Childcare Sufficiency Report
2021

Contents

Version control	2

Introduction and overview	2

Geography	2

Torbay Local Intelligence	2

Torbay Demographics	2

Torbay Population by town	2

Torbay population by ward	2

Birth Data	2

Joint Strategic Needs Assessment	2

Family Dyamics	2

The Torbay Economy – working families & job vacancies	2

Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic	2

Torbay Childcare Market	2

Current supply of childcare (0-4 yrs) in Torbay	2

All year round childcare analysis	2

Term time only childcare analysis	2

2 year old funding entitlement	2

3 & 4 year old entitlements (15 hours and 30 hours)	2

Access to Wraparound and holiday childcare for working parents	2

Holiday childcare	2

Migration in Torbay for Childcare	2

Cost of childcare across England	2

Quality of childcare in Torbay	2

Private nurseries and pre-schools (group providers)	2

Childminders	2

Primary Schools and Academies	2

Data on Children achieving a Good Level of Development (GLD)	2

Housing Developments	2

Parental Demand	2

Services available to families in Torbay	2

Family Information Service	2

Children’s Centres	2

Early Help	2

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities	2

Access to childcare for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)	2

Summary of Key Findings & Action Plan	2

Update on 2019 Action Plan	2

2021 Action Plan	2

Version control

Date	Details	Updated by
20/08/2021	First version	Sarah White
18/11/2021	Second version	Sarah White

Introduction and overview

The Childcare Act 2006 places duties on all local authorities to secure sufficient childcare, so far as is reasonably practicable for working parents, or parents who are studying or training for employment, for children aged 0‐14 (or up to 18 for disabled children). As part of these duties Torbay Council is required to report annually to elected Council Members on how this duty is being met and to publish this report to make it accessible for parents.

This document summarises key priorities for Torbay, an overview of the local childcare market and local changes to the supply and demand of childcare in the Torbay area.

Results show the population of children in Torbay is continuing to plateau, with a levelling off after several years of high birth rates. Despite this, housing developments are continuing within the local area which has an impact on population forecasts. As the developments grow and families move into the area there is an anticipated growth in demand for childcare, particularly in the Shiphay (Torquay) and White Rock (Paignton) areas.

Geography

This assessment is required to analyse the childcare market at a local authority and sub-locality level. Torbay is a small Local Authority therefore the sub-locality areas used in this assessment are the administrative wards. Torbay has a relatively small number of childcare providers, so analysing patterns of supply and demand at ward level allows more meaningful conclusions than had the geography identified been any smaller. An outline of ward boundaries is shown in the map to the side. Where data is not analysed at ward level, a town level analysis is conducted (Torquay, Paignton and Brixham). In May 2019, the existing Torbay wards were changed; with amendments to existing wards and the addition of new wards. This document reflects the new ward data.

Torbay Local Intelligence

Torbay has a strong, stable and diverse childcare market which is dominated by the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sector.

As a small Local Authority, the residents of Torbay who need it tend to have a thorough knowledge of the childcare market in the area and make judgements based on first, second or even third hand experiences of providers.

In addition to this, there is a trend for parents who would rather wait for a place at their preferred provider or location (e.g. a nursery on site or close to their preferred school) than find an alternative. This results in many children not starting their early education until sometimes 2 or 3 terms after they become entitled which can have a distinct impact on the take up rates for the 2 year old entitlement.

Torbay has a significant number of economically inactive parents of which more than 50% have actively taken the decision to stay at home for the purposes of caring for their children and home.This has resulted in a difficulty in managing demand. Some providers have low occupancy and advertised vacancies are difficult to fill, whereas some providers have extensive waiting lists and report being full for the coming terms.

Torbay Demographics

The data used for this information comes from the 2011 census, the 2017 mid year population estimates and the 2019 mid-year population estimates.

Torbay Population by town

2011 census	2017 estimates	2019 estimates	Total pop'n	0-4 pop'n
Total pop'n	0-4 pop'n	Total pop'n	0-4 pop'n	Total pop'n	0-4 pop'n	%inc/dec 2017-2019	%inc/dec 2017-2019
Brixham	16,693	712	16,977	711	16,982	659	0.03%	-7.9%
Paignton	49,021	2267	51,004	2660	51,444	2,511	0.86%	-5.9%
Torquay	65245	3711	67,264	3808	67,838	3,563	0.85%	-6.9%
TOTAL	130,959	6,690	135,245	7179	136,264	6,733	0.75%	-6.6%

These figures demonstrate a small decrease in the total population of Torbay and an estimated larger decline in the number of 0-4 year olds.

Torbay population by ward

2019 population estimates
Ward	Total pop	0-4 pop	% of ward aged 4 or under
Barton with Watcombe	12,240	735	6.0%
Churston with Galmpton	6,451	162	2.5%
Clifton with Maidenway	7,497	353	4.7%
Cockington with Chelston	8,124	332	4.1%
Collaton St Mary	3,296	234	7.1%
Ellacombe	8,107	460	5.7%
Furzeham with Summercombe	10,141	301	3.0%
Goodrington with Roselands	7,464	242	3.2%
King's Ash	7,949	487	6.1%
Preston	10,279	367	3.6%
Roundham with Hyde	8,508	337	4.0%
Shiphay	7,839	349	4.5%
St Marychurch	12,200	489	4.0%
St Peter's with St Mary's	6,841	273	4.0%
Tormohun	12,403	604	4.9%
Wellswood	6,925	126	1.8%
TOTAL	136,264 136,264	5,851	4.3%

The actual population of 0-4 year olds includes 4 year old children who are in a reception class in school; therefore in this document for the purposes of assessing sufficiency of places, the number of 4 year old children has been adjusted to account for approximately 60% of 4 year olds being in a school reception class.

Birth Data

TORBAY BIRTHS
TORQUAY BIRTHS	PAIGNTON BIRTHS	BRIXHAM BIRTHS	TORBAY TOTAL
2010/11	840	499	157	1496
2011/12	828	464	158	1450
2012/13	808	491	151	1450
2013/14	809	498	156	1463
2014/15	801	460	136	1397
2015/16	777	487	130	1394
2016/17	712	447	131	1290
2017/18	722	444	128	1294
2018/19	668	451	109	1228

The following table and graph provides information on the number of births in Torbay

It is evident from this data that the birth rates in Torbay are declining. Additional capacity was built to accommodate the bulge birth years in 2010/11 and 2013/14. This capacity could now be affected and under-utilised, resulting in a surplus of places. Early indications are showing that the number of booked pregnancies and births in 2021 are increasing significantly, which may result in bulge classes throughout nursery and school, similar to that experienced in the 2010-2013 birth years. Should this indication be confirmed, there may be a shortage of places throughout 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Joint Strategic Needs Assessment

The Joint Strategic Needs Assessment 2020-21 has identified the following key issues affecting children in the Torbay area (taken from the ‘Starting and Developing Well section of the report):

Key Issue	Context	Why it’s an issue?
Child poverty	Around 1 in 5 children (21%) in Torbay are part of a low income family.	Children living in poverty tend to experience poorer outcomes.
Childhood obesity	5% of children aged 4-5 are considered to be overweight or obese, this rises to 35% by year 6.	Obese children are more likely to be absent from school due to illness and experience health related limitations and self-esteem issues. This has a direct impact on outcomes for children.
Child health	18% of children in Torbay have a special educational need or disability. 35% of 5 year olds have one or more decayed or filled teeth.	Children with health conditions are more likely to be absent from school which has a direct impact on their outcomes.
Children looked after	Torbay has some of the highest rates of children looked after in England. The rate and number have been increasing in recent years.	Generally children in care continue to have poorer outcomes than the wider population
Maternal behaviours	13% of women in Torbay smoke during their pregnancy. 42% of women in Torbay breastfeed for at least 6-8 weeks.	Positive maternal health is crucial for healthy development in the womb. The choices pregnant women make are crucial to the healthy development of the foetus.
School readiness and outcomes	There is a gap in early year’s foundation stage between those eligible for free school meals and non-free school meal pupils. This gap continues to exist across the education pathway.	Generally, children who start school without developing vital readiness tend to experience poorer outcomes.

The table above, taken from the Local Authority’s Joint Strategic needs Assessment 2020-21 shows that children in Torbay do not all receive a good start in life. Torbay has high levels of deprivation and just over a fifth of all children live in poverty. These issues continue as the child develops and grows which can lead to poorer outcomes in education. This has been proven to affect the child right through into adulthood, leading to poor achievement, worklessness or health problems.

Research evidences that high quality early education can have a positive effect on the educational, cognitive, behavioural and social outcomes of children in the short and long term. Therefore, it is important that those children who are living in poverty have access to good early years education and that there are sufficient, high quality childcare places available to meet the demand.

Family Dyamics

The chart on the next page shows the number of dependent children in each family in Torbay.

(source: Nomis)

This chart provides an overview of the family dynamics in Torbay. It demonstrates that in all areas of Torbay over half of the families have no children. This is likely to be due to the large numbers of older residents in Torbay (according to the JSNA 26% of residents in Torbay are over the age of 65).

Collaton St Mary and King’s Ash (formerly Blatchcombe ward) show high numbers of families with 3 or more children, closely followed by Barton with Watcombe (formerly Watcombe). This could be linked to the type of housing available in these wards where, according to local authority records, a high percentage of properties are larger houses which accommodate larger families.

The following chart outlines the number of lone parent families in Torbay, broken down to ward level:

(source: Nomis)

The chart shows that there are a particularly large number of lone parent families in Ellacombe, Roundham-with-Hyde and Tormohun. These wards are areas with high levels of deprivation, with many ward areas being in the top 10% most deprived. These are also wards which have a higher percentage of jobseekers allowance claimants (see table on page 9) with those 3 wards having the highest percentage of adults claiming compared with the Torbay average. The statistics above also demonstrate that Torbay overall has a higher average number of lone parent families (33.2%) than the national average (28.7%).

