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ITEM EX10

EXECUTIVE - 8 JULY 2003

CHILDREN’S CENTRES AND FAMILY CENTRES: DEVELOPING A STRATEGY FOR OXFORDSHIRE

Report by Director for Learning & Culture

1. This report is in 2 parts. Part 1 concerns recent guidance and funding allocation for the development of children’s centres, and proposals for a strategy for Oxfordshire. Part 2 concerns the County Council’s service level agreement for provision of family centre services in the south of the County, and recommends a tender process for delivery of these services next year.

Part 1: Children’s Centres

2. In February 2003 the Sure Start Unit at the Department for Education and Skills issued guidance for the development of children’s centres. We have received notification that Oxfordshire has been allocated indicative sums of approximately £500,00 capital and £350,000 revenue from April 2004, over two years, to develop integrated services in areas of highest disadvantage (as defined by the DETR multiple deprivation index). There was also an opportunity to apply for ‘one off’ funding in 2003/04 for early designations.
3. Proposals must meet the core offer for children’s centres, including achieving allocated childcare and reach targets. The local authority and the relevant primary care trust must approve them.

What are Children’s Centres?

4. National Sure Start-funded children’s centres must be located in and serve families in one of the 20% most disadvantaged wards and/or pockets of disadvantage. All children’s centres must offer access to the following core services:

• Early education integrated with childcare
• Family support and outreach to parents
• Child and family health services
• Links with schools and Children’s Information Services (CIS)
• Links with Jobcentre Plus

5. A draft strategy and required audit of provision in identified areas of disadvantage (see map at Annex A) (download as .doc file) was produced, following consultation with relevant agencies and the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership, and submitted to the Sure Start Unit by the 15 May required deadline. Copies of these documents are available in the Members’ Resource Centre.

Reach and Catchment Areas

6. The Sure Start Unit has given each local authority a target number of children to reach by March 2006. The reach target means the number of children who might potentially use health, family support or health services provided by or through the individual centre. The expectation is that the children's centre areas will be drawn from the poorest 20% wards, but the Unit will consider proposals within a local authority’s overall strategy that include pockets of disadvantage in other wards. Local authorities need to supply supporting data with their proposals and evidence of consultation that shows that the areas chosen make sense to local people.
7. Using the government’s ranking (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) Oxfordshire has 2 wards in the top 20% of the most deprived wards in the country (Blackbird Leys and Littlemore). Neithrop ward is just outside this 20% band.
8. Local knowledge has identified other areas with significant deprivation and these have been accepted for funding by other related government initiatives (e.g. Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative and Out of School Hours Childcare Programme).

Consultation and Approval Timescales

9. Consultation is currently underway through local project groups and through county-wide strategic partnerships about current provision, as mapped out in the audit, about perceived needs and gaps in services and potential models of management for new children’s centres. It is proposed that development should take place in 3 stages:

Stage 1 – Early Designations

10. Bids were submitted in May from Rose Hill (Littlemore) Sure Start and the Ace Centre Chipping Norton to gain ‘early designation’ status as they already fulfil the core offer. We are pleased to report that the DfES approved both proposals on 23 June, and will receive additional government grant funding for ‘one off’ developments in this financial year only.

Stage 2 – Children’s Centres to be Developed in 2004 – 2006

11. Detailed proposals are being developed for a children’s centre around new developments at Orchard Fields School Banbury in partnership with the Sunshine Centre (a voluntary sector family centre which is grant funded by the County Council) and Cherwell Vale Primary Care Trust. These proposals will build on existing provision and enable more effective locality based work across the various agencies involved. In Blackbird Leys a cluster model is being considered involving the 3 local primary schools, Cuddesdon Corner family centre, the new Oxford, Swindon and Gloucester Co-op Neighbourhood Nursery, local health services and voluntary sector providers. Detailed proposals for these two centres will be submitted to the DfES in October 2003 following a period of local consultation, and approval via the Children’s Programme Board.

Stage 3 – Future Developments

12. Oxford has a relatively small allocation for the development of designated centres, due to its relatively wealthy profile. However this masks pockets of deprivation that have been identified along with local provision which could provide the basis for future developments, including rural outreach, should further resources become available.

Financial Implications

13. For Stage 1, one off costs in this financial year have been approved for additional government grant funding. There are no financial implications to the County Council. For Stage 2, it is proposed that the allocations outlined in paragraph 2 above should be used to develop the new centres in Blackbird Leys and Banbury – e.g. £250,000 capital per project, and circa £87,000 revenue per project per annum over two years. This will support the development of new services to meet the core offer and targets given. The long-term position of this funding is unclear but this is seen as a central government initiative with a long-term future. Early Excellence Centres and local Sure Start programmes continue to receive funding, and are now well beyond the initial 2-year approval period.
14. The new children’s centre funding available is insufficient however to build robust proposals around existing provision in these localities, which is already thinly stretched. In order to ensure that local providers have the capacity to be centrally involved in these developments, it is proposed to reallocate a sum of £80,000 identified within existing early years budgets as a ‘matched sum’ to enable schools and family centres to build local capacity to manage these developments effectively.

