Memorandum submitted by North Tyneside Council

 

 

Summary

· We believe that Sure Start Children's Centres are making a real difference to the lives of children within North Tyneside.

 

· Bringing together a range of services for young children and families has improved user experiences, through greater integration and accessibility

 

· Children's centres have been instrumental in supporting the learning and development of young children in North Tyneside, which is amongst the top quartile for key national indicators

 

· The value of children's centres is particularly evident within our most deprived communities, where a strong sense of community ownership exists around our centres. We have become effective in successfully identifying and engaging the hardest to reach families, which allows us to develop multi agency tailored packages of support that empower vulnerable families to transform their lives and improve the long-term life chances of their children.

 

· Robust strategic management, governance and performance management ensures that value for money and effective service delivery is achieved.

 

How models of Children's Centres have developed as the programme spreads from the most deprived neighbourhoods

1) North Tyneside's children's centre programme will deliver 12 children's centres across the borough's four localities. Each neighbourhood has access to the core offer of children's centre services, which will improve outcomes for all children aged under 5 years.

 

2) In phase 1 (2004-2006) five children's centres were developed and in phase 2 (2006-2008) a further six centres were opened. Initially children's centres were located within the most deprived areas to ensure support was accessible at a neighbourhood level. Phase 3 children's centres will provide services to the least disadvantaged communities, with one further children's centre being developed and the extension of reach of two phase 1 centres.

 

3) The children's centre model in North Tyneside follows a "full service" and "standard service" model. There are four full service centres, offering a comprehensive range of services on site to help to close the gap between the most deprived children and the national average. An additional seven standard centres also deliver the core offer but not necessarily on the scale of a full service centre. The location of the full service children's centres were determined by a combination of factors, primarily the number of under 5's in the designated area and the percentage of under 5's in the 30% most deprived Super Output Areas.

 

4) Children's centre provision is delivered through a mixed economy of providers, eight centres are directly delivered by North Tyneside Council, a further three are delivered by schools and we have one children's centre delivered by the voluntary sector.

 

The range and effectiveness of services provided by Children's Centres

5) Children's centre programmes involve working with parents and young children, providing integrated childcare with education (phase 1 and 2 centres), parent and child activities, family support and linking with health services, employment services and Families Information Service in order to provide the best start in life for every child. Our Phase 1 and 2 children's centres deliver high quality childcare and early years education. This approach has contributed to North Tyneside's top quartile performance for National Indicator 72 'the achievement of at least 78 points across the early years foundation stage' and National Indicator 92 'the gap between the lowest achieving 20% in the early years foundation stage and the rest.

 

6) We believe that children's centres achieve the greatest positive impact upon the lives of children, by promoting and supporting healthy lifestyles, opportunities for learning and a whole family approach to social and emotional development. In addition to the provision of key activities to support workless families in their return to education and gain employment, that is recognised as the surest way to reducing child poverty.

 

7) Each children's centre offers a range of universal, targeted and intensive services to support the needs of the child and family. These range from weekly facilitated sessions, such as "stay and play" sessions, baby clubs, weaning workshops, play days, toddler groups and dietetics services. Targeted support activities are available to engage with our families who are defined by Together for Children's Toolkit for reaching priority and excluded families as:

 

· teenage parents

· lone parents

· families living in poverty

· workless households

· families living in temporary accommodation

· parents with mental health issues or drug or alcohol problems

· families with a parent in prison or known to be engaged in criminal activity

· families from minority ethnic communities

· families of asylum seekers

· parents with disabled children

· disabled parents with children

 

8) These services include adult education (literacy, numeracy and computer skills), Dad's group, Teenage pregnancy group, Positive Parenting, Food Hygiene, Cooking on a Budget, Self-esteem groups such as Be Happy Be Healthy and the Freedom programme to support women subjected to domestic violence.

 

9) Intensive support in our children's centres can be used to make the change in crisis situations or as a longer term package of support that is build around the family to ensure that they are able to access the services and support that they require.

 

 

How well Children's Centres work with other partners and services

10) Each children's centre has a multi-agency approach to service planning and delivery. There are regular multi-agency 'Request for Service' meetings, using our common assessment framework that are held to support service delivery to our targeted families or those with a complex need. These meetings bring together professionals from across a range of agencies, including social workers, health visitors, midwives, family support staff, Area Children's Team leaders, nursery officers and the head of children's centres.

