Calling all parents and carers, West Sussex County Council needs your feedback!
Starting from April 2024, existing childcare support will be expanded in phases. By September 2025, most working families with children under the age of 5 will be entitled to 30 hours of childcare support, with further support from the government for primary schools to ensure working parents have access to wrap around care by 2026.
The changes are being introduced gradually to make sure that providers can meet the needs of more families. This means that:
- From April 2024, eligible working parents of 2-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours childcare support.
- From September 2024, 15 hours childcare support will be extended to eligible working parents of children from the age of 9 months to 3-year-olds.
- From September 2025, eligible working parents of children under the age of 5 will be entitled to 30 hours of childcare a week.
- By September 2026, all primary schools should be able to offer wrap around care, both before and after school.
As part of the Local Authorities statutory duties around sufficiency we are required to have an understanding of the supply and demand of childcare places and any gaps in provision, including how these gaps will be addressed.
We are looking for views from all parents and carers of children aged 0-14 years (and up to 18 for children with SEND) about how you currently use childcare, and how this may continue to change in the future. To support this knowledge and understanding it is important that we include the voice of the families so we can better understand if the childcare available is meeting your needs.
You can visit the Family Information Service project page to find out more and complete the survey. The survey will be open from 10 January 2024 to 2 February 2024. Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete this survey and help us understand the needs of families in West Sussex.
