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Memorandum submitted by the Commission for Rural Communities
1. The Commission for Rural Communities (CRC) was established in April 2005 and became an independent body on 1st October 2006, following the enactment of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities (NERC) Act.
2. Our role is to provide well-informed, independent advice to Government and others, and ensure that policies reflect the real needs of people living and working in rural England, with a particular focus on tackling disadvantage.
3. We have three key functions: · Rural Advocate: the voice for rural people, businesses and communities. · Expert Adviser: giving evidence-based, objective advice to Government and others. · Independent watchdog: monitoring and reporting on the delivery of policies nationally, regionally and locally.
4. We are pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to the Children Schools and Families Select Committee inquiry into Sure Start Children Centres and to highlight the issues surrounding the delivery of Children's Centre services in rural areas.
The Consultation Response
Background
5. At least 400,000 children in rural communities in England live in households affected by poverty and 1,000,000 children in rural communities live in low income households. A quarter of all those in England living in low income households live in rural districts,[1] there are also many other children and families experiencing various types of rural disadvantage and have a far from 'idyllic rural lifestyle'.[2]
6. Poverty in rural England is often hidden in pockets of deprivation, obscured by small settlement structures - low population densities in rural areas mean that poorer and more affluent families live in the same area.
7. The cause of poverty and disadvantage in rural areas are generally consistent with the urban experience e.g. unemployment, low work, low income, disability and lone parents. However there are often deeper challenges to overcome due to particular rural constraints including; low rates of pay; predominance of seasonal work based on tourism and agriculture; access to education and public services can be difficult for those without private transport; isolation and remoteness from main centres of activity.
8. In 2007 UNICEF published An overview of child well being in rich countries which ranked the United Kingdom bottom of a league table for child well-being across 21 industrialised countries[3]
9. A 2003 CRC research report on Children's Centres in rural areas carried out by NCVCCO, identified the following challenges for the expansion of the Sure Start programme in rural areas:
· effectively meeting needs in ways suitable to more diverse communities which children's centres in rural areas will increasingly serve, including those which have never experienced an initiative of this kind; · the likelihood of uncovering a wider range of needs, amongst migrant families and others putting extra strain on these services without additional funding; · serving smaller villages with fewer children, i.e. what can be done in areas of sparsity? · meeting the needs of a small number of disabled children scattered across wide areas, including requirements for access, transport, and special facilities in children's centres. · finding and where necessary adapting multiple settings to bring activities and services close to communities where parents are unable or unwilling to travel to other villages; · how to provide childcare through extended schools in rural areas. · providing transport to ensure that rural children's centres are accessible to all; · ensuring equitable access across large shire counties, how to fund this given the higher unit costs of rural service delivery; meeting the cost of delivering services to rural areas.[4] · Of the 3,000 Children Centres in England, 624 are based in rural areas - this response to the inquiry draws on existing evidence and a recent snapshot study of the challenges and opportunities of delivering Children Centre services in rural areas, and how effective the centres are in reaching out to the most vulnerable. This study will be published shortly[5]
Are services in rural areas being accessed by those most in need; and how effective are the services for the most vulnerable?
· Rural poverty is often hidden, and is rising. For the most vulnerable families day to day life in rural areas can be harsh and the impact of the current recession is to make life harder.[6] In our forthcoming study we will document the difficulties which families on low incomes, have in accessing, basic services like primary healthcare. Among those families where no-one is in paid work, only 26%, for example, have access to a car.
· The CRC has found that Children's Centres are doing a considerable amount to ensure that they support those families in most need, tackling many of the issues associated with the cause and effects of poverty. The case study centres, described below are reaching out to the most vulnerable families and children by way of outreach work, support for self employment, fresh food co-operatives, education, debt management and help with accessing benefits, housing and childcare issues, however in sparsely populated areas the centres may not always know where those families are and therefore may be unable to reach those most in need.[7][8]
· Ofsteds recent evaluation of Children Centres supports the CRC finding, concluding that a number of rural Children Centres 'were finding it problematic to reach out to the most potentially vulnerable families that may not ask for support, but where the need is greatest. Local Authorities serving the rural communities visited in the survey faced particular challenges. The levels of need are similar to those in the inner city centres, but geographic isolation adds an additional layer of difficulty and cost in bringing services to their communities' [9]
· The potential of rural Children's Centres in reaching their most vulnerable families and children is highlighted by the practise found in a rural centre by Ofsted, the 'Children's Centre is far from easy to reach for some of the most vulnerable families. They live on a small, isolated estate on the opposite side of the district from the centre. The centre team make home visits, support the newly formed residents' committee and has established a small satellite centre on the estate. These actions are having a positive impact as families are now willing to travel to some of the main centre's activities'.[10]
· The Mini Sure Start national evaluation programme found that the neediest families in rural areas may be harder to find and engage with services than those in urban areas - there is also an additional greater resource pressure in terms of time and cost of travel for families, programme staff and managers operating and accessing services in rural areas.[11]
· There are distinctive disadvantages for the neediest and most vulnerable families in rural areas in accessing Children's Centre services - the higher cost of accessing goods and services, poor public transport or lack of private transport and physical isolation. However the CRC has found that Children Centres are committed to families and a key feature of Children Centres in rural areas is their capacity to engage and gain the trust of many of the families who find it hardest to access services. Centres are reaching and engaging disadvantaged families, but do not have fully developed data systems to evidence this or to capture outcomes, for parents, of participation in children's centre services. The main reliance is on the evaluation of activities and case studies.
