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Memorandum Submitted by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)
Summary · Over 3,000 Sure Start Childrens' Centres now offer children under 5 and their families access to integrated early childhood services when and where they need them. By 2010 there will be at least 3,500 centres - one for every community. · Early evidence is that families are benefitting and are very satisfied with the support they receive. In a survey of parents 92% of users were satisfied with the services they received and 68% were very satisfied. · Through legislation currently before Parliament local authorities will soon have a statutory duty to maintain sufficient centres for all families with young children, embedding children's centres as part of mainstream provision, and Ofsted will have a duty to inspect and report on centres. · Significant additional investment is in place, on top of resources already in health and employment support services, representing ongoing, long-term support for children's centres. Government is clear that investing in the early years and preventative work with families during the vital first stages of a child's life is the route to improved outcomes and narrowing the gap in outcomes between the poorest children and the rest. The greater part of the £1 billion per year revenue funding for children's centres must go where needs are greatest. · Engaging with the most vulnerable families is high on centres' agenda. Additional funding provided to local authorities since 2008 has helped to boost resources on the ground and practitioners are finding effective ways of engaging with some of the most vulnerable families. In addition Government has launched a communications campaign so that all families know where their local centre is and what is available there. · Looking forward work is underway to support local authorities and their Children's Trust partners to develop sustainable children's centres which can demonstrate the impact they are having on 'Every Child Matters' outcomes.
Sure Start Children's Centres - a universal service for young children and their families
1. Sure Start Children's Centres offer parents of very young children local, neighbourhood access to a range of essential services to support them in meeting the challenges of bringing up children today. Evidence shows that investment in the early years is key for prevention, as well as early intervention and tackling immediate issues children and families may be facing. Although the roll out of children's centres is not yet complete, and not all are yet delivering their full core offer, there is case-study evidence of how multi-agency working within children's centres is making a real contribution to preventing negative outcomes in later life. But much of what children's centres are tackling is long-term, including the effects of intergenerational poverty and multiple disadvantage, the effects of which will show later on.
2. The Childcare Act 2006 introduced a duty for local authorities and their partners in Jobcentre Plus and the National Health Service to work together to deliver integrated early childhood services aimed at improving access for families and increasing take up by the most needy. Subject to Parliamentary approval, the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill (the ASCL Bill) will secure the future of Sure Start Children's Centres as mainstream provision, giving local authorities a duty to maintain sufficient centres and consider regularly, with their partners on the Children's Trust Board, delivering services through centres as part of the process to produce the Children and Young People's Plan. 3. By March 2010 there will be at least 3,500 children's centres - one for every community. The Government's phased programme of national coverage is almost complete. Over 3000 centres provide access to mainstream early childhood services for over 2.4 million children under 5 and their families. 24 local authorities have already achieved coverage across their areas meaning that all families with pre-school children have local, neighbourhood centres available.
4. Evidence from a 2008[1] survey of parents from some of the most disadvantaged communities showed that · awareness of the local centre was high with around eight in ten (78%) respondents having seen or heard about it · levels of satisfaction were very high with 92% of
all users saying they were satisfied (68% were very satisfied). 5. Research, in particular the National Evaluation of Sure Start, has contributed to the evolution of children's centres. Improvements have been made based on evaluation findings and knowledge of what works for families, resulting in a service that continues to grow in effectiveness and responsiveness to families' needs. Good practice is emerging, in particular in relation to working with the most vulnerable families, influencing how children's services are delivered.
