Memorandum submitted by Pauline Trudell and Barbara Riddell

 

1. Summary

· Maintained Nursery Schools are some of the most effective and highly regarded children's centres in England. They are consistently judged as outstanding by OFSTED yet they are at risk of closure as a result of the new Early Years Single Funding Formula introduced by the Government.

 

· Nursery Schools that are children's centres are not cheap but they represent excellent value for money. As exemplars of outstanding quality their role as training and support centres for other children's centres and early years settings in their area is largely unexploited but crucial. We cannot afford to risk the loss of the very centres that have shown they can make such a difference to the poorest families and children.

 

2. Introduction

There are a number of remarkably successful children's centres in England. These centres engage and involve disadvantaged and ethnic minority families; they reach out to families that are most vulnerable to social exclusion; they offer children a quality of educational experience which raises their achievement well above expected levels. These centres are cited by Ofsted as representing excellent value for money and they are working well with health, social services and primary schools. These centres are all maintained nursery schools. The tragedy is that it is these very centres that are most at risk of closure.

 

 

3. Here is an example of just such a successful and effective children's centre. Comet Nursery School and Children's Centre in Hackney

 

4. 75% of the children at this centre come from wide variety of minority ethnic backgrounds; 66% speak English as a second language - half of these are at the early stage of acquisition.A high number of children join and leave outside normal term times and the proportion of children that have learning difficulties and disabilities is high.

 

5. The Ofsted inspection in May 2009 reported the following;"Comet Nursery School and Children's centre is outstanding and provides an excellent standard of education for all its children. Staff have a shared deep understanding of how young children learn. Parents are delighted with the centre, universally praising its work. Typical of the many positive comments was, 'It caters for all children's and parents' needs for education and growth.' Children join with skills and abilities well below those typically found, especially in their language and communication skills and in personal and social development. They make outstanding progress from this low starting point. Expert advice is on hand on a daily basis from health professionals and the school staff work very closely with a wide range of local agencies."

 

6. Pen Green Centre for Children and Families- perhaps the best known integrated centre in the country, has received similar praise from Ofsted "The care, guidance and support provided are second to none and firmly based on the staff's excellent knowledge of children and their families. Parents are fully involved at every stage of their children's time at the centre. They say that they appreciate the way in which the staff take account of their contributions, both when children start and through the frequent and easy channels of communication. The safety and welfare of children are at the forefront of the staff's thinking. Procedures for safeguarding children are very secure. Many parents become partners in active research into their children's development and are fulsome in their praise of the benefits to children's well-being and learning. Excellent support for children with learning difficulties ensures that they make rapid progress towards their targets."

 

 

7. Both these excellent children's centres are nursery schools and are representative of a wider group of children's centres which grew from State Nursery Schools. Of the 437 State Nursery Schools, usually called Maintained Nursery Schools (MNSs) in England most are already children's centres. Some 45 % of state nursery schools have been judged by Ofsted as outstanding over the last 3 years.

 

8. In the first years of the Labour administration the government recognized that nursery schools were central to the development of integrated services. The high quality of education they offered was already proving effective in overcoming disadvantage and social exclusion in some of the poorest areas of the country. Indeed almost all of the Early Excellence centres were nursery schools. Nursery Schools have a long tradition of working closely with parents and offering families support. They did so long before the introduction of the extended schools policy and the wider recognition that schools have a responsibility to their communities. They did so long before the introduction of Sure Start and Children's Centres.

 

9. Why do children's centres that began as state nursery schools do so well? The decisive factor is the qualifications and training of the staff. Children's centres that grew from MNSs are led by qualified headteachers and have a good proportion of qualified teachers on the staff. These headteachers have shown themselves to be very effective managers and leaders of multi-professional services.

 

10. Research related to the EPPE project (Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years, REPEY) identified a number of other criteria that defined quality. These included, parents' engagement in their children's learning; staff knowledge and understanding of the curriculum; staff knowledge of how young children learn and develop; and a grasp of the appropriate pedagogy for a child's understanding and interests to develop. The nursery school model meets every one of these criteria. There is consistent and ample evidence that they not only provide excellent early education but they also work closely and effectively with parents and local agencies. Nursery schools have always given priority to those families most in need and have been flexible about how places are used. Their admissions criteria are determined by local authorities and they typically give places to children who are not likely to attend other forms of early years services either because their parents are poor or because of their special needs.