The Torbay Economy – working families & job vacancies

The Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) 2020-21 has identified the following key issues affecting the economy of Torbay:

Key Issue	Context	Why it’s an issue?
Ageing Population	The number of people aged over 85 is expected to increase by around 56% over the next decade.	As we age our chance of developing different long term conditions increases. The impact of this could include increased demand on the health and care support.
Care and support	There are significantly higher levels of unpaid carers in the South Devon and Torbay population, many providing more than 50 hours care a week, and many in poor health themselves.	As the population ages, and people with disability and serious illness live longer, they are more likely to live at home. Going forward, we might expect community based care to rely increasingly on family and community members as carers.
Housing	Housing availability, quality, condition, suitability and affordability are an issue across South Devon and Torbay. 33% of Torbay residents are living in the most deprived quintile for indoor deprivation.	There are a range of health related conditions associated with housing in poor conditions.
Local economy	Whilst acknowledging that progress has been made. In 2011, Torbay’s economic productivity, as measured through Gross Value Added, was amongst the poorest performing in the UK, at around 60% of the UK average.	Being in good employment is protective of health, whilst being unemployed contributes to poorer health and wellbeing. A poor performing economy has an impact on poverty and on health outcomes for the population.
Health	60% of adults in Torbay are overweight or obese. 8% of the Torbay population have been diagnosed with diabetes. 20% of the working Torbay population smoke. High levels of alcohol related hospital admissions in Torbay.	People with a long term condition are the most frequent users of health care services. With an ageing population, we might expect the number of people with a long term condition to increase.
Poverty	South Devon and Torbay has amongst the highest proportion of households in England identified as being on the edge of poverty, around 29% (45,000 households).	Households across South Devon and Torbay are less likely to be financially resilient to increasing prices. Being on the edge of poverty makes households more susceptible to debt and financial difficulties.

The information demonstrates that there are some factors affecting the Torbay economy which cannot be controlled; for example the large population of residents aged over 65. This impacts on the workforce availability as well as the demands of the workforce in Torbay. For example, there will be fewer adults of working age and also there will be a greater demand for people with caring abilities (nursing homes, home helps etc). Therefore, although the population is ageing in Torbay, it may also provide an opportunity for more jobs for those who are unemployed.

The table below shows the number of jobseekers allowance and universal credit claimants, broken down to ward level:

Ward/Area	Jan-17	Jan-18	Jan-19	Jan-20	Jan-21	2017-2021 avg claim-ants	16-64 age pop'n	% of JSA/UC claimants of the pop'n (2019-21)
Barton With Wat	100	120	145	200	430	199	7,195	3.6%
Churston With Galm	33	29	39	47	131	56	3,063	2.4%
Clifton With Maiden	66	68	73	108	263	115	4,330	3.4%
C'ton With Chelston	75	62	77	88	257	112	4,624	3.0%
Collaton St Mary	19	25	29	30	94	39	1,847	2.8%
Ellacombe	175	193	233	304	494	280	5,122	6.7%
Furze With S-combe	78	92	97	129	330	145	5,188	3.6%
G'rington w- Rose	41	46	61	66	177	78	4,033	2.5%
King's Ash	91	98	99	140	296	145	4,665	3.8%
Preston	75	90	100	105	285	131	5,443	3.0%
R'ham With Hyde	190	200	230	240	485	269	4,962	6.4%
Shiphay	61	52	62	100	223	99	4,513	2.8%
St Marychurch	120	135	158	188	460	212	6,687	4.0%
St Peter's w St M's	57	73	83	102	245	112	3,630	3.9%
Tormohun	338	369	440	516	913	515	7,944	7.8%
Wellswood	92	80	80	110	225	117	3,541	3.9%
TORBAY	1,610	1,730	1,995	2,475	5,310	2,624	76,787	4.2%
ENGLAND	617k	670k	826k	1.0m	2.1m	1.06m	35.1m	3.8%

(source: Nomis)

Overall, Torbay has seen a steep rise in the number of JSA and UC claimants, with an overall high percentage of claimants against population. Nationally, since March 2020, there has been a 100% increase in the number of people in receipt of Universal Credit; a direct impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. In Torbay the number of claimants has more than doubled with a 114.5% increase. The pandemic has increased the number of residents of Torbay who are living in poverty and that is particularly evident in the areas where there was already a significant level of deprivation; Ellacombe, Roundham-with-Hyde and Tormohun.

Source - NOMIS

This chart demonstrates the percentage of families who are economically inactive (non-working) in each ward (the dark grey bar) and by comparison the percentage of parents who have made an active decision to stay at home for varying reasons (the light grey bar), usually for childcare or to take care of the household. Around half of all economically inactive parents in Torbay have made a conscious decision to stay at home, for example in Barton with Watcome 24% of all parents are economically inactive and 13% of all parents are voluntarily economically inactive. These numbers will not necessarily affect the number of 30 hour childcare places required in Torbay at the present time as these have taken an active decision to remain at home and this is unlikely to change significantly. The statistics which are likely to have the most notable impact on the need for childcare places in Torbay are the numbers of economically inactive (the dark grey bar) which is approximately 50% of economically inactive families. These are the parents who the government are targeting to return to work. Barton with Watcombe, Collaton St Mary, King’s Ash, Roundham with Hyde and Tormohun have a particularly high number of workless parents. This is acquainted with the high levels of deprivation which can also be attributed to these wards. These areas need particular attention during ongoing planning for childcare sufficiency as there may be higher levels of parents returning to work who require childcare.

Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant challenges to the early year’s sector in Torbay, which accommodates approximately three thousand children under the age of 5 years. The consequences of the crisis are threatening to deepen existing patterns of vulnerability and under-achievement for young children and families, especially those living in poverty and disadvantage. We know that the early years are a crucial stage for social mobility, with the poorest children already months behind their peers before they start school. Attending high-quality early years provision provides a vital opportunity to narrow this gap before children start school. This report contains Torbay’s most up to date information in relation to the availability of high-quality childcare places in the area which will play a vital role in addressing the economic consequences the pandemic has had and is continuing to have on the youngest children in Torbay.

Throughout the pandemic, providers have received support from the Early Years Service and the Council in a variety of ways. The support offered has contributed towards all early years group providers remaining financially sustainable. No group providers have closed permanently as a result of the pandemic.

The Council has experienced a decline in the number of registered childminders as a result of the pandemic, with a loss of just over 10% of the Torbay childminder workforce.

Torbay Childcare Market

In May 2021 Torbay Council undertook a survey of childcare providers to gain a snapshot overview of the childcare market in Torbay.

There was a 100% response rate from the PVI and maintained childcare sector and a 75% response rate from the Childminder sector.

These are the following registered early years and childcare providers in Torbay:

Type of Provider	Number of Providers 2018	Potential Places* 2018	Number of Providers 2019	Potential Places* 2019	Number of Providers 2021	Potential Places* 2021
Full Day Care	20	934	20	957	18	791
Sessional Pre-schools	12	384	10	324	9	294
Maintained Schools & Academies with Nursery Classes	18	598	18	696	18	701
Nursery Units of Independent Schools	1	66	1	47	1	47
Childminders	82	246	80	252	69	228
TOTAL	133	2,228	129	2,276	115	2061

Potential places indicates the number of children a provider can take at any one time and is based on a provider ‘moment in time’ survey.

Torbay has experienced a significant decrease in Childminder numbers as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Torbay has experienced a small drop in the number of private group providers which is not as a result of the covid 19 pandemic.

Current supply of childcare (0-4 yrs) in Torbay

Private, Voluntary & Independent Childcare Providers spaces – by town (day nurseries, pre-schools and independent schools)

Town	0-4 year old population	Childcare places (0-4) available at a Private Nursery	Childcare places per 100 children	Average Occupancy Level (%)
Brixham	574	59	10	64.6%
Paignton	2182	388	18	97.0%
Torquay	3095	685	22	75.6%
TOTAL	5851	1132	19	79.0%

School Nursery Class spaces – by town

Town	0-4 year old population	Childcare places (0-4) available at a School Nursery	Childcare places per 100 children	Average Occupancy Level (%)
Brixham	574	96	17	86.7%
Paignton	2182	236	11	86.8%
Torquay	3095	369	12	73.6%
TOTAL	5851	701	12	82.4%

Childminder (CM) spaces - by town

It is important to note that this is an estimate because childminder spaces vary widely according to the childminder’s preferences relating to ratios, children’s individual requirements for care, working hours and working days. The childminding market is also very changeable with many new start-ups and close downs throughout the year.

Town	0-4 year old population	Childcare places (0-4) available at a Childminder	Childcare places per 100 children	Average Occupancy Level (%)
Brixham	574	48	8	78.7%
Paignton	2182	95	4	72.4%
Torquay	3095	85	3	73.6%
TOTAL	5851	228	4	74.9%

TOTAL 0-4 spaces (PVI, School & CM) – by town

Town	0-4 year old population	Childcare places (0-4) available at PVI/School/Childminder	Childcare places per 100 children	Average Occupancy Level (%)
Brixham	574	203	35	76.1%
Paignton	2182	719	33	80.9%
Torquay	3095	1139	37	72.5%
TOTAL	5851	2061	35	76.5%

Supply and demand for childcare for children aged 0-4 in Torbay by ward

Ward/Area	0-4 year old population	Childcare places (0-4) available at PVI	Childcare places (0-4) available in School	Childcare places (0-4) available at Childminder	Total Childcare (0-4) places available	Childcare places per 100 children	Average Occupancy Level (%)
Barton With Watcombe	735	163	86	16	265	36	73.1%
Churston With Galmpton	162	52	-	6	58	36	72.8%
Clifton With Maidenway	353	-	26	27	53	15	71.6%
Cockington With Chelston	332	135	46	12	193	58	83.1%
Collaton St Mary	234	26	-	-	26	11	89.2%
Ellacombe	460	54	120	6	180	39	67.3%
Furzeham With Summercombe	301	-	70	20	90	30	81.2%
Goodrington With Roselands	242	130	84	9	223	92	75.7%
King's Ash	487	-	45	18	63	13	79.6%
Preston	367	84	26	9	119	32	63.7%
Roundham With Hyde	337	126	55	12	193	57	59.0%
Shiphay	349	94	39	4	137	39	81.0%
St Marychurch	489	187	52	6	245	50	69.5%
St Peter's With St Mary's	273	29	26	6	61	22	65.1%
Tormohun	604	24	26	-	50	8	71.7%
Wellswood	126	28	-	-	28	22	78.2%
Torbay	5851	1132	701	151	1984	34	72.5%

All year round childcare analysis

Childcare supply and demand for children aged 0-4 for all year round places (AYR) in Torbay by town

This data is based on AYR places offered by day nurseries, school nurseries and childminders. Some providers offer both AYR and term time, so some places are counted twice.