The Rollout of Sure Start Children's Centres 6. Children's centres build on earlier policies including Sure
Start Local Programmes and Early Excellence Centres. These were area-based, concentrated on the
most deprived communities, or set up to serve specific communities and their
needs. While popular and bringing high
levels of resource into very needy communities, they reached only a small
proportion of the poorest families in the country. Sure Start Local Programmes
provided services for fewer than half of the under 5s living in the 20% most
deprived wards in 7. Not all children living in the most disadvantaged
communities are deprived and around a third of the most deprived children under
5 live outside the most deprived areas (defined by reference to the Lower Super
Output Areas in the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2007). The universal
children's centres model - with a centre for every community - ensures that
every child, no matter where they live, benefits from locally accessible
integrated services. 8. Roll out of children's centres has been phased. The first
phase (to March 2006) targeted 650,000 children under 5 living in the most
deprived areas of 9. Rollout is almost complete and a 5 year national evaluation
programme is underway to consider the effectiveness of different models and
approaches. Ofsted reports on individual centres, starting next year, will add
to the national evidence base and support continuous improvement in service
delivery. The strategic role for local authorities 10. Local authorities, together with their partners in Jobcentre
Plus and Primary Care Trusts are responsible for planning and delivering
children's centres' services. They need
to understand the different priorities and levels of demand in each community
and are expected to consult with parents and to undertake an audit of existing
services, to ensure they have a good understanding of a community's needs and
how these vary. This local partnership, working within children's trust
arrangements, defines the offer for each centre. The local authority is
responsible for receiving and allocating the Sure Start Early Years and
Childcare Grant (SSEYCG), including revenue and capital funding for centres,
while Jobcentre Plus and the PCTs contribute further resources. The range of children's centres services 12. All centres must provide access to a core of services and these appear in Annex 1. Children's centres set up in phases 1 and 2 serving the most disadvantaged communities provide the fullest range of services and the most intensive support with the addition of integrated early learning and full-day childcare places to the list. Introduced in advance of the integration of early learning and care in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) from September 2008, the children's centre provision gave parents accessible childcare, removing a barrier to work and supporting parents in lifting their families out of poverty.
13. Evidence from the 'Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE)'[2], about the impact of highly qualified staff with appropriate training and expertise on outcomes for the most disadvantaged children attending early years settings, led to the requirement that these centres employ a qualified teacher to plan and substantially deliver this provision. The 2008 Foundation Stage Profile results showed an increase in the number of children with a good level of development and the gap between the lowest 20% and the rest narrowed. Children's centres are now contributing to continued improvement in EYFS results and to narrowing the gap in achievement.
14. The 'core' services for centres serving less disadvantaged
communities need not include full-day childcare unless there is unmet demand in
the area but all centres are expected to have activities for children on
site. Local authorities have flexibility
to provide less intensive support services to reflect needs. The Department
appointed Together for Children (TfC) in late 2006 as its delivery agent to
support and challenge authorities during their strategic planning and rollout
of centres. 15. In rural areas where populations are dispersed and numbers in any one area can be small, local authorities can take a more flexible approach to the delivery of services. Guidance suggests building on existing provision such as schools and community centres to use the resources available effectively, possibly delivering services for a wider age range, to use mobile services to go to where families are rather than expecting them to travel to services, and to consider whether childminders, rather then centre-based early learning and childcare places, will better meet parents' needs.
Funding and sustainability 16. Since 1997 the Government has invested over £25 billion in transforming early years and childcare services. By 2010 the Government will be investing over £1billion a year directly to support services in children's centres, in addition to the mainstream resources provided via the NHS for child and maternity health services and through Jobcentre Plus for employment and training advice for parents. The Government has committed to fund children's centres as part of their long-term strategy. 17. Annex 2 contains details of the total funding for Sure Start Local Programmes and children's centres since 1999-2000 when the first programmes were established.
19. As
part of their performance management arrangements, local authorities and
children's centres should monitor usage and review services regularly,
consulting with parents and their advisory board, to ensure services are having
an impact. Centres are not expected to sustain services that do not work or
become inappropriate.
Value for money 21. The Government is committed to ensuring that the significant
resources being invested in children's centres are delivering value for money
and are improving outcomes for young children and their families. In 2006 the
National Audit Office (NAO) produced a report looking at value for money in
Sure Start Children's Centres.[4] The NAO concluded that centres were in
transition and had not been established long enough for a real assessment to be
made. They made a number of recommendations aimed at improving the financial
management in centres and local authorities. To the Department they recommended
that as well as its published performance management system it obtain
information, and longitudinal data, to demonstrate the programme is
working. The Department is setting up a
5 year programme to evaluate children's centres which includes a cost benefit
analysis and panel surveys of children from 0 -5years. 22. In response to the subsequent Public Accounts Committee
hearing in 2007 the Department gave a number of undertakings[5].
