City of York Council

Annex 2 Equalities Impact Assessment

Who is submitting the proposal?

Directorate:		People
Service Area:		Education Support Services
Name of the proposal :		Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report January 2023
Lead officer:		Maxine Squire, Assistant Director, Education and Skills
Date assessment completed:		05/01/2023
Names of those who contributed to the assessment :
Name	Job title		Organisation	Area of expertise
Nicola Sawyer	Early Years Entitlement and Sufficiency Manager		CYC	Education Support Services

Step 1 – Aims and intended outcomes 

1.1	What is the purpose of the proposal? Please explain your proposal in Plain English avoiding acronyms and jargon.
	To provide a summary of the annual childcare sufficiency assessment report to understand the current situation regarding supply and demand for early years and childcare provision, the current challenges impacting on the early years and childcare sector and the mitigations in place to address the challenges.

1.2

Are there any external considerations? (Legislation/government directive/codes of practice etc.)

The council has a duty to provide: -  sufficient early years and childcare as far as is reasonably practicable to meet the requirements of parents in their area who require childcare or parents who need childcare to be able to work or to undertake training or education to prepare for work. -  sufficient childcare for children aged 0-14 (and up to 18 for disabled children) and for early education places for eligible two year olds and three and four year olds.   Legislation and statutory government guidance supports the operational delivery of these statutory duties and this is subject to change on a frequent basis.

1.3

Who are the stakeholders and what are their interests?

The key stake holders are: · The Council to carry out their statutory duty to deliver sufficient childcare and early education places · Providers who deliver and early years and childcare places. · Parents/carers and their families who need early education places and childcare to be able to go out to work. · The children and young people who are attending early years and childcare provision. · Employers who need to recruit and retain staff to support their businesses.

1.4

What results/outcomes do we want to achieve and for whom?  This section should explain what outcomes you want to achieve for service users, staff and/or the wider community. Demonstrate how the proposal links to the Council Plan (2019- 2023) and other corporate strategies and plans.

To ensure sufficient early years and childcare places across the city to meet the needs of families in York.  To ensure all 2, 3 and 4 year olds who are eligible for a funded early education place are able to access a place including those from disadvantaged backgrounds and hard to reach families. This links directly to the Council Plan ‘A better start for children and young people’ and the ambition to ‘Continue to prioritise gaining improved outcomes for our most disadvantaged children and young people in the city’.

Step 2 – Gathering the information and feedback 

2.1	What sources of data, evidence and consultation feedback do we have to help us understand the impact of the proposal on equality rights and human rights? Please consider a range of sources, including: consultation exercises, surveys, feedback from staff, stakeholders, participants, research reports, the views of equality groups, as well your own experience of working in this area etc.
Source of data/supporting evidence		Reason for using Use of local intelligence from the childcare sufficiency data provided by early years providers, provider and parental surveys,  evidence from quality improvement visits to settings, information received by the early education entitlements team and feedback from the regular opportunities to engage with the sector during informal briefings and termly Leaders and Managers sessions.

Step 3 – Gaps in data and knowledge

3.1	What are the main gaps in information and understanding of the impact of your proposal?  Please indicate how any gaps will be dealt with.
Gaps in data or knowledge		Action to deal with this
Changing parental demand is difficult to predict including the additional financial impact of rising cost of living pressures on the settings.		Ongoing monitoring via surveys with parents and providers.

Step 4 – Analysing the impacts or effects.

4.1	Please consider what the evidence tells you about the likely impact (positive or negative) on people sharing a protected characteristic, i.e. how significant could the impacts be if we did not make any adjustments? Remember the duty is also positive – so please identify where the proposal offers opportunities to promote equality and/or foster good relations.
Equality Groups and Human Rights.		Key Findings/Impacts	Positive (+) Negative (-) Neutral (0)	Medium (M) Low (L)
Age		The provision of places ensures that eligible children are able to access early education.	+	Low
Disability		The provision of places must be accessible and reasonable adjustments should be made for SEND.	+	Low
Gender
Gender Reassignment
Marriage and civil partnership
Pregnancy and maternity
Race
Religion and belief
Sexual orientation
Other Socio-economic groups including :		Could other socio-economic groups be affected e.g. carers, ex-offenders, low incomes?
Carer
Low income groups		Eligible two year olds are provided with early education places up to 15 hours per week (targeted).  Three and four year olds on low income are provided with up to 15 hours per week early education (universal).	+	Low
Veterans, Armed Forces Community
Other
Impact on human rights:
List any human rights impacted.		The right to education	+