Town	0-4 year old population	AYR places available (0-4)	AYR places per 100 children	AYR Occupancy Level (%)
Brixham	574	46	8	74.8%
Paignton	2182	310	14	84.0%
Torquay	3095	446	14	73.9%
TOTAL	5851	802	14	77.6%

Childcare supply and demand for children aged 0-4 for all year round places (AYR) in Torbay by ward

Ward/Area	0-4 year old population	AYR places available (0-4)	AYR places per 100 children	AYR Average Occupancy Level (%)
Barton With Watcombe	735	160	22	75.8%
Churston With Galmpton	162	6	4	45.0%
Clifton With Maidenway	353	15	4	73.1%
Cockington With Chelston	332	48	14	79.7%
Collaton St Mary	234	-	-	-
Ellacombe	460	57	12	51.0%
Furzeham With Summercombe	301	14	5	85.7%
Goodrington With Roselands	242	127	52	118.9%
King's Ash	487	15	3	83.9%
Preston	367	9	2	63.3%
Roundham With Hyde	337	138	41	59.0%
Shiphay	349	54	15	83.0%
St Marychurch	489	103	21	88.4%
St Peter's With St Mary's	273	32	12	47.6%
Tormohun	604	24	4	49.6%
Wellswood	126	-	-	-
Torbay	5851	802	14	71.7%

Term time only childcare analysis

Childcare supply and demand for children aged 0-4 for Term Time Only places (TTO) in Torbay by town

This includes school nursery classes, pre-schools and childminders. Some providers offer TTO and all year round.

Town	0-4 year old population	TTO places available (0-4)	TTO places per 100 children	TTO Occupancy Level (%)
Brixham	574	135	24	82.0%
Paignton	2182	380	17	81.6%
Torquay	3095	641	21	71.6%
TOTAL	5851	1156	20	78.4%

Childcare supply and demand for children aged 0-4 for Term Time Only places (TTO) in Torbay by ward

Ward/Area	0-4 year old population	TTO places available (0-4)	TTO places per 100 children	TTO Occupancy Level (%)
Barton With Watcombe	735	94	13	68.5%
Churston With Galmpton	162	52	32	86.8%
Clifton With Maidenway	353	38	11	69.5%
Cockington With Chelston	332	145	44	88.8%
Collaton St Mary	234	26	11	89.2%
Ellacombe	460	123	27	72.9%
Furzeham With Summercombe	301	76	25	81.1%
Goodrington With Roselands	242	84	35	84.6%
King's Ash	487	45	9	96.9%
Preston	367	110	30	75.5%
Roundham With Hyde	337	55	16	89.3%
Shiphay	349	83	24	84.4%
St Marychurch	489	142	29	52.5%
St Peter's With St Mary's	273	29	11	87.7%
Tormohun	604	26	4	93.8%
Wellswood	126	28	22	78.2%
Torbay	5851	1156	20	81.2%

2 year old funding entitlement

From the term after their second birthday some children are eligible for 15 hours free childcare per week for 38 weeks of the year (or an equivalent amount). Torbay Council has a duty to ensure that all children who want to take up this entitlement are able to do so.

This chart provides an overview of the family dynamics in Torbay. It demonstrates that in all areas of Torbay over half of the families have no children. This is likely to be due to the large numbers of older residents in Torbay (according to the JSNA there are over 44,000 residents over the age of 65 – 33% of the total population). This has a particular impact in the three Brixham wards and Wellswood, where there is evidence to support a particularly large proportion of older residents. Blatchcombe shows an unusually high number of families with 3 or more children. This could be linked to the type of housing available in Blatchcombe where, according to local authority records, a high percentage of properties are larger houses which accommodate larger families. According to research by the Public Health team, 30.2% of children in the Blatchcombe ward live in poverty. Since the implementation of the 2 year funding scheme in September 2014, the Department of Education (DfE) have provided each LA with estimated numbers of children that will be eligible for the funding in the local area, using records provided by the Department for Work and Pensions. Upon implementation, the local area had around 700 children that were eligible for the funding. Since then, the number of families has reduced significantly and is now around 450 - 500 families who are eligible based on their financial circumstances.

Childcare supply and demand for free entitlement places (2 year olds) in Torbay by town

(Places available include private providers, schools offering 2YO places and childminders)

Town	2 year old population (estimate 2019)	No. of children potentially eligible for 2YO funding	% of 2YO population potentially eligible for funding
Brixham	129	37	28.7%
Paignton	507	184	36.3%
Torquay	706	283	40.1%
TOTAL	1342	504	37.6%

(Source - ONS Mid-Year Population Estimates 2019 compared with the list issued by the DWP in April 2021)

Ward/Area	2 year old population (estimate 2019)	No. of families potentially eligible for 2YO funding	% of 2YO population potentially eligible for funding
Barton With Watcombe	175	60	34.3%
Churston With Galmpton	41	10	24.4%
Clifton With Maidenway	69	26	37.7%
Cockington With Chelston	74	19	25.7%
Collaton St Mary	58	20	34.5%
Ellacombe	110	41	37.3%
Furzeham With Summercombe	68	25	36.8%
Goodrington With Roselands	57	17	29.8%
King's Ash	114	49	43.0%
Preston	90	22	24.4%
Roundham With Hyde	78	40	51.3%
Shiphay	71	27	38.0%
St Marychurch	98	43	43.9%
St Peter's With St Mary's	61	12	19.7%
Tormohun	152	86	56.6%
Wellswood	26	7	26.9%
Torbay	1342	504	37.6%

(Source - ONS Mid-Year Population Estimates 2019 compared with the list issued by the DWP in April 2021)

3 & 4 year old entitlements (15 hours and 30 hours)

From the term after their third birthday all children are eligible for 15 hours free childcare per week for 38 weeks of the year. The Local Authority has a duty to ensure that all children who want to take up this entitlement are able to do this. The children of working families may also be eligible for an additional 15 hours free childcare per week, subject to a successful application through HMRC Childcare Choices.

Childcare supply and demand for entitlement places (3 & 4 year olds) in Torbay by town

Town	3+4 year old population
Brixham	200
Paignton	753
Torquay	1051
TOTAL	2004

(Source - ONS Mid-Year Population Estimates 2019)

Children remain entitled to an early years place until they reach statutory school age the term after their fifth birthday, however on a usual basis there are not more than 5 or 6 children per year who delay entry into school. Therefore the number of 4 year olds has been reduced by 60% to account for children in a school reception class.

Consideration needs to be given to the number of children entitled to 2 year old funding who become entitled to 3 year old funding when they turn 3 years old. The table below gives an idea of the number of 30 hours children who were previously in receipt of 2 year funding.

Total number of funded 2 year olds in Autumn 2020 who became 3YO funded in Spring 2021	Total number of funded 2 year olds in Autumn 2020 who became entitled to 30 hours in Spring 2021	% of funded 2 year olds who became 30 hours funded in Summer 2021	Total number of funded 2 year olds in Spring 2021 who became 3YO funded in Summer 2021	Total number of funded 2 year olds in Spring 2021 who became entitled to 30 hours in Summer 2021	% of funded 2 year olds who became 30 hours funded in Summer 2021
159	20	12.6%	101	15	14.9%

The majority of providers do not allocate places for specific age ranges. Therefore it is necessary to look at the places available overall compared to the number of children (2, 3 and 4 year olds) who will be entitled to a funded place.

Town	No. of children potentially eligible for 2 year old funding	Approx no. of eligible 3+4 year old UNIVERSAL*	Approx no. of eligible 3+4 year old EXTENDED	TOTAL number of 15 hour places required	Number of places available	Number of places per 100 children	Average Occupancy Level %
Brixham	37	200	86	323	406	125	76.1%
Paignton	184	753	377	1314	1438	109	80.9%
Torquay	283	1051	452	1786	2278	127	72.5%
TOTAL	504	2,004	915	3,423	4,122	120	76.5%

*This number has been adjusted to account for 4 year olds in a school reception class

The table above allows analysis of the number of individual 15 hour places required. One funded 2 year old will take one 15 hour place, a universal 3 year old will take one 15 hour place and an extended child will take another 15 hour place. For this purpose, the number of available places per day has been multiplied by 2, on the assumption that one place in a childcare provider would be able to accommodate at least two funded 15 hour places across a week. The number of children entitled to 30 hours is based on estimates using summer term data which is the busiest term of the academic year.

It is therefore evident that Torbay has more than sufficient childcare places to accommodate the need in the area and given the occupancy levels, there is also room to accommodate increased demand. Increased demand could be filled by children aged under 2 years old whose parents require childcare to enable them to work as well as children who attend a Torbay setting but live in a different local authority area. The local area could be subject to an issue surrounding oversupply of places if birth rate continue to drop. More detailed recommendations can be found within the summary and action plan.

Access to Wraparound and holiday childcare for working parents

Many parents need wraparound and holiday childcare for school age children to enable them to be able to work. Wraparound childcare is defined as childcare before school (usually from 8am) and after school (usually from school finish time to 5 or 6 o’clock).

The wraparound care places available in Torbay are outlined below:

Before School

Type of Provider	Number of Providers	Potential Places in BEFORE school care (each day)	Current Occupancy (%)
School	16	439	58%
Private Providers	7	144	50%
Childminders	20	49	41%
TOTAL	43	632	50%

After school

Type of Provider	Number of Providers	Potential Places in AFTER school care (each day)	Current Occupancy (%)
School	14	380	51%
Private Providers	8	181	54%
Childminders	26	60	42%
TOTAL	48	621	49%

Since the last sufficiency report, there is a notable drop in the number of wraparound services offered to parents in the form of before and after school care, particularly in schools. This is a result of the impact of the pandemic on what schools and other providers are able to safely offer to children. Wraparound care results in the mixing of children in all classes and makes working in school class ‘bubbles’ difficult. The information above does also show that within the providers who continue to offer wraparound care, take-up is relatively low. Torbay does not currently have any known issues or formal complaints surrounding the sufficiency of wraparound care for school aged children.

