The education, employment and training company has won a contract from Southampton City Council primarily to provide support, advice and guidance to pre-schools and childminders rated less than good by Ofsted at their last inspection.
Prospects Early years Support Service will complement the council’s childcare sufficiency activity and its role of providing support, advice and guidance to the early years sector.
While Prospects, which also carries out early years inspections on behalf of Ofsted, has provided support services to pre-schools in Southampton since 2013, this will be the first time its remit has been extended to include childminders.
Prospects already runs early years support programmes for childcare providers in Hampshire and Kent on behalf of the local authorities.
As well as running an Early Years Support Service in Southampton, Prospects will manage the provision of childcare services for children and young people where a public sector organisation is seeking placements on a short-term basis.
John Theedom, director of Prospects Early Years, said, ‘Prospects has worked closely with the council to make a difference to the lives of some of the city’s youngest children and we are delighted Southampton City Council has chosen us to deliver this new expanded contract.
‘In the two years we have worked with pre-school settings in the city we have developed trusting relationships and made a positive impact. We are now looking forward to helping improve education and care for young children attending early years settings.’
Anne Downie, early years and childcare manager at Southampton City Council, said, ‘We look forward to continuing to work with Prospects in supporting early years providers within Southampton. We know that attending high-quality early years provision has a lasting positive effect on children’s lives.’