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CA9
CABINET
– 7 MARCH 2006
CHILDREN’S
CENTRES STRATEGY – 2006/08
Report by
Director for Children, Young People & Families
Introduction
- Children’s Centres
are ‘one stop shops’ for all parents of young children. In a children’s
centre parents will be able to get information about services available
– including health, early education, childcare and family support services.
Children’s centres across Oxfordshire will be different from each other
– responding to the needs of the local community. Some will be on primary
school sites as part of the extended schools offer; others will be extended
family centres. Some will provide the full offer of services under one
roof, others will provide drop-in facilities for parents and sign-posting
to existing health, education and childcare services. Maternity services
and Health Visitors will be key to reaching parents.
- Children’s centres
have the potential to contribute to all of the Corporate and Children
Young People and Families Directorate priorities. For example, they
can:
- help the economy
to grow as fast as possible with a real choice of access to jobs (through
creation of childcare places);
- give all of
us - throughout or lives - the opportunity to enjoy effective teaching
and learning (through integrated early education and childcare);
- safeguard our
communities and maintain our rural character (through early intervention
and support for vulnerable families);
- help our disadvantaged
residents to live fulfilling and independent lives (through targeted
resources to geographical areas with the highest levels of disadvantage).
- Children’s centres
will benefit young children, parents and communities in a range of ways:
- Improved child/family
health and well-being;
- More effective
parenting;
- Enhanced opportunities
for children’s educational development;
- Better access
to advice, learning, training and employment for parents.
- On 18 October
2005 the Cabinet:
- approved the
paper "Proposals for Children’s Centres in Oxfordshire 2006-10" as
the basis for continuing consultation with public and stakeholders
and further development; and
- requested officers
to report to the Cabinet in the New Year on the outcome of consultation
on and development of the proposals, together with a full financial
and risk assessment for the medium term, to include the identification
of implications and options and a costed exit strategy, in the event
of external funding not being maintained.
This
report is submitted further to (b).
Background
- The Childcare
Bill introduced to Parliament on 8 November 2005 will if enacted enshrine
in law parents’ legitimate expectation of accessible high quality services
for children under 5 and their families including childcare. Children’s
centres are seen as a lynchpin for providing the full range of services
in every community by 2010.
- In the first phase
of development from 2004-06, Oxfordshire was given funding to develop
two children's centres in areas that ranked in the top 20% nationally
in terms of disadvantage (using the Index of Multiple Deprivation).
These are the Leys Children's Centre Project in Oxford City and the
Sunshine Centre in Ruscote, Banbury. The ACE Early Excellence Centre
in Chipping Norton and Rose Hill-Littlemore Sure Start were also designated
as Children's Centres in that they already provided the ‘core offer’.
- In the second
phase, from 2006-08, the DfES has set Oxfordshire the target of developing
a further 25 centres, the requirement being to develop children’s centres
first in the areas that rank in the top 30% of need nationally. Areas
not reached in the second phase will be included in anticipated plans
for the third phase of development, from 2008-2010.
- As funding for
centres to be developed in the 2008-2010 phase will not be announced
until after the Government’s 2007 spending review, the consultation
we have undertaken, and the content of this report, concentrate on the
25 centres to be developed over the next two years.
Results
of the Consultation
- A summary of the
consultation undertaken and of the responses received is attached as
Annex A (download as .doc file)
to this report. There is a very encouraging high level of support from
parents and providers for this initiative. It is acknowledged that there
is much more work to do at local level in engaging parents in the more
detailed development about levels of service and how to make them accessible,
building on existing provision. The full consultation results are available
on http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/earlyyearsandchildcare.
Local
Audits and Development of Proposals in each Locality
- Local Centre Leads
have been identified in each locality (in most cases a school or family
centre head) and they have started work bringing together partners organisations
(health, voluntary sector, schools) to audit existing provision and
develop outline proposals for the way in which children’s centre services
will be delivered locally. A mobile rural project will take children’s
centre services to identified rural areas (see Annex C) (download
as .doc file). The project will build on current services provided
by Oxfordshire and Banbury playbuses, the Advisory Service for Education
of Travellers mobile classroom and the Early Years Team resource library,
linking with the mobile library services and health outreach.