Holiday childcare

Type of Provider	Number of Providers offering a holiday childcare scheme
School	4
Private Providers	14
Childminders	32
Standalone holiday clubs	1
TOTAL	51

51 providers in Torbay offer some form of holiday childcare for children of all ages. There are also privately operated holiday care providers who are not Ofsted registered or who have not responded to the survey request and therefore have not been included within this report.

The type of childcare available varies significantly from provider to provider. For example a school may commission an external company to deliver holiday clubs for children aged 5-11 years old, whereas a childminder might offer one or two places depending on their ratios for each day.

The 2021 parent consultation asked several questions in relation to holiday childcare. There were 445 responses to the consultation. 11% of respondents indicated that they required childcare for their children during the holidays. Of the respondents that said they use or need holiday childcare, 69% indicated that they found it difficult to find suitable holiday childcare. Those who indicated that they found it difficult to locate suitable holiday childcare were asked to give further details, see below for more information:

Difficult to find clubs in my area that operate to cover working hours (most are only 9-3)

The childcare is too expensive specially if you have more than one child.

One of my children has SEN so it is tricky to send him in any type of half term camps which is the only childcare provided for summer term or half term

We had a holiday club at the nursery but it closed to accommodate nursery children in bubbles during the pandemic and wont re-open.

Many places don't accept childcare vouchers or are unreliable with late cancellations and no Ofsted.

Difficult to find providers locally for age 4 or 5

Little choice or availability for all ages, very expensive.

I can’t find any holiday clubs close to me that I can afford

There are 2 common themes running through the responses from parents; availability and affordability. It is evident that there is not sufficient, suitable holiday childcare for children in Torbay which meets the needs of parents and this is addressed in the action plan at the end of this document.

Holidays Activities and Food Programme (HAF)

This new, Government funded programme provides grant funding to local authorities to support holiday provision for the children (5 years – 16 years) who are entitled to benefit related free school meals. Eligible children are entitled to six weeks play provision across the Easter, Summer and Christmas holidays in 2021. Four weeks in the summer, plus a week’s worth of provision in each of the Easter and Christmas holidays. Providers operating activities must ensure that children receive a healthy and substantial meal and if appropriate, parents and carers are signposted for additional support.

In preparation for the delivery of this programme Torbay Council have supported private, voluntary and community providers to develop exciting play opportunities across Torbay to ensure that every eligible child can access local play opportunities. During the summer holidays 2021 children eligible to access the HAF programme will be able to choose from a wide range of funded play sessions from organised sport to adventure playgrounds, beach and water-based activities as well as local community fun.

This scheme was designed for families and children to promote active lifestyles and provide access to meals whilst the schools are closed for the holidays. The scheme and places available cannot be counted as childcare or part of the holiday childcare offer, however it is an excellent resource for lower income families who may have needed to pay for this type of provision in the past.

Migration in Torbay for Childcare

The table below shows migration across Torbay for childcare; i.e. the percentage of children who attend a setting in their home ward, who travel within their home town to a setting and who travel outside their home town to a setting. This information is valuable when considering Torbay childcare sufficiency as a whole and at town level.

The above information is also set out in towns below:

This information suggests that there is generally sufficient childcare within family's home wards and towns to accommodate their needs. There is no set way to calculate how and why parents choose their childcare provider and many will choose a provider close to work rather than close to home. This would mean that there will always be some cross town and cross border migration for childcare.

Cost of childcare across England

Price of 25 hours a week childcare for children under three at nurseries and childminders

Nursery	Childminder
Under two	Two and over	Under two	Two and over
Great Britain	£137.69	£132.56	£118.34	£117.32
England	£140.27	£134.73	£119.02	£117.86
Scotland	£117.29	£113.31	£112.33	£112.78
Wales	£114.76	£114.45	£112.37	£112.01
East Midlands	£134.50	£126.14	£105.21	£105.08
East of England	£145.36	£144.84	£117.20	£116.41
London, inner	£179.86	£177.61	£163.77	£161.60
London, outer	£156.32	£147.87	£147.53	£146.43
North East	£130.64	£128.10	£106.92	£106.79
North West	£126.43	£120.25	£103.18	£103.08
South East	£145.90	£140.05	£119.40	£118.69
South West	£132.26	£128.84	£114.27	£114.11
West Midlands	£136.14	£133.41	£103.70	£100.83
Yorkshire and Humberside	£115.39	£110.52	£101.49	£101.07
Torbay	£121.25	£121.25	£109.50	£109.50

Source: Coram Family and Childcare – Childcare Survey 2021

This information demonstrates that the cost of childcare across Torbay is reasonable compared with regional (South West) and national (England) averages, however it is important to consider the demographic of the area. According to the Nomis 2020 Labour Market Profile, average annual earnings in Torbay are approximately £4650 less than the South West average and just over £6000 less than the national average. Therefore, although Torbay childcare costs are cheaper than the South West average, when you account for the difference in earnings, Torbay costs remain high.

Quality of childcare in Torbay

Children in England are spending an increasing amount of their early lives in government-funded early years childcare. There is good evidence that attending early years provision can improve a wide range of child outcomes, from ensuring children’s healthy cognitive, behavioural, social and physical development, to laying the foundations for future, longer-term developmental milestones. Attending high-quality early years provision is vital and the main focus of the Early Years Service is supporting providers locally to achieve a good or outstanding graded inspection by Ofsted.

Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. Ofsted inspect services providing education and skills for learners of all ages. Ofsted’s role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training and care services in England do so to a high standard for children and students.

Below is detailed information related to the Ofsted inspection grades for the early years settings in Torbay.

The pie chart above shows that 74% of Torbay Early Years providers are good or outstanding, a further 18% are awaiting their inspection following academy conversion or new registration.

Private nurseries and pre-schools (group providers)

The table below demonstrates PVI Nursery Ofsted grades by town:

Torquay Nurseries	Paignton Nurseries	Brixham Nurseries
OFSTED Grade	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Outstanding	4	25%	3	33%	2	67%
Good	11	69%	6	67%	1	33%
Req Improvement	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%
Inadequate	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%
Awaiting Inspection	1	6%	0	0%	0	0%

In Torbay all group providers who have received their graded inspection are Ofsted graded ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Good’. This means that most children in Torbay receive their early education in a high-quality setting. Support is provided to any setting which does not achieve a good or outstanding grade.

Childminders

Torquay CMs	Paignton CMs	Brixham CMs
OFSTED Grade	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Outstanding	6	23%	2	7%	1	6%
Good	11	42%	13	48%	7	44%
Requires Improvement	0	0%	1	4%	0	0%
Inadequate	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%
Awaiting Inspection	8	31%	10	37%	7	44%
Met	1	4%	1	4%	1	6%
Not met	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%

The largest proportion of Childminders in Torbay are Ofsted graded ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Good’. Support is given to any childminder within Torbay who does not receive an Ofsted grade of good or outstanding. There are a large number of newly registered childminders awaiting their first graded Ofsted inspection.

(NB – a ‘met’ grade is where a childminder is inspected but does not have any early years children on roll.)

Primary Schools and Academies

Torquay Schools	Paignton Schools	Brixham Schools
OFSTED Grade	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Outstanding	0	0%	1	17%	0	0%
Good	9	100%	5	83%	2	67%
Req Improvement	0	0%	0	0%	1	33%
Inadequate	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%

Data on Children achieving a Good Level of Development (GLD)

Children are defined as having reached a good level of development at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in the reception year if they have achieved at least the expected level for the Early Learning Goals (ELGs) in the prime areas of learning (personal, social and emotional development; physical development; and communication and language) and the specific areas of mathematics and literacy.

The charts below show the percentage of children in Torbay (indicated in green) achieving a good level of development (GLD) at the end of their Reception year compared to the national average (indicated in blue):

At a local level, 70.8 % of children achieved a good level of development at the end of Reception in 2019. This demonstrates a small increase compared to 2018, however the achievement is below the national average.

The chart below shows Torbay’s performance of GLD achievement in comparison with statistical neighbours in 2018 and 2019:

In comparison to our statistical neighbours Torbay is the 7th performing local authority and is performing below national average.

Between 2018 and 2019, the national average achievement of GLD rose by 0.3%. The increase in Torbay was higher than this at 0.4%.

On average, Torbay’s statistical neighbours experienced an overall drop of 0.1% in GLD achievement.

The chart above shows the achievement of a good level of development split down to deprivation level using the child’s home postcode and the IDACI 2019 deprivation levels. The table shows that as a rule, the higher the level of deprivation, the lower the achievement. This is a continued trend.

Due to the pandemic there has been no collection of EYFSP date for the end of years in 2020 0r 2021, so the above data is the most relevant. Local intelligence suggests the disruption the pandemic has caused to children's education has had an impact on education outcomes although there is no official data to ratify this.

Housing Developments

Below is a table demonstrating numbers of housing completions broken down by town, per year since 2011/12:

2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17	2017/18	2018/19
Torquay	176	252	77	161	125	168	200
Paignton	53	204	207	231	150	178	228
Brixham	27	45	18	16	51	68	103
Total	256	501	302	408	326	414	531

Below is a table estimating the number of additional childcare places required as a result of the new housing developments:

2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17	2017/18	2018/19
Torquay	2.51	3.60	1.10	4.5	3.4	4.3	5.5
Paignton	0.76	2.91	2.96	6.4	4.0	4.6	6.3
Brixham	0.39	0.64	0.26	0.5	1.4	1.7	2.9
Total	3.66	7.16	4.31	11.4	8.8	10.6	14.7

This shows that the current impact of housing developments in Torbay has a minor influence on the number of childcare places required. All new housing developments in Torbay are planned for and analysed to ensure that in the schools planning process, the additional school/childcare places are planned for. There are plans for a new school to open in Torbay to accommodate the growing number of children in the area. All new schools will have due consideration given to nursery provision for two to 5 year olds.

