Childcare Access Funding

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Cambridgeshire County Council is seeking residents’ and stakeholders’ views on a proposal to cease Childcare Access Funding. There will be a separate consultation about Special School After School Clubs. The process will consist of two parts, a short period of information gathering in phase one (current phase), followed by a longer period of consultation in phase two, which is intended to commence in June 2025.

Childcare Access Funding currently supports between 75 and 100 children a year with very high levels of need (with an Education, Health and Care plan) to access wraparound childcare. It is paid at £7.85 per hour the child attends, as a contribution towards providing enhanced staffing to meet children’s needs where they cannot be met by reasonable adjustments. The provision of Childcare Access Funding is not a statutory duty, the Council has been funding it to support parents since 2014, despite receiving no external funding to support this.

The Council currently has significant overspend in the High Needs Block of funding, which currently funds Childcare Access Funding. Budget savings are needed to support financial sustainability for the Council.

An Equalities Impact Assessment has been completed. This acknowledges the impact of the removal of CAF funding on groups with protected characteristics. This highlights the concerns that:

  • Children with SEND are less able to access provision
  • Children with SEND will be less able to socialise with peers
  • Families with children with SEND may be unable to work or train outside of term time or school hours
  • Families of children with SEND may be placed at a financial disadvantage.

So far, Cambridgeshire County Council has considered the following mitigations:

  • work with parent forums and parent facing teams to provide information about the Cambridgeshire Local Offer and SEND brokerage offer available through the Families Information Service
  • develop, as part of the national wrapround expansion programme settings that promote inclusion for all and use of Ordinarily Available Provision, alongside developing new wraparound places in Special Schools where there is demand
  • consider appropriateness of wraparound entitlement within EHCP’s and where appropriate short breaks criteria
  • Provide additional training for providers to support inclusive practice
  • Support understanding of playwork based settings and how they may be able to meet need without additional staff
  • Signposting for parents to other sources of funding and support to provide other opportunities for children to socialise with peers.
  • Consider the role of childminders to offer flexible care for children with complex needs.

The purpose of this period of engagement is to:

  • Understand the impact of removing funding on families
  • Understand how the current mitigations may or may not support children to access out of school provision without additional funding
  • Seek the views of residents and stakeholders as to how to support children with additional needs to access out of school care.

Find out more:

Please view our proposals in detail in our attached documents.

If you need a hard copy or would prefer a copy of the supporting materials in another format, please email earlyyears.service@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

Have your say

Share your feedback by:

Completing the survey at the bottom of the page after you have read through the supporting materials. If you are having trouble completing the survey, please email earlyyears.service@cambridgeshire.gov.uk for assistance.

Emailing earlyyears.service@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

Writing to us at CambsEYC, PAP1203, PO Box 761, Huntingdon, PE29 9QR.

This pre-consultation engagement and information gathering closes at 11.59pm on Friday 21st March 2025.

You do not have to give us any personal information. We will not publish any personal details you do give us, but may publish your response, and include it in public reports, with personal details removed. Personal data will be held securely, in accordance with data protection legislation. We will only store it for 12 months after the consultation results have been analysed and the consultation report published.

Your personal information will be collected and used in line with Data Protection legislation to undertake consultations on Childcare Access Funding.

Further details about how we use this data and the rights you have around this can be found at www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/privacy

Cambridgeshire County Council is seeking residents’ and stakeholders’ views on a proposal to cease Childcare Access Funding. There will be a separate consultation about Special School After School Clubs. The process will consist of two parts, a short period of information gathering in phase one (current phase), followed by a longer period of consultation in phase two, which is intended to commence in June 2025.

Childcare Access Funding currently supports between 75 and 100 children a year with very high levels of need (with an Education, Health and Care plan) to access wraparound childcare. It is paid at £7.85 per hour the child attends, as a contribution towards providing enhanced staffing to meet children’s needs where they cannot be met by reasonable adjustments. The provision of Childcare Access Funding is not a statutory duty, the Council has been funding it to support parents since 2014, despite receiving no external funding to support this.

The Council currently has significant overspend in the High Needs Block of funding, which currently funds Childcare Access Funding. Budget savings are needed to support financial sustainability for the Council.

An Equalities Impact Assessment has been completed. This acknowledges the impact of the removal of CAF funding on groups with protected characteristics. This highlights the concerns that:

  • Children with SEND are less able to access provision
  • Children with SEND will be less able to socialise with peers
  • Families with children with SEND may be unable to work or train outside of term time or school hours
  • Families of children with SEND may be placed at a financial disadvantage.

So far, Cambridgeshire County Council has considered the following mitigations:

  • work with parent forums and parent facing teams to provide information about the Cambridgeshire Local Offer and SEND brokerage offer available through the Families Information Service
  • develop, as part of the national wrapround expansion programme settings that promote inclusion for all and use of Ordinarily Available Provision, alongside developing new wraparound places in Special Schools where there is demand
  • consider appropriateness of wraparound entitlement within EHCP’s and where appropriate short breaks criteria
  • Provide additional training for providers to support inclusive practice
  • Support understanding of playwork based settings and how they may be able to meet need without additional staff
  • Signposting for parents to other sources of funding and support to provide other opportunities for children to socialise with peers.
  • Consider the role of childminders to offer flexible care for children with complex needs.

The purpose of this period of engagement is to:

  • Understand the impact of removing funding on families
  • Understand how the current mitigations may or may not support children to access out of school provision without additional funding
  • Seek the views of residents and stakeholders as to how to support children with additional needs to access out of school care.

Find out more:

Please view our proposals in detail in our attached documents.

If you need a hard copy or would prefer a copy of the supporting materials in another format, please email earlyyears.service@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

Have your say

Share your feedback by:

Completing the survey at the bottom of the page after you have read through the supporting materials. If you are having trouble completing the survey, please email earlyyears.service@cambridgeshire.gov.uk for assistance.

Emailing earlyyears.service@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

Writing to us at CambsEYC, PAP1203, PO Box 761, Huntingdon, PE29 9QR.

This pre-consultation engagement and information gathering closes at 11.59pm on Friday 21st March 2025.

You do not have to give us any personal information. We will not publish any personal details you do give us, but may publish your response, and include it in public reports, with personal details removed. Personal data will be held securely, in accordance with data protection legislation. We will only store it for 12 months after the consultation results have been analysed and the consultation report published.

Your personal information will be collected and used in line with Data Protection legislation to undertake consultations on Childcare Access Funding.

Further details about how we use this data and the rights you have around this can be found at www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/privacy

  • Childcare Access Funding survey

    Throughout this document we use the term wraparound to refer to care given before and after school, or in the school holidays, for example breakfast clubs, after-school clubs or holidayclubs. 

    The proposal is to withdraw non-statutory Childcare Access Funding to enable Cambridgeshire County Council to focus on meeting statutory duties that support inclusion.

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Page last updated: 06 Mar 2025, 09:22 AM