Questions over if childcare places will keep up with ‘thousands of new houses’

Lincolnshire County Council says it believes there will be enough new childcare places to keep up with major housing expansion after concern from councillors. Local nurseries and early-years settings are being asked to provide hundreds of more spaces through government-funded schemes.

Up to 82 percent of Lincolnshire parents now say they can get the childcare they need, according to a survey carried out by the council, an 18 percent increase on last year. South Holland and Boston are the districts with the highest unmet needs.

Councillors at the Children’s and Culture Committee on Friday (October 17) questioned how major housing projects would affect this.

Reform Councillor Cain Parkinson said: “When you look at the proposed rate of expansion, the amount of people which could be coming into the county, are we going to be able to match the demand quickly enough? These housing estates can go up with thousands of houses very quickly. If we have an influx of people, and there’s already a lack of places, will we be able to keep up?”

Nicky Myers, head of service for early years and childcare support, said the council had been able to meet most of the need to date. “The highest demand we’ve seen so far is the government expanding baby places, and we’ve managed to keep up with that,” she told the committee.

“We’ve had existing and new providers on board, wanting to expand. We have matched what we need and hope we’ll be able to continue meeting needs.”

Developers are required to make contributions for services required by new residents, but this also covers costly areas like highways and healthcare. Officers said the assessment was regularly updated, and the impact of new builds was carefully considered.

A council report for the meeting outlines that the biggest barrier for nurseries offering more childcare places is the difficulty recruiting staff. The report also details that 57 settings are registered to provide more spaces than they can currently offer.

More than half of these said finding staff was the main problem, along with issues with the building and unsuitable rooms. More than 500 extra places have been created in the last year thanks to government funding.