Reflecting on 25 Years of Coram Hempsall's

When Hempsall’s was established at the very beginning of 2000, James Hempsall OBE MBACP FSET and Barbara Wilson knew then that working together to support everyone to meet the childcare challenge was going to be useful, exciting, and necessary. Here they reflect on that time and some of the learning along the way, the approaches taken, and things to take forward for whatever happens next.

25 years ago, the early years and childcare landscape was very different to how it is today. Back then local authorities were busily organising their local partnerships (EYDCPs). Those new groups sought to bring together local stakeholders and delivery partners. There was a huge mission to deliver on and that needed teamwork. There were extensive targets to develop and sustain childcare places, and that required us to undertake all sorts of research and planning tasks as set out by Department for Education. In the early 2000s, we were also seeing new Sure Start centres open, and that brought with it all sorts of delivery challenges around co-location, multi-disciplinary working, and delivering on wide-ranging and evidenced outcomes.

James: Back then, we set out to find and share ways in which local areas could accurately and effectively measure the supply and demand for childcare (they were called Childcare Audits then), and how that could inform short- and long-term actions within EYDCP plans. This was a brand-new area for so many people, and so what we were developing was high in demand. Quickly, our templates became widely used as industry standard. Some might say things haven’t changed at all. There’s no doubt we still have stringent targets, ambitious goals, and delivery challenges. Many of things we do now at Hempsall’s and in Childcare Works borrow from these approaches and continue to evolve, develop, and innovate.

Barbara: Things certainly have grown from year-to-year. We saw DfE becoming much more prescriptive with their expectations and requirements. We blended our original approaches and incremental requirements over the years. Once we had the Childcare Act (2006), the childcare audit processes were much more focused on childcare sufficiency duty. It was great at that stage to play a national role, through Government regional offices to convene regional networks dedicated to achieving sufficiency through best practice in research and applying the analysis of that to identify gaps and the best ways to address them. It was fascinating to review almost every local authority Childcare Sufficiency Assessment, and to feedback their strengths and areas for development. That also gave us an unparalleled overview of the state of the childcare nation.

James: I fondly remember those days, working with all local authorities through peer support, and action learning sets in the network meetings. We’re still in touch with many people who were around in those days, and the work we did then is still evident in how they approach the role of early years and childcare expansion now. Barbara’s legacy as the technical lead on all things research lives on – that is for sure.

Barbara: It is interesting to reflect on those Sure Start days as well, and the transformation of those into children’s centres. Since then, we have also seen other models come to the fore, such as Family Hubs and Stronger Practice Hubs, and I suspect we shall see some of these continue and be reinvented to ensure the same and other objectives are met. We worked hard with many centres to ensure they had a laser-like focus on meaningful and inclusive consultation, evidence-based planning, and stringent evaluation to the continuous improvement cycle was pivotal in achieving and proving outcomes and impact. The need for that has not gone away, indeed it has become even more important.

James: Barbara is right, of course, and I would add that outcome centred planning must be there right from the start, because if it is, then monitoring and evaluation frameworks are much easier to build, to populate, to report on, and to use in securing longer-term funding support and service integration. That way it is more straightforward when connecting individuals and teams to the plan and the evidence framework – if they aren’t then things can become really quite tricky indeed.

Both Barbara and James have been working on the new expanded entitlements and wraparound childcare in the Childcare Works programme since 2024:

Barbara: All that occurred and was deployed up to the point these new initiatives were announced has been exceptionally useful. There are lots of parallels, and some contemporary considerations as well. Measuring the existing supply of out of school childcare was something new to so many current local authority teams. They simply did not know what was out there, and how it was being delivered (or not). Mapping was an enlightening for very many areas. Then there is the complex issue of considering demand, which is always a sensitive task given the relationship between supply and demand and sketching out trends that may change and grow in response to new supply becoming available. It isn’t as easy as looking at the now, you must predict what may or may not happen next. That requires a real shift in mindset, and we have needed to offer lots of support to help people to get there.

James: There is no doubt the new entitlements are popular with parents, and providers need and want to be involved in realising these ambitions. The new government has carried the baton from the previous one, but we expect there will be new ideas and objectives for how early years and childcare will move in the long-term. To achieve these and new ambition will require a heady mix of tried and tested approaches and experience, and the energy and opportunity to test and trial new ideas and methods. One thing Barbara and I are certain of is that sufficiency is a status that is achieved through a broad range of indicators, it is much more than a simple formula of numbers. Instead, it must take into consideration accessibility, affordability, quality, availability, flexibility, and achieving outcomes for all families. We are both looking forward to playing our part to make that happen.