Memorandum submitted by the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills
1. Background
1.1 Sure Start children's centres are designated by the Government to provide a range of integrated services for children under five and their families. They directly provide, or signpost families to, early learning and childcare, family support, health services, support into employment and links to other specialist services. The government sees children's centres as a key mechanism for improving outcomes for young children, and for closing the gap between the most disadvantaged children and others. The centres have developed in a number of phases with the earliest centres serving the most disadvantaged areas.
1.2 Ofsted inspects the quality of early education and childcare provided by children's centres in its inspections of maintained schools and registered childcare. It also samples the quality of adult learning provided by children's centres in its inspections of adult and community learning.
1.3 It has conducted three small-scale surveys[1] on children's centres. The latest looked at the effectiveness of the integration of services and was published in July this year.
1.4 It is also developing an inspection framework for children's centres, subject to the passing of legislation currently before Parliament in the Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Bill. It is currently piloting this inspection framework.
1.5 The evidence in this submission comes from the surveys and evaluation of the 19 pilot inspections carried out to date.
2. Summary
2.1 The evidence Ofsted holds about the effectiveness of children's centres is generally positive.
2.2 The quality of services provided by children's centres is generally good, although relationships with key partners are sometimes patchy, particularly with JobCentre Plus. In our most recent survey, almost every centre manager drew attention to the unsatisfactory nature of the links with Jobcentre Plus.
2.3 The relationship between the quality of leadership by Heads of Centre and the effectiveness of the centre is crucial to its success.
2.4 Local authorities appear to have responded well to their new responsibilities as strategic leaders for children's centres.
2.5 Ofsted's evidence suggests local authorities and heads of centres balance well their responsibilities between their universal responsibility for the whole community and having special regard for the most vulnerable. Nearly all the centres visited could provide evidence of where, with their support, vulnerable families had made life-changing improvements to their circumstances.
2.6 The contribution of local authorities to the development of accurate local data and support to help centres to critically evaluate their impact has been more variable. The data systems for providing information and tracking the impact of services for children's centres are not sufficiently well developed to help centres measure their impact.
3. How models of children's centres have developed as the programme has been extended from the most deprived neighbourhoods
3.1 Ofsted has not looked at this issue directly through its surveys. It is aware of the range and complexity of children's centre models through its work in piloting the new inspections framework, but has limited evidence as yet to show which models are most effective in which areas, particularly for centres developed in the later phases.
3.2 The development of children's centres is determined by the requirements of the DCSF and successive planning and performance management guidance. Children's centres are still comparatively new; only the centres that were based on previous initiatives such as early excellence centres and Sure Start Local Programmes are well-established within their communities. There are many variables in determining how children's centres develop within particular communities: the assessed needs of the community, the direction provided by the local authority and its Children's Trust, the stance of schools, colleges and other services for children and the relationships between them.
3.3 The early (phase one) Sure Start children's centres serve communities that are uniformly disadvantaged, often in major cities. These centres are better able to demonstrate success than those which have been more recently established.
3.4 As the universal programme expands, centres serve mixed areas, which often contain pockets of high levels of social and economic disadvantage. Centres serving mixed communities have to establish a sensitive balance between providing universal services and making sure the most vulnerable children and families are properly supported. Ofsted's evidence suggests that children's centres do this well; for example, they provide valuable support for mothers from affluent backgrounds with post-natal depression and reduce the impact of isolation.
3.5 The issues in setting up children's centres in rural areas are challenging for local authorities. Survey evidence reveals that levels of poverty are at their highest in rural areas and emerging centres face particular problems associated with geographic isolation, notably connected with transport. Local authorities facing these issues are developing approaches that are different from those being developed in cities. They are, for example, using a more dispersed model, rather than a 'one-stop shop' so that families do not have large distances to travel.
3.6 The principles of Every Child Matters that guide children's centres are now well grounded and many new children's centres build on existing strengths of provision by developing from established nursery schools and childcare provision. Nevertheless, evidence from inspections so far suggests that the determining factor in a new centre's development is what went before, with each new centre building on existing strengths, for instance, in providing early education, health services for the community, or in family support.
4. The range and effectiveness of services provided by children's centres
4.1 In the small scale surveys and pilot inspections Ofsted has conducted, the quality of services has generally been judged as good. Based on the information we hold and taking into account their stage of development, children's centres have high levels of stakeholder satisfaction. Parents interviewed from a range of social and economic backgrounds are often very happy with the services they receive and much prefer this way of accessing services than the traditional route of visiting the different professionals on their own territories.
4.2 The DCSF gives clear guidance to local authorities about the range of services to be provided (the core offer) and how this can be adapted for centres serving the 70% more advantaged areas and for rural areas. Ofsted's evidence is that local authorities ensure that centres provide what is asked for, although for newer and developing centres much is still work in progress.
4.3 The central services of early education and childcare, outreach (family support) and health services are always present to a greater or lesser extent. Provision for adult learning and return to work for mothers and fathers is more patchy, with JobCentre Plus being the weakest element in the centres Ofsted has visited.
4.4 Even in the small number of centres visited there is much diversity of focus within the envelope of the core offer. Sometimes this is due to the original focus of the lead organisation from when the centre was developing as part of a Sure Start Local Programme. For example, centres that are developing from local programmes managed by the voluntary sector appear particularly strong on outreach and family support. Sometimes the focus is as a response to the particular needs within the community.
4.5 Issues
occasionally arise with schools and with aspects of health service provision. Some
centres have difficulty engaging local primary schools - local authority
officers occasionally said that much depends on the attitude of the individual
4.6 Children's centres and local authorities do not yet have the data to hand at local level to be able to determine the effectiveness of children's centres. Nearly all centres can point to real successes with individual families. None of those inspected could provide a convincing analysis of performance based on rigorous analysis of data. Improvement in this respect forms one of our key recommendations.
