

Meetings have taken place with local councillors in wards identified from the parent survey as possibly having unmet demand to maintain an up to date picture of early years and childcare demand and supply in those specific areas of the city and discuss potential solutions to help mitigate some of the challenges specific to those areas of the city.

An ongoing overview of the early years and childcare market will continue to be informed by local intelligence from colleagues in the quality improvement team, local councillors, services directly supporting families and networking events with our local early years and childcare providers.  The regular networking events, which include informal briefings and information sessions ensure that providers have the most up to date information on any available funding sources, training, learning from recent Ofsted inspections and learning from other local authorities. They also provide a valuable opportunity for the local authority to gain an up-to-date perspective on the current situation with the childcare market in York, which is extremely dynamic.

ACTION PLAN 2023

Key issue	Action	Timescale
Unmet demand	Maintain overview of early years and childcare market and assessment of unmet demand via local intelligence with colleagues in York Family Information Service, Quality Improvement team, other family facing professionals and services, local councillors and early years and childcare providers and data sets including annual parent and provider survey, provider sufficiency data and birth data.	Ongoing
	Where demand supports the development and or expansion of new places, work with partners to identify solutions and support the development of these new places.	Ongoing
SEND	Continue to work with partners to identify areas of unmet need in the city and potential solutions for the development of new provision and/or expansion of existing provision to address accessibility.	Ongoing
Housing developments & Section 106  / CIL capital funding	Secure section 106 / CIL capital funding and procure the expansion and development of new early years and childcare places to meet additional demand arising from new housing developments. Refine local policy on potential yields from housing developments in York once national DfE guidance is published to support this work.	Ongoing
Recruitment and retention	· Explore local solutions as part of the EY Working Strategy Plan and in collaboration with colleagues in partner agencies such as the Job Centre Plus, colleges, universities, the Local Government Association and Sector organisations to identify potential solutions. · Continue to promote early years careers, apprenticeships and routes into early years management. · Working with the Economic Growth team and Skills team to identify opportunities for supporting the labour market and promoting the early years as a viable career path · Maintain ongoing dialogue with the Department for Education to highlight the current crisis.	Spring and summer term 2023. Ongoing
Overall sufficiency of places	Continue to monitor and risk assess: · Longer term impacts of the pandemic and current economic climate alongside capability and capacity of sector for growth · school lease arrangements with early years and childcare providers · the growth of local and national chains	Ongoing
Take up of entitlements	Continue to promote the take up of early education and childcare places with families in York including support the most vulnerable families to access a funded two year old place and encouraging good attendance for those families accessing the funded entitlements. Continue to support ongoing projects with NESTA (social innovation agency) which focus on improving the take up and attendance of funded early years places.	Ongoing
Affordability	Work with partner agencies and colleagues within the local authority to develop a communications plan for the promotion of funded early education places and Tax Free Childcare to families across the city.	Spring term 2023