Part 2: Family Centres

15. Family Centres in the County, with their shared commitment to providing six core services, are well placed to support the development of children’s centres in the County. Cuddesdon Corner and Sunshine Centre are expected to play a strategic role in the developments in Blackbird Leys and Neithrop respectively, and Grimsbury Family Association is central to the Early Excellence Centre development at East Street. As a whole family centres offer the opportunity to develop integrated models of practice as promoted through Children’s Centres. The integration of LEA and Social Services centres in 2002 has enabled substantial progress towards these objectives to be met. However there have been difficulties in two parts of the county, which have jeopardized such development.
16. In Neithrop the closure of the Children’s Society Family Centre, due to funding problems within the charity, put several family support services at risk. The continuation of some services by the Children’s Society, the transfer of a large proportion of the grant to the Sunshine Centre and the advent of the Children’s Centre and Neighbourhood Nursery proposals for Neithrop and Grimsbury, have combined to sustain services and enable future development to be planned. In the South and Vale, however, funding difficulties have had an adverse effect on the three NCH family Centres in Berinsfield, South Abingdon and Didcot. In South Abingdon the impact on services has been offset by the development of the DfES funded Sure Start programme. However in the other two towns the impact has been substantial.

National Children’s Homes (NCH)

17. NCH has been managing family centres in Abingdon, Berinsfield and Didcot for ten years with a grant from the County Council. In 2002, during negotiations about a new service level agreement (SLA), the NCH gave notice that it could no longer ‘subsidise’ local authority services by contributing its own funds to supplement local authority funds. They asked for 100% SLA funding of their family centres plus 15% management charges. This amounted to a demand for £137,000 for 2003-04 in addition to their grant of £241,000. In Oxfordshire for many years SLAs have been arranged with voluntary organizations on the specific expectation that they could add value from their own funds. The LEA was not able to respond positively because no budget was available and also in order to remain consistent to the principle of added value.
18. Over the last 12 months lengthy negotiations have resulted in an agreement for 2003-04 that NCH will provide services at a reduced level in the three towns in return for a SLA for £265,000. Staffing levels, opening hours and the range of activities have been reduced and some NCH staff are currently being made redundant. Officers, working with local members, have insisted that services are maintained at all three locations on at least three days a week and that services are extended through partnership. However, it is noteworthy that a wider range of activities is currently provided in some of the LEA family centres with less money. Whilst the SLA for 2003-04 has been agreed, the situation for 2004 and beyond is as yet unresolved. One option being considered is to take the services in-house, where management could be shared across the other 7 County Council managed family centres, or the alternative of seeking other providers able to add greater value. Agreement for exemption from tendering for 2003-04 was obtained, under delegated powers, within the County Council’s Contract Procedures.

Best Value

19. Officers have started to draw up best value indicators in order to evaluate current provision across all centres and to inform the above decision-making process. It is still an imperfect science and to be effective will require the introduction of a universal data collection system for all family centres (currently in development) and a County view as to the appropriate balance between intensive 1:1 work with vulnerable families, targeted work and open-access sessions for larger numbers of families. For example low staffing levels at some LEA centres such as Bicester have prevented 1:1 work with vulnerable families and staff have concentrated on a wider range of group activities that are open-access while still targeting vulnerable families. Numbers are significantly higher than other centres with more staff but a greater amount of 1:1 work. Data on participation therefore needs to be interpreted according to the type of provision being made and the relative value of each. Despite these complexities, best value indicators of efficiency, access, participation, range and frequency of services are being established, and linked to evidence based research about most effective forms of early intervention and family support in terms of long term outcomes of well-being, educational achievement and independence.
20. It has become clear from recent negotiations with NCH that similar sums spent on some County Council centres produce significantly broader programmes for more families than NCH are currently able to provide. However, although NCH may work with fewer families overall, they do excellent work with vulnerable families, as confirmed by fieldwork staff in the Social & Health Care Directorate. The current reduced level of NCH programmes however, would suggest that taking these services into County Council management would be more beneficial for more families.
21. Before moving to a recommendation about taking the services in-house, officers have advertised nationally for potential expressions of interest from other voluntary organizations in tendering for future management of these services. This has elicited positive responses from three national charities and two local charities. Officers have examined these and recommend that they should be explored further through a tendering process in order to establish whether they can provide added value to that which County Council management could provide.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The Executive is RECOMMENDED to:

1. approve the outline strategy for children’s centre development outlined in Part 1 of the report;
2. authorise the Director for Learning & Culture to approve detailed schemes for children’s centres in Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys, Oxford, and the Neithrop area in Banbury, following consideration by the Children’s Programme Board and consultation with the Executive Members for Children & Young People and Health & Social Care;
3. approve the proposals set out in the report for inviting tenders for family centres currently managed by NCH in Didcot, Abingdon and Berinsfield, with a view to considering, following consultation with local members, the outcome of the tenders alongside the option of the County Council managing those services.

KEITH BARTLEY
Director for Learning & Culture

Background papers: Children’s Centres: Developing a strategy for Oxfordshire (copy in Members Resource Room)

Contact officers:
Annie Davy, Head of Early Years and Childcare – (01865) 815493
Chris Sewell, Family Support Manager – (01865) 810517

June 2003

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