Access to Childcare Fund: phase 2 - evaluation report

6. Achieving flexible childcare

Summary:

• While there were some projects that clearly achieved a very flexible service for families, for others this was less of a focus.
• Booking systems were an important part of flexibility. Features that enhanced this included: not requiring families to commit to a long-term contract; taking bookings at short notice; not penalising parents for last-minute cancellations; increasing choice of sessions; and being open to parents picking up or dropping off children at different times.
• Another way in which services provided flexible SACC was through adapting their service to meet the needs of parents/children. For example, through having a range of activities and types of support available.
• These processes were underpinned by having sufficient resources and skilled staff with strong relationships with families and a sound understanding of their needs. In line with this, the main challenges to providing flexibility were around funding and staffing SACC sufficiently.

The extent to which projects were felt to have provided a flexible service for families, which could easily adapt and respond to changing needs, varied. While there were projects where flexibility came out as a strength, others had focused on this to a lesser extent or had experienced practical challenges that limited their ability to respond flexibly to families’ needs.

Flexible booking systems

Projects had different approaches to booking provision, from not requiring families to book beforehand to asking for more of an advance commitment from families. Not requiring a long-term contract and allowing them to book provision with less notice (e.g., not requiring them to book childcare for a term/year at a time) gave parents who were using services more scope to use childcare flexibly, as and when they needed it. Shorter notice periods also allowed parents to change their weekly schedule, as opposed to keeping to a regular pattern.

Notably, the Wee Childcare Company particularly focused on flexible booking and trialled three different notice periods (24 hours, a week or a month). The data collected by Wee Childcare Company as part of their monitoring and evaluation indicated that families generally preferred booking at shorter notice. While the families who took part in this research were happy with the booking systems they were offered, it was noted that other parents may find a month’s notice difficult.

Hame Fae Hame operated a ‘Pay as You Go’ approach where parents were able to change the hours they used week on week, and only pay for the hours used. This flexibility was recognised and appreciated by families:

“I might phone up and be like, ‘[My child] is going to have a day off today, is that okay? Can he come in tomorrow instead?’ They’re just really flexible.” (Parent)

When projects provided drop-in services (such as St Mirin’s Saturday play sessions) this went a step further in providing flexibility for families by not requiring any advance booking. However, it should be noted that this was for sessions focused more on family support or additional opportunities for play and less on providing childcare, where children would need to have a guaranteed space.

There were also examples of projects flexing their general approach to booking to support families with sudden, unforeseen circumstances. Families who had had to ask for their child to attend a session at very short notice said staff had generally tried to accommodate this. For example, one parent said that when their child was in hospital the project staff “were very empathetic” and happy to change the days they had booked to suit them better. Even when this was not possible, families appreciated feeling able to ask for this and knowing that projects would try to work around their needs.

Not penalising parents for last-minute cancellation also gave parents the flexibility to only use childcare when they wanted or needed it. Again, Hame Fae Hame’s booking system was very flexible in this regard, and the project lead pointed out that this avoided encouraging parents to send children to SACC when they were sick.

Families also appreciated having a choice of sessions, and when provision operated five days a week, being able to choose as much or as little time within this as they needed:

“Having him just Monday to Thursday was really quite good for me, […] like, it is not an all or nothing, it’s what days he needs.” (Parent)

Finally, participants mentioned that flexibility was enhanced when projects were open to parents picking up or dropping off their children within sessions, rather than at fixed, predetermined times:

“If you want to come in at quarter past eight, come in at quarter past eight rather than half seven, so we are very flexible and that works for parents.” (Project lead)

Enablers and barriers to providing flexible booking systems

To provide flexible booking, projects highlighted the importance of adequate staffing, as well as forward planning and designing activities to be ‘interruptible’. Sufficient staffing was seen as critical to look after children at short notice and maintain minimum ratios and could not be operating at maximum capacity. Therefore, services that were fully- or over-subscribed, or facing staffing shortages, were less able to accommodate short-notice requests.

Projects also highlighted the cost implications of increased staffing, as well as coping with the loss of expected income if families aren’t charged for cancelling. Generally, projects relied on ACF funding to offer these flexible features to families without passing on the extra costs and keeping their services affordable. For example, one childminder explained that they needed to have minimum hours in order to run a financially viable service and this meant they had previously had to turn some parents away, while another project lead recalled a service they had discontinued due to a lack of uptake making it unsustainable. There was a view that funding would be needed to make flexible childcare sustainable in the future:

“We have brought on two new staff through the ACF so their wages are funded… So, we can usually flexibly respond to what is needed.” (Project lead)

“Now we have got the evidence that people will come if you design the service to meet their needs and not design the service to only be financially viable. But, even the flexibility, you need to make sure it is viable, and you can do that if it is underpinned by funding.” (Project lead)

There was a view that offering flexibility for parents meant less certainty for staff, which could be challenging and ‘take a toll’ in terms of workload:

“Now, that is not always easy, and it does require a huge amount of flexibility, and that in itself can be a challenge for organisations [...] that takes its toll on a team as well. [...] The funding has made it easier for us to do that, because it has given us that breathing space.” (Project lead)

While flexible services caused challenges with forward planning, there were projects that had used their knowledge of families and experience of working with them to help them predict need and reduce uncertainty. For example, one project had kept spaces available for families who they knew would likely be in need of them, but who had not signed up in advance. One stakeholder also highlighted that having a good system to log and track hours booked was important when responding to changes requested by families.

Another project mentioned that they designed activities carefully, in order to support flexible pick-up schedules. For example, they typically planned shorter activities which are less disrupted by children joining or leaving at different times and did more structured activities at the beginning:

“Our children can be picked up at any time, which is fantastic because it fits into family life, whether they have got swimming, football, food, etcetera, but it is also quite disruptive for us to be able to offer consistency in an activity. So, we have to be very flexible, we have to offer a mixture of short activities. [If we do a] baking activity, right at the start tends to be best.” (Project lead)

Finally, there was a sense among families that the culture and values of projects contributed to providing a flexible service. Parents commented on the positive attitude of staff who appeared genuinely committed:

“They literally will do anything they can…I feel like it is a real place of understanding and wanting to make it work for the family, which is so refreshing when other childcare operators, you’re used to them saying no.” (Parent)

Flexibility in approach

Projects with more of a range of services available (as well as a range of suitable times) were also able to adapt to support different families’ needs. St Mirin’s OSC was an example of a project with different activities, not only within sessions but across sessions, as it provided various services focused on different types of support. This included: wraparound childcare provision as well as family support sessions for parents or children; a ‘crisis intervention’ support service; a ‘school specialism’ service focused on helping children who were struggling in school; along with additional opportunities for play and connection. They felt this enabled them to offer a more tailored ‘package’ to families and be flexible with their offer, depending on what kind of support they were looking for.