· The case study centres are well aware of rural poverty and the issues surrounding it, and share an interest in doing more to support families in need to achieve economic well being. It is well proven that access to education and training are key to achieving economic well being.
How well do Children Centres work with other partners and services (especially schools and health services)
· The Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) has recognised that Children's Centres operating in rural areas are likely to need greater flexibility than those that operate in urban areas. Given the nature of rural areas - dispersed communities often with small numbers of children under five years old - the same services may need to be replicated for small groups of families in convenient local venues. Full use should be made of community facilities such as school premises, parish churches and community centres.[12] This also supports the case for maintaining such community facilities in their own right.
· A range of delivery methods suit dispersed rural communities - this might include mobile provision, as well as outreach and home visiting[13]. Multi agency working and partnership is essential to outreach - all agencies and partners that work with Children's Centre in rural areas benefit from the opportunity to deliver some services on an outreach basis and Children's Centres provide an organisational hub to ensure this is possible.
· A recent CRC qualitative study found that the rural Children's Centres selected as case studies four centres had 'very good' levels of multi agency working, however in terms of health it would seem disappointing that no full data sharing took place. The information held by health services is likely to be of particular importance in sparsely populated areas - where the Children's Centre staff may not know where the most vulnerable children and families are located.[14]
· Importantly local authorities are increasingly moving towards locality areas, aligning health, children centres, extended and preventative services - this alignment provides potential for an enhanced local intelligence capacity[15].
· The CRC case studies reported that due to the established links between isolation and infant mental health, two centres have developed strong working relationships with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)[16] Effective integration of services and partnership working is having a positive impact on the lives of many children and families living in rural areas, this is important because it helps the most vulnerable to achieve economic well being. However the least effective partnership working has been reported as being between Children Centres and Jobcentre plus.[17] A closer more effective relationship between Jobcentre plus and Children's Centres would enable Children Centres to further tackle rural deprivation, for example by delivering information, advice and services through the Children's Centres.
Good practise examples of partnership working in rural areas
· Children centre and the fire service in partnership - Northumberland; The Sure Start and Fire service partnership in Northumberland sees the fire and rescue service hosting Children's Centre services in some of the most sparse inaccessible areas of Northumberland.
· The partnership consists of three children's centres covering 780 square miles, from Berwick near the Scottish border down to Alnwick and Wooler, where midwives, a health visitor and a playworker are based at the fire station. The fire station has a community space which is used by childminders and other organisations such as Relate. The station also houses the mobile toy library and a 'buffer' store for local GP's and District Nurses, who are able to access walking frames and commodes for older people or patients with disabilities, seven days a week.
· The fire service now fits all the smoke alarms and carbon monoxide monitors for priority families, the service deliver stair gates to families in rural areas. When visiting families the Fire Service identify any potential fire hazard and undertake a home safety check. The collaboration between Sure Start and the fire service, which has won a Partners in Excellence award, has also looked at ways of reducing child pedestrian accidents. As a result of the fire service's input into the Safe Steps project run by a wide ranging partnership, the number of house fires fell by 20 per cent, casualties from fires were reduced by 70 per cent and the number of young children attending hospital accident and emergency departments fell from 230 a year to 40.[18]
· Lancashire - children's centre providing parenting support to rural schools; The children's centre in Garstang, Lancashire, is running parenting support workshops on its own site and in six other locations in this rural area. The workshops started at the children's centre with funding for a crèche from the Youth Offending Team (YOT) organised and facilitated by a school nurse and the YOT parenting worker. In September 2007, the workshops were rolled out to five satellites in local schools and one in a church hall. Story time, creative play and baby sensory sessions, and parent support workshops are offered at the satellite centres, usually on a weekly basis. The arrangement is based on close collaboration between the children's centre and the schools, which have all agreed to allow the centre to approach and talk to parents and to provide essential facilities in return. Feedback from initial parenting workshops was very positive, with all parents completing the course. Satellites/outreach centres are making parenting support more accessible to parents in rural locations in Lancashire. Strong relationships are developing between the Children's Centre and local schools[19]
· Lincolnshire Children's Centre - multi agency work:
· Multi-agency work is described as working 'brilliantly'. A Health Visitor drop-in is popular with parents and access to social services has improved, with families now willing to come in and discuss issues. The centre also works with the drug service, Addiction. Other partners include Social Care, Health, Education, Connexions, the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), Jigsaw Counselling and St Matthews Housing Association.[20]
The range and effectiveness of services provided by Children Centres operating in a rural setting.
