Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Jill Rutter, Family and Childcare Trust

1. Executive Summary

1.1 The Family and Childcare Trust is concerned about the reduction in nursery provision in Sure Start centres. Until 2010 Phase 1 and some Phase 2 Sure Start children’s centres were obliged to provide full daycare (defined as at least 40 hours nursery provision per week over 48 weeks of the year) as part of their core offer. In November 2010 this obligation was removed and since then, many local authorities have closed nursery provision in Sure Start children’s centres. The Family and Childcare Trust is concerned that this loss of nursery provision in children’s centres is impacting on local authorities’ ability to find sufficient places for two year old children who will qualify for the free early education offer. Cost savings have driven nursery closures, but this approach reduces capacity in the system to meet central government’s policy of extending the two year old free early education offer.

1.2 Other concerns about Sure Start include the variation in the range of services offered to parents across centres, particularly variations in the range of health service involvement and welfare-to-work support and lack of clarity about good outreach practice.

2. About the Family and Childcare Trust

2.1 The Family and Childcare Trust was formed in January 2013 as a result of a merger between Daycare Trust, the national childcare charity and the Family and Parenting Institute. Collectively, both organisations have almost 40 years’ experience of policy and campaigning on issues affecting families. It undertakes research and is presently conducting a study that is mapping changes to Sure Start children’s centres across England. This builds on research undertaken in 2012 on local spending on children’s information services1 and will be published in summer 2013. The organisation is working with Mott Macdonald/Hempsalls to support local authorities deliver the free early education offer to the most deprived two year olds. The Family and Childcare Trust also provides information to parents and coordinates the National Association of Family Information Services. Reaching out to families whose children are less likely to take up the free early education offer, or find it difficult to other forms of support is an aim of the organisation and it is presently running a Parent Champions project in a number of local authorities where parents are recruited to provide peer-to-peer advice to other parents and to encourage them to take up help such as the free early education offer. Many of these Parent Champion schemes are based in Sure Start children’s centres.

3. Loss of Full Daycare Services in Children’s Centre

3.1 Until 2010 all Phase 1 Sure Start children’s centres were obliged to provide full daycare (defined as at least 40 hours nursery provision per week over 48 weeks of the year) as part of their core offer. There was also an expectation that some Phase 2 children’s centres should provide full daycare, if they were in the 20–30% most deprived areas. In November 2010 this obligation was removed and since then, many local authorities have closed nursery provision in Sure Start children’s centres. In other cases local authorities have put council-run nurseries in children’s centres out to tender to private and not-for-profit organizations as part of restructuring and spending cuts.

3.2 The Family and Childcare Trust is particularly concerned about the loss of daycare provision in children’s centres and have started to map this across England. Although this work is still in progress we can present indicative data from 30 Greater London local authorities that shows that potentially about 100 nurseries have been lost in these local authorities.

3.3 While the Government justified the removal of the obligation to provide full daycare on the grounds of under-occupancy of some Sure Start nurseries, we believe that the roll out of the two year old free early education offer would have reversed the trend towards under-occupancy. The Family and Childcare Trust is concerned that the loss of daycare in children’s centres is compromising local authorities’ ability to find sufficient numbers of early education places for the estimated 296,300 two year old children who will qualify for this provision by September 2014.2 One of the challenges that local authorities face in identifying places for two year olds who will qualify is the geographic mismatch between nursery provision which is more likely to be located in affluent areas (where there is greatest demand from working parents) and the demand for places for two year olds, which is highest in the least affluent areas. Our evidence suggests that rural shire counties appear to be particularly badly affected by this mismatch between nursery provision and the demand for two year old free places. Given that Sure Start is more likely to be located in the least affluent areas, the loss of daycare in Sure Start children’s centres means that two year olds who will qualify for the free early education cannot be placed there.

3.4 As noted above, concern has been expressed about the occupancy rate of Sure Start nurseries. Department for Education data suggested that these nurseries had on average six vacant places in 20113. However, in some areas where there are vacant Sure Start places, there are shortages in other forms of early education and childcare for the under fives, particularly in sessional childcare for student parents, those on job-related training or those parents with work hours that change from week-to-week. The Family and Childcare Trust has argued for local authorities to make better use of some of vacant Sure Start provision by making it available to parents who need sessional childcare to help them into work.

3.5 We are also concerned that the loss of nursery places in Sure Start centres impacts on access to quality early education in deprived areas, given that nursery staff in Sure Start centre nurseries are more likely to hold level six qualifications than their counterparts in nurseries offering daycare outside Sure Start children’s centres. (In the 30% most deprived areas 22% of Sure Start nursery staff hold Level 6 qualifications, compared with 10% in nurseries outside children’s centres4.

4. Impact of Sure Start and Effect of Local Variations in Sure Start Services on Offer

4.1 The Family and Childcare Trust generally supports the conclusions of the Sure Start national evaluation that suggest families that have participated in Sure Start programmes have been able to implement a more stimulating home learning environment and more effective discipline. Locally, too, there may be many other benefits, for example, higher uptake of breast feeding among low income groups. However, differences in local programmes may mean that these positive impacts may not be extended nationally.

