Memorandum submitted by Community Matters

 

Introduction

 

Community Matters is the national federation of community associations and similar organisations, with more than 1200 members across the UK. For 60 years we have promoted and supported action by ordinary people in response to social, educational and recreational needs in their communities.

Our vision is for active and sustainable communities in which everyone is valued and can play their full part. Community Matters pursues this vision by supporting and developing the capacity of community organisations and representing their interests at a national level.

We believe

· In the importance of "community", in a world where so many people are isolated and marginalised.

· That racial, religious and social diversity (or difference) adds value to our society, and that everyone has the right to equality of opportunity.

· That democratic community organisations help to empower individuals and contribute towards a cohesive and vibrant society.

· In the value of voluntary activity: including formal and informal volunteering, mutual organisations and self help groups.

· In the distinctiveness of the community sector as a part of the wider voluntary and community sector.

· In the value of community development as a process which gives confidence and skills to people to exercise greater power in their everyday lives.

· In working in partnership with organisations that share similar values in order to maximise resources and influence

 

Although we have members of all sizes, most of the organisations we represent are small, independent, community-led and democratically-run groups that work at neighbourhood level. Many are based around a community-owned or -managed space, but our membership also includes second-tier organisations, housing associations and Local Authorities.

According to our most recent survey, around 69% of our members work with preschoolers and 70% of our members are directly delivering or hosting provision for children aged 5-11 years of age.

 

Summary of Main Points

· The drive to deliver statutory services through Children's Centres can compromise the advantages that basing them in community-led organisations can bring.

· The trend for Sure Start centres to move away from being community owned and managed has contributed to their failure to engage with the most disadvantaged families.

· This also contradicts the recommendations of Lord Laming's report following the death of Victoria Climbié that the voluntary and community sector be at the centre of children's services in order to improve the safeguarding of vulnerable children.

· The trend towards co-locating Children's Centres in the same building as schools and other statutory services has concentrated provision for children in one place in a community, often contributing to the disengagement of the most disadvantaged families.

 

1. Community Matters welcomes the Committee's inquiry into Sure Start Children's Centres, in particular its emphasis on examining the extent to which Centres are effective in tackling deprivation and how far they meet the needs of the most vulnerable families.

 

2. We believe that the drive to deliver statutory services through Children's Centres can compromise the advantages that can be accrued in community-led organisations.

 

3. We note that previously, Sure Start centres were community-owned, with local parents and centre staff sitting together on management boards. This was a founding principle of the scheme, included in order to ensure that services were never viewed as intrusive by families, in particular those with a mistrust of 'authority'. We believe that this has not been consistently maintained within the Sure Start Children's Centres model, for which Local Authorities have the strategic lead. Indeed, the government itself has identified that centres are failing to engage with the most disadvantaged families.

 

4. The co-located nature of services in Children's Centres can cause a concentration of resources in one geographical location in the community. We believe that the community-led advantages of the original Sure Start scheme have been compromised and that the most vulnerable families are not accessing a whole range of important wrap-around services, as these are all concentrated in one place.

 

5. Lord Laming's report into the death of Victoria Climbié highlighted the importance of the voluntary and community sector as the eyes and ears of the community, and emphasised its vital role in the early identification of needs within families, especially those who mistrust authority. Laming further suggested that the voluntary and community sector has demonstrated that it supports and assists such families to seek and accept statutory services' input, and that it can offer a range of services with enhanced levels of innovation and flexibility. For these reasons, Laming was clear in his conclusion that the voluntary and community sector has a key role to play in contributing to safeguarding of children within communities, and that as such; all opportunities for its involvement in service provision should be taken. He recommended that all Local Authority Children's Trusts should work with the voluntary and community sector. We believe that this is applicable to Sure Start Children's Centres, and that the significant contributions that VCS could bring are being lost.

 

Case Study: Horndean Community Association, Hampshire

 

The value of a close partnership between the voluntary and community sector and local Children's Trusts is well illustrated by the experiences of Branches, a phase 2 centre, which is working with Horndean Community Centre, based in Merchistoun Hall in Hampshire. Branches is extremely keen to build its relationship with the local community, and part of this includes using other community venues as well as its own site. It has worked with Horndean Community Association by hiring out Merchistoun Hall for its four weekly parent and toddler craft sessions and other pre-school programmes, as well as also using the building and grounds for larger family events. In order to develop a sustainable and attractive preschool offering at Merchistoun Hall, Branches has helped it to purchase much needed equipment, such as installing a baby changing facility. In turn, the Extended Services cluster for the area is chaired by the manager of Horndean, who also sits on Branches' Practitioners' Forum.

