Equality impact assessment (EIA) form: evidencing paying due regard to protected characteristics

(Form updated October 2023)

Childcare Expansion Programme

If you would like this information in another language or format such as Braille, large print or audio, please contact the Communications Unit on 01609 53 2013 or email communications@northyorks.gov.uk.

Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) are public documents.  EIAs accompanying reports going to County Councillors for decisions are published with the committee papers on our website and are available in hard copy at the relevant meeting.  To help people to find completed EIAs we also publish them in the Equality and Diversity section of our website.  This will help people to see for themselves how we have paid due regard in order to meet statutory requirements. 

Name of Directorate and Service Area	Children and Young Peoples Service Directorate Education and Skills Service Area
Lead Officer and contact details	Helen Smith Helen.Smith@northyorks.gov.uk
Names and roles of other people involved in carrying out the EIA	Abigail Burns Project Manager
How will you pay due regard? e.g. working group, individual officer	Working Group identified through Children and Young Peoples Service
When did the due regard process start?	May 2023

Section 1. Please describe briefly what this EIA is about. (e.g. are you starting a new service, changing how you do something, stopping doing something?)

The national wraparound childcare programme is part of the childcare reforms announced at the 2023 Spring Budget. The government’s ambition is that by September 2024, 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 8am-6pm, so that parents can access employment and improve labour market participation. To support this ambition, the government announced that it will provide up to £289 million of start-up funding over two academic years to support local authorities and providers in England to introduce or expand childcare provision on either side of the school day, which parents of primary school-aged children will be able to pay to access. This programme will only focus on primary school-aged children from reception to year 6, Monday to Friday during term time. The expectation is that all wraparound provision is 8am-6pm, enabling parents to work a full day with travel time, unless data shows that local demand is for different hours, for example reflecting local labour market patterns.

Section 2. Why is this being proposed? What are the aims? What does the authority hope to achieve by it? (e.g. to save money, meet increased demand, do things in a better way.)

This proposal is a statutory expectation

Desired outcomes are:

- Ensure school centred (But not necessarily delivered) wrap around childcare provision is available from 8am - 6pm Monday to Friday during term time. (NYC has a responsibility to ensure sufficiency of places however is not responsible necessarily for direct delivery of this provision).

- Engage with schools and wraparound childcare providers to identify existing provision and need for expansion/new provision to be established and the practicalities/potential challenges associated with this

- Engage with families to support option development

- Explore and deliver options for this expanded provision

- Identify and deliver the approach to distribution/spend of capital funding including any internal project if appropriate

- Identify the potential impact/s of this initiative on the need for home to school transport

Section 3. What will change? What will be different for customers and/or staff?

Enable parents to access childcare that is available, affordable and of quality, this will enable parents to take up/access employment opportunities.

Potential creation of job opportunities within the county both within the childcare sector and external opportunities as a result of childcare being accessible. The government funded child care offer child care offer is being rolled out in stages which began in April 2024 for working parents of children aged from 2 years for 15 hours. From Sept 2024 this is expanded to include children over 9 months old for 15 hours . From Sept 2025 the early years offer will be expanded to working parents of children aged over 9 months for 30 hours per week.

Expansion of Wraparound provision also begins from September 2024. This is aimed at working parents of children of school age from reception to year 6. This is a parent paid for offer.

Section 4. Involvement and consultation (What involvement and consultation has been done regarding the proposal and what are the results? What consultation will be needed and how will it be done?)

Parent consultation through surveys, provider consultations through survey, school consultation through survey

On going monitoring by the local authority will include communications and consultation throughout the roll out of the early years offer

The local authority has statutory duties around the provision of childcare for working parents for children from birth to 14 years of age (18 years if child has SEND requirements).

Section 5. What impact will this proposal have on council budgets? Will it be cost neutral, have increased cost or reduce costs?

The expectation is that the government grant funding will mean the project is cost neutral.

