Policy area: Early Years
This 90-minute session is for officers responsible for and working in childcare market management and early years sufficiency planning. Sufficiency action plans may require the creation of a small number of places in a certain area or may involve finding additional places for a specific age group.
Not all place creation requires capital investment. There may be providers with lower occupancy and unused places which could be used differently. Sometimes small tweaks or temporary actions can increase capacity, improve provider occupancy and longer-term sustainability. Supporting providers to see the opportunities the expanded entitlements offer their business is an integral part engaging them in a sufficiency action plan.
This session will:
• Reflect on the capacity building discussions held in regional meetings
• Consider some of the ways providers could make small changes to increase capacity, occupancy and revenue
• Discuss what local authorities are already doing and hear what has worked in place creation strategies in 2024
• Consider how we include what works in a local sufficiency strategy