There is a growing trend that the new housing developments, especially in the Paignton area, are attracting families with multiple children. This has been accounted for with the planned new schools offering nursery provision.

Parental Demand

The Local Authority consulted with parents in June & July 2021 to establish demand and needs for childcare within Torbay.

An overview of the results from the survey can be found below:

445 responses to the questionnaire (not all 445 answered all questions)

208/445 have children aged under 5 years old – 47%

91/445 have a child with a special educational need or disability (SEND) – 20%

182/445 consider themselves to be a ‘working household’ – 41%

173/445 use childcare to enable them to work – 39%

145/208 found it easy to find a place with an early years provider – 70%

23/208 found it difficult to find a place with an early years provider – 11% (see some example reasons below)

The waiting list are long for places, I put my baby’s name down for our nursery when I was 20 weeks pregnant.

A lot of places were already full.

I struggled to find a space that covered all the days I required 5 days a week.

She’s always full as very popular (childminder).

Had to wait 9 month till start of new school year to get a space in the nursery next to our older child school.

Not enough support to get children to and from childminder especially if don't drive and have other children that go to school.

44/445 find childcare expensive and unaffordable – 10%

19/44 of the respondents who found childcare expensive indicated that they are not entitled to any funding or support with childcare costs.

154/208 were able to access childcare on the days and at the times they required – 74%

14/208 stated that they were not able to access childcare at suitable times – 6%. See below for examples of reasons provided:

Limited space at nursery once child turned 3 so now using two care settings

No places available on a Friday so currently part time until can get a place or school starts

They were full for one of the days I wanted but it didn't matter at the time as I had the main day I wanted to attend college.

I had to change my working times and days to suit the nursery’s availability.

77/208 indicated that they have to pay their provider for additional extras – 37%.

The majority of these charges relate to additional hours and food/drink/snacks; see below for examples of some of the charges:

I pay for his extra hours in able for me to work full time and his consumable charges which are £1 per free hour he receives.

We pay extra to be able to drop him off at 7.30am, but we don’t pay extra for nappies, milk, wipes etc as we just have to provide those to the nursery.

Lunches and snacks are extra.

We pay extra for food and if he was in nappies we'd have to provide them

Pay for lunches and voluntary consumable fee

57/445 indicated that their place had been affected by the covid-19 pandemic – 13%. Below are some of the additional comments in relation to this:

Breakfast/after school club starts later and finishes earlier

Places in after school care reduced and only available to families if key workers

Advance booking is now critical for both breakfast and after school hubs, whereas previously we could call on the same day and arrange for our daughter to attend.

Reduced spaces due to bubble rules.

My child use to attend after school childcare at his school but due to COVID that has stopped.

I’ve had to rely on nursery more as grandparents were unable to safely look after them as they would have done before.

28/57 whose childcare place was affected by the pandemic were able to locate alternative childcare.

68/445 have changed the way they use childcare as a result of the pandemic – 15%. Further information is listed below:

My mother-in-law used to have the children whilst I worked on some of the days, and have them before and after school. But as she is elderly with pre-existing conditions we have had to rely on breakfast and after-school club, which is hugely expensive.

I changed one of my daughter's days to a day I am working so that I know she is happy and getting the attention and stimulation that I struggle to provide her with when I am working.

I now work a day from home.

I have no longer been using wrap around childcare at the school - luckily my employer is quite understanding and allowed me to start late to take children to school. Although I had stopped regular wraparound care before the pandemic, I do still require occasional care - this will be more affected once restrictions have lifted and training events are running again.

Changed my hours at work to fit around school and when family member can help.

Went from full time at nursery to part time following shielding during the first lockdown.

Need for extra care as I’m working as part of a team to support COVID in community.

These are some of the general parent comments:

We've always experienced brilliant early years care.

Childcare is affordable now that we get 30 hours funded. Prior to this, even as a senior midwife with a partner in a professional job we still struggled to cover child care costs that allow us to work.

Childcare for below age 2 seems hard to access, childminders are busy. There is more choice after the age of 2 but again you have to be booked far in advance to gain spaces.

For my working hours childcare provisions don’t open early enough.

It would be nice if the school holiday clubs had more variety as my daughter doesn’t do or like most of them.

This is my third child that I have accessed the same provision for. The costs over the past 10 years has increased by nearly 60% which is not reflective of wage increase. Fortunately this is my last child as this has been a struggle to meet the cost. Having said that the provision is excellent.

Happy with the service provided.

The free childcare vouchers currently offered to 3/4 year olds should be opened up to children of a younger age.

Would be good if Torbay schools had the same holidays as each other. It’s so difficult with children in different schools having holidays at different times.

Overall doing a great job during this challenging time.

Free childcare, should not only be available to families on benefits. All children deserve the right to play activities or holiday clubs.

Torbay has not received any formal complaints from parents that they are unable to access a suitable place for their child, although the consultation did identify that parents of children with SEND find it more difficult to access a suitable place. More can be found on this in the SEND section of this report. Many of the comments from parents related to the affordability of childcare and the availability of funding. Both of these things are beyond the control of the Local Authority. Providers and childminders set their own charges for childcare. Whilst the Local Authority can provide some level of advice, the costs are down to the provider to set. Similarly, the policies for early years funding is set centrally by government, so the Local Authority has no control over who is entitled to the funding. Therefore, whilst it is evident that parents are not always happy with the cost of childcare, it is clear that the needs of the majority of parents in the local area are met on a general basis.

Services available to families in Torbay

Family Information Service

The Family Information Service (FIS) provides up to date information to families about childcare, activities and advice and support services in Torbay. It can be accessed by anyone online through fis.torbay.gov.uk, via the free phone line, 0800 328 5974, by email, fisenquiries@torbay.gov.uk, and face to face in the reception area on Union Street in Torquay. Details of Ofsted registered childcare in Torbay are received by the FIS directly from Ofsted and additional information is added by childcare providers.

The FIS offers support to any family looking for childcare including those claiming funded hours for 2, 3 and 4 year olds. Advisors within the FIS are able to find out about particular vacancies and arrange visits for families who find it more difficult to arrange a place.

The FIS holds details of many other activities and events such as sports clubs, uniformed groups, children’s centre services and youth groups that may support children, young people and their families while they are growing up. As part of the SEND reforms, Torbay Directory also hosts the Local Offer for education, health and social care providers to enable families to access more detailed information about services available for children and young people with a special educational need or disability.

Within the parent consultation, parents were asked how easily they were able to access information about childcare providers. The majority of parents responded that they were able to locate suitable information about childcare providers through the internet and a quarter of respondents who use the internet have used the FIS website to look at childcare provision. There were some suggestions for ways to improve this service and some general comments which have been shared with the FIS team for review and development where appropriate:

“Have a central website where people can go on and rate people they have used. Builds up recommended babysitters too as nowadays so difficult to trust anyone”

“I think Torbay Council have a wealth of information on their website available which is easy to access and user friendly.”

“Provide clear information to all employers that they can include for employees on their return to work.”

“Provide information to health visitors to pass on. Maybe have a dedicated web page on website listing all available childcare providers with prices and reviews etc.”

“Ask childminders to keep up to date vacancies on the childcare website”

“Have a website that shows all childcare options. Where they are with a map and ratings from ofsted as well as parents/ carers comments. It would make it easier to compare them and find the most suitable place for our children. Similar to the way we can compare schools in the area on your website.”

Children’s Centres

0 to 19 Torbay is an innovative service bringing together health visiting and school nursing with Children’s Centres and Checkpoint so that families and young people can access services from pregnancy to adulthood. Our Children's Centres are in Torquay, Paignton and Brixham and offer a range of services and activities to support child development and family support for families with children under 5 years old. The aim of our Children's Centres within the locality is to improve outcomes for young children and their families by:

Reducing inequalities in child development and school readiness

Improving parent's aspirations, self-esteem and parenting skills

Support through pregnancy and during the first two years of a baby’s life.

Promoting access to all the services available to enable the best start in life.

Children's Centres contribute to ensuring that every child gets the best start in life. They also work towards better opportunities for parents, and a stronger and safer community.

Early Help

Early Help is an approach to working that brings together professionals from a range of different services who will work with the whole family to help improve things for everyone. We believe that children and families need to be heard when they first ask for help to minimise the risk of problems getting worse and help them address them at the earliest opportunity. Engaging a family in Early Help is a voluntary process and consent from children, young people, and their families to work with them should always be sought. Without this, it is unlikely that families will engage in the support that is available to them.

Early Help can be provided through a single agency or multi agency response as appropriate to the needs of the child and family and the concern.

The principles for Early Help are based on the principles of the legislation as described in Working Together to Safeguard Children, 2018:

Providing early help is more effective in promoting the welfare of children than reacting later. Early help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child’s life, from the foundation years through to the teenage years. Early help can also prevent further problems arising, for example, if it is provided as part of a support plan where a child has returned home to their family from care.

Working Together to Safeguard Children, 2018

In practice, the principles include:

Always working with the child, young person and family, and not “doing to”.

Working in a relational and strengths-based way.

Considering the whole family as part of the analysis of need and the solutions to that need

Identifying and addressing the problem at the earliest opportunity.

Early Help being “everyone’s business”, promoting accountability, evaluation and sustainability across the partnership.

In delivering Early Help, we are very clear however, that where there is a safeguarding concern, the Torbay Safeguarding Board’s safeguarding procedures must be followed.

Early Help Pathway

There are two pathways into Early Help. The first is when a family are stepped down from statutory intervention at level 4 to targeted help at level 3 and the second is through the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH).

When the level of need is more complex and involves two or three needs that require several services to work together, then an Early Help assessment should be completed and submitted to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH).

Early Help Panel

Once a request for Early Help has been screened and reviewed by MASH, it will be passed to the Early Help Team for consideration at the Early Help panel. The Early Help panel is a weekly multi-agency meeting which explores and discusses support requests. The aim of the panel is to make decisions about support and intervention for children and families and identify the most appropriate service to allocate an Early Help Lead Professional to work with the family.

