Foundation Years - Sure Start Children's Centres

Written evidence submitted by The Early Childhood Forum (ECF)

 

The Early Childhood Forum (ECF) is a voluntary organisation hosted by the National Children’s Bureau (NCB). It is a coalition of 61 professional associations, voluntary organisations and interest groups united in their concern about the well-being, learning and development of young children from birth to eight and their families. Its vision is to bring together partners in the early childhood sector to promote inclusion and challenge inequalities, and to champion quality experiences for all young children from birth to eight and their families.

 

We welcome the opportunity to respond to this inquiry.

 

1.Children's Centre’s provide the most cost effective way of supporting parents and children in the crucial early years   when interventions if needed are most effective.

Many of the services offered provide parents with support with parenting, breastfeeding, learning English, understanding healthy eating and living and much more.

They provide easy access to professionals with expertise.

 

2.'Stay and play' sessions, which are offered in many Children's Centres, are hugely popular and often have long waiting lists. Parents are able to play with their children in a friendly and supportive environment with staff who can help with any problems and identify issues which can then be resolved more easily. The importance of children playing with their parents cannot be underestimated. Relationships are improved and parents understand why play is essential for children's health , confidence and wellbeing. 

 

3.Outdoor play is particularly crucial for young - and older children- and can often be offered in Children's Centres. When children play outdoors they become more resilient to disease, develop a healthy connection with nature which reduces stress  and have exercise which means they are less likely to become obese. Too many children suffer from mental health problems; this would not occur to such an extent if they had more opportunities to play outdoors. The National Trust has recently produced a report on 'Natural Childhood' which provides 'compelling evidence that...our children are exhibiting the symptoms of 'Nature Deficit Disorder' through a lack of contact with nature'. The costs of not doing anything about this in the long term are huge.

 

4. When health, social care and education experts work together as they do in many Children's Centre’s the outcomes for families and children are far better than when they work separately. Everything possible should be done both nationally. Locally and in each Children's Centre to make sure that this works well.

 

5. The cost of running Children's Centre’s with all the services and support they provide is far less than the costs of putting children into care or dealing with issues at a later stage when problems become more serious and it is more difficult to find lasting solutions.

 

6. Evaluations currently being done by Children's Centre’s show that parents through attending the groups offered become more confident and are often helped to find work and childcare . Without this they would be likely to be on benefits.

 

7. The over emphasis on requiring a lot of data needs to be addressed. This can distort the way in which services are provided Of course there must be evidence of the numbers of families who are reached and the services they attend but most of the work needs to be outreach work - finding the families who have young children and encouraging them to be involved with other parents and children and to gain skills which will help them not only to get into work but also to provide a better life for their children.

 

8. It is vitally important that those who run Children's Centre’s are well qualified - teachers with good experience and understanding of the early years and how children learn.

Young children need to be offered a range of activities both physical and creative, supported by adults rather than 'taught' by adults. Through imaginative play children learn many skills and grow in confidence. Formal learning - sittting down, staying still does not help the brain develop. In most countries where children do far better than in England formal learning does not begin before children are six or seven. Schools and teachers need to be ready for children.

 

9. The early years are an important stage in children's lives of growth and development, they are not a time to 'get ready for school’. The reason why we have so many children not able to read is because they start too early and fail or struggle because the brain is not yet ready for abstract concepts. Evidence for this has been collected in ' School Readiness: a critical review of perspective and evidence’ by David Whitebread and Sue Bingham, University of Cambridge.

 

10. Inspectors need to have a background, experience and deep understanding of the early years - and many do not. A few days training cannot compensate for lack of experience and expertise in the development and needs of young children. Inspections need to support the improvement of Children's Centre’s. There will always be variations in quality but help to get better is more productive than condemnation.

 

11. All Children's Centre’s need to be of high quality and many are but the cuts which have been made in local authority funding and the decision not to ring fence the funding for

 Early intervention has resulted in a loss not only of services but also of quality. An increasing number of Children's Centre’s have closed.

 

12. Successful Children's Centre’s provide universal, rather than targeted services.

 

December 2012