two-year-old offer, and how it could be used to drive up standards.
The latest statutory guidance asserts the desire to fund providers with a good or outstanding Ofsted inspection judgement for settings that have funded two-year-olds.
The Department for Education has been very clear that it considers Ofsted to be the sole arbiter of quality for this area. But local authorities can also fund settings judged 'requires improvement' if there is a need for more places - the sufficiency issue.
I think this has caused some confusion over the quality requirements for two-year-old providers, and I wanted to take this opportunity to set out what the intentions behind it are, and what opportunities there are for such providers now and in the future.
Sufficiency has been variously defined in legislation and is not merely related to quantifiable supply. This idea of supply, I think, is the single most common misinterpretation of the sufficiency duty, which originated in the Childcare Act 2006.
Instead, sufficiency is a complex judgement based on multiple factors. What is sufficient for one family may easily be insufficient for another.
Essentially, the local supply of childcare should meet the requirements of parents in the area to enable them to take up, or remain in, work or to undertake education or training that could reasonably be expected to assist them to obtain work. And in determining whether provision of childcare is sufficient, a local authority must have regard to parents' other needs, including provision that is eligible for childcare tax credit support, suitable provision for children with SEND, choice, a balanced work and family life, quality, affordability and flexibility.
There are sound grounds to fund settings currently rated as 'requires improvement' where supply is currently challenged.
This is crucial given the backdrop of local authorities still being asked to target their 
resources at those settings which 'require improvement'. And I believe by funding settings rated in this way, and attaching a quality improvement condition with support and constructive challenges from the local authority, that we can better meet parents' requirements, and raise the quality of practice.
James Hempsall is director of Hempsall's (@jhempsall, www.hempsalls.com).