The panel is attended by a wide range of professionals from the public sector, community and voluntary services and is chaired by the Early Help Service Manager. The panel will provide relevant information about children and young people already known to them and discuss the best support plan for the family.

Once it has been determined during panel who the Early Help Lead Professional is, the Early Help Team record this information on both multi-agency panel minutes and on the child’s record. The Early Help team will review the progress made against the plan initially at 6 weeks until the plan objectives have been met. The review will ascertain whether support is still being provided, who is working with the family and whether the support is proving effective in meeting the family’s needs. The family will remain open on the children’s data base until any support or intervention has been completed and the outcome recorded.

Team around the Family

A Team Around the Family meeting (TAF) is a meeting between a child/young person, their family, and the group of professionals who are working with them. The purpose of the TAF meeting is to share information and to create a solution focussed plan that will support the needs of the child and their family. It should be an opportunity for families to work together with professionals to gain confidence and skills to ensure future support is effective and sustainable.

Key Principles:

The Child/young person’s needs and rights are paramount.

Consent has been obtained.

The child/young person and family should be present at the Team Around the Family meeting (if it is deemed appropriate for the child/young person to attend).

The child/ren and families views must be considered and represented (even if they choose not to attend).

Meetings follow the same format, pro-formas are provided so plans are clear, understandable and provide consistency.

The child/young person’s safety, welfare and well-being are everyone’s responsibility

A TAF meetings needs to be helpful, timed to suit the family and only as long as it needs to be.

Those professionals/practitioners who are already or likely to be part of the ‘personalised package of support’ should be present.

Early Help Lead Professional

The Lead Professional should ideally be a professional who the family have identified as having the best relationship with. The role of the Lead Professional is to ensure that there is a well-coordinated plan with agreed actions. It is important that this practitioner has a good relationship with the child and their family and is best placed to support them in taking the lead in implementing and coordinating this action plan.

The role of the Lead Professional is to:

Arrange and chair the Initial TAF meeting.

Support the family to actively engage with the meeting.

Invite relevant professionals to the meeting in liaison with the family.

Drive the plan forward and be focussed on reaching the best outcomes for the family.

Keep the meeting focused and ensure relevant information and paperwork is made available to the child and family.

Give everyone an opportunity to talk.

Be clear about what the actions are and identify responsibilities.

Review the plan as required.

Adhere to safeguarding guidelines if safeguarding concerns are raised.

Set a review date at the first TAF meeting and subsequent dates at next meetings.

Regularly check in with colleagues to see how things are going.

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

“All children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) should be able to reach their full potential in school. They should also be supported to make a successful transition into adulthood, whether into employment, further or higher education or training” – Department for Education

20% of the respondents to the parent consultation reported that they have a child with SEND. This is a substantial increase from the last parent consultation where 8% of respondents reported their child has SEND. The consultation includes SEND specific questions of which a summary of responses can be found below:

31/91 respondents have a child aged under 5 years old with SEND – 34%

60/91 respondents have school aged children with SEND – 66%

21/91 indicated they consider themselves to live in a working household – 23%

25/31 found it easy to locate a suitable early years place for their child with SEND – 81%

34/91 require holiday provision for their child with SEND – 37%

10/34 found it easy to locate suitable holiday childcare provision – 29%

24/34 did not find it easy to locate suitable holiday childcare for their child with SEND – 71%

Those who did not find it easy were asked to provide additional information. The majority of respondents reported that holiday childcare provision does not provide the level of supervision required for their children and those that could provide it were too expensive.

Access to childcare for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

There is a year on year growing demand for support of children with SEND in Torbay. The Council anticipates that this demand will also be affected by the impact of the pandemic on the learning and development of Torbay’s youngest children. For many years the Council has provided settings with the opportunity to apply for additional funding called Activity Led Funding for Early Years (ALFEY funding). This funding provides financial support to settings to allow them to be inclusive of all children and provide extra support and resources for children with SEND; even if they do not have a statement or EHCP. The settings Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) makes an application to the Early Years Team which is assessed by a panel of Council Officers and local Practitioners and funding is allocated as appropriate to the setting based on an hourly rate percentage which is judged by the child’s level of need. Settings are also able to access support and guidance from the Early Years Inclusion Advisory Teacher for their children with SEND.

The ALFEY funding can be used towards 1:1 care for children or for equipment and resources to be purchased to support the setting in delivering inclusive early education for the child. This funding is supporting all settings in Torbay to be fully inclusive, improving parental confidence and reducing demand for places in Torbay’s only specialist SEND school, Mayfield by identifying and supporting children with SEND at the earliest opportunity. In 2020/21 the Local Authority provided over £265,000 of additional funding to Torbay settings to support inclusion of children with SEND, supporting between 75 and 100 children each term.

The Torbay Local Offer describes the services and support for children and young people with SEND and helps their families to make informed choices about the support they receive. The Torbay SEND team includes 4 case workers who provide regular support to children and young people with complex special educational needs within an early years, school or further education setting. Case workers are responsible for coordinating new requests for statutory education, health and care plan assessments. The SEND team also has Education Health & Care Plan Officers who are responsible for drafting new ECHPs in response to requests for statutory assessment.

The SEND team are responsible for ensuring that special educational provision is made available to children who need it following a statutory assessment.

A statutory Assessment is a process where information is collected from the parents, child/young person and professionals. This then allows the Local Authority to gain a clear picture of the education, health and care needs of the child /young person. A request for statutory assessment can be made by a parent or requested by a child's school/setting. This can be done by downloading and completing the 'Request for Statutory Assessment Form'. The Authority will then consider whether to carry out an assessment. Requests are considered by the 'SEND Panel' which includes SENCOs, an Educational Psychologist and Health and Social Care representatives. The decision as to whether to carry out a statutory assessment remains with the Authority.

If the team decide to conduct an Education, Health and Care assessment then an SEN Officer will be appointed. This will be the person who keeps parents updated on their child’s assessment. The SEN Officer will meet with them, listen and collate any additional information they may have. As well as this, education, health and

care professionals involved with the child or young person will be asked to submit information as their contribution to the plan. When all of the information has been gathered, those involved in the assessment stage, along with parents, will propose the support needed for the child or young person to achieve their required outcomes. This will be recorded in the child’s Education, Health and Care Plan. The SEN team do not teach the child or young person, but will support the educational institution that they attend by a monitoring and review process, which helps to ensure that their needs are being met and that educational progress is being made.

This approach allows all schools and settings to be as inclusive as possible and respond to the needs of all children.

For children with severe and profound learning difficulties or disabilities there is the possibility of attending Mayfield Special School which accommodates children from age 2 to 19 years old. Admission to the school is decided by the Local Authority and is based upon the above process for SEND statutory assessments. Those with more severe difficulties who cannot be accommodated in a mainstream school will instead receive their education in this fully inclusive format.

Torbay provides the following services for children as part of the Local Offer:

Early Years Advisory Team – The Early Years service provides support to Torbay settings in delivering high quality early education. As part of the service, the Early Years Inclusion Advisory Teacher supports settings specifically with SEND. The Inclusion Advisory Teacher works closely with managers and SENCos to identify children with SEND and develop ways to best support those children within the setting.

Educational Psychology – Torbay’s Educational Psychologists (EPs) have had experience working with children or young people and have also had additional training and experience in how children and young people learn and develop. They work closely with teachers and parents to help children who are having difficulties with learning and general development, including reading, writing, spelling and numbers; emotions and behaviour; making relationships with other children and adults. The EPs offer teachers and, in some cases, parents suggestions about how they can help their child’s development and learning. The advice that they offer to teachers is usually to suggest ways to improve a child’s learning or behaviour and ways to help children with learning difficulties to cope with their work in class.

Children’s Disability Service – This service comprises a specialist team of occupational therapists, social workers and community care workers, key workers and physiotherapists to support children under 18 with disabilities and their families. The team's work also includes the management and support of holiday play schemes, Saturday clubs and sitting services. The Inclusion Worker is also based within this team.

Portage and Early Support Service - Portage is a home teaching service for families who have a pre-school child who has additional needs or a disability. The success and popularity of portage is based on the fact that it promotes parents as the key figure in the development of their child. All Portage schemes are built around four main activities weekly home visiting by a trained home visitor, weekly written teaching activities designed for each individual child and parent, teaching and recording carried out by the parent and regular supervision of the home visitor. Home visitors liaise with any other people involved with the child to make sure everyone is working to common goals. Portage have regular meetings with parents and other professionals involved to monitor progress and celebrate achievements.

Hearing Support – This service provides advice and guidance to families of hearing impaired children. Home visits are available for pre-school aged children and the service provides training for nurseries and schools.

Special Needs Play scheme and Saturday Club – This is a free service available through a referral process and is aimed at children with severe to profound physical and/or learning difficulties. The service is available Monday to Saturday.

Speech and Language Service – This service aims to enable the members of the population of South Devon with communication disorders and their related conditions to achieve and maintain their communication potential by offering assessment, diagnosis, therapy and support. The service is provided, following a referral, to children with speech or language disorders/delay, severe learning difficulties, disorders following an injury, maxilla facial disorders (e.g. cleft palate), mild to moderate hearing loss, disorders of fluency (stammering), voice disorders or feeding difficulties.

SENDIASS Torbay (Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice, Support Service) - SENDIASS Torbay can support parents and carers and children or young people in any of the following areas:

Preparing for and attending meetings with schools, local authorities and other professionals

a confidential telephone helpline

Helping to write official letters and complete forms

Explaining the meaning of official documents

Assisting in the statutory assessment process

Referral to the correct organisation or contact

A SEND specific action plan can be found at the end of this document.

Summary of Key Findings & Action Plan

This report demonstrates that there are sufficient early years childcare places to meet the requirements for funded children in Torbay. There is a potential oversupply in relation to funded places, meaning that there is sufficient capacity to accommodate children aged under 2 and children from outside of the Torbay area. When accounting for birth rates which are continuing to decline, there is no demonstrable sufficiency issue for early years childcare places. Torbay Council should continue to monitor the booked pregnancies and birth rates closely to ensure that bulge years are identified at the earliest opportunity, following early indications that 2021 could see a significant rise in births.

