Agenda item

Children's Centres Progress

Minutes:

The Board welcomed Stuart Collins, Head of Early Help and Preventative Services North Kent who gave a presentation on the Early Help and Preventative Services (0–25) and Christine Kiely District Manager (Sevenoaks) Early Help and Preventative Services who gave a presentation on the Children’s Centres in the Sevenoaks District.

 

The Head of Early Help and Preventative Services advised the Board of the new structure and the priority areas. Targeted work continued with families who were under the threshold for Social Care.  Work was being carried out with the Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) with exclusions and their families to ensure access to services.  Targeted work and universal services were two programmes that helped vulnerable young people and their families through targeted support and guidance. The Troubled Families programme had over 100% success rate for phase 1.

 

In response to questions, he advised that PRU were working with children who were referred by schools. The aim was not to move a child from school to school but to help them from being permanently excluded. Parenting workshops were provided to help those with signs of early problems. In comparison to the number of children that were in schools, the number of exclusions was low.  Members were advised that Broomhill Bank School had taken over the Furness School site in Hextable for children who were on the Asperger Syndrome Spectrum. 

 

The District Manager (Sevenoaks) reported on the core purposes of the Children’s Centres which was to improve outcomes for young children and their families and reduce inequalities between those in the greatest need and their peers in:

  • child development and school readiness,
  • parenting aspiration and parenting skills, and
  • child and family health and life chances.

 

Children’s Centres worked in partnership with many different organisations which was critical for the outcomes to be achieved. They were inspected by Ofsted for their overall effectiveness which was assessed under three criteria’s: Access to services by young children and families; quality and impact of practices and services; effectiveness of leadership and governance and management; and to achieve outstanding. Each of the three criteria’s, local priorities needed to be achieved. 

 

She advised that registration at Children Centre’s was at 69.6% however only 40.2% of those registered were using the services and the ‘Children in Need’ and ‘Child Protection’ families were a particular area that needed to be reached. Other areas that improvements were needed were obesity and accident rates which crossed paths with the work of the West Kent Health and Well Being Board. Members were informed ‘Free for 2’ was 15 hours of free early education for 2 year olds.  In response to questions, Members were advised that there were enough places for 2 year olds but in some areas there were more spaces than need. Ofsted registered Childminders could also be used for ‘Free for 2’, but there was more work that could be done to promote this. Members were advised that more outreach work needed to be done to encourage those who register to use the services provided, particularly in rural areas. Vulnerable families were reached by partnership working through early help notifications. It was important the services were taken to parents, and how this could be done was being investigated. One idea included going to existing groups such as parent and baby sessions to provide information and answer questions as necessary. Working in Partnership with Health Visitors was a way to improve knowledge of Children’s Centres locations and their role. 

 

The Board thanked Stuart Collins and Christine Kiely for attending.

 

Supporting documents:

 

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