Early Years and Childcare: Local Authority Developing Practice – Pathfinders Implementation Toolkit Step 2: Assessing Demand

This Toolkit Step 2, the second in a series of four, is to support local authorities to assess all aspects of the supply and demand of childcare in relation to implementing the extended flexible free entitlement for early years provision.

Implementing the free entitlement explores how local authorities are working towards the requirement to ensure that from 2010 the parents of all three- and four-years-olds have free access to 15 hours per week flexible early years provision.

The changes to the extended free entitlement are being rolled out gradually across the country. 20 pathfinder authorities will implement the new system from April 2007. This group will be joined by a further 14 local authorities from September 2008.

Local authorities are at varying stages on their childcare sufficiency assessments which must be completed by March 2008. Those assessments will cover: demand for, and supply of, childcare; the gaps between the two, and meeting need in terms of times and session length. Knowledge of those gaps in provision will help Local Authorities to concentrate actions when securing sufficient childcare from April 2008.

The toolkit can be used in order, or selected according to need:

Toolkit Step 1 Project Planning (select to access contents)

Toolkit Step 2 Assessing Demand

Toolkit Step 3 Engaging with Schools (select to access contents)

Toolkit Step 4 Delivering Flexibility and Communicating with Parents (select to access contents)

Contents of Toolkit Step 2 Assessing Demand

• Assessing Demand Workshop
  A set of summary notes, from a workshop at a Wave 1 pathfinder conference in July 2007,  describing the process of integrating information about demand and supply with the sufficiency assessment
  
  
• Assessing Demand Presentation
  A case study from Rochdale which discusses monitoring take up, and access to the flexible entitlement in numbers, time spans, days and by sector.
  
  
• Assessing Demand Case Study
  A presentation on assessing demand by Carol Grimshaw from Blackburn, presented at a pathfinder conference in October 2007.