 

11) The group develop packages of personalised support around the needs of the family as a whole, resulting in care plans for the child and wider family. Personalised packages draw upon a core offer of services, activities, support and guidance that has been developed in response to identified needs.

 

Family Support

12) Our evaluations, which have been externally verified by the National Evaluation of Sure Start, sited our family support model as an area of good practice. Evidence shows that sustainable improvements in the quality of life of a child require the empowerment of parents and carers to sustain a supportive home environment. North Tyneside's family support is designed to raise the self-esteem of parents and carers, whilst also building their practical skills. This provides parents with the confidence to make positive changes that improve their child's life. Our services adapt to the specific needs of each family. Many vulnerable families are engaging with services from a very low base and family support can be as basic as building the confidence of parents to leave their home environment and participate in children's centre activity.

 

13) Family Support offer packages which can include a full range of support mechanisms for the family ranging from group activities to intensive one-to-one support in the family home. Attendance at evidence based parenting programmes and other short courses that have been designed by centre staff to reflect a trend of need either within the borough or specific centre area. We have numerous testimonies from families that demonstrate how family support has prevented family problems from escalating or becoming entrenched.

 

Health Services

14) Health is also an integral aspect of children's centre provision. A range of child and family health services are delivered within children's centres, with a strong emphasis on prevention and early intervention. The provision of accessible health services in a welcoming environment improves outcomes for children. It also helps to build an early and enduring relationship with children's centres, particularly amongst the most vulnerable clients. A major benefit has also been the strengthening of integrated working between agencies. For example midwives report finding it easier to encourage families, particularly those who are hard-to-reach to access wider family support when services are co-located within a children's centre.

 

15) The midwifery team deliver antenatal and post-natal services through many of our children's centres. Health and community led breastfeeding support groups are established within our children's centres, the success of this approach is reflected in the percentage of mothers who initiate breastfeeding, which exceeded our target in 2008/09. Health Visitors now also carry out 9 month and 2 year checks within the centres. We also benefit from dedicated support from the Community Consultant Paediatricians and Local Community Paediatricians. Speech and language therapists are commissioned to provide additional support to children with communication difficulties.

 

16) Children's centres are also helping to address some of the key health issues facing North Tyneside. Our ante-natal care and pre-natal care have a strong focus on nutrition, with support provided by a commissioned dietetic and nutrition team. They provide training to children's centres and health staff, which included nutrition awareness, nutrition for under 5's, pre-conception and pregnancy and weaning. These measures are helping to tackle childhood obesity levels in the borough, which have declined from 10.1% to 8.3% between 2007/08 and 2008/009. Children's centres are also delivering services to reduce smoking during pregnancy.

 

Schools

17) Children's Centres form key linkages with schools both strategically via extended services for schools which cluster around children's centre areas and operationally with the individual relationships that have been forged between Children's Centres and the schools to offer support in transitions and key work in targeted areas around a joined up approach to health issues such as obesity.

 

18) Half of our children's centres are based upon school sites and benefit from access to the wider school community. Children's centres also support Childminding Networks who often bridge the transition from childcare to school life in the provision of before and after school care.

 

Jobcentre Plus

19) Parental employment is a major determinant of a child's life chances and our children's centres actively support parents and carers to engage in employment, education or training. Children's centres offer a range of non-stigmatising courses that provide a reassuring entry point into adult learning. They provide parents and carers with a 'jumping on' point from where they can access an escalator of support to enter employment. We work with Job Centre Plus and other employment services to provide parents with a pathway to employment.

 

20) We have also developed a programme of co-facilitation, where parents receive a package of high quality training to become 'parent volunteers' able to co-deliver children's centre activities alongside professionals. This has proved highly successful with high levels of satisfaction expressed amongst the volunteer workforce who recognise the opportunities to portfolio build towards a new career pathway and to build confidence and self-esteem. It has also led to a significant number of parents and carers entering fulltime employment, including a number who are now full time children's centre employees.

Funding, Sustainability and Value for Money

21) At present children's centres are supported by grant funding. There is a strong commitment to children's centres amongst senior leaders and stakeholders within North Tyneside. A significant reduction or cessation of central funding would severely undermine our ability to provide a borough-wide universal provision. It would also compromise our ability to deliver targeted outreach services in complex cases. This work is often resource intensive but delivers the greatest impact on the lives of vulnerable children and young people.

 

22) Children's centres represent excellent value for money. The early prevention they provide reduces the need for later interventions when problems have become embedded or entrenched. We have a large evidence base of case studies and user testimonials where children's centres targeted support has prevented problems within families escalating to the point of crisis.

