Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Lancashire County Council

Brief introduction to the respondent

1. This response has been formulated by the Early Years Lead Officer for Lancashire County Council. The Lead Officer has extensive experience of children’s centres, children’s social care and the childcare sector. Lancashire has 79 children’s centres. Of those centres 48 have been inspected by Ofsted to date—25% are graded “Outstanding” and a further 67% “Good”. The County Council continues to prioritise early support to vulnerable families and recognises children’s centres as a prime vehicle for bringing professionals together to serve families and the community more effectively.

Factual evidence

Changes to the core purpose

2. Lancashire welcomes the focus of the core purpose on the most vulnerable families and on closing the outcomes gap between the least well performing children and their peers. The Core Purpose, Statutory guidance and the Ofsted inspection framework supports a move towards consistency of delivery of services and outcomes, which were not, included in the development of the original Sure Start programmes.

3. It is however important that children’s centres retain a universal element to their service delivery to avoid stigmatisation of children and their families, this model ensures that early support for vulnerable children and families is effective and has a positive impact on outcomes and on strengthening communities.

4. Lancashire advocates that resources should be targeted to need regardless of a family’s income, postcode or any other arbitrary factor. A good example is the development of a children’s centre on an army barracks in an area that may potentially have been overlooked due to household income levels in the wider area.

5. There is a need to review the commissioning agreements for children’s centres but this is proving challenging as the new Core Purpose has yet to be published.

Effectiveness and impact of children’s centres

6. Lancashire can clearly demonstrate the impact of effective targeting of children’s centre services by the outcomes from Ofsted inspections of children’s centres and the increase in FSP scores across the county.

7. The approach of multi-agency working initially developed through Sure Start Local Programmes has been further developed within children’s centres, with an emphasis on joint training, co-location of services, and shared processes which have brought demonstrable benefits to frontline services to families. These are evidenced in Ofsted reports, case studies and tracking systems.

The role of Ofsted inspection

8. Ofsted inspection of children’s centres has had a beneficial impact by supporting centre leaders to focus services on the most vulnerable children/families/groups.

9. Centre leaders have become more proficient in monitoring outcomes and demonstrating impact as a result of the introduction of Ofsted inspections.

10. A local and national benchmark for the impact/outcomes of children’s centre services is in place for the very first time.

11. Prevention of family situations deteriorating is a vital element of many children’s centres’ impact, but evidence to demonstrate this aspect remains challenging.

12. Without further support and challenge from the LA between inspections it is unlikely that inspection alone would be sufficient to guarantee continued improvement in outcomes for children and families.

Range of services provided and desired outcomes, whether/how these differ from family centres, early SSLPs and EY settings

13. Services continue to evolve in line with the core purpose, statutory guidance and local partnerships.

14. Services offered from children’s centres have become far more consistent and targeted than those offered in the days of local sure start programmes. Systems are now in place which identifies cost benefit analysis and evidence of impact/outcomes.

15. Children’s centres are unique in what they offer to children and their families, unlike EY settings who generally only support the child and family centres where there resources are mainly targeted at children subject to CIN and CP plans. The Core Purpose and the Statutory guidance ensures that CC’s support the whole child, in terms of meeting their Health needs, supporting their early education, offering one to one family support for vulnerable families, offering access to training, employment and volunteering opportunities, therefore supporting the whole family and not just one element of the child or family.

16. Children’s centres have a wide range of other professionals working from their centres that support children and their families, a “One Stop Shop”. Where families can access a wide range of services under one roof at the same time. These include health care professionals—midwives, health visitors, baby weighing clinics, dentists, occupational health and paediatric consultants. Parenting programmes for all carers and parents, including ante natal and post natal programmes, evidenced based parenting programmes and 1–1 outreach support. Services, support and advice for parents and carers of CWD and SEN. Access to support and advice from Jobcentre Plus, voluntary sector providers such as, CAB, Domestic Abuse support and local housing support and advice. All of these services would NOT be available in a family centre or an EY setting.

How to define and measure good practice in family and parenting support and outreach, including the effectiveness of PBR and what measures of child development and school readiness might be used

17. Lancashire has developed a family support tracker which measures impact and outcomes for children and their families linked to the Continuum of Need. This allows cc to measure the impact of services and support offered to children and their families.