Use the following guidance to inform your responses:

Indicate:

- Where you think that the proposal could have a POSITIVE impact on any of the equality groups like promoting equality and equal opportunities or improving relations within equality groups

- Where you think that the proposal could have a NEGATIVE impact on any of the equality groups, i.e. it could disadvantage them

- Where you think that this proposal has a NEUTRAL effect on any of the equality groups listed below i.e. it has no effect currently on equality groups.

It is important to remember that a proposal may be highly relevant to one aspect of equality and not relevant to another.

High impact (The proposal or process is very equality relevant)	There is significant potential for or evidence of adverse impact The proposal is institution wide or public facing The proposal has consequences for or affects significant numbers of people The proposal has the potential to make a significant contribution to promoting equality and the exercise of human rights.
Medium impact (The proposal or process is somewhat equality relevant)	There is some evidence to suggest potential for or evidence of adverse impact The proposal is institution wide or across services, but mainly internal The proposal has consequences for or affects some people The proposal has the potential to make a contribution to promoting equality and the exercise of human rights
Low impact (The proposal or process might be equality relevant)	There is little evidence to suggest that the proposal could result in adverse impact The proposal operates in a limited way The proposal has consequences for or affects few people The proposal may have the potential to contribute to promoting equality and the exercise of human rights

Step 5 - Mitigating adverse impacts and maximising positive impacts

5.1

Based on your findings, explain ways you plan to mitigate any unlawful prohibited conduct or unwanted adverse impact. Where positive impacts have been identified, what is been done to optimise opportunities to advance equality or foster good relations?

An action plan is in place to mitigate against the challenges and potential sufficiency gaps highlighted in the annual assessment. The Local Authority will continue to maintain an overview of the market in terms of both supply and demand, working with other agencies and partners, including the skills team, economic development team, Job Centre Plus, and colleges and universities to explore solutions to the current recruitment and retention issues which are impacting on sufficiency. Our excellent relationships with providers across all sectors will continue to be maintained in order that we fully understand the issues they are facing and work closely with them to understand how they can be supported to remain sustainable and continue to offer high quality, affordable and accessible early years and childcare places for children and young people. Work will continue with colleagues in the housing team to understand how and when new housing developments may impact on the market and requests for capital funding will support additional educational infrastructure to meet the associated expected increase in demand.

Step 6 – Recommendations and conclusions of the assessment

6.1	Having considered the potential or actual impacts you should be in a position to make an informed judgement on what should be done. In all cases, document your reasoning that justifies your decision. There are four main options you can take:
- Adjust the proposal – the EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. This involves taking steps to remove any barriers, to better advance quality or to foster good relations. - Continue with the proposal (despite the potential for adverse impact) – you should clearly set out the justifications for doing this and how you believe the decision is compatible with our obligations under the duty - Stop and remove the proposal – if there are adverse effects that are not justified and cannot be mitigated, you should consider stopping the proposal altogether. If a proposal leads to unlawful discrimination it should be removed or changed. Important: If there are any adverse impacts you cannot mitigate, please provide a compelling reason in the justification column.
Option selected		Conclusions/justification
Continue with the proposal		The impact has been reviewed and the proposal to provide a summary of the annual childcare sufficiency assessment report acknowledges the current challenges impacting on the early years and childcare sector and sets out a clear action plan to show the mitigations in place to address the challenges.

Step 7 – Summary of agreed actions resulting from the assessment

7.1	What action, by whom, will be undertaken as a result of the impact assessment.
Impact/issue		Action to be taken	Person responsible	Timescale
N/a

Step 8 - Monitor, review and improve

8. 1	How will the impact of your proposal be monitored and improved upon going forward?   Consider how will you identify the impact of activities on protected characteristics and other marginalised groups going forward? How will any learning and enhancements be capitalised on and embedded?