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Memorandum submitted by Sure Start West Riverside Children's Centres
1. Executive Summary
· Response compiled by 72 individual responses to
questionnaires from parents and partners.
· Information received evidences that parents feel that
they receive a varied range of services that are easy to access and meet the
needs of their children and families.
· Information shows us that we need to review our services
to BME communities and those families who have a number of complex needs such
as single parents/carers who have a child with a disability. In a response we have put an action plan in
place to address these areas for improvement
· A review of finances shows that we commission a
significant proportion of our service delivery; investing in local
infrastructure and obtaining value for money by supporting our capital
investment with revenue support and commissioning some of our services on a
city wide basis.
· For Armstrong
Children's Centre's recent response to the National Audit Office Sure Start
Survey, records evidenced that there were almost 15,000 total beneficiaries in
2008/2009 through this Children's Centre; leading us to conclude a potential of
30,000 total beneficiaries across the West Riverside Children's Centres area.
2. How models of Children's Centres have
developed as the programme spreads from the most deprived neighbourhoods
Following
a review of Sure Start and its Children's Centre provision, completed in the
autumn of 2008, Newcastle
adopted a citywide approach to delivery based upon five Sure Start Areas
delivering integrated childhood services through the government's preferred
model of Children's Centres. By 2010 all Newcastle
children will have access to their Sure Start entitlement through a Children's
Centre in their local area. In this area of the City we have two Children's
Centres - Westgate and Armstrong - built upon former Sure Start local
programmes. The 'Centres' are in fact networks of provision including the PVI,
maintained, mainstream (for example health) and Sure Start grant funded
services working together under the umbrella of Sure Start West Riverside.
There is a single Partnership Board on which partners and parents are
represented, integrated management and leadership arrangements and a Sure Start
delivery team developing and delivering services in both of our Children's
Centre networks. It is in this way we believe we can maximise our reach in this
and the four other Sure Start Areas in Newcastle.
3. The range and effectiveness
of services provided by Children's Centres.
From the
responses, both partners and parents told us that they feel there is a good
range of services provided by Sure Start West Riverside.
These
ranged from services for expectant mothers; sessions for babies and their
parents/carers; advice sessions on a range of topics; targeted services for
vulnerable groups; universal services and play sessions to support for
expectant mothers.
Services included activities delivered
under the 'core offer' and also those services developed and delivered with
health, education, childcare and employment partners.
4. Parents told us that they knew about 31 unique and different
services in their immediate area with responses showing that most parents knew
about 2 or more services.
Of the group of parents that were
asked specifically questions about the effectiveness of Sure Start Children's
Centres services, 60% of parents said they were very effective, 37% said
that services were effective and none felt that services were not effective.
5. Partners said "a wide and varied range of services exist which
reflect the individuality of the areas and communities they serve".
6. Funding, sustainability, and value for
money.
Last
financial year Sure Start West Riverside received an annual grant of £800,000 for
each of its Children's Centres.
7. In
order to ensure sustainability we invest in local social infrastructure;
commissioning local voluntary and community sector partners to deliver over
£355,000 of services.
In addition
to the financial support we provide training and operational support for
partners, increasing their own capacity to provide a sustainable provision.
8. Value
for money is achieved by the maximisation of partnership working and the
sharing of resources with others.
Where
possible, and appropriate, capital investments are supported by revenue
grant. For example, where we have put
capital investment into a local nursery school, this investment is maximised by
the addition of revenue to support the delivery of integrated birth to 5
provision and extended services.
Resources
are purchased through approved local authority procedures to ensure providers
have been tested for value for money.
Some
services are commissioned on a city-wide basis.
9. These steps to obtain value for money while achieving outcomes
has resulted in the Children's Centres being able to commission and deliver a
broad range of local and city wide services that meet the needs of local
children and families.
10. Staffing, governance, management and
strategic planning.
Staff
are well trained and hold qualifications appropriate to their role. Qualifications include BA Hons in
Communication Studies, Early Years Professional, BSC Hons in Speech Pathology,
NVQs in Community Development and Information, Advice and Guidance, and other
relevant early years and management qualifications.
11. A
strong percentage of parents feel that Sure Start Children's Centre staff are
knowledgeable and able to help them and their families.
12. A
strong and experienced Senior Management Team (SMT) provide leadership and
direction with a clear focus on outcomes, evaluation and review in order to
continually strive towards improved quality and reach.
All members of SMT have completed or
are working toward achieving National Professional Qualification in Integrated
Centre Leadership (NPQICL).
13. The West Riverside
Partnership is responsible for agreeing the local vision, supporting the
management team to decide on the actions and resources necessary to achieve the
vision; reviewing progress, providing challenge and contributing to our
commissioning decisions.
14. Specifically the Partnership has adopted the Narrowing the Gap
evaluation to frame its work providing opportunities for people to come together
to focus on the goal of narrowing the gap.
The Partnership is wide and representative offering channels and opportunities
for all stakeholders to influence and challenge decisions. It extends to the voluntary, community and
faith sector, services users and staff at all levels.
15. How well Children's Centres work with other
partners and services, especially schools and health services.
