Education CommitteeSupplementary evidence from East Riding and Yorkshire Council
Education Select Committee Questions
1. How could the value of the existing network of settings be utilised more fully, as an alternative to closures (eg encouraging co-location of services, allowing centres to be used in the evenings and weekends as community facilities)?
We already have a number of co-located sites three with children’s social care teams, one of these also has CAMHS on site and another with adult learning disabled day centre. This helps to keep costs down for admin support, reception, meeting rooms and shared activity space for children. Centres are used for contact sessions, including after school and early evenings for contact with children in care and their parents. [Please see pages 34–38 of the Value for Money report attached]. Children’s Centres are used as training venues in evenings and weekends for early year’s practitioners working the private, voluntary and independent sector, for foster carers training, support groups for parents/carers. Centres host a number of community events over each year focussing on community safety and open days.
2. We have heard calls for a national outcomes framework for children’s centres. From a local authority point of view, what should be included in such a framework?
We have developed our own performance framework based on previous national targets and indicators that are still relevant and our own indicators. These have been presented as spine charts showing relative performance with centres across the East Riding. [Please see pages 79–80 of the attached report].
3. What steps are local authorities taking to improve the quality and provision of data given to children’s centre leaders and advisory boards? Should there be standard guidance as to format and content of such data?
The local authority has spent considerable time working with Centre Leaders and Advisory Board members to provide quality data in ways that is easy to understand and use to support and challenge the centre to set robust targets and monitor the impact of the centres work. [Please see attached a copy of the report template used]. Guidance about the content of the data may be useful but the format should be left to individual centre leaders and Advisory Boards to determine.
4. How are local authorities encouraging more parents and representative groups to become involved in the running of children’s centres?
We are encouraging more parents to get involved through Parent Forums and representation at Advisory Board meetings where we share parents views from consultations and user feedback. Some parents have set up their own groups but have struggled to have enough parents to set up, develop and run the sessions and so even with additional support from centre workers have not lasted longer than a few months.
East Riding Counsellors have made it clear that they want the Children’s Centres to remain in the control of the local authority and do not want services or centres to be tendered out to other providers.
5. How should Sure Start children’s centres link with the offer of free early education for disadvantaged two year olds? Is there a general policy from local authorities not to support places in the maintained nursery school sector, as the Committee was told before the summer?
Children’s Centres are very proactive in promoting the free early education for two year olds and actively follow up of families who are eligible to make sure they take up their place. Centre staff offer intensive support for families who need this and are the link between the childcare setting and the parent. We are actively working with one nursery school to enable them to be able to offer places for two year olds [we only have four nursery schools in the East Riding]. Once this is successful the other nursery schools may look into this too and will be supported.
6. Are local authorities sufficiently knowledgeable about individual evidence-based programmes? Should they step back from stipulating specific programmes and allow children’s centres to decide for themselves which programmes are most appropriate for their families and children?
Within our local authority we could make better use of evidence-based programmes. Sometimes these are very expensive to implement due to having to buy in specific models and trainers to deliver and need to be followed to the letter to gain the maximum benefit. We are developing our own good practice and evidence-based programmes from our analysis of what works well and is cost effective to deliver in our communities. Good Centres and local authorities are always looking at the latest research and developments and incorporating elements in to courses and activities with parents and children to need local need and improve outcomes.
November 2013