Action has been taken on all of these with guidance on third phase (2008-2010) delivery being issued in
Autumn 2007[6] with
examples of levels of resource for 'universal' centres as distinct from the
'high focus, high need' centres serving the most disadvantaged communities, as
well as illustrative standards of financial management for centres. Chief Executives
were asked to ensure early talks were conducted with centres to encourage
better forward planning. The 23. The Department commissioned a feasibility study to look at a benchmarking system for centres[7]. The study added to the Department's understanding of the breadth of different approaches to funding children's centres, brought about by the local flexibility within which children's centres operate to meet local need. The study concluded that financial and performance management systems would not at this stage support benchmarking. The Department focused efforts on increasing business planning and financial management capacity within children's centres and local authorities. TfC produced toolkits on Business Planning, Performance Management and Reaching Priority and Excluded Families[8]. These toolkits have been supported by interactive workshops with local authority networks to look at setting outcomes and better performance management.
25. Not all authorities are in a position to use the above approach yet. TfC will run wider regional events for local authorities and children's centres staff later this year which will focus on the relationship between performance management and financial management/resource allocation.
26. The activity above provides a base for ongoing and
future activity to improve resource management
and value for money. Effective Governance - driving improvement 27. As children's centre become established a variety of governance arrangements is emerging to suit different circumstances. Without fettering this local flexibility the Department has set certain expectations. Every centre should have an advisory board distinguishing between governance and management roles. The advisory board has a strategic oversight role, supporting the centre leader. Operational management remains the responsibility of the centre leader, reporting to the local authority.
28. Subject to Parliamentary approval of the ASCL Bill advisory boards will be a statutory requirement for centres including those run for local authorities by private or voluntary sector organisations. The role of the advisory board is to "provide advice and assistance for the purpose of ensuring the effective operation of the children's centre within its remit". The Bill does not establish advisory boards as a body corporate with specified legal duties but does contain minimum requirements on membership - representatives of the centre, expected to be at least the centre manager, the local authority and parents/prospective parents - and is clear others may be members of advisory boards. Statutory guidance will explain this in more detail.
29. Recognising that formal governance roles may not appeal to less confident parents, children's centres use a variety of approaches to ensure parents have a voice. Parents' forums - run for parents by parents - have been successfully used in many areas. While the ASCL Bill does not introduce a requirement for parents' forums, because it was not considered sensible to be prescriptive, the Government strongly supports parents forums as a means of involving parents directly in the life of their centre.
Management and staffing 30. Local
authorities are responsible for setting management structures for children's
centres taking account of the local context, in particular the levels of
disadvantage, and collocation of staff. In rural areas or where centres are
serving more affluent areas with lower demand, local authorities may decide to
use area managers and clustering arrangements for management and governance. 31. The Centre Leader is a key figure whose job it is to bind together the team and to communicate a clear vision of what the team is seeking to achieve with the community of families in which they work. Leaders come from a range of professional backgrounds - health, social care, education, community development - with a variety of mainly degree equivalent qualifications. They are expected to undertake the National Professional Qualification for Integrated Centre Leaders - a course developed specially to equip them for their role. Nearly 1400 Leaders have completed the course with around 500 in the process of starting or completing it.
32. Peer support and knowledge transfer is gained through the Children's Centre Leaders Network - now entering its second year - which is key in increasing sector-led improvement.