 

11. Sadly, as the Children Centre programme began some nursery schools were excluded in favour of primary schools even though many were excellent candidates. They had buildings and outside space geared to the learning and development of young children and skilled staff experienced in working with children who were not yet three and their parents. Their work with parents often went unrecognised or misunderstood.

 

12. Ofsted's 2005-2008 review of all childcare and early

years settings, excluding maintained schools revealed that only 3% were judged outstanding, and 57% were good. Quality was poorer in disdvantaged areas. 'The range in quality of provision across the country is too wide. I am concerned that quality is generally poorer in areas where children and families are already experiencing high levels of deprivation........' (Christine Gilbert, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools, Leading to Excellence, 2008) In the thirty areas of greatest disadvantage only 54% of day care groups provided good or better childcare, compared with 63% in the rest of the country. Many of these groups are providing the daycare element of children's centres.

 

13. Twenty one of these disadvantaged areas have nursery schools and many are children's centres; Birmingham, Blackburn, Brent, Greenwich, Hackney, Haringey, Islington, Kingston-upon-Hull, Lambeth, Lewisham, Liverpool, Manchester, Newham, Rochdale, South Tyneside, Southwark, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Wolverhampton. 100% of the nursery schools in these authorities were judged good or outstanding during the years 2005-2008. In Stoke-on-Trent for example all 7 nursery schools received outstanding Ofsted reports.

 

14. Although all Children's Centres would claim to provide for those children most in need and for those with special educational needs many centres are not able to offer early education to these very children. In centres where the education and childcare is offered by a private or voluntary organisation priority for places is usually given to those parents who need full-time childcare and can pay for the service. This is not unreasonable given the need for such nurseries to be financially sustainable but it is inevitable that, in such a structure, the availability of the free part-time places for 12.5 or 15 hours for 3 year olds will be limited. Nursery schools that are children's centres give priority to those children most in need. One head of a children's centre that is a nursery school writes "Local Authority admission criteria for maintained provision prioritize children who are looked after or who have Special Education Needs. Admission criteria do not exist in the PVI sector. Our school has ten percent of pupils who have Statements of Educational Needs, some with complex medical needs. Sadly, some of these children's parents were amazed to be offered nursery places as several private providers in the area had turned them away. Two years ago we worked with a looked after child with emotional and behavioural difficulties who had been expelled from a private setting. What will happen to these children should maintained nursery schools cease to exist?"

 

 

15. Nursery schools typically have a far higher proportion of children with special needs than other early years settings. Nursery schools are part of the maintained schools sector and, as such, have implemented the Code of Practice for SEN (for as long as all schools have been required to do so). Their extensive experience and expertise in this area is also rooted in assessment and planning for individual learning needs. This is an established feature of nursery school practice.

 

16. Nursery schools also have a particular expertise in the teaching of young bi-lingual children; both in supporting children's home language and in encouraging the use of English.

 

17. Children's centres where different elements of the service are organised by different agencies face particular difficulties. If the leadership of the centre is not held by the same organisation as that of the childcare/early education the potential for integrated and seamless support to children and families is sharply reduced. Unsurprisingly many of the exemplary children's centres used as models for case studies and the frequent choice for any new minister's visit are those with unified leadership.

 

 

18. In most nursery schools the staff make introductory home visits to meet children and their families. These initial visits- often by 2 members of staff form the foundation of the subsequent relationship with the whole family. Special educational needs are frequently identified at this stage. The real point is that 'outreach' is not a discrete and separate service provided by different staff or even a separate agency it is an integral part of nursery school practice. In those nursery schools that are children's centres such practice has been successfully incorporated into a holistic family support service.

 

19. The governance of nursery schools is also an important point. The clear evidence from the Early Excellence Centre evaluation was that integrated governance was a vital feature in achieving comprehensive and fully integrated services.

 

20. The governance of children's centres has developed slowly and school governing bodies do not invariably govern the whole of the children's centre. Many nursery schools are using their governing bodies to manage their children's centres and have been able to do so with considerable success. Indeed this was the model promoted by the government guidance on establishing children's centre (Laying the Foundations) and the model operated by long established integrated centres such as the Thomas Coram Centre. Many headteachers report their exasperation with complex and time-consuming governance arrangements that demand frequent repetition. For example, headteachers who are completing Self evaluation forms (SEFS) for their schools, children's centres and daycare complain that such separate and repetitive management and monitoring systems fail to reflect the unified working of their centre.

