More than twice as many children as childcare places in Nottinghamshire

Childcare has been thrown into the spotlight after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt made it a central subject of his spring Budget.

The Government plans to significantly expand free childcare over the next few years, but charities have warned they may be hampered by a lack of capacity in the sector and difficulties with recruitment.

Department for Education figures show there were 18,575 places for early years childcare in Nottinghamshire as of December 2022, while separate data from the 2021 census shows there were about 41,900 children aged four and under in the area, suggesting one childcare place for every 2.3 children in Nottinghamshire.

This was a slightly better ratio than across the country, where there were 2.4 children per place.

Mr Hunt announced 30 hours of free childcare for all under-fives from the moment maternity care ends, where eligible, and said the policy would be introduced in stages to ensure there is "enough supply in the market".

The offer of free childcare for working parents will be available to those with two-year-olds from April 2024, covering about 500,000 parents, but will initially be limited to 15 hours.

From September 2024, the 15-hour offer will be extended to children from nine months, helping nearly a million parents, and the full 30-hour offer to all under-fives will come in from September 2025.

Mr Hunt told Sky News: “It is a huge change and we are going to need thousands more nurseries, thousands more schools offering provision they don’t currently offer, thousands more childminders.

“We are going as fast as we can to get the supply in the market to expand.”

Figures from education watchdog Ofsted show there were nine childcare establishments in Nottinghamshire judged as requiring improvement, while eight were rated “inadequate” at their last inspection, as of December 2022.

These providers were responsible for 559 places, meaning 3.9 per cent of childcare places in the area were at substandard providers, when excluding those not rated by Ofsted.

While 96 per cent of the 38,969 childcare providers inspected across England were rated 'good' or 'outstanding', 928 required improvement, and 459 were judged to be inadequate.

Joeli Brearly, founder of campaign group Pregnant then Screwed, fears more money may be needed for the Chancellor's scheme to work.

She said: “It is imperative there is a clear and remunerated strategy to attract more educators into the sector, retain those workers and offer progression opportunities.

“Free childcare from nine months is brilliant, but only if there are childcare settings to be able to access this care, without the correct funding there won’t be.”

Megan Jarvie, head of Coram Family and Childcare charity, said it was “crucial” there is enough funding for the expansion of free childcare places.

“If it is not right then we are at risk of seeing big childcare shortages,” she said.

A recent survey by the charity found 48 per cent of local authorities are not providing sufficient childcare for parents working full-time.