When looking at the wraparound care available for school-aged children it is evident that there is sufficient supply of places for before and after school care which meets the needs of most families. The wraparound care that is available has sufficient capacity to accommodate more children and schools have indicated that their supply is led by demand. Where there is no before and/or after school care in a school, this decision has been taken because it is not used or required by parents, or is not required by sufficient numbers to warrant a business case.

Holiday childcare is an ongoing issue in Torbay. Whilst there are no formal complaints received from families that they are not able to access holiday childcare when they need it, the responses to the parent questionnaire suggest there are problems in relation to age ranges, availability, suitability of the offers, and affordability. This is especially prevalent in households with more than one child or where a child has SEND. Many holiday clubs are not Ofsted registered, which also creates issues for families who wish to use Tax free Childcare or Universal Credit to pay for their children’s attendance.

A summary of each ward is outlined in the table below:

Ward	Ward summary and notes
Population information and deprivation data	Childcare Places and Occupancy
Barton With Watcombe	Approximately 37% of the residents in this ward are considered to be within the 20% most deprived in England. This ward is an area of significant deprivation. 6% of the ward population are aged under 4 years old 23.6% of families have 2 or more children 35% of families in Barton with Watcombe are lone parent; slightly above the Torbay average 6% of adults are currently claiming benefits in this ward. This is an increased number due to the impact of the pandemic. Higher than average number of workless parents 34% of the population of 2 year olds are entitled to the 2 year funding	36 childcare places per 100 children Average occupancy of providers in the ward is 73.1% Occupancy is higher in all year around providers in this ward 36.4% of ward residents attend a setting within their home ward; 56.6% travel to a different ward in the same town
Churston With Galmpton	This ward is considered to be affluent. 0% of the residents are considered to be living in poverty. 2.5% of the ward population are aged under 4 years old Low number of families have 2 or more children 24% of families in Churston with Galmpton are lone parent; below the Torbay and national averages 4% of adults are currently claiming benefits in this ward. This is an increased number due to the impact of the pandemic. Low number of workless parents 24% of the population of 2 year olds are entitled to the 2 year funding	36 childcare places per 100 children Average occupancy of providers in the ward is 72.8% Occupancy is much higher in term time only providers in this ward 50.9% of ward residents attend a setting within their home ward; 40% travel to a different ward in the same town
Clifton With Maidenway	Approximately 9% of the residents in this ward are considered to be within the 20% most deprived in England 4.7% of the ward population are aged under 4 years old A high number of families have 2 or more children 29% of families in Clifton with Maidenway are lone parent; below the Torbay average but in line with the national average 6% of adults are currently claiming benefits in this ward. This is an increased number due to the impact of the pandemic. Low number of workless parents 38% of the population of 2 year olds are entitled to the 2 year funding	15 places per 100 children Average occupancy of providers in the ward is 71.6% Occupancy is higher in all year round providers in this ward 8% of ward residents attend a setting within their home ward; 76% travel to a different ward in the same town
Cockington With Chelston	Approximately 12% of the residents in this ward are considered to be within the 20% most deprived in England 4.1% of the ward population are aged under 4 years old A high number of families have 2 or more children 27% of families in Cockington With Chelston are lone parent; below the Torbay and national averages 6% of adults are currently claiming benefits in this ward. This is an increased number due to the impact of the pandemic. Low number of workless parents 26% of the population of 2 year olds are entitled to the 2 year funding	58 childcare places per 100 children Average occupancy of providers in the ward is 83.1% Occupancy is slightly higher in term time only providers in this ward 23.8% of ward residents attend a setting within their home ward; 70.3% travel to a different ward in the same town
Collaton St Mary	Approximately 57% of the residents in this ward are considered to be within the 20% most deprived in England This ward is an area of significant deprivation. 7.1% of the ward population are aged under 4 years old A high number of families have 2 or more children 36% of families in Cockington With Chelston are lone parent; above the Torbay and national averages 5% of adults are currently claiming benefits in this ward. This is an increased number due to the impact of the pandemic. Higher than average number of workless parents 35% of the population of 2 year olds are entitled to the 2 year funding	11 childcare places per 100 children Average occupancy of providers in the ward is 89.2% There are only term time only providers in this ward 20% of ward residents attend a setting within their home ward; 74% travel to a different ward in the same town. 6% of residents in this ward travel to a different town to access their childcare place.
Ellacombe	Approximately 81% of the residents in this ward are considered to be within the 20% most deprived in England This ward is an area of significant deprivation. 5.7% of the ward population are aged under 4 years old A high number of families have 2 or more children 41.7% of families in Ellacombe are lone parent; significantly above the Torbay and national averages 10% of adults are currently claiming benefits in this ward. This is an increased number due to the impact of the pandemic. Low number of workless parents 37% of the population of 2 year olds are entitled to the 2 year funding	39 childcare places per 100 children Average occupancy of providers in the ward is 67.3% Term time only providers have slightly higher occupancy than all year round providers. 23% of ward residents attend a setting within their home ward; 74% travel to a different ward in the same town. Only 3% of residents in this ward travel to a different town to access their childcare place.
Furzeham With Summercombe	Approximately 3% of the residents in this ward are considered to be within the 20% most deprived in England. 3.0% of the ward population are aged under 4 years old A low number of families have 2 or more children 32% of families in Furzeham with Summercombe are lone parent; just below the Torbay average but above national average 6% of adults are currently claiming benefits in this ward. This is an increased number due to the impact of the pandemic. Low number of workless parents 37% of the population of 2 year olds are entitled to the 2 year funding	30 childcare places per 100 children Average occupancy of providers in the ward is 81.2% Occupancy is relatively similar in term time and all year round providers. 18% of ward residents attend a setting within their home ward; 33% travel to a different ward in the same town. Only 49% of residents in this ward travel to a different town to access their childcare place.
Goodrington With Roselands	This ward is considered to be affluent. 0% of the residents are considered to be living in poverty. 3.2% of the ward population are aged under 4 years old A low number of families have 2 or more children 27% of families in Goodrington with Roselands are lone parent; below the Torbay and national averages 4% of adults are currently claiming benefits in this ward. This is an increased number due to the impact of the pandemic. Low number of workless parents 30% of the population of 2 year olds are entitled to the 2 year funding	92 childcare places per 100 children Average occupancy of providers in the ward is 75.7% All year round providers have higher occupancy than term time only providers. 55% of ward residents attend a setting within their home ward; 49% travel to a different ward in the same town. Only 5% of residents in this ward travel to a different town to access their childcare place.
King's Ash	Approximately 61% of the residents in this ward are considered to be within the 20% most deprived in England. This ward is an area of significant deprivation. 6.1% of the ward population are aged under 4 years old A high number of families have 2 or more children 35.8% of families in King’s Ash are lone parent; significantly above the Torbay and national averages 6% of adults are currently claiming benefits in this ward. This is an increased number due to the impact of the pandemic. Higher than average number of workless parents 43% of the population of 2 year olds are entitled to the 2 year funding	13 childcare places per 100 children Average occupancy of providers in the ward is 79.6% Term time only providers have higher occupancy than all year round providers. 1% of ward residents attend a setting within their home ward; 78% travel to a different ward in the same town. 21% of residents in this ward travel to a different town to access their childcare place.
Preston	Approximately 14% of the residents in this ward are considered to be within the 20% most deprived in England 3.6% of the ward population are aged under 4 years old A low number of families have 2 or more children 24.6% of families in Preston are lone parent; below the Torbay and national averages 5% of adults are currently claiming benefits in this ward. This is an increased number due to the impact of the pandemic. Low number of workless parents 24% of the population of 2 year olds are entitled to the 2 year funding	32 childcare places per 100 children Average occupancy of providers in the ward is 63.7% Term time only providers have higher occupancy than all year round providers. 38% of ward residents attend a setting within their home ward; 40% travel to a different ward in the same town. 22% of residents in this ward travel to a different town to access their childcare place.
Roundham With Hyde	Approximately 78% of the residents in this ward are considered to be within the 20% most deprived in England. This ward is an area of significant deprivation 4.0% of the ward population are aged under 4 years old A low number of families have 2 or more children 41.3% of families in Preston are lone parent; significantly above the Torbay and national averages 10% of adults are currently claiming benefits in this ward. This is an increased number due to the impact of the pandemic. High number of workless parents 51% of the population of 2 year olds are entitled to the 2 year funding	57 childcare places per 100 children Average occupancy of providers in the ward is 59% Occupancy is higher in term time only providers in this ward 53% of ward residents attend a setting within their home ward; 38% travel to a different ward in the same town. 9% of residents in this ward travel to a different town to access their childcare place.
Shiphay	Approximately 8% of the residents in this ward are considered to be within the 20% most deprived in England 4.5% of the ward population are aged under 4 years old A high number of families have 2 or more children 30.3% of families in Shiphay are lone parent; above the Torbay and national averages 5% of adults are currently claiming benefits in this ward. This is an increased number due to the impact of the pandemic. Low number of workless parents 38% of the population of 2 year olds are entitled to the 2 year funding	39 childcare places per 100 children Average occupancy of providers in the ward is 81% Occupancy is relatively similar in term time and all year round providers. 39% of ward residents attend a setting within their home ward; 57% travel to a different ward in the same town. 4% of residents in this ward travel to a different town to access their childcare place.
St Marychurch	Approximately 29% of the residents in this ward are considered to be within the 20% most deprived in England 4.0% of the ward population are aged under 4 years old A high number of families have 2 or more children 36.9% of families in St Marychurch are lone parent; above the Torbay and national averages 7% of adults are currently claiming benefits in this ward. This is an increased number due to the impact of the pandemic. Low number of workless parents 44% of the population of 2 year olds are entitled to the 2 year funding	50 childcare places per 100 children Average occupancy of providers in the ward is 69.5% Occupancy is higher in all year round providers. 55% of ward residents attend a setting within their home ward; 42% travel to a different ward in the same town. Only 3% of residents in this ward travel to a different town to access their childcare place.
St Peter's With St Mary's	Approximately 15% of the residents in this ward are considered to be within the 20% most deprived in England 4.0% of the ward population are aged under 4 years old A low number of families have 2 or more children 32.3% of families in St Peter's With St Mary's are lone parent; just below the Torbay average but above the national average. 7% of adults are currently claiming benefits in this ward. This is an increased number due to the impact of the pandemic. Low number of workless parents 20% of the population of 2 year olds are entitled to the 2 year funding	22 childcare places per 100 children Average occupancy of providers in the ward is 65.1% The occupancy of term time only providers is higher than all year round providers. 58.3% of ward residents attend a setting within their home ward; 19.4% travel to a different ward in the same town. Only 22.2% of residents in this ward travel to a different town to access their childcare place.
Tormohun	Approximately 79% of the residents in this ward are considered to be within the 20% most deprived in England This ward is an area of significant deprivation 4.9% of the ward population are aged under 4 years old A low number of families have 2 or more children 40.7% of families in Tormohun are lone parent; significantly above the Torbay and national averages. 11% of adults are currently claiming benefits in this ward. This is an increased number due to the impact of the pandemic. High number of workless parents 57% of the population of 2 year olds are entitled to the 2 year funding.	8 childcare places per 100 children Average occupancy of providers in the ward is 71.7% Occupancy is higher in term time only providers in this ward 39% of ward residents attend a setting within their home ward; 55% travel to a different ward in the same town. Only 6% of residents in this ward travel to a different town to access their childcare place.
Wellswood	Approximately 31% of the residents in this ward are considered to be within the 20% most deprived in England. 1.8% of the ward population are aged under 4 years old A very low number of families have 2 or more children 33% of families in Wellswood are lone parent; just below the Torbay average but above the national average. 6% of adults are currently claiming benefits in this ward. This is an increased number due to the impact of the pandemic. Low number of workless parents 27% of the population of 2 year olds are entitled to the 2 year funding	22 childcare places per 100 children Average occupancy of providers in the ward is 78.2% There are only term time providers in this ward 43% of ward residents attend a setting within their home ward; 57% travel to a different ward in the same town. Only 0% of residents in this ward travel to a different town to access their childcare place.
2 year old funded places	Planning for children with SEND
The number of childcare places for 2 year olds has been extended in Torquay and Paignton providers through the use of local and central capital funding as well as in response to demand within certain providers; particularly schools. The number of 2 year old places continues to be affected by the extended entitlement (30 hours). From a business perspective, it is often more profitable to offer places for 3&4 year olds, where ratios are 1:8 as opposed to 1:4 for 2 year olds. Torbay Council has taken steps to improve and develop the way contact is made with potentially eligible families including: Redesigning the letter sent to families in liaison with the Government’s Behavioural Insights team Adding graphics to letters and envelopes so it is less resemblant of formal letters and bills Designing a process for making contact with eligible families who are not yet using their place Increased use of social media to advertise the entitlement Torbay Council continues to work with all providers to encourage the development of more 2 year old places, with a view to ensuring that children from the poorest families are able to access the place that they are entitled to. The Local Authority is also keen to ensure that we do not end up with an oversupply of places which could have a detrimental effect on the PVI sector; therefore it is important that a balance is struck to ensure sufficient places without creating an oversupply.	All early years settings in Torbay are as inclusive as possible. Some settings allocate places specifically for children with SEND and others work on a case by case basis offering places to children with SEND in the same way that they would for any child, regardless of level of need. A SEND inclusion fund (called Alfey Funding) continues to be available for providers who feel they require additional funding to support children with individual needs. The budget increase has been continued into this new financial year to support children with SEND who are entitled to 30 hours funding and continue to be able to offer the Alfey funding for the extended hours. Childcare settings are also able to apply for a Disability Access Fund for funded 3 and 4 year old children who are in receipt of Disability Living Allowance. Torbay Council will continue to work with providers (including schools) to support them with children with SEND. This work will be carried out by the Early Years Advisory Service, Early Years Advisory Teacher for Inclusion, Torbay SEND Service and Torbay Portage Service.

