Over 2,500 new childcare places are being created in Liverpool that will support working parents – and there are more to come.
The increase has been made possible by grant funding received from the government to support the national expansion of funded childcare places as well as places which are part of the “wraparound” programme for primary school-aged children.
So far, Liverpool City Council has awarded over £1.5m to providers which will create 366 early years places, 303 before-school places and 1,858 after-school places – 2,527 in total – for youngsters from families with eligible working parents. And a fourth round of applications is due to open shortly.
The grant funding streams, which can support either capital work such as buildings or equipment for early years places, or increasing staff numbers and other running costs for wraparound places, has been distributed to childcare settings, such as nurseries or child minders, or breakfast and after-school clubs for primary school children.
Ofsted-registered providers were invited to apply for funding as part of a stringent process. Applicants had to provide financial accounts, cashflow forecasts and a business plan. If providers were applying for building work they also needed to supply a quote, with further quotes requested if their application was successful. Providers were also visited by the grants team to talk through their project.
For each funding stream, a grant panel team assessed all applications against numerous criteria to ensure fairness, with 78 being successful. Successful providers will continue to have their projects monitored to ensure value for money.
Applications received by the council ranged from converting unused rooms to complete new builds.
From last April, the national expansion of funded childcare places has seen eligible working parents of two- year-olds able to access 15 hours a week of childcare with the offer further expanded to nine-month olds up to three-years-olds last September. The offer is set to expand further from this September with children aged from nine months to three years able to access 30 hours of childcare a week.
Since changes to the entitlements, uptake in Liverpool has been impressive. With 94 per cent of eligible families of two-year-olds who applied for a Childcare Choices code now taking up a funded place when the first change was implemented, equating to 1,756 children.
With the further expansion to nine-month-olds to three-year-olds 97 per cent of families who applied for a code took up a funded place, equating to 2,085 children now benefitting from an early years education.
Parents eligible for funded childcare should visit the Childcare Choices website.
Cllr Liz Parsons, cabinet members for Children’s Social Services, said: “It’s great news that early years providers in Liverpool have grasped this opportunity to apply for funding to ensure that as many as possible of our working families can take up the expanded childcare offer.
“Our early years providers are vital for Liverpool, not only ensuing that parents are able to work but that youngsters get the benefits of an early years education which is so important for their development as they get ready to set off on their school journey.
“It is also exciting to see that the wraparound offer in the city is set to become stronger which will again give more support to working parents.
“The available funding has been carefully allocated by the council’s panel to ensure that real value is generated for Liverpool’s families and we’re already looking forward to seeing the applications we receive in the fourth round.”
Neil Verdin, headteacher at Pleasant Street Primary School, one of the providers which has secured funding for its wraparound service, said: “The successful grant application has allowed Pleasant Street to increase our capacity for extended provision.
“Previously, we were unable to meet the demand due to restricted space but now the grant contributed to a modern new ‘Cedar Room’ being built. This has allowed us to increase our intake, with available spaces currently matching parental requests for places.”
Brian Quinn, owner of The Childcare Academy in the Baltic Quarter, said: “The government expansion grant has been a great opportunity. What we’ve been able to do is open a new space for nine additional babies, 15 spaces for pre- and after-school clubs and a holiday club in the summer holidays.
“We’ve had an exponential growth and success with the expansion grant, and we couldn’t be happier with the result.”
