(2) how many (a) recruitment incentives, (b) quality premiums and (c) home grown graduate incentives have been paid from the Transformation Fund for child care; and at what cost;
(3) how much each local authority has received from the Transformation Fund since its inception.
The Transformation Fund was introduced in April 2006 as a time-limited initiative to test out approaches to improving the qualifications of the early years workforce in the private, voluntary and independent sectors and to raise standards in the provision of early education and child care. Its particular focus has been to initiate action directed at ensuring all full day care settings are led by a graduate, through the availability of a quality premium, a recruitment incentive and, since December 2006, a home grown graduate incentive. It has also supported broader upskilling of the workforce to raise the numbers of staff qualified at Level 3, 4 and 5 as well as to train staff to work with children with additional needs.
The Department does not collect data on the number of people who are participating in Level 3 to 5 training via the Transformation Fund. However, based on returns from local authorities, over 18,000 settings (including over 4,200 childminders) have received support through the Transformation Fund for one or more of the five eligible strands identified above.
According to returns from local authorities, as of March 2007:
(a) 428 full day care settings received the Recruitment Incentive at a cost of £1,218,218;
(b) 1,152 full day care settings received the Quality Premium at a cost of £4,506,676; and
(c) 282 full day care settings received the Home Grown Graduate Incentive at a cost of £448,608 (this element started in December 2006).
The following table sets out out-turn data for 2006-07 based on the unaudited financial statements received to date from local authorities.
Local Authority Unaudited 2006-07 expenditure (£) Barking and Dagenham 100,294 Barnet 1236,512 Barnsley 34,477 Bath and North East Somerset 72,365 Bedfordshire 184,637 Bexley 62,829 Birmingham 202,702 Blackburn with Darwen 201,093 Blackpool 104,901 Bolton 152,274 Bournemouth 143,647 Bracknell Forest 68,231 Bradford 346,169 Brent 196,192 Brighton and Hove 110,643 Bristol 272,896 Bromley 413,363 Buckinghamshire 127,277 Bury 74,243 Calderdale 92,087 Cambridgeshire 381,236 Camden 1164,321 Cheshire 443,191 City of London 5,970 Cornwall 361,820 Coventry 102,718 Croydon 286,194 Cumbria 385,287 Darlington 92,938 Derby 189,830 Derbyshire 550,868 Devon 1321,845 Doncaster 261,391 Dorset 250,341 Dudley 28,907 Durham 408,083 Ealing 71,301 East Riding of Yorkshire 136,864 East Sussex 183,253 Enfield 93,068 Essex 614,970 Gateshead 64,751 Gloucestershire 443,612 Greenwich 111,147 Hackney 266,990 Halton 134,730 Hammersmith and Fulham 146,702 Hampshire 819,258 Haringey 1190,246 Harrow 51,920 Hartlepool 89,369 Havering 48,166 Herefordshire 111,624 Hertfordshire 446,886 Hillingdon 44,407 Hounslow 1157,227 Isle of Wight 119,110 Isles of Scilly 18,305 Islington 199,017 Kensington and Chelsea 196,244 Kent 903,396 Kingston upon Hull 187,123 Kingston upon Thames 91,449 Kirklees 339,249 Knowsley 10,744 Lambeth 11,984 Lancashire 488,578 Leeds 54,370 Leicester City 49,051 Leicestershire 24,264 Lewisham 201,062 Lincolnshire 352,206 Liverpool 179,612 Luton 190,173 Manchester 130,004 Medway 288,554 Merton 71,036 Middlesbrough 131,070 Milton Keynes 159,363 NE Lincolnshire 166,805 Newcastle upon Tyne 1136,612 Newham 181,102 Norfolk 161,075 North Lincolnshire 183,974 North Somerset 119,754 North Tyneside 177,479 North Yorkshire 350,678 Northamptonshire 189,524 Northumberland 230,933 Nottingham City 115,823 Nottinghamshire 587,501 Oldham 101,933 Oxfordshire 302,496 Peterborough 1105,779 Plymouth 176,670 Poole 71,942 Portsmouth 198,874 Reading 61,094 Redbridge 316,977 Redcar and Cleveland 119,535 Richmond upon Thames 166,123 Rochdale 288,925 Rotherham 176,394 Rutland 37,586 Salford 157,618 Sandwell 55,616 Sefton 252,575 Sheffield 246,813 Shropshire 261,923 Slough 37,379 Solihull 161,445 Somerset 385,671 South Gloucestershire 208,577 South Tyneside 79,544 Southampton 126,214 Southend 145,648 Southwark 1219,576 St. Helens 77,731 Staffordshire 393,587 Stockport 242,465 Stockton-on-Tees 178,610 Stoke on Trent 1133,844 Suffolk 1357,376 Sunderland 238,192 Surrey 402,868 Sutton 1115,767 Swindon 164,643 Tameside 1125,815 Telford and the Wrekin 58,582 Thurrock 175,291 Torbay 94,494 Tower Hamlets 1207,256 Trafford 74,411 Wakefield 82,485 Walsall 30,206 Waltham Forest 155,331 Wandsworth 362,376 Warrington 183,121 Warwickshire 1275,525 West Berkshire 45,033 West Sussex 279,449 Westminster 344,036 Wigan 286,253 Wiltshire 290,866 Windsor and Maidenhead 102,758 Wirral 53,910 Wokingham 115,643 Wolverhampton 1143,474 Worcestershire 310,791 York 145,270 Total 29,265,873 1 These local authorities have still to submit returns and therefore notional expenditure has been shown which is based on an assumption of same spend rate as the 134 local authorities that have submitted statements.