Project
Development
- A Children’s Centre
Programme Board has been established, chaired by the Head of Early Years
and Family Support, with a small project team overseeing the project
plan (See Annex B) (download
as .doc file). An existing development worker or advisory teacher
from the Early Years and Childcare teams also supports each centre.
There will be a children’s centre manager for Oxford City and one each
for the North and South of the County, to oversee service level agreements
and ensure effective management support.
- Individual outline
plans have been submitted by each Local Centre Lead to demonstrate how
they will meet the DfES requirements of grant. Officers in Children,
Young People & Families Property & Assets have also been working
with local leads to develop outline capital briefs for each children’s
centre. A separate capital project team has been established. Approval
for projects will be sought in accordance with the Constitution following
option appraisal and completion of feasibility studies. The County Council’s
consultants Mouchel Parkman have appointed a project manager.
Indicative
Funding Allocations
- The proposed principles
and proposed indicative revenue and capital allocations for each centre
are set out in Annex C (download
as .doc file) attached. In order to manage expectations and
give Local Centre Leads some idea of the kind of budgets that might
be expected, officers consulted with the Sure Start Unit and the DfES
and took account of local responses to the consultation document (eg
from schools and District Councils) in drawing up the proposed principles
and allocations.
Challenges
and Risks
- The key risks
to the County Council are set out in the risk assessment in Annex
D (download as .doc file). These
risks are common to all local authorities, although Oxfordshire has
a particularly high level of development in this phase (along with statistical
neighbours) whereas many small local authorities with higher levels
of deprivation already have almost universal provision through the development
of local Sure Start Programmes and continued funding for these which
will be converted to children’s centres.
- In October 2005,
the Cabinet requested reassurance about the long-term sustainability
of the programme and potential risks of the programme, given the high
levels of investment and the short-term nature of the government grant
(which is only guaranteed until 2008).
- Officers have
consulted with other local authorities and with the Sure Start Unit
about the approach to take. The consensus is that the development of
children’s centres should be planned for the longer term as the Childcare
Bill will make the provision of these services a statutory duty of local
authorities. Furthermore the DfES have communicated that unspecified
levels of additional funding will be made available in 2008 to develop
further children’s centres across all areas to ensure that children’s
centres become universal. Children’s Centres are also mentioned as the
corner-stone of future service delivery in a range of recent government
policy documents and the recent White Paper on ‘Our Health, our care,
our say’.
- There is significant
long term research evidence that the provision of high quality integrated
services for under 5s has long term cost benefits in terms of early
intervention and prevention of more costly specialist services for children
in later life, as well supporting economic regeneration through additional
tax benefits and supported work schemes for low income and workless
families.
- Officers will
ensure that in the unlikely eventuality that government funding for
children’s centres will not be continued beyond March 2008, each local
plan is supported to become as cost efficient as possible through sound
business planning for childcare services, which will become self-sustaining
over time, and the promotion of tax credits. A partnership agreement
has been established between the local authority and Job Centre Plus.
- Risk to local
services is also minimized through the approach of building on existing
services such as schools (as Extended School Children Centres) and on
family centres (as Family and Children’s Centres). Capital projects
will build on existing schools and centres to improve and enhance facilities
for community involvement. These improvements will be a lasting asset
to the County Council and provide potential assets for income generation
through hire charges etc.
- Family support
and health services will provide early support to all parents but with
targeted programmes for parents and families identified as needing additional
support. Longitudinal research projects have demonstrated that high
quality integrated services for young children and families in the early
years have long term benefits, including cost benefits incurred through
reduced need for high cost treatment services later on.