Section 6. How will this proposal affect people with protected characteristics?	No impact	Make things better	Make things worse	Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
Age		X		This will particularly support working age parents
Disability		X
Sex		x		It is possible that the provision of more places will allow more women, who may be the primary carer, to enter the workforce with the guarantee of government funded child care places up to 30 hours from September 2025 from the age of 9 months.
Race	X
Gender reassignment	X
Sexual orientation	X
Religion or belief	X
Pregnancy or maternity		X		The guarantee of government funded places could support earlier decision making to go back to work or change working hours as required.
Marriage or civil partnership	x

Section 7. How will this proposal affect people who…	No impact	Make things better	Make things worse	Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
..live in a rural area?		x		Guaranteed government funded childcare for working parents.
…have a low income?		x		Potential to increase working hours, return to work sooner creating a more stable home income.
…are carers (unpaid family or friend)?		x		Potential to increase hours spent caring
….. are from the Armed Forces Community		x		Provide support for families, including those who are employed in the armed forces. Flexibility with wraparound can support longer or more variable working patterns.

Section 8. Geographic impact – Please detail where the impact will be (please tick all that apply)
North Yorkshire wide	The programme of work is to create a government funded childcare offer for working parents for early years children across the county. The Wraparound Programme is to provide term time provision from 8am to 6pm for children of statutory school age from reception to Year 6.
Craven
Hambleton
Harrogate
Richmondshire
Ryedale
Scarborough
Selby
If you have ticked one or more areas, will specific town(s)/village(s) be particularly impacted? If so, please specify below.
Following analysis of data, hotspots have been identified within the county where extra provision may be necessary.

Section 9. Will the proposal affect anyone more because of a combination of protected characteristics? (e.g. older women or young gay men) State what you think the effect may be and why, providing evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.

This programme is to enable parents to take up employment by offering a guaranteed reliable childcare offer from the end of maternity cover to the end of Year 6 where required. This especially benefits families where one parent has not been able to return to work due to the high cost of early years child care provision or lack of wraparound provision.

Section 10. Next steps to address the anticipated impact. Select one of the following options and explain why this has been chosen. (Remember: we have an anticipatory duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people can access services and work for us)	Tick option chosen
1. No adverse impact - no major change needed to the proposal. There is no potential for discrimination or adverse impact identified.	√
2. Adverse impact - adjust the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We will change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, or we will achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people.
3. Adverse impact - continue the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We cannot change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, nor can we achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people. (There must be compelling reasons for continuing with proposals which will have the most adverse impacts. Get advice from Legal Services)
4. Actual or potential unlawful discrimination - stop and remove the proposal – The EIA identifies actual or potential unlawful discrimination. It must be stopped.
Explanation of why option has been chosen. (Include any advice given by Legal Services.)

Section 11. If the proposal is to be implemented how will you find out how it is really affecting people? (How will you monitor and review the changes?)

Through the uptake and validation of the childcare codes provided through HMRC.

Through the continued dialogue with Early Years provision, schools and parents.

Wraparound provision has the capacity to make schools more sustainable as parents are able to choose local schools who offer wraparound provision who may not have previously offered this support.

Updates through Job Centre Plus.

Section 12. Action plan. List any actions you need to take which have been identified in this EIA, including post implementation review to find out how the outcomes have been achieved in practice and what impacts there have actually been on people with protected characteristics.
Action	Lead	By when	Progress	Monitoring arrangements
Continued surveys with schools, early years providers , out of school clubs, families.	Helen Smith	At the agreed stage of the roll out. Via deadlines from the Department of Education	Successful implementation of the April 2024 roll out. Applications coming through for stage 2 of the roll out from Sept 2024	Early Years Steering Group which meets fortnightly

Section 13. Summary Summarise the findings of your EIA, including impacts, recommendation in relation to addressing impacts, including any legal advice, and next steps. This summary should be used as part of the report to the decision maker.

This is a central government nationally driven programme following an announcement in spring 2023.

The local authority has statutory duties under the child care act to ensure there is sufficient child care places available to meet the needs of working parents where required.

The recommendation of the EIA is to ensure the council manages and supports the effective delivery of the programme.

Section 14. Sign off section

This full EIA was completed by:

Name: Helen Smith

Job title: Early Years Strategy Manager

Directorate: Children and Young Peoples Service

Signature: Helen Smith

Completion date: 30/5/24

Authorised by relevant Assistant Director (signature): A Newbold

Date: 3 June 24