ACTION PLAN 22 UPDATE: ACTIONS COMPLETED

Key issue	Action	Timescale
Unmet demand	Continue to assess extent of unmet demand via further parental engagement, identifying local groups which could potentially be used for parental feedback. Parent survey undertaken in the summer term and shared with families via colleagues who work with and support families including York Kids, Homestart, Family Learning, Parent Carer Forum, portage and Healthy Child Service.	Ongoing
Housing developments & Section 106  / capital funding	Continue to secure section 106 / capital funding and procure the expansion and development of new early years and childcare places to meet additional demand arising from new housing developments including Civil Service & Lowfield Green developments. An Early Years and Childcare Capital Grant Application and Assessment Process has been developed.  The tender process for 16 Early Years places as part of the Lowfield Green housing development is in progress.	Ongoing
	Refine local policy on potential yields from housing developments in York once national DfE guidance is published. Awaiting updated national guidance from Department for Education.  Local Supplementary Planning Guidance is being updated and where local data supports a change in potential yields from housing developments, the guidance will be amended to reflect this.	Ongoing
Recruitment and retention	Undertake provider survey to obtain further information and secure evidence base of the issues. Work with partner agencies such as the college, university, Local Government Association and sector organisations and ensure ongoing dialogue with the Department for Education to highlight the current crisis around retention and recruitment and mitigate risk by seeking potential short term and long term solutions. Implement local solutions within the Early Years and Childcare Workforce Strategy Plan such as a social media campaign. Continue to promote apprenticeships, particularly to support routes into early years management. Survey undertaken in January 22 and summary report published.  Social media campaign to promote the early years sector undertaken and continuing. Work ongoing to promote apprenticeships in early years. Issues and challenges raised with Department for Education, Local Government Association and sector organisations and ongoing.	Spring & Summer 2022
SEND	Work with partners to identify solutions and support the development of new provision and/or expansion of existing provision to address accessibility including use of Section 23 of The Children and Families Act 2014 as information source on children with SEND to support future planning. Work ongoing with existing partners to support the development of sustainable out of school provision for children with complex needs and if appropriate to soft test the market with potential specialist providers.	Ongoing
Overall sufficiency of places	Continue to monitor and risk assess: · Longer term impacts of the pandemic alongside capability and capacity of sector for growth · school lease arrangements with early years and childcare providers · the growth of local and national chains Regular meetings with Property Services held to discuss potential issues and support ways forward. Longer term impacts of pandemic and capacity of sector for growth regularly assessed via local intelligence, regular network sessions with providers and provider surveys. Growth of local and national chains monitored on a regular basis.	Ongoing
Take up of entitlements	Continue to promote the take up of early education and childcare places with families in York including support the most vulnerable families to access a funded two year old place and encouraging good attendance for those families accessing the funded entitlements. Promotion of early education places in York undertaken via York Family Information and City of York Council social media platforms and regular mailouts to families on distribution lists.  Project with Nesta, social innovation agency, undertaken to support increased take up of funded two year old places and encouraging good attendance. Ongoing work with partner agencies who work with families to promote the take up of early education places.	Ongoing

ANNEX 1   ADDITIONAL DATA

i) Population forecast for 2, 3 and 4 year olds by ward area

	21/22				22/23				23/24
	0-2s	2-3s	3-4s	total	0-2s	2-3s	3-4s	total	0-2s	2-3s	3-4s	total
Acomb Ward	157	85	132	374	144	72	145	361	145	72	128	345
Bishopthorpe Ward	35	19	30	84	33	16	36	85	33	17	29	79
Clifton Ward	181	92	171	444	179	89	159	427	180	90	143	412
Copmanthorpe Ward	41	22	41	104	38	19	32	89	38	19	34	91
Dringhouses & Woodthorpe Ward	210	118	156	484	184	92	177	453	185	92	171	449
Fishergate Ward	118	57	131	306	122	61	101	284	122	61	92	276
Fulford & Heslington Ward	43	25	35	103	37	18	35	90	37	19	37	93
Guildhall Ward	171	94	136	401	154	77	149	379	154	77	141	372
Haxby & Wigginton Ward	148	76	138	362	143	72	130	345	144	72	114	330
Heworth Without Ward	273	148	221	642	251	125	235	611	252	126	220	598
Heworth Ward	47	24	49	120	47	23	47	117	47	23	38	109
Holgate Ward	258	133	239	630	251	125	227	603	252	126	201	579
Hull Road Ward	119	59	125	303	121	60	112	293	121	61	96	278
Huntington & New Earswick Ward	175	93	161	429	165	82	152	399	166	83	142	391
Micklegate Ward	220	112	212	544	217	108	178	503	218	109	170	497
Osbaldwick & Derwent Ward	89	47	78	214	84	42	83	209	85	42	73	200
Rawcliffe & Clifton Without Ward	270	151	228	649	238	119	206	563	239	119	223	581
Rural West Ward	113	63	92	268	100	50	87	236	100	50	91	241
Strensall Ward	120	58	124	302	124	62	112	297	124	62	93	279
Westfield Ward	303	152	308	763	302	151	283	736	304	152	246	701
Wheldrake Ward	57	30	48	135	54	27	52	132	54	27	47	127