33. Integrated
working in children's centres with staff from a range of professional
backgrounds forming multi-agency teams is becoming well established. Staff
value the opportunities offered by collocation both in providing everyday
support for parents and widening their own understanding of shared aims and
objectives. 34. Guidance
issued by the Department recommends that all childcare workers should hold NVQ
level 3 while other workers should be qualified to at least level 2. Numbers of
staff and particular combinations of professionals and volunteers or
para-professionals are a matter for local decision. Working in partnership with schools, health services and others Schools 35. Around
half of all children's centres will be located on school sites. Centres can be
run separately from the school, or be operated by the school, using their
extended services powers, often under a service level agreement or other
arrangement with the local authority. Co-location with schools enables, on a
very practical level, the contribution of a qualified teacher to the
multi-agency team planning and delivering services in the children's centre,
known to be a key element in improving outcomes for the poorest children. 36. In
many areas, even where not collocated, children's centres and schools are
working very closely together, including in cluster working arrangements, to
ensure that information is passed on at key transition points, like when
children move from childcare and start their school life. Integrated working with health services 37. Children's centres play a significant role in delivering the
Healthy Child Programme (HCP) - the progressive, universal preventative and
early intervention service for under 5s and their families. The Government's
Child Health Strategy, published in February 2009[9] committed to children's
centres having access to a named health visitor, and this is being taken
forward with the Department of Health through the 'Action on health Visiting
Programme'. Annex 4 contains more details. 38. All children's centres will provide basic
information and advice, and make contact with local parents to ensure that they
know what is on offer, whether in the centre or elsewhere, so they know how to
access the services they need. In less disadvantaged areas there are likely to
be fewer health services on site and more 'signposting' to other provision. 39. On
the ground there is much good, innovative practice where centres are working well
with local health partners. The Children's Centre Leader Network events as well
as national conferences have provided opportunities to share best practice. 40. The
Department is working with the Department of Health to explore what more can be
done to improve information sharing between health professionals and children's
centres. 41. Jobcentre Plus involvement in children's centres is making an important contribution to reducing child poverty - helping parents to think ahead during their child's early years about opportunities for training or work that will help to provide a better economic future for their family. All children's centres are required to have links with Jobcentre Plus in place when they first open. The nature of the link is negotiated locally and agreed in the light of circumstances, demand and community requirements.
42. Research published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in 2008[10] showed that Jobcentre Plus involvement was most effective when an adviser ran sessions in a centre and was proactive in meeting and informing children's centre users about services on offer.
43. In 2008 the Government announced in Ending Child Poverty: Everybody's Business[11] a series of pilots to test innovative approaches to eradicating child poverty, including enhanced work-focused services delivered through children's centres. The pilot started in January 2009 and runs to March 2011 and involves placing a full-time adviser in 30 children's centres across 10 local authorities. A comprehensive evaluation strategy is in place for the pilot. Interim findings from the evaluation will be available in spring 2010, with the final report being produced in summer 2011.
Partnership working with the private, voluntary and independent sector 44. Partnership
working with the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sector has been an
essential ingredient from the outset in children's centres, particularly for
the delivery of childcare in children's centres. The provisions of the Childcare Act 2006
encouraged local authorities to become providers of last resort in relation to
childcare and to work to support the local 'market' instead. Local authorities have a childcare
sufficiency duty. A key part of the early planning process for centres during
the roll-out has been consultation with providers, as well as parents, about
where and how centres' services should be delivered. The PVI sector deliver around half of all
integrated early learning and childcare provision in centres. Providers value their links to children's
centres, supporting them with families in need and offering a swift means of
providing extra support when needed. 45. Some local authorities have also contracted out the management of their children's centres to voluntary sector organisations. Action for Children, 4Children and Barnardos amongst others, are all involved in managing a number of centres across the country. These arrangements are relatively new and have not yet been evaluated.
