The number of parents applying for free childcare in Caerphilly County Borough through a pilot Welsh Government scheme was “bonkers”, a council official has admitted.
Members of the council’s education for life scrutiny committee heard from Sarah Mutch, Caerphilly’s early years manager, after the scheme’s six-month stage was reached.
In April, it was rolled-out across the whole of the borough after it was launched in three areas of Caerphilly.
The council has received 616 applications – 569 approved and confirmed as eligible – since September 2017 and has received between eight and 20 claims per day.
Mrs Mutch said that although the funding claimed for was paid directly to the childcare sector rather than the local authority, the claim amount had risen.
“What it has meant is the costs have risen from £17,759 per month we were claiming in September to £78,500 per month in February. And that has gone up again,” she said.
“We are claiming a significant amount from the Welsh Government every month.”
The early years manager added that during the autumn term, claims came in “steadily” before the applications in the spring team rose “exponentially”.
“In term one, there’s quite a nice little increase that we could cope with,” she said.
“In term two, it went bonkers. It only worked, and that has been recognised by Welsh Government, because we used all the resources of the entire team.
“When we came back in January, after the Christmas break, we had somewhere in the region of 200 applications to process in two weeks.”
Mrs Mutch told members that a Welsh Government grant of £83,000, which pays for a full-time development officer and administrator, will not cover full delivery of the scheme.
The early years manager added that during the peak period of processing applications, a whole team had to be assigned.
“One thing we have highlighted is Welsh Government have recognised that the initial guestimate, I suppose, of £83,000 for infrastructure isn’t enough to run and deliver this full offer,” she said.
“It will pay for those two officers and very little else, but it does require a whole team.”