Report of the Strategic Director for Children and Education Services

This report outlines a set of proposals to support the continued provision of high quality Early Years settings across the City. The report specifically provides an overview of the impact of the current Early Years tendered day-care model (whereby providers offer day-care from a Council owned building), on the Council’s duty to oversee sufficient day-care for preschool children across Manchester; the Early Years Budget and ongoing maintenance of Early Years buildings which remain part of the corporate estate.

The Committee received a report of the Strategic Director for Children and Education Services which outlined a set of proposals to support the continued provision of high quality Early Years settings across the City. The report specifically provided an overview of the impact of the current Early Years tendered day-care model (whereby providers offer day-care from a Council owned building), on the Council’s duty to oversee sufficient day-care for preschool children across Manchester; the Early Years Budget and ongoing maintenance of Early Years buildings which remained part of the corporate estate.

The Committee was invited to comment on the report prior to its consideration by the Executive on 30 June 2021.

Officers referred to the main points and themes within the report, which included:

• Results of stock condition surveys;
• Review of Early Years buildings within the portfolio;
• Financial implications (revenue and capital);
• Further actions; and
• Support provided to Early Years settings during the pandemic.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• Whether the risk to tendered daycare settings referred to in the report stemmed from the pandemic or longer term issues;
• Concern about babies and young children not accessing Early Years provision either due to the pandemic or due to the rules on who was entitled to free daycare provision;
• Concerns about some private daycare providers, including the buildings used; and
• The proposal relating to Moss Side Sure Start Centre and Martenscroft Nursery School.

The Team Manager (Access and Sufficiency) advised the Committee that this issue pre-dated the pandemic and that there had been a high turnover of leases coming back to the Council since 2015.  She reported that the Council had been monitoring the situation since then and had been concerned by some of the feedback that its daycare partners had been sharing about the difficulties they were facing in providing high quality, sustainable childcare.  She also reported that re-tendering some of the sites had been challenging.  She advised that the report reflected this evaluation and proposals for a new approach with daycare partners.  The Strategic Director for Children and Education Services advised that the world had changed since the contracts were first set up and that the Council needed to listen to providers and respond to their issues to ensure that Manchester continued to have a range of daycare options across the city.

The Chair suggested that the Committee consider a wider item on Early Years at a future meeting, covering the full range of daycare provision.  The Strategic Director for Children and Education Services suggested that this could also include the work of the Start Well Board.  The Executive Member for Children’s Services suggested that the Committee could also look at Think Family.  The Chair proposed that the Ofsted Subgroup could visit some nurseries.

The Strategic Director for Children and Education Services informed Members that 97% of Early Years providers in Manchester had been judged as good or better by Ofsted and that Ofsted took into account the condition of the building.  He advised that, if the Member had concerns about any provision in her ward, his service could check their Ofsted registration.  The Team Manager (Access and Sufficiency) informed Members that daycare settings had access to support from the Council’s Early Years Quality Assurance team, including forums and information-sharing.  She acknowledged that families could find the funding arrangements for daycare provision complicated and advised that the Council used a range of means to communicate this information to families.

The Director of Education clarified that there were no proposed changes to Martenscroft Nursery School and that the proposed changes related to Moss Side Sure Start Centre, which Martenscroft was managing.  She advised that the current building where the Sure Start Centre was located required significant investment so it was proposed to move the provision to St Mary’s CE Primary School, while retaining its link to Martenscroft.  The Chair advised that it was important that any changes were discussed at Ward Co-ordination meetings so that local Councillors were aware of what was happening.  The Executive Member for Children’s Services assured Members that he had contacted all the Moss Side Ward Councillors about this.

Decisions

1.            To consider a wider report on Early Years at a future meeting.

2          To endorse the recommendations that the Executive:

1.0         Note 17 of 37 leases have been surrendered since December 2015 and the potential impact on the council’s ability to meet its ‘sufficiency duty’.

2.0         Note the continued negative budget implications on the Early Years budget which continues even if the status quo is maintained.

3.0         Approve the recommendation for the use of each building moving forward.

4.0         Approve the re-negotiation of the current leases by corporate estates with day care providers, making clear the responsibility of the lease holder and the corporate landlord in the re-negotiated lease. 

5.0         Support the proposal to include the Early Years estate portfolio in the Council’s future Asset Management Programme, at an estimated cost of £0.7m per year.

6.0         Approve a budget increase of £3m, funded by capital receipts, to fund the priority works.