Ensuring vulnerable families benefit from Sure Start Children's Centres 46. It
is often the most vulnerable families, whose children face the poorest
outcomes, who find mainstream services hard to access. Research evidence since 2007 on Sure Start
Local Programmes, in reports by the National Audit Office[12]
and Ofsted[13]
on children's centres, and a survey of parents by TNS[14]
all show that children's centres are increasingly engaging with the most
vulnerable families. A positive "Sure Start effect" was demonstrated across all
population groups in the 47. Ofsted
in 2008 confirmed that individuals and families were well served by the
children's centres and schools that they attended. Services which had been used by the most
vulnerable parents were reported to have transformed the lives of some parents
and had positive effects on their children. However not all children's centres
are yet fully effective in this important role and there is still more to do to
ensure that all families are able and supported to access the services they
need. 49. The Government has taken steps to increase the effectiveness of the outreach services from children's centres by: · allocating additional revenue from 2008-09 to enable local authorities to fund two additional outreach workers in children's centres serving the most disadvantaged communities; and · committing in the Children's Plan to making outreach activity from children's centres more effective through better trained and supported staff. The Department has been Ø Gathering insight and information on training needs through workshops with stakeholders such as Health and the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) to look at good practice and what works Ø working with CWDC to arrange for some 5,000 practitioners to take up training. Ø using the Children's Centre Leaders Network to share good practice. 50. A small scale scoping study on outreach to children and families, conducted by Capacity Ltd[15] on behalf of the Department during 2008, provides information on parents' experience of outreach, and the resulting benefits, as perceived by them. The majority of parents interviewed were on low incomes, economically inactive and were selected by the children's centres in the study as representative of families receiving, or formerly receiving, outreach support. The parents believed that they had benefited from family support not only in relation to their children's development and welfare, but to their own well-being, self confidence and engagement with children's centres and other services. For a significant minority family support had had a positive bearing on their involvement in training and steps towards employment.
51. The Government has this autumn launched a communications
campaign to build awareness of children's centres so that all parents know
where their local children's centre is and what it offers. The campaign
includes national, regional and local activity and targets 30 of the most
deprived areas in
October 2009
Annex 1
Universal core services for all children's centres
All centres must provide a universal range of services including: · outreach services for isolated parents/carers and children at risk of social exclusion, including health visitors linked with the centre, underpinned with good information and data about families in the local area · information and
ad · support to childminders via a quality assured, coordinated network, but
also to other childminders in the area by providing shared training opportunities, loan of toys and
equipment and by hosting drop-in sessions · activities for children and mothers and fathers /carers at the centre, eg: play groups, stay and play, parent groups, drop-in sessions, crèches in the centre itself, these could be existing services which the children's centre is being built around · links with Jobcentre Plus, to encourage and support labour market participation by parents/carers who wish to consider training and employment. The nature of the links will be negotiated locally in light of community needs and local circumstances but could consist of, one or more of the following : up to date vacancy boards in the centre, internet access, warm phones, Jobcentre Plus advisers offering one to one or group support, drop-in or regular opportunities to consult personal advisers for advice on the financial impact of starting work, a named 'link adviser' at the Jobcentre providing a direct contact point for parents, leaflets and posters advertising Jobcentre Plus services. Access to community health services; including antenatal services and the Healthy Child Programme, led and delivered by health visiting teams tailored to meet different levels of risk and need, and access to specialist services - in particular for children with special needs and disabilities. [1] 'Sure Start Children's Centres Survey of Parents' by TNS 2008 [2] Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) Project : Final Report see www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway
[3] Not published on the Committee's website. [4] Sure Start Children's Centres Dec 2006 - see www.nao.org.uk [5] The Treasury Minute response to the PAC report on Sure Start Children's Centres CM7216, Oct 2007. See also PAC report on Sure Start Childrens Centres HC 261, Session 2006-07. [6] Sure Start Children's Centres Phase 3 Planning and Delivery www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters [7] Sure Start Children's Centres Financial Benchmarking to ensure value for money see www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway [8] See www.childrens-centres.org [9] Healthy Lives, Brighter Futures - the strategy for children and young peoples health. Feb 2009. www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics [10] Dench S, Aston J, James L, Foster R (2008); Jobcentre Plus and Children's Centres. Research Report 485, Department for Work and Pensions [11] Ending Child Poverty - Everybody's Business see www.hm-treasury,gov.uk [12] Sure Start Children's Centres Dec 2006 - see www.nao.org.uk [13] Ofsted report 'How well are they doing - the impact of children's centres and extended schools. See www.ofsted.gov.uk [14] TNS survey - 'Sure Start Children's Centres Survey of Parents .www.dcsf.gov.uk/research [15] Outreach to children and families - a scoping study. See www.dcsf.gov.uk/research. |