 

This collaborative approach has helped to ensure that Branches and the Children's Trust is rooted in the community in Horndean, and part of the wider leisure and community development work that happens at Merchistoun Hall. Both Branches and Horndean Community Association feel that this has helped them reach young families that might not otherwise have come into contact with the children's centre.

 

6. Community Matters was a key contributor in the development of the two 'Talking Trusts' publications that outlines our recommendations regarding Children's Trusts working with the voluntary and community sector. Talking trusts is a document produced by the Community Sector Partnership for Children and Young People (CSPCYP)[1] - a consortium of national infrastructure organisations that support local networks for voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations. The document is intended to inform the discussion about how children's trusts can best involve the VCS especially smaller organisations. Achieving better outcomes for children does depend on effective partnerships with a wide range of VCS organisations. Talking trusts sets recommendations which if implemented will have far reaching implications for the way that children's trusts work with the VCS. The talking trusts recommendations are divided across six areas of active engagement; representation; effective funding; operational coordination; and infrastructure development. These recommendations have been developed within the VCS and envisage the involvement of the local infrastructure organisations. VCS infrastructure organisations are well placed to foster the involvement of diverse range of organisations working with children and families, including smaller VCS organisations with limited resources.

 

7. We believe that VCS is not being consistently involved in Children's Centres nationally and because of these important opportunities are being lost to draw in the most vulnerable families due to weaknesses in partnerships with local voluntary and community organisations. We believe that vibrant, diverse local networks of services for children, young people and families are the key to achieving safeguarding as well as reaching those most in need of support.

 

8. The experience of our members suggests that for many vulnerable families, the co-location of Children's Centre provision with school services can mitigate against access. This can be for a range of reasons, including a general mistrust of 'authority' and negative personal experiences of education that make schools difficult to access and participate within. Our members also report that the agendas of Children's Centres can often be dominated by those of school services rather than the needs of the community. The voluntary and community sector may have the capacity to respond to this as it is not constrained by structures such as school terms and holidays.

 

Case Study 2: Heaton Community Centre, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne

 

Heaton is part of a virtual Children's Centre that serves the South Heaton and Ouseburn wards in central Newcastle. However, when the Children's Centre for the neighbourhood was originally being planned, no representative of the local voluntary and community sector was invited to attend the locality meetings. These were chaired by the local lead on Extended Schools, and the senior staff at Heaton feel that until the VCS insisted on becoming involved there was a lack of understanding of the difference between extended schooling and Sure Start Children's Centres. Perhaps as a result of this lack of understanding the local Children's Centre's designated base is the local school, despite most of the services being delivered through it being based elsewhere. There was also an original move to build new facilities that would in effect duplicate what Heaton Community Centre was already offering; this would have been wasteful, but would have also compromised Heaton's ability to serve the whole community. A division between the local VCS and the statutory children's service providers in the area seems to have persisted; staff in the nursery and playgroups at Heaton complain of being viewed as "unprofessional" by workers at these other Children's Centre providers.

 

This difficult start has affected the children in Heaton and Ouseburn as well as Heaton Community Centre's Staff. Heaton has recently received Quality and Access funding to renovate one of its buildings, and has commissioned research into current attitudes and needs among families in the area. This has found that basing the Children's Centre at the local school is less appealing to parents who have had bad experiences in school themselves, whereas these same parents say that Heaton Community Centre is "friendly and accessible". It also has a wide range of activities for children of all ages, whereas the Children's Centre services at the local school will turn away older siblings and are affected by school holidays.

 

After a difficult start however, staff say that the Children's Centre provision has fitted in well with the other things the Community Centre offers. As Sue Newton, who leads on Children's Centre services at Heaton, says, "We're open door. We have people coming in from all over the neighbourhood, everyone from babies to pensioners, as well as more marginalised and vulnerable families such as asylum seekers and refugees".

 

 

9. Our members' experience is also that the capital-intensive nature of the programme as a whole has delivered some innovative and flagship buildings. However, these can be intimidating for some groups to access, as well as being out of step with other spaces where other local services are delivered.

 

October 2009

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[1] http://www.ncvys.org.uk/index.php?alias=CSPCYP&PHPSESSID=713e92ade012eb748a58bdeb9807574a