4.2 While Sure Start children’s centres have to comply with Department for Education guidance and offer childcare, health and parenting advice as well as support for parents who wish to move back into work, the range of services offered by children’s centres varies from place to place. Given the benefits of close involvement of health services in Sure Start, the Family and Childcare Trust is concerned that the involvement of local health services in Sure Start still varies considerably from location to location.

4.3 The range of support for parents who may wish to return to work also varies from centre to centre. Many centres stock advice leaflets and some host training or advice sessions run by Job Centre Plus, where parents can be offered support in returning to work. In other children’s centres family support workers have been trained to offer advice about Tax Credits and other support for childcare. Children’s centres may also link up with colleges and adult education services and offer ESOL courses and other adult learning. However, there seems little evidence of strategic thinking from the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Education, the Work Programme and Job Centre Plus as to how welfare-to-work provision might be targeted at certain Sure Start centres.

5. Outreach to Families who under-utilise Children’s Centres or are from Disadvantaged Groups

5.1 Until 2011 local authorities were obliged to report data about the reach of Sure Start children’s centres to the Department for Education. This data provided information about the use of children’s centres by groups such as single parents, workless households and teenage parents. An example of this outreach data is included in the appendix. This data highlighted the varied level of success of Sure Start in reaching disadvantaged groups or those less likely to use services, with some local authorities successful in their outreach and others less so.

5.2 Factors that impact on the uptake of Sure Start services include:

Lack of knowledge of services on offer.

Negative prior experiences or distrust of helping agencies.

Lack of social confidence or perception that groups/centre is unwelcoming.

Perception that services are not relevant.

Time and time poverty, especially for working parents.

Rural isolation and poor transport.

Residential mobility.

5.3 Not all local authorities have easily accessible information about children’s centres on their websites.

5.4 The National Evaluation of Sure Start suggests that children’s centres that employ high proportions of healthcare staff have greater acceptance and use among families who may distrust or be wary of helping agencies. Health visitors and GPs surgeries also have a key role to play in referring parents to Sure Start. However, not all health visiting teams and Sure Start centres regularly share data on families. The Family and Childcare Trust believe that central government should encourage the sharing of this data and better multi-agency referrals of families to Sure Start. Evaluation of the Family and Childcare Trust’s experience of peer-to-peer outreach through its Parent Champion’s scheme also suggest that this is an effective way of reaching out to groups that under-utilise Sure Start services.5

5.5 As recommended by a previous Select Committee inquiry into Sure Start, there still needs to be greater clarity about outreach practice from central government and what might constitute a core offer.

6. Evidence of Closures

6.1 The Family and Childcare Trust believe that there is presently no accurate national picture of Sure Start closures across England. As noted the Family and Childcare Trust is undertaking research on Sure Start. This study has involved a mapping of Sure start closures between April 2010 and June 2013. We have defined a Sure Start centre as a site or building from which services for the under fives and their families are delivered. A number of local authorities, for example, Enfield and Waltham Forest, have adopted hub and spokes or cluster models for delivering Sure Start, with a “lead” centre and additional services delivered from satellite sites. In such cases only the hob or lead centre may be recorded as a Sure Start children’s centre on the Sure Start national database. This may lead to a misreporting of closures of services and centres.

6.2 Despite the potential for confusion, there has been a closure of Sure Start children’s centre sites in some parts of England. In Greater London alone, we believe that at least 84 Sure Start children’s centre sites have closed between April 2010 and June 2013 (see appendix). We are concerned that parents in Bromley, Harrow, Havering and Richmond may have no Sure Start children’s centres within easy reach. Additionally, Sure Start centres have been greatly reduced in Tower Hamlets, a local authority with a high level of deprivation, a young population and great demand for two year old free early education places.

6.3 In Greater London seven Sure Start centres that were expected to open had not opened by April 2010.6

7. Effect of Spending Reductions on Children’s Services Delivered through Children’s Centres

7.1 The Family and Childcare Trust has previously examined the effect of local authority spending cuts on Sure Start children’s centres.7 This research suggests that Sure Start has enjoyed a high level of protection from cuts than have other non-school based children’s services, for example, youth services, although in the eight local authorities in the research study, early years had experienced a 13.7% reduction in funding over two financial years (2009–10 and 2010–11). This calculation was made through extensive qualitative research in eight case study local authorities as it is very difficult to calculate cuts to Sure Start spending from Section 251 returns, as accounting methods differ between local authorities.

7.2 Savings have been made by:

Efficiency savings and amalgamating back office functions across centres.

Moving to a hub and spoke model with a main centre and a number of surrounding secondary sites where sessions are delivered.

Reducing the number of local authority-run nurseries within centres (see above).

Recommissioning nursery provision to the private and not-for-profit sector.

Increasing the income from Sure Start, particularly nursery fees and charges for some services.

Closing some centres (see above).

Recommissioning some centres, to be run by private and not-for-profit organisations.

Changing the target groups for Sure Start, with a greater emphasis on disadvantaged groups, and less universal provision.

In some instances reducing the number of services run from Sure Start centres.

7.3 The Family and Childcare Trust believes that most local authorities have made significant efforts to maintain existing services in centres that have remained open. We are concerned, however, that in many areas no new services are being added to local Sure Start offers, as a consequence of innovation, or to meet changing local demand. Despite the Government’s commitment to early intervention, in some local authorities decreasing resources are being put into services—such as parenting support—which could be considered as early intervention.