Friday
19
April
Concern over Early Years childcare attendance
12/06/2020 @ 12:38
Not all vulnerable children that qualify for places at the early years childcare settings in Newtown and throughout Powys are attending, it has emerged.
Powys County Council’s (PCC) staff told councillors at a meeting of the Health and Care scrutiny committee that social workers were meeting families to encourage all qualifying children to take up places.
Councillor Amanda Jenner said that the report from 11 May that was discussed by the committee, showed that 12 vulnerable children had registered to attend a setting such as childminders or private nurseries, out of 157 booked in for that week.
Cllr Jenner said: “It’s a concern. Are we aware of how many have not taken up early years?
“What’s happening to encourage vulnerable children to go to these settings and continue to going?”
Strategic Children’s programme manager Joanna Harris said: “Children’s (Social) Service hold a list of all of our vulnerable children and we cross reference that in relation with bookings.
“We have all the information on those who have and have not attended, we ask social workers to work with families and encourage attendance.”
Ms Harris told the committee that the children might not be attending for a myriad of reasons, such as the family might have a member shielding, or a general fear of sending them due to coronavirus.
She added that social workers had used the online booking themselves to book vulnerable children into the nearest childcare setting.
“We wrote the report back on 11 May and what we have seen is that numbers attending has increase since then,” added Ms Harris
Director of Social Services, Ali Bulman, added that unlike some local authorities, PCC had continued to hold face to face visits between vulnerable children and social workers throughout the lockdown.
Portfolio holder, Councillor Rachel Powell, said: “This is non-statutory so you can’t force families to attend.”
There are 29 settings in Powys currently providing early years childcare to children of critical workers and vulnerable children.
Early Years childcare is provided between the hours of 8am to 6pm and is available seven days a week including Bank Holidays.
Powys County Council’s (PCC) staff told councillors at a meeting of the Health and Care scrutiny committee that social workers were meeting families to encourage all qualifying children to take up places.
Councillor Amanda Jenner said that the report from 11 May that was discussed by the committee, showed that 12 vulnerable children had registered to attend a setting such as childminders or private nurseries, out of 157 booked in for that week.Cllr Jenner said: “It’s a concern. Are we aware of how many have not taken up early years?
“What’s happening to encourage vulnerable children to go to these settings and continue to going?”
Strategic Children’s programme manager Joanna Harris said: “Children’s (Social) Service hold a list of all of our vulnerable children and we cross reference that in relation with bookings.
“We have all the information on those who have and have not attended, we ask social workers to work with families and encourage attendance.”
Ms Harris told the committee that the children might not be attending for a myriad of reasons, such as the family might have a member shielding, or a general fear of sending them due to coronavirus.
She added that social workers had used the online booking themselves to book vulnerable children into the nearest childcare setting.
“We wrote the report back on 11 May and what we have seen is that numbers attending has increase since then,” added Ms Harris
Director of Social Services, Ali Bulman, added that unlike some local authorities, PCC had continued to hold face to face visits between vulnerable children and social workers throughout the lockdown.
Portfolio holder, Councillor Rachel Powell, said: “This is non-statutory so you can’t force families to attend.”
There are 29 settings in Powys currently providing early years childcare to children of critical workers and vulnerable children.
Early Years childcare is provided between the hours of 8am to 6pm and is available seven days a week including Bank Holidays.
By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporting Service
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