ii) Places available per sector type

During the autumn term 2022, there was a total of 4029 places available for the 0 – under 5 age range, and a total of 1208 places available for children 5 years and above, broken down into the following sector types:

iii) Places available for each ward for 0 – under 5 year olds

Number of places offered for age range 0 - under 5 year olds
Ward	0 – under 5 Population (21/22)	Childminder	Day Nursery	Pre-School Playgroup	Maintained Nursery Class	Academy Nursery Class	Independent Nursery Class	Maintained Nursery School	Out of School Club	Total Places	% Places per 100 Children
Acomb	374	24	0	24	39	0	0	0	0	87	23.3
Bishopthorpe	84	2	57	24	0	0	0	0	10	93	110.7
Clifton	444	16	75	19	39	30	44	0	0	223	50.2
Copmanthorpe	104	12	24	24	15	0	0	0	0	75	72.1
Dringhouses & Woodthorpe	484	31	125	18	0	44	0	0	13	231	47.7
Fishergate	306	0	116	39	12	52	18	0	9	246	80.4
Fulford & Heslington	103	9	0	48	0	0	0	0	0	57	55.3
Guildhall	401	0	236	24	0	28	0	0	4	292	72.8
Haxby & Wiggington	362	30	142	65	0	0	0	0	12	249	68.8
Heworth & Heworth Without	762	21	118	17	0	60	0	0	4	220	28.9
Holgate	630	16	45	51	0	26	0	61	30	229	36.3
Hull Road	303	10	94	14	0	0	0	0	0	118	38.9
Huntington & New Earswick	429	39	85	53	20	37	0	0	0	234	54.5
Micklegate	544	6	48	0	0	39	16	0	6	115	21.1
Osbaldwick & Derwent	214	3	232	32	0	33	0	0	27	327	152.8
Rawcliffe & Clifton	649	43	230	11	0	26	36	0	54	400	61.6
Rural West	268	14	231	13	0	36	0	0	28	322	120.1
Strensall	302	29	88	61	0	24	0	0	0	202	66.9
Westfield	763	39	103	24	16	26	0	0	0	208	27.3
Wheldrake	135	0	53	33	0	0	0	0	15	101	74.8
Total	7661	344	2102	594	141	461	114	61	212	4029
									Average		63.2

iv) Places available for each ward for 5+ year olds

Number of places offered for age range 0 - under 5 year olds
Ward	Childminder	Day Nursery	Pre-School Playgroup	Maintained Nursery Class	Academy Nursery Class	Independent Nursery Class	Maintained Nursery School	Out of School Club	Total Places
Acomb	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6
Bishopthorpe	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	30	31
Clifton	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	70	77
Copmanthorpe	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	23	28
Dringhouses & Woodthorpe	25	0	0	0	0	0	0	76	101
Fishergate	0	0	0	0	0	8	0	48	56
Fulford & Heslington	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	25	25
Guildhall	0	9	0	0	0	0	0	10	19
Haxby & Wiggington	17	0	0	0	0	0	0	93	110
Heworth & Heworth Without	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	40	49
Holgate	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	110	113
Hull Road	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	40	43
Huntington & New Earswick	31	0	0	0	0	0	0	24	55
Micklegate	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	36	42
Osbaldwick & Derwent	2	5	0	0	0	0	0	12	19
Rawcliffe & Clifton	39	0	0	0	0	0	0	52	91
Rural West	11	0	0	0	0	0	0	124	135
Strensall	24	0	0	0	0	0	0	80	104
Westfield	16	0	0	0	0	0	0	32	48
Wheldrake	0	6	0	0	0	0	0	50	56
Total	205	20	0	0	0	8	0	975	1208