5. Funding, sustainability and value for money
5.1 Our surveys have not looked at these issues directly.
5.2 The funding of centres is complex. There is generally a small core budget that provides key staff, such as the Head of Centre, but most funding comes via commissioning arrangements with the main partners, such as health, where salaries and services are provided by or delegated from the main fund holders. Sustainability is a key issue for centres and local authorities when main fund holders are not fully committed to delivering their services through children's centres and divert funds elsewhere.
5.3 In our latest small survey, where inspectors visited five local authorities, and in the ten authorities visited for the pilot inspections, the differences in approach to centre development were striking. Local authorities put their own 'stamp' on centres and centres were not as autonomous as schools. The level of local authority control tends to affect funding, sustainability and the long term strategic direction of the centres involved.
5.4 Several centres visited were adept at developing alternative strategies to meet community needs if a partner organisation did not make the expected contribution. This was most commonly seen in the centres inspected with JobCentre Plus, where voluntary agencies, such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, had on occasions stepped in to provide a service and guidance for parents.
6. Staffing, governance and strategic planning
6.1 One
of the main findings of the latest survey focuses on the importance of the role
of Head of Centre. Heads of Centre provide much of the vision and direction for
each centre and set its ethos. Without effective leadership, our findings
showed that staff were not able to work effectively. It is helpful that the
6.2 The key staff (other than the Head of Centre) for a centre serving the 30% most disadvantaged communities consists of children centre teacher, health visitors, midwives and family support workers.
6.3 Involving parents in governance is proving harder to achieve than professional appointments. In centres where parental involvement in governance was more successful, there were structures in place to support parents in developing the skills to contribute confidently to the governance of the centre.
6.4 Generally, the limited evidence base shows that local authorities appear to have responded well to their new responsibilities and quickly stepped into their role as strategic leaders for Sure Start children's centres. In nearly all our visits, the local authority was fully represented and officers provided a convincing account of development of the centre to date and a good grasp of the overall issues. However, their contribution to the development of accurate local data and support to help centres to critically evaluate their impact has been more variable.
7. How well children's centres work with other partners and services, especially schools and health services
7.1 This aspect was a major focus of our latest survey. Partnership working forms a key judgement in the pilot inspections.
7.2 Ofsted judged that the centres visited were working well with the range of children's services for the benefit of children and parents.
7.3 However, although inspectors found centres trying hard to engage primary schools and ensure that the good work they had begun with children and families would be continued, many of the primary schools in the survey did not appear to understand the underlying principles of children's centres.
7.5 Children's centres rely on the co-operation of schools to help them gauge their effectiveness in delivering the Early Years Foundation Stage, since it is only at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage that the first comparative assessments of progress are made. Inspectors found very few centres that had established systems for tracking children's progress after they moved on to primary schools.
7.6 Good partnerships with health services were found to be crucial for children's centres. Midwives provide pre-natal services for parents and health visitors 'take over' from them in a baby's early weeks. Any lost opportunities to engage communities and encourage the use of centres at this point appear hard to compensate for later on. Parents told inspectors how much more comfortable and welcome they felt within the centres where they had good access to health professionals.
7.7 The survey identified some examples of excellent work between local authorities and the voluntary sector.
7.8 In some centres inspectors saw good joint working developing between professionals from different disciplines, as a direct result of a developing understanding of each others' work. Professionals also understood how partnerships might help the centre provide better for their most vulnerable families. In particular, inspectors were told of effective work where family support workers joined health visitors during initial visits to homes. Professionals reported feeling more confident during these visits and able to deal with families' concerns more effectively.
8. Whether services are being accessed by those most in need and how effective they are for the most vulnerable
8.1 Early children's centres were exclusively located in areas of significant social and economic need. As the centre network expands, centres are opened in areas where the majority of families fall outside the 30% most disadvantaged sector that is used to define the core offer.
8.2 Ofsted's visits and pilot inspections were aimed primarily at centres serving disadvantaged communities. Ofsted does not hold a comprehensive view of provision and access across the country.
8.3 Nearly all the centres visited could provide evidence of where, with their support, vulnerable families had made life-changing improvements to their circumstances.
8.4 Nearly all of the centres visited had established an effective balance between providing integrated services that are open to everyone and those that are targeted towards potentially vulnerable families.
8.5 In the centres visited in disadvantaged areas, inspectors found that families from minority ethnic groups made good use of the full range of services on offer and saw centres as providing good opportunities for them to improve their circumstances. By contrast, in relation to their numbers, parents of White British backgrounds made less use of the services and courses available. Inspectors found a number of cases where centre staff found it harder to engage the White British families for a range of reasons. These included a suspicion of 'new initiatives' and an unwillingness to accept that centres were there to support them.
8.6 The issue of domestic violence was raised in a number of centres, where centres had problems in getting families to face problems and in supporting the children who witness it. Staff raised the difficulty of outreach work where families move frequently and do not wish to be identified. They raised the need for greater co-operation between the departments of local government, such as the housing department, so they could more readily identify vulnerable families.
8.7 Families with children or parents with learning difficulties and disabilities were generally well served by children's centres. Most families accessed all the support they needed 'under one roof', professionals came to them, and centres were flexible in providing support for childcare should this be needed. One of the centres visited had established strong links with special schools and assessment centres that eased transition into the school system. Specially staffed crèches provided valuable opportunities for respite for parents looking after children with disabilities 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
October 2009 [1] Between 20 and 30 centres were visited in each survey |