Update on 2019 Action Plan

Action	Who is responsible	What resources are required	Update on Progress
Increasing 2 year old places Support schools with nursery classes for 3 and 4 year olds to extend their offer and accept 2 year olds.	The Early Years Team School Heads Early Years Leads	The Early Years Team capacity (5% DSG allocation)	One primary school is opening a developed nursery building in September 2021, extending their age range and offering 2 year old places. One further new primary school is opening in September 2021, offering spaces for 2 year old children. New capacity – approximately 16 places No complaints have been received from families who have been unable to access a suitable place.
Maintaining places for 3&4 year olds Support providers to ensure that the number of childcare places does not reduce to ensure that children entitled to the universal and extended hours can access them.	The Early Years Team School Heads Early Years Leads	The Early Years Team capacity (5% DSG allocation)	One new primary school opening in September 2021 is offering places for 3 and 4 year olds in a nursery class. New capacity – approximately 26 places No complaints have been received from families who have been unable to access a suitable place.
Affordability of childcare Work with providers to ensure they are fully aware of all of the funding streams and assistance with paying for childcare that parents can access. LA to also promote these through social media and other partners.	The Early Years Team Schools, PVI providers and Childminders LA Comms Team Children’s Centre, Health Visitors etc	The Early Years Team capacity (5% DSG allocation) Engagement from partners	Early Years pages of the Council website have been updated to ensure that it contains all the information parents may require in relation to help with paying for childcare. All types of entitlement and funding streams are regularly advertised on social media streams. Providers are briefed regularly on support available. Individualised support and advice is offered to parents who contact the service.
Flexibility for working families Meet with term time only, 9am – 3pm providers to encourage more flexible opening hours and operating all year round to support working parents and accommodate children eligible for the extended entitlement.	The Early Years Team School Heads Early Years Leads	The Early Years Team capacity (5% DSG allocation)	There continues to be a sufficient mixture of term time only and all year round provision for families. No complaints have been received from families who have been unable to access a suitable place.
Holiday childcare Support providers, especially schools, to develop a holiday childcare offer that better meets the needs of working parents for early years and school age children.	The Early Years Team School Heads Early Years Leads	The Early Years Team capacity (5% DSG allocation)	There is sufficient holiday childcare to meet the needs of most working families or families that require support during the holidays, however parents do continue to report difficulty finding suitable and affordable holiday childcare places. No complaints have been received from families who have been unable to access a suitable place.
Childminder recruitment Continue to recruit new childminders and encourage them to provided funded places as well as wraparound and holiday childcare.	The Early Years Team Jobcentre plus Team	The Early Years Team capacity Jobcentre Plus capacity & swift identification of suitable candidates	The pandemic has resulted in the loss of a significant number of childminders. Work is underway to recruit new childminders.
SEND Continue to support providers including school nursery classes with children with SEND and encourage all providers to continue to be fully inclusive.	The Early Years Team The SEND Team	The Early Years Team capacity (5% DSG allocation) The SEND Team capacity	All early years providers within Torbay are inclusive. The Council has issued a budget of more than a quarter of a million pounds to support children in settings with SEND. This budget is usually fully spent/overspent.
Quality Support providers who have an Ofsted grade of Requires Improvement to ensure that all children in Torbay can access their funded place in a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ provider.	The Early Years Team	The Early Years Team capacity (5% DSG allocation)	Support is offered to providers who do not achieve at least a grade of good. Currently there is one nursery and one childminder who have a grade of requires improvement. These providers are receiving support from the Advisory Service.

2021 Action Plan

Action	Who is responsible	What resources are required	How will this be achieved?
Work with primary schools to support and develop ways of promoting the current holiday childcare offer to parents, raising better awareness in the community.	Torbay Early Years Service School Leadership	Development Worker & EY Team capacity (5% DSG allocation)	Meetings and discussions with school leaders and holiday care providers to identify availability and ways to best promote offers to parents.
Work with primary schools to support them to seek ways to develop their own, on-site childcare and wraparound provision where it is not already offered.	Torbay Early Years Service School Leadership	Development Worker & EY Team capacity (5% DSG allocation)	Meetings and discussions with school leaders and holiday care providers to identify areas for development. Support schools in consulting with parents to gauge demand. Providing advice and guidance around holiday childcare offers.
Periodically monitor the current and expected birth rates. Identify potential bulge years at the earliest opportunity and monitor potential impact on nursery and school places.	Torbay Early Years Service 0-19 contract colleagues School Place Planning Admissions Service	Finance & Business Officer & EY Team capacity (5% DSG allocation)	Termly analysis of birth rates and booked pregnancies. Communicating and cascading relevant information through meetings around forecast demand.
Actively recruit and train new childminders in Torbay.	Torbay Early Years Service Torbay Council Comms Team	Development Worker & EY Team capacity (5% DSG allocation)	Meet with Comms team to create a marketing campaign to recruit new childminders and advertise the training available. Schedule training dates and deliver training.
Work with the SEND Team to improve parental understanding on the holiday childcare offers available for children with SEND to improve parental confidence. Support settings to be more proactive in their local offer.	Torbay Early Years Service Portage Service SEND Team SENDIASS	EY Team capacity (5% DSG allocation) SEND Team capacity Portage Team capacity	EY and SEND Team to work together to identify SEND holiday childcare providers. EY and SEND Team to work together to develop ways to support parents to find appropriate childcare.
Support providers to maintain the number of childcare places available for under 5 year olds in Torbay. Ensure that providers understand parental demand to support working families and families who are disadvantaged.	Torbay Early Years Service	EY Team capacity (5% DSG allocation)	EY Finance & Business Officer to identify any provider at risk of closure at the earliest opportunity and offer support. Communicate any identified changes to demand to providers (e.g. changes in birth rates) as and when appropriate. Communicate pertinent information around disadvantage whenever required.
Support providers to ensure that they are delivering consistently high quality childcare across Torbay, achieving Ofsted grades of good or outstanding.	Torbay Early Years Service	EY Team capacity (5% DSG allocation)	Delivery of training (online and in person) Bespoke visits Bespoke/tailored support Early identification of providers who require extra support

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