When the children's centre agenda was launched in 2004, it seemed to offer more threat than opportunity to private, voluntary and independent (PVI) providers. Who could forget the well-documented lack of consultation with existing businesses and the building of brand new centres almost next door to providers with spare capacity?
Six years down the line, and with the number of centres nudging close to this year's 3,500 target, many would agree that the situation has improved and that children's centres can offer potential for growth.
With the focus tightening around children's centres' original remit of reaching disadvantaged families, the PVI sector might have reason to feel it is in a strong position.
Reaching out effectively
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive at the NDNA, would like to dispel the myth that PVI providers do not operate in areas of disadvantage.
'These providers are often best placed to deliver services because settings are deeply rooted in their communities and often led and staffed by individuals from the locality,' she says. 'This can be a huge asset when engaging disadvantaged families.
'However, outreach work can have large costs associated with it and it is vital that providers are not covering these expenses themselves through fee rises for parents, which will simply be another barrier to take-up.'
At the Pre-School Learning Alliance, business development director John Theedom says that the voluntary sector brings enormous expertise to bear in reaching vulnerable groups and delivers excellent results through partnerships with children's centres.
'Voluntary providers can help children's centres to reach these groups because they have experience of working at grassroots level and a tradition of going out to reach people,' he says. 'Not only do they have the contacts, but they have people's trust as well.'
The London Early Years Foundation (LEYF) says the children's centre agenda has greatly enhanced its ability to offer a holistic service to disadvantaged families that can be tailored to their individual needs.
Chief executive June O'Sullivan says, 'This can include having access to other professionals who are able to support our families with health advice or speech and language sessions, which take place within the nursery.'
Learning to share space
For the Chestnut Nursery School Group, local children's centres have provided opportunities for growth. It currently operates eight sites in the London borough of Newham, including an after-school club. Four of its nurseries are in children's centres.
Director Stephen Davies says, 'About four years ago we were invited to tender for full daycare. There were two small settings and two larger ones in local centres, and, in order for it to be financially viable, it made sense to lump them together.
'The tender process itself was rigorous and involved demonstrating strong links with our local authority. In the final round we had to focus on our approach to partnership working and give a presentation to the children's centre managers, three of whom were head teachers in schools.'
Mr Davies says the settings run at around 85 per cent occupancy and are thriving. However, he points out that running a nursery in a children's centre is a completely different ball game to running independently.
'It was a challenge to overcome some of the politics involved, although this was not a negative experience,' he says. 'Sometimes there can be issues over shared facilities and sometimes qualified teachers come in not fully understanding what they need to do as part of their job.
'Our strategy has been to recruit our own teacher, who we pay directly ourselves and then the local authority pays us back. Our colleagues in the centres have had to take on board that we are committed to delivering quality but at the same time we have to be a sustainable business.'
The Chestnut Nursery Group came to its centres with wide experience of working with disadvantaged families and has recently been involved with the pilot for the free entitlement for two-year-olds.
'Services need to be flexible,' says Mr Davies. 'We work closely with our centre managers to deliver toddler groups, creche sessions and afterschool activities to meet local needs, offering discounts where possible.'
Creating a joint ethos
There is recognition that local authorities are becoming better equipped to encourage the involvement of the PVI sector. As Ms Tanuku points out, 'With the target of 3,500 centres nearing completion, it is vital that local authorities look at how support can be given on an ongoing basis. Children's centres will need to look at how to be self-sustaining, and some report there needs to be more recognition of services that should be involved in the centre. Local authorities may also wish to encourage involvement of PVI providers with relevant expertise where a service is performing poorly.'
LEYF shares the opinion that there is still room for improvement in partnership working.
'Partnership happens only when someone takes direct action and proactively decides to be engaged and therefore contribute,' says Ms O'Sullivan. 'Communication is best when everyone knows and understands what they do and how they contribute to the bigger picture.
'Much can still be done to get across the ethos of cross-networking, and sharing needs to be embedded by sharing buildings, accessing information, joint planning and effective funding with specific targets for crossfertilisation.'
Ms O'Sullivan also believes that communication could be helped if children's centre commissioning was clearer, 'so that the lead agency had a clear line of management and accountability in order to meet the children's centre core offer across the multi-professional groups'.
At the Pre-School Learning Alliance, Mr Theedom supports this view.
He says, 'There are a lot of opportunities for PVI providers, but there are still inconsistencies in the way that many centres commission services.'
But going forward, Mr Theedom feels the potential for PVI involvement will continue to grow. 'We are all looking towards the financial constraints that are likely to be imposed on us soon and there will be more pressure to deliver good value, which puts the voluntary sector in a very strong position.'
CASE STUDY
Northlands Park Nursery is based at Northlands Park Children's Centre, and run by the Pre-School Learning Alliance.
Manager Katie Pilgrim says, 'Our nursery was launched along with the children's centre just over five years ago and in that time it has really grown. We currently take 50 children for every session and service more than 90 local families.
'We have a new community building, with a cafe, that provides an attractive environment and complements a wide range of services. It is a local hub and families come to us.
'We have a qualified teacher working with us two days a week. We call on her for advice on the curriculum and resources. For example, if we are launching a maths activity, she will advise us on how we need to approach it and what resources we need. She also provides sessions for parents to assist with their child's transition. We are all well versed in working with other professionals here and everyone - particularly the children - benefits from the familiarity of these wider services.
'We have lots of ways of reaching out to families, and they take advantage of the way in which the services link up under one roof. We are also now working with health visitors to send out parent packs to all new parents, so they find out what we can offer from the minute their child is born.'