18. Lancashire has funded 1,500 two year old places for disadvantaged two year olds across the County from September 2011 to September 2012. As part of this programme a two year old assessment tracker has been developed and is used by all early years’ providers who provide a funded two year old place, to date evidence shows that all children have progressed in their development beyond that expected.

19. Evidenced based parenting programmes are used throughout CC, these identify outcomes and distanced travelled by children and their families. A number of CC have developed their own parenting programmes that are equally as effective as the National ones and these should be taken into account in the future.

How to increase the use of evidence based early intervention in CCs

20. Where CC have access to other professionals and services as part of an integrated team this will increase early intervention work and its outcomes.

21. Lancashire is currently moving towards a model where a number of it’s children’s centres will be based at the heart of the early intervention strategy therefore enhancing the role and opportunities for centres in the future.

How to strengthen integrated working between health, social care and education as part of a multi-agency early help offer, including how to improve information-sharing and the proposal for children’s centres to have access to a “named social worker”

22. A number of children’s centres in Lancashire currently have access to a named social worker; this model has strengthened joint working and improved information sharing.

23. A number of children’s centre workers have access to the social care ISSIS recording system, this allows CC workers to directly contribute to child/family records held by social workers rather than keeping separate records on the same child/family. This further supports integrated working, information sharing and decision making.

24. Where CC have concerns about a child/family they are working with they can gain advice and support from a named social worker rather than making a formal referral to CSCS. This model supports early intervention and ensures that children and families receive timely and appropriate support.

25. All children’s centre should have a named midwife and health visitor to support their work with children and families. Where models are in place access to health services and outcomes has improved for children and their families.

26. The Best Start Lancashire programme, funded by the efficiencies within the County Council to the tune of £5 million over three years, is led by CC in partnership with all primary schools to support early support. This has led to an increase in partnership working between schools and CC. It has also led to a year on year increase in FSP scores across Lancashire.

How to increase the involvement of fathers, disadvantaged families, BME families and children with SEN/disabilities in the running of centres and regular activities

27. Centres need to be at the heart of the community and ensure that they engage proactively with all groups, the advisory/governance board of the centres needs to reflect the community they serve.

28. Centres need to establish parents groups to enable all parents to contribute to the running of the centre and voice their views and opinions. Regular feedback to all centre users is essential in moving centres forward.

29. Centres need to use all available national, local and internal data and take the time to understand the needs of the local community, its priority groups and then plan services in partnership with children, parents and providers. Regular reviews and consultation with families is essential to keep centres moving forward. There is not a one size fits all approach.

30. Offering services outside of the normal working week can be helpful for fathers, particularly where they only have access rights to their children at the weekends and evenings.

31. Liaising closely with partners involved in families including children with SEN/disabilities can overcome barriers into universal services.

How the overall level and quality of provision is being affected by moves to local funding

32. Lancashire has prioritised funding for early support and prevention throughout a tough settlement period.

33. Going forward, anticipated reductions to LAs settlements from April 2013 increases the likelihood that the council will be unable to maintain funding for children’s centres at the current rate.

34. Lancashire has done a significant amount of work to reduce spend on management and administration functions in all children’s centres. Any future reduction to children’s centre funding is therefore likely to impact on frontline staff which families have come to rely on.

35. Possible reductions in children’s centre services, coupled with further changes to the benefits system and withdrawal of other mechanisms of support give rise to concern for outcomes for the most vulnerable families in Lancashire.

36. Quality of service delivery has remained high in Lancashire children’s centres, but capacity is minimal as other services have withdrawn or shrunk due to funding reductions. Quality is likely to suffer if budget reductions are implemented.

37. Increasing levels of funding for schools (Pupil Premium) and GP consortia (as commissioners of services) are perceived as opportunities. However the extent to which GPs are aware of children’s centre services and their impact on local communities varies considerably.

38. Lancashire has committed extra resource to the development of children’s centre services across a broader age range through Best Start Lancashire. This initiative is targeted at raising the attainment and attendance of pupils eligible for Free School Meals. It has supported centres to improve relationships with schools in preparation for schools’ increased role as commissioners of services.

December 2012