‘Significant’ number of childcare places needed in Barnsley to meet demand

Barnsley Council has undertaken a statutory assessment of all childcare places in the borough, and found that the number of registered providers for children up to five years old has reduced by 10 since last year.

It found that there has been a ‘significant’ reduction in the number of places being offered, due to recruitment issues, increases in energy prices and increases in the national living wage.

Jeremy Hunt to announced plans to extend the government’s existing offer of 30 hours of free childcare to children aged between nine months and two years by 2025 in his spring budget.

However, he told the BBC he could not give “an absolute guarantee” that all the places needed would all be available in time.

BMBC says it is “critical” to ensure the local childcare market is ‘quipped to meet the needs of working families with young children’, although it faces the challenge of ‘implementing the expansion at the rate and size required’.

The number of providers in Barnsley which care for children from birth to five, is 189 which has fallen by 10 providers from last year.

There are a total of 232 providers of early years places in the borough, the remaining 12 registered providers do not offer early years education and instead are offering school age places only.

Councillor Trevor Cave, cabinet spokesperson for children’s services, said: “This annual review, together with the work of the local multi-agency steering group and our delivery plan will help a greater number of young children to obtain a good start in life and effectively prepare them for school as well as enable working parents and carers to continue to engage with the employment market and attract further investment into Barnsley.”

The council has set up a multi-agency steering group to begin a plan to meet childcare needs across the borough.

The plan will encourage new providers while supporting existing providers and expanding capacity.

It will help create full-day care provision in areas where this isn’t currently available, as well as encouraging additional schools to provide 30 hours of care in a way which meets the requirements of working parents.