 

23) At present phase 1 and 2 children's centres do not charge for services, this ensures that there are no financial barriers to accessing services. However phase 3 is delivering services to some of the wealthiest wards in the region. We are currently exploring the feasibility of a charging policy that could be implemented in a non-stigmatising manner whilst ensuring that those service users who are from low income or priority families continue to access free services.

 

24) North Tyneside recognises that it is essential that public services deliver the maximum value from resources available. We have been proactive in delivering greater efficiencies, which have been achieved through a significant restructure of staffing in line with the budget taper for Sure Start local programmes. As part of this process the workforce development programme has strengthened the generic skills of core children's centre staff, which has reduced reliance on high cost specialist provision. Our administrative staff's role has expanded to oversee the collation and reporting of performance management data and they are key to providing "brief message" information and signposting to key services and to deliver core messages to parents and carers accessing the service.

 

25) The key strategic links forged with health services also ensure that value for money is enhanced by non-duplication of mainstream services, but that service delivery is enhanced for the community by providing services at the Children's Centres

 

Strategic Planning, Governance, Management and Staffing

26) North Tyneside has established a coherent governance and management structure for children's centres to ensure that key objectives are delivered, with a robust focus on accountability. North Tyneside Council employs an Early Years and Play Manager with overall responsibility for children's centres. The Early Years & Play Manager assisted by the Children's Centre Coordinator works with partner agencies to facilitate strategic integration of services and promotes consistent policy and practice across centres. They also oversee the performance of each children's centre, providing challenge and scrutiny of centres management and delivery.

 

27) All children's centres operate with a head of centre working with a Children's Centre Advisory Board, which represents the interests of users and other local stakeholders. An Early Years Childcare and Family Learning Sub-group, Finance Sub-group and Health and Family Support Sub-Group support them. Heads of centre, working with the Children's Centre Advisory Board hold responsibility for the human resources, finance, health and safety, local partnership working and outcomes for children within their respective children's centres.

 

28) To be effective children's centres need an effective, skilled and integrated multi agency workforce. Developing the generic skills of core staff has been an integral element of our workforce development strategy. This has created an adaptive workforce that is able to respond to the individual circumstances of families and which is not constrained by traditional professionals boundaries. Regular joint meetings within the children's centres, allow knowledge and learning to be shared across professions. Staff work flexibly across centres, including backfilling vacancies to ensure consistency of services is maintained. We have a dedicated training officer who ensures all children's centre and childcare staff receive consistent training around the common core curriculum, safeguarding and the health and wellbeing schedule. This ensures consistency of services across settings.

 

Whether services are being accessed by those most in need and how effective they are for the most vulnerable

29) To ensure that services are accessed by those most in need, we have developed a consistent area wide approach to aspects of monitoring and evaluation for example; completion of the children's centre Self Evaluation Form, selection and definition of local indicators, assessing user satisfaction, and monitoring impact of services on outcomes for children and families. We ensure that monitoring and evaluation activity is purposeful, proportionate, timely and directed towards improving the quality of services and outcomes for children and families. This approach, which includes individual worker impact forms, which clearly identifies each workers engagement with our priority and excluded families was presented as an area of good practice to Sure Start Lead Val White in December 2008.

 

30) Efficacies of services have been measured by a number of methods including service user evaluation, outcomes and impact of intervention against need. All families who have received services via the request for service meetings can be assessed to evaluate progression against the care plan developed in consultation with the service user and the centres. Nationally it has been recognised that there is a lack of hard data available to prove the successes of children's centres and we have the same difficulty within North Tyneside. However we have a databank of case studies and testimonies that clearly demonstrate the positive impact and sense of empowerment that our most vulnerable families feel after engagement with the children's centres.

 

31) Access to services and impact has also been evaluated by the Centre for Public Policy at Northumbria University and they found that service users believe that children's centres

 

· Have given their children a chance to play and learn

· Improved their children's speech and language

· Enabled them and their children to make new friends

· Improved their relationship with their children

· Made them and their children more confident

· Improved their knowledge and skills

· Enabled them to see that support is available if needed

 

32) Children's Centres benefit from a wealth of experience within the Children Young People and Learning Directorate and beyond. With support from our Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Learning and the opportunity to be involved in many other government and council initiatives that impact on Children's lives we can empower vulnerable families to transform their lives and improve the long-term life chances of their children.

 

October 2009