The Daycare Trust and the British Urban Regeneration Association jointly staged the conference, 'Starting Early: Building Quality Childcare into Regeneration', and outlined their vision in a policy statement. Key recommendations include calling for central Government to simplify, streamline and integrate initiatives and grant schemes that support childcare and provide long-term funding to increase sustainability, as well as giving incentives to childcare providers to offer services that meet a range of parents' needs, such as care for children with special needs and during hours outside the typical working day.
It also called for regional development agencies to incorporate childcare facilities into the early stages of regeneration schemes. Local authorities should encourage joint working between regeneration and early years departments. JobCentre Plus should help parents by identifying and reporting gaps in childcare and directly fund providers as an incentive to offering flexible provision that meets employers' needs and allows parents to attend interviews, work experience and training.
Launching the policy statement, Daycare Trust chair Lisa Harker said it 'set out a clear case for childcare as a regeneration issue', and was a message to central and local government and other agencies.
She added that childcare should not be 'a lottery' because it was 'simply too important for access to affordable childcare to be less than a universal right'.
The conference was chaired by Jackie Sadek, vice-chair of the the British Urban Regeneration Association and chief executive of Kent Thameside and was sponsored by the London Development Agency, which is investing more than Pounds 4m to deliver the Mayor's London Childcare Strategy, launched last November.
Dame Sally Powell, an LDA member, said, 'Childcare is not only a social issue, but is an essential part of securing long-term economic growth. It needs to be fully integrated into programmes, not seen as a bolt-on.'