The DfEShas commissioned the University of Oxford to carry out the evaluation. A DfES spokesperson said, 'We will use the lessons from this to inform the setting up of a wide range of integrated services following this year's Comprehensive Spending Review.'
The DfES provided three years' funding for the pilot projects to explore innovative ways of providing care outside the time a child spends at nursery or school. The funding runs out in March 2003.
However, the DfES spokesperson added, 'We'll be making a small amount of supplementary funding available for 2003/04, for the transitional period.'
One of the wraparound childcare projects, in Lancashire, is seeking further funding to continue its work next year. Project co-ordinator Julie Wilson said, 'We are planning to keep things going in whatever way we can.'
The project, based in Morecambe and the surrounding rural areas, has taken a two-pronged approach. Its mobile nursery unit (pictured) offers extra provision in rural areas as necessary, and has already proved a success in delivering early education to villages in the Lune Valley that do not have easy access to childcare services. The mobile unit is registered for up to ten children for each morning and afternoon session it runs. The greatest demand for wraparound care, however, has been in the town of Morecambe itself.
The scheme's other approach, in Morecambe and the Lune Valley, links childminders with local nurseries and schools. Childminders taking part agree to pick children up and drop them off at the settings and also offer emergency wraparound care. Childminders are also asked if they will take part in a family-link service, which means looking after older children or pre-school children in the family if necessary.