Purpose

Proposed Decision:
 
The Cabinet Member is
asked to:
 

1.          
approve the proposed process for the management and
awarding of capital funding related to deliver of the extended
early years funded entitlements;

2.          
approve the proposed process for the management and
awarding of capital funding and revenue monies related to deliver
of the wraparound childcare aspiration;

3.          
authorise the Director of Education and Skills to
adapt these processes, in consultation with the Cabinet Members for
Education and Skills and Integrated Children’s Services, as
necessary to ensure effective delivery.
 
Further
Information:
 
The
Spring Budget announced a range of measures to support early
education and help parents with childcare so they can return to
work more easily. This included new funded entitlements:

 

From
April 2024, eligible working parents of 2-year-olds can access up
to 15 hours per week for 38 weeks of the year.
From
Sept 2024, eligible working parents of children aged 9 months up to
3-year-olds can access up to 15 hours per week for 38 weeks of the
year.
From
Sept 2025, eligible working parents of children aged 9 months up to
3-year-olds can access up to 30 hours per week for 38 weeks of the
year.

 
The Government also
announced its ambition that, by 2026, all parents and carers of
primary school-aged children who need it will be able to access
term time childcare in their local area from 8:00 AM- 6:00 PM. This
is known as wrap-around childcare.
 
Additional funding is
being made available to the County Council via the Early Years
Funding Block to deliver the new entitlements from 1 April
2024..
 
Additionally a Wraparound Childcare
grant is being provided, during the three financial years of
2023-24 to 2025-26.  The County Council
is to receive a maximum of £52k in 2023-24, £4.1m in
2024-25 and £1.9m (provisional) in 2025-26. 
 

To support the expansion of the funded entitlement
for working age parents and to achieve the
ambitions of the wraparound childcare programme, the DfE is also
making available some capital funding to support place development.
The County Council has been allocated a total of £2.66m
capital funding. The DfE is expecting approximately 80% to be spent
on expanding funded entitlements and 20% on wraparound childcare
provision.
 
The processes and
criteria for awarding capital funding to providers to enable them
to deliver these services, and the revenue funding to help set up
sustainable wraparound childcare provision need to be
approved.  This is to ensure
consistency, transparency and
fairness.
 
The proposed decision
supports the key priority “Levelling up Kent” within
the ‘Framing Kent’s Future
(2022-26)’.   Supporting the
Kent economy to be resilient and successful depends upon having a
flexible, adaptable, talented workforce.  Enabling parents to be active in the workforce is
an essential component of this.
 
The proposed decision
supports “Securing Kent’s Future – budget
recovery strategy”.  The
additional activity is funded by Government Grant, with allowances
within these for the County Council’s delivery
costs.  No additional funds from KCC are
required.  Supporting families to work
and be independent of state support assists the County
Council’s budget position. 
 
Financial Implications:
 

The revenue and capital funding are grant
allocations to the Authority and must be spent in accordance with
the grant conditions.  The processes set
out in the report to the Children’s, Young People and
Education Cabinet Committee will ensure these grants are spent
accordingly, and are not overspent to
ensure there is no financial pressure on the Authority.

The Authority’s delivery costs were covered in
the paper presented to this Cabinet Committee on 26 January
2024.  For ease of reference these
are: 

·        
the Authority’s cost of delivering the current
and new entitlements are  expected to be fully covered by the early
years block funding in 2024-25 through retention of up to 5% of the
grant. For 2023-24, the DfE has provided a separate one-off grant
of £233,579 to support the Local Authority’s activities
required ahead of the 1st
April to deliver the new entitlement offer.

·        
The 2023-24 Wraparound provision grant allocation is
expected to fund the Authority’s central delivery costs for
this initiative, and 11% of future year grant allocations can be
used for this purpose in subsequent years.
 
 
 

Decision

As Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, I
agree to:
 

authorise the allocation of
£14,900,000 from the Basic Need capital budget for the
expansion of Rosherville Church of England Academy, London Road,
Northfleet, Gravesend, Kent, DA11 9JQ, increasing the Published
Admission Number (PAN) from 20 places per year group to 60 places
per year group, facilitated by a relocation onto a new site on
Crete Hall Road, Northfleet, DA11 9AA, for September 2025.
delegate authority to the Director
of Infrastructure to, in consultation with the Director of
Education, enter into any necessary contracts or other legal
agreements, as required to implement this decision; and
agree for the Director of
Infrastructure to be the nominated Authority Representative within
the relevant agreements, with authority to enter variations as
envisaged under the contracts.