Sure
Start West Riverside Children's Centres consists of a network of services
delivered from a number of sites throughout the Sure Start West Riverside area
and include a variety of commissioned services from voluntary, community and
public sector partners.
16. Sites include
purpose built play centres, nursery schools that run from large listed
buildings, community houses, schools, community centres and an Early Excellence
Centre.
17. West
Riverside Children's Centres have taken the approach of maximising the capacity
of local social infrastructure to deliver services to meet local need. We work closely with a wide variety of
partners from the voluntary, community and faith sectors; commissioning and
working in partnership with them. We
utilise trusted, local venues to deliver services. These include local schools, church halls and
play centres for example.
18. We
are utilising the trust and expertise of local social infrastructure by commissioning
specialist services from existing Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS)
organisations, for example specialist debt, homeless and health advice
projects.
19. There is representation
from these VCS partners within the governance structure of the Sure Start
Area. In this way knowledge and
understanding of the capacity and strengths of VCS partners are taken into
consideration when developing and delivering services. This approach has allowed the Children's
Centres to build up a comprehensive network of services and service providers;
maximising access opportunities for children and families across the Sure Start
area. Children and families engage more
readily and often with established and trusted organisations and their staff
teams.
20. Sure Start West Riverside Children's Centres work in areas that
range from 1% to 30% of the most disadvantaged super output areas.
21. 73% of parents strongly agreed that Sure Start staff are
knowledgeable and able to help them and their family. All parents told us that as a result of
accessing Sure Start services they were able to access other services including
health, education, employment and childcare.
22. Through the use of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) an
effective and integrated approach to early intervention and prevention is being
used. Targeted services are designed to
focus on the individual child and improved outcomes are demonstrated.
23. Through our Supporting Families process mainstream
health visiting, social care and other targeted services work alongside Sure
Start staff to determine packages of support for vulnerable children. In addition West End Health Resource Centre
(voluntary sector provider) is commissioned to provide family nutrition
support. Elements of the Child Health Promotion
Programme are delivered in a number of settings.
Mainstream
staff provide drop-in session at our Children's Centres settings and our
'shop-front', The Sure Start Information Point service.
24. Sure Start West Riverside currently funds a number of
extended services in local primary schools.
25. The Centre's main management and
administrative offices are located in a local birth to 11 setting. This office is also the 'base' for the Sure
Start core staff team who deliver services across the area.
26. Whether services are being accessed by those
most in need and how effective they are for the most vulnerable
Our target
group is all families with children under 5 years.
27. Young
Parents
We
commission Barnardos to deliver the Young Parents Project across Sure
Start West Riverside.
This
Project delivers practical and emotional support, parenting support, group work
and support at the multi-disciplinary scan clinic.
In
2008-2009 62 young parents were seen across Sure Start West Riverside. 30 pregnant teenagers were supported,
representing 11.1% of all pregnant women seen by Sure Start West Riverside.
28. Lone
Parents
Due to the
demographics of the area there is a high proportion of lone parents. Lone parents access all areas of service
provided by the Sure Children's Centre.
236 lone
parents/carers were supported representing 22.2% of all parents/carers
supported; 91 were new, lone parents/carers.
29. Homelessness
We
commission Children North East to delivery targeted family support and outreach
for children under 5 experiencing homelessness.
This
Project allows for the early identification of children with additional needs,
provides family support and outreach, crèche support, support and advice and
groups and 1:1 interventions based on need.
30. Inclusion
In West Riverside there are 15 children registered with a
disability and 14 with identified special needs. In the reporting period, 80% of children with
a registered disability were seen (3 living in Armstrong, 5 living in Westgate and
4 in other areas)
31. Ethnic
Minorities
Due to the
demographic of the area there is a high proportion of ethnic minority
groups. Children and their
parents/carers from BME communities access all areas of service provided by the
Sure Children's Centres. 38% of children
accessing universal and targeted services across Sure Start West Riverside were
from BME communities.
Targeted
support has been developed in the area to support BME needs.
32. Fathers
Riverside
Community Health Project (RCHP), one of our VCS partners is commissioned to
lead on participation; this work includes targeted work with dads and other
excluded groups.
Regular
Dads group meetings are held at RCHP.
We employ 1
full time member of staff with a specific remit for work with fathers.
33. Our
Participation Team delivers specific work to engage with fathers.
Over the
period covered Westgate Children's Centre supported 80 male carers representing
13.8% of carers seen.
34. Targeted
work with fathers enables better active participation by fathers into the
development of services across the Sure Start area. Fathers become more knowledgeable about the
needs of their young children and greater confidence in supporting these needs
themselves or engaging with others to ensure these needs are met.
35. Engagement
Recent information gathered from
parents evidences that by accessing Sure Start Services in Children's Centres,
vulnerable children and families have been helped to: access welfare rights and
financial advice, join the library, access local play provision, find a
childcare place for their child, joined a toy library and accessed family
activity services.
36. This response was reviewed and
endorsed by the Sure Start West Riverside Children's Centre Partnership Board
on 9th October, 2009
October
2009
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