Only two per cent of people who currently work in early years are male. Do you think there should be more effort to increase the numbers of men working in childcare and early years?
The 'London childcare providers network' is funded by London Councils, and coordinated by Daycare Trust, in collaboration with the Pre-school Learning Alliance.
The aims of the network are that London parents are better informed regarding childcare provision and are supported to access appropriate services. Childcare providers should be better supported to ensure quality of their workforce, and to increase their sustainability, influence strategic plans and be supported to improve the home learning parenting environment.
Further information about the London Childcare Providers Network.
Parents are under increasing pressure to look for or return to work. It has never been so important for them to know about the financial help available with childcare costs. To support parent advisers to meet parents' information needs around paying for childcare, Daycare Trust have been funded by DCSF to deliver free training sessions to voluntary and community sector organisations and to development resources for advisers.
Two resources have been produced for advisers which can be downloaded here:
More information about free training courses for advisers.
|
|
 |
Between December 2008 and April 2009, Daycare Trust, supported by Awards for All, offered two free childcare training sessions to advisers and three free parent outreach sessions in conjunction with the Refugee Council Gateway project in Sheffield.
The aim of the course was to give an outline of various childcare issues to refugee parents and advisers who had little or no previous knowledge of the subject area. Topics covered in the training included childcare options, local authority childcare duties and help with childcare costs, including, free early years education sessions and help for parents who were working or studying.
childwise, moneywise is a Daycare Trust Information Services' project which aimed to improve access to information about childcare and the finanicial help available for the costs of it for parents who do not speak English as a first language. The audio resources that produced as part of the project were made available in nine languages: Arabic, Bengali, Cantonese, Gujarati, Polish, Punjabi, Urdu, Somali and English.
Through this project, Daycare Trust Information Services have:
To find out more about this project, please call the Daycare Trust Information Line on 0845 872 6251.
The audio guides are available to download from our website and a limited number of CDs are also available in all languages, see childwise, moneywise for further information.
In 2007, Daycare Trust began developing the role of Parent Champions.
This project was based on the idea that parents, especially in communities where the use of childcare is not widespread, are well-placed to encourage other parents to use childcare. ‘Parent Champions’ may be invaluable in providing information and support to parents who have not previously used childcare.
Despite recent advances in childcare policy, certain groups still remain less likely to benefit from the new childcare policy in the UK. Parents report cost, inflexibility, a lack of suitable providers in the local area, and/or preference for family-based care as reasons for not using formal childcare. A lack of information/awareness about childcare services and associated benefits is another factor. In 2004, 42 per cent of parents said that they did not have enough information about childcare. Accessing information about childcare is made even more difficult for families and communities where English is not their first language.
Parents agree that information resources that are currently available are helpful, but there are still many parents who were not aware that such resources existed and did not know where to find official information about childcare. Many parents rely heavily on word-of-mouth to find out about childcare. If a parent is not linked with other parents or a particular community is less informed about particular benefits/services, barriers to obtaining information are created.
From August 2007 - March 2008, pilot schemes were run in three London boroughs to trial the idea of developing ‘Parent Champions’ in local areas who will spread the word to other parents about the availability and advantages of accessing formal childcare.
Follwing the sucess of the pilot schemes, Daycare Trust, with DCSF, have now produced an online toolkit to support local authorities and other interested organisations to delevop their own services.
Further information about previous projects we have worked on, including 'Everyone Counts'.
Survey results revealed
We currently have a vacancy for the Chair of the Trustee board.
New guide helps you with your childcare options.
Will you back our campaign to make childcare a priority issue in the new parliament?
| 
