Information Team Croydon
Digital Services
Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
Bernard Wetherill House
7th Floor, Zone B
Croydon
CR0 1EA

Contact: Information Team
[email address]

 

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Dear Alan Malarkey

 

Freedom of information request - FOI/11751

 

Subject: Freedom of Information request - Childcare Expansion Capital
Grant and Wraparound Programme

Your request is being considered and you will receive a response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days, subject to the application of
any exemptions. Where consideration is being given to exemptions the 20
working day timescale may be extended to a period considered reasonable
depending on the nature and circumstances of your request. In such cases
you will be notified and, where possible, a revised time-scale will be
indicated. In all cases we shall attempt to deal with your request at the
earliest opportunity.

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Kind Regard

Information Management Team

Croydon Digital Services

Assistant Chief Executive Directorate

7th Floor, Zone B

Bernard Weatherill House

8 Mint Walk

Croydon CR0 1EA

Information Team Croydon
Digital Services
Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
Bernard Wetherill House
7th Floor, Zone B
Croydon
CR0 1EA

Contact: Information Team
[email address]

 

Dear Alan Malarkey

Request FOI/11751

Further to your request received on 11/02/2025, I confirm that the Council
has now considered your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Specifically, you have requested the following information:

Your Childcare Expansion Capital Grant and Wraparound Programme was
available for applications from early years providers, registered with
OFSTED or a childminder agency.

It was for providers who:

were looking to expand their early years entitlement offer
provide wraparound childcare to parents and carers
work alongside primary schools to deliver wraparound childcare

1 How many childcare providers responded to the invitation to expand
provision?

100

 

2. What level of additional grant funding is available and how many
additional places will it
fund? Please include any formulas for grant allocation

For Wraparound Programme Funding, it is agreed with the DfE to create 630
wraparound places over the two years of the programme. For the funding
available over the two financial years (£616,252.53 for FY 24-25 and the
provisional amount of £259,460.64) and the total number of places we aim
to create, we calculated an average cost of £1400 per place.

For Capital Grant for Early Years Entitlements and Wraparound, we follow
the DfE’s recommended guidance of allocating 80% to Early Years and 20% to
wraparound. For Early Years Entitlements, we aim to create 363 early years
childcare places as advised by the DfE, and calculated an average cost
£1569 per childcare place.

 

3 How will applications be prioritised and judged ?

A Capital Funding Panel, consisting of officers from the council assessed
the applications against the assessment criteria.
The panel scored how well the project costs represent value for money, and
the need and demand.

As stated in the application form, priority will be given to providers, in
the following order:

Criteria and Priority for Funding New Free Entitlements
a)         Shortfall of Places - where data shows that there is / will be
insufficient childcare places.
b)         Babies and Toddler places - nine months old and two-year-old
places where demand exceeds supply
c)         Value for Money – the number of places that will be provided
for the amount of funding requested. 
d)         Ofsted Grading – Good or above for existing early years
provision.

Criteria and Priority for Wraparound Care Funding

a)         No wraparound provision – where data shows that there is a
demand for breakfast, and after school clubs. 
b)         Insufficient wraparound provision – where both types of
wraparound provision are not offered – either breakfast or afterschool
club and data shows there is a demand for it.
c)         Waiting list for wraparound care - expansion of premises is
required to offer places to children on the waiting list.
d)         Delivery of extended hours – 8am – 6pm – where there is
existing provision, but expansion is required to meet the required hours

 

4 What is the approximate distribution of allocations, in particular how
many additional places
will be available in locations of higher deprivation?

For the childcare expansion grants, we do not base creation of early years
childcare places at deprivation level, but at ward level based on the
DfE’s data of demand.

Following the successful bids, we provisionally expect increase our early
years provision by 97% across 11 wards.
Following the successful bids, we provisionally expect to increase our
wraparound provision by 54% for the first year of the programme.

The Council publishes Access to Information requests and responses on its
online Disclosure Log. (Any request included within this log will be
anonymised appropriately)

To view the Council’s Disclosure Log, please visit our website available
here:

[1]The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act | Croydon Council
(disclosure-log.co.uk)

If you are dissatisfied with the way the Council has handled your request
under the Freedom of Information Act you may ask for an internal review.
This should be submitted to us within 40 working days of this response.
You can do this by outlining the details of your complaint by:

Email:        [2][email address]

Writing:     Information Team

London Borough of Croydon

Bernard Weatherill House

Floor 7 - Zone B

                  8 Mint Walk

Croydon, CR0 1EA

Any requests received after the 40 working day time limit will be
considered only at the discretion of the council.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire, SK9 5AF

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Information Team

Croydon Digital Services

Assistant Chief Executive Directorate

Bernard Wetherill House,

Mint Walk,

Croydon,

CR0 1EA

 

 

[3][email address]

[email address]

 

References

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