 

21. The Final EPPE Report from the Primary Phase: Pre-school, School and Family Influences on Children's Development during Key Stage 2 (Age 7-11) found that the most qualified staff (almost all trained teachers) provided children with more experience of academic activities (especially language and Mathematics) and provided children with higher cognitive challenges. They also provided the most direct teaching (instruction through demonstration, explanation, questioning, modelling etc.) and used more 'sustained shared thinking'. Furthermore less well qualified staff functioned as significantly better pedagogues when working alongside qualified teachers.

 

22. Most strikingly EPPE showed that children who had attended poor quality/less effective pre-school generally showed no significant age 11 benefits in improved outcomes compared with those who did not attend any pre-school. Unless all children's centres are able to provide such high quality educational experiences they will fail the children who attend. The recent evaluation of the 2 year old pilot revealed a similarly dismal conclusion. Most of the settings used in the pilot were less than good quality and there was no discernible impact on the children's successful development. Quality matters.

 

 

23. The Head of a children's centre in Lancashire writes "The good qualifications, expertise and experience of the nursery school staff have been the high quality foundations on which the centre has been built. This is why nursery schools should continue to form the rock bed for children's centres wherever possible. Children's centres are part of the government's strategy for narrowing the attainment gap for those children living in areas of deprivation. It is no good addressing the issues that decrease learning potential if the quality of nursery education on offer is poor."

 

24. Sadly there are some stark examples of children's centres that are now less integrated than they had been when they were Early Excellence Centres. One such centre serves a community that is one of the most deprived in the North East and is in the 10% most deprived Super Output Areas in England. Some 50% of children aged 2-3 have been identified as having either special educational needs or additional educational needs. A high percentage of children under 3 are referred by Health/Children Services.

 

25. Ofsted judgements have consistently been outstanding and "Beacon" status was followed by Early Excellence status in 2002. As an Early Excellence Centre the school developed a range of integrated services; education, social care, family support, adult learning and training. Between 2002 and 2006 the Centre trialled different models of working, developed staff expertise in a multi-agency approach and introduced personalised learning for children, parents, carers, practitioners and professional partners. In 2004 the head of the centre was invited to be one of the 35 participants on the pilot year of the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership

 

26. In 2007/8 the Early Excellence programme funding ended and the staff team was reduced;the Play and Learning team was completely dismantled. As a consequence of such substantial staffing loss much time was spent remodelling and restructuring the whole centre team.

 

27. The new children's centres have a complicated management structure in which locality teams are led by co-ordinators, who, in turn, are led by an overall 'virtual' co-ordinator. Headteachers of nursery schools are not the Head of their children's centre. Many children's centre staff are employed centrally and operate from the locality teams rather than from individual children's centres.

 

28. Since the creation of this model of children's centre services the quality and quantity of work with families has reduced. Locality teams are not based at the centre and consequently are not able to develop relationships with the education and childcare staff. Some children and families who would benefit from early referral to the centre are still being missed in the community. Many arrive unidentified at the age of 3. Services are not matched to local and individual need but are determined by a 'blanket' programme of delivery across the city, i.e every Children Centre offers Stay Play / Messy Play / Time for Rhyme / Bosom Buddies, etc. Whether or not this meets need. There is little room for negotiation or control over a more 'tailored' and appropriately matched service. A high percentage of hard to reach and vulnerable families are not being reached or engaged

 

 

29. A previously successful 'Play and Family' team based at the nursery school has been terminated due to end of funding stream. This was the best model to offer as it was embedded in the Nursery ethos, it reflected and responded to immediate need, personal relationships were able to blossom and families benefited from a true 'one stop shop' approach.

 

30. The local authority is now promoting a Birth to 19 campus style development and the primary school that is across the road are planning to to open a nursery class. The nursery school will struggle to survive.

 

31. In March 2009 Ofsted yet again judged this centre as outstanding. "Children make exceptional progress and their personal development is excellent; provision for learning and development is inspirational, while children's welfare is exceptionally well promoted." The report concludes "The centre has outstanding capacity for further improvements and currently provides outstanding value for money."

 

32. Children's Centres will only be able to realize their ambition to transform the lives of children and their families if the quality of the childcare and education they provide is excellent. Such quality influences every aspect of their work with children and families. We cannot afford to lose the very children's centres that can offer the best quality and indeed the skills and expertise to support other centres.

 

October 2009