· The case studies in paragraphs 22 to 27 not only reflect the excellent partnership working that can be achieved through Children Centres in rural areas, but also 'show case' the range of services which can be delivered via Children Centres.
· Aside from these and other examples of good practice, the reality of rural isolations still presents difficulties. '...Geographic isolation adds an additional layer of difficulty and cost in bringing services to rural communities[21]' In 2004 Defra commissioned Secta to review the cost of delivering services to rural areas. Secta found that collectively the studies reviewed concluded that 'rural areas face greater difficulties in providing services to the same standard of effectiveness at the same levels of costs as in urban areas and that as a result either cost is higher (in rural areas) or performance (response times, access and so) is lower'[22] Sectas comprehensive review of the evidence base on the additional costs of service provision in rural areas, clearly concludes that there is a cost premium in delivering a similar standard of service in rural areas compared to that in urban areas. In many rural Children Centres resources are thinly spread, due to the distance involved in reaching out to and supporting families, with additional funding, an increased rural weighting to funding formulae, more families could be helped.[23]
· There are often convincing reason why some children centres do not provide one stop shops. The guidance for setting up children centres acknowledges that the widespread nature of communities in rural areas necessitates a more dispersed model so that families without convenient transport do not have large distances to travel.[24]
· Ofsteds recent evaluation'[25] concluded that 'Parents strongly preferred a single site, one stop shop model for children's centres. This is impractical in rural areas, where families, especially disadvantaged families, may not be able to afford to travel to a centre remote from their homes.
· In rural areas often the best approach to ensuring that the most vulnerable access the services is in 'sitting' the services and activities close to the communities, through outreach, even when this means placing the services away from the main centre.
· Children's centres should focus more systematically on supporting parents to achieve economic well-being. In the immediate term, this would require a comprehensive approach to supporting families to claim all the in-work and out-of-work benefits available to them and to assist with any problems arising from debt.
· Children's centres should accelerate plans offer more flexible including evenings and weekends this would support wider engagement - and enable centres to extend their offer to older children and other family members and to families living with disability.
October 2009 [1] DWP - Household below average income 07/08 [2] Commission for Rural Communities - State of the Countryside 2008 [3] www.unicef-icdc.org/presscentre/presskit/reportcard7/rc7eng.pdf downloaded October 2009 [4] The Countryside Agency 'Delivering services to children and families in rural areas: The early lessons from Sure Start' 2003 [5] Capacity 'Peace and quiet disadvantage; children's centre provision in rural communities' To be published November 2009 [6] Ibid [7] Ibid [8] Capacity 'Peace and quiet disadvantage; children's centre provision in rural communities' To be published November 2009 [9] Ofsted 'The impact of integrated services on children and their families in Sure Start children's centres" July 2009 [10] Ofsted 'The impact of integrated services on children and their families in Sure Start children's centres" July 2009 [11] Capacity 'Peace and quiet disadvantage; children's centre provision in rural communities' To be published November 2009 [12] DFES 'A Sure Start Children's Centre For Every Community Phase 2 - Planning Guidance' 2006 [13] The Countryside Agency 'Delivering services to children and families in rural areas: The early lessons from Sure Start' 2003 [14] Capacity 'Peace and quiet disadvantage; children's centre provision in rural communities' To be published November 2009 [15] Ibid [16] Ibid [17] Ofsted 'The impact of integrated services on children and their families in Sure Start children's centres" July 2009 [18] Together for Children 'Rural Support Products' www.childrens-centres.org/Topics/RuralSupportProducts.aspx downloaded September 2009 [19]TeacherDevelopmentAgency//www.tda.gov.uk/remodelling/extendedschools/howtodeliveres/ruralaccess/rural/casestudies/remodelling/lancashire_garstang_parenting.aspx downloaded September 2009 [20] Capacity 'Peace and quiet disadvantage; children's centre provision in rural communities' To be published November 2009 [21] Ibid [22] Hindle et al, Review of evidence on additional costs of delivering services to rural communities. SECTA, April 2004. p11 [23] Capacity 'Peace and quiet disadvantage; children's centre provision in rural communities' To be published November 2009 [24] DFES Sure Start children's centre planning and performance management guidance 2006 p14 [25] Ofsted 'The impact of integrated services on children and their families in Sure Start children's centres" July 2009 |