Exit Strategy
- The worst scenario
that it is understood the Cabinet had in mind is the non-continuation
of the revenue support announced by the government in circumstances
where the continuation of funding by the County Council could not be
afforded against other priorities. The highest operating costs are inevitably
associated with staffing and the table below gives an estimated cost
and numbers of staff needed (assumed 80% of total cost) and therefore
affected should reduction in services be required due to lack of continuation
funding:
*Staff
Category
|
Estimated
number of new grant funded staff
|
Annual
additional Costs
|
LEA managed
staff
|
9
|
£262,265
|
School
based centre staff
|
33
|
£959,240
|
Voluntary
sector staff
|
8
|
£221,748
|
- The above figures
do not include the childcare posts, which will be funded from parental
fees. The above posts will largely be qualified teachers or parenting
support and home/centre link workers or health outreach. Figures for
ACE, East St, Sunshine Centre and S Abingdon have also not been included
in this exercise as these children’s centres have existed for some years
(funded from previous grants such as early excellence and local Sure
Start programmes), and whilst the children’s centre grant enables sustainability
and continuity for these centres, they do not represent a new risk as
no new posts will be created with this funding. In some cases, school
centre based staff may be employed through the Health Service (for example
speech and language therapists or outreach workers attached to family
centres) or another agency, but through a service level agreement with
the school.
- Oxfordshire has
a track record of supporting sustainable development of childcare places.
The worst financial effect would be that the childcare proves unsustainable
and that redundancies may be required over and above the estimated number
of grants funded posts above. There would nonetheless be lasting benefits
to the Council in terms of additional and improved capital assets (see
Annex C) (download as .doc file),
which could be sold or used to generate income. There will also be long
term social capital benefits from even a short term investment (as indicated
in paragraphs 2, 3 and 17 above).
Procurement
- Given the proposed
strategy to build on existing services it is proposed that most services
will be provided through additional devolved grants to schools and family
centres. Contracts for voluntary sector managed services will be for
two years in the first instance with an option to extend. The intention
is to build on and extend well-used local services and the proposals
for exemption from the tendering process in order to achieve this are
contained in Annex E (download as .doc
file). Where consultation has not resulted in any single school
or voluntary organisation as the preferred lead agency (Marston in Oxford
and possibly Carterton), services will be put out to tender in accordance
with Contract Procedure Rules unless a school-based local solution can
be agreed.
- Rose Hill Littlemore
Sure Start has ring-fenced funding of £850K for 2006/07. From April
2007 the Council will need to take on the management of the Family and
Children Centre at Rose Hill at a similar level to other children’s
centres (approximately £200K per annum). The existing Local Sure Start
Board (a charitable company limited by guarantee) will be supported
to develop as Trust Fund to raise additional income and distribute it
to children and families in need to access children’s centre services
across the Oxford City area.
Children’s
Services Scrutiny Committee
- This report has
been referred to a small group of members of the Scrutiny Committee
for advice. Their comments will be reported to the meeting.
RECOMMENDATIONS
- Subject to:
- consideration
of any advice on behalf of the Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee;
and
- satisfactory
financial appraisal in respect of the request for exemption from the
tendering requirements as mentioned in (b) below,
the
Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
- endorse
the approach to the development of children’s centres 2006 –
2008 as set out in the report and its annexes;
- agree
the exemptions from the tendering requirements of the Contracts
Procedure Rules of the specific contracts as set out in Annex
E (download as .doc file)
- request
officers to report back to the Cabinet in Autumn 2007 (in the
light of the outcome of the Spending Review) on the long term
sustainability of the programme and any further children’s centre
developments planned for 2008 – 2010.
KEITH
BARTLEY
Director for
Children, Young People & Families
Background
papers: Consultation responses
Contact Officers:
Annie Davy, Head of Early Learning and Childcare, Assistant Head of Service
Early Years and Family Support - tel (01865) 815493
Clare Abolins,
Children’s Centre Programme Manager - tel (01235) 549290 or (01865) 492052
January
2006
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