Nothing illustrates more graphically the Government's grand design to integrate and mainstream services for children from birth to five years old and their families, first within deprived areas and then in every community in the country, than its plan to create 3,500 children's centres by 2010.
But while the programme enjoys a broad consensus of support from all those working in children's services and is consistent with the Every Child Matters agenda, there is some anxiety over the timescale for implementation, the level of funds committed in terms of both capital and revenue, and sustainability and staffing.
For the first phase of its children's centres plan, between 2004 and 2006, the DfES did not specify a target for centres but said that by April next year they should be offering services to 650,000 children in the 20 per cent most disadvantaged wards, based on the Index of Multiple Deprivation.
By mid-October, the DfES revealed, 373 Sure Start children's centres had been designated. As each is supposed to reach 800 children, or fewer in isolated rural areas, that means notionally that 298,400 children have access to these services, which is not even halfway to next April's target.
In its planning guidance for phase two, which was published in July, the Government confirmed that it wants all disadvantaged families living in the 30 per cent most deprived areas to have access to children's centres, which will require 2,500 centres by 2008, with a goal of 3,500 centres by 2010 - one for every community in the UK.
Local authorities, which are responsible for the strategic planning of the children's centre programme locally, are expected to record the detail of individual centres on a web-based system set up by the Sure Start Unit. The guidance states, 'This system is a critical management tool for local authorities and the DfES to monitor progress towards targets.'
But the clock is ticking and the deadline set by the DfES is demanding. It wants local authorities 'to progress their high level plans...to the point of identifying broadly where they expect to place children's centres across their borough by building on existing services'.
By the end of November councils must provide:
* the name and address or area of the proposed centre
* whether it is in one of the 30 per cent most disadvantaged wards
* the number of children it will reach
* whether it is a new-build or a refurbishment
* the estimated capital cost
* if there is childcare on site, the number of places
* a projected date for its designation as a centre.
Full implementation plans should be on the system by February 2006.
A DfES spokesman says, 'The Government does not underestimate the task - this is a major change to the way services are delivered - but ministers are determined that families will see improvements sooner rather than later. Experience from the first phase of the children's centres roll-out shows that local authorities must start planning early or they will struggle to deliver these important changes for young children and families by the target date.'
Loretta Boswell, head of early years and childcare services in Stoke-on-Trent, says the tight November deadline allows little time for the type of consultation with the statutory, private and voluntary sectors envisaged by the DfES.
But the DfES is not such a stickler for deadlines when it comes to its own commitments. It promised practical guidance on delivering services and other practice issues, but as Nursery World went to press it had yet to materialise.
The DfES says this guidance will deal with the provision of outreach services and support, working with parents and carers, and collaboration with local health services.
THE CORE OFFER
The planning guidance says that children's centres in the 30 per cent most deprived wards must offer the following services:
* Integrated early learning and childcare for babies and children until they are five years old.
* Childcare that is suitable for working parents/carers for a minimum of five days a week, 48 weeks a year, ten hours a day.
* Support for childminders and their networks.
* Early identification of children with special needs and disabilities, and access to inclusive services.
* Links to local schools, extended and healthy schools, and out-of-school clubs and activities.
* Support and advice on parenting, and visits to all families in the catchment area within two months of a child's birth.
* A range of health services including antenatal advice, the Child Health Promotion Programme, information and guidance on breastfeeding, hygiene, nutrition and safety, and specialist speech and language support.
* Parental involvement in determining the type of services needed.
Children's centres in the 70 per cent more advantaged areas should be developed from existing maintained, private, voluntary or community provision. The guidance says 'the intensity of services offered...should vary according to the level of disadvantage in that area'.
THe SECONDWAVE
Although purpose-built children's centres have been a feature of the first phase of the programme, the Government has made it clear that few centres will be built from scratch in the second wave.
A recognition of the high cost of new-build and the logic of building on existing services, rather than risking duplication, has shaped its view that most centres should be developed from local Sure Start programmes, neighbourhood nurseries, early excellence centres and maintained nursery schools. But the DfES spokesman says it is 'not possible at present' to provide a breakdown of centres evolving from these settings.
The latest planning guidance says family centres, community centres, health centres, and private and voluntary provision, along with Sure Start mini-programmes not already designated as centres, should form part of the second phase. But with so many centres to be set up in a comparatively short space of time - and with limited resources - the guidance also suggests that family support centres, day nurseries, pre-schools and playgroups could be used and that libraries and colleges should also be considered.
However, Hugh Thornberry, director of children's services in the West Midlands for the charity NCH, says that while it remains positive about the programme it has found that a number of its existing family centres 'have not been actively considered in local authorities' plans for the development of children's centres'.
In keeping with the rapid process of integration spawned by the Every Child Matters agenda, the DfES is urging local authorities to consider close ties between children's centres and extended schools, with co-location on primary school sites a viable option, providing 'a natural focus for local communities' and 'improved transition arrangements for children starting formal education'. It also emphasises that children's centres will link in with the work of children's trusts, which are to be created in every local authority area.
Lesley Adams, head of early years and childcare services in Birmingham, says the city's capital allocation for the second phase will be used to do 'reasonably small adaptations, small add-ons to deliver the core offer' and that only one significant new-build is planned among the 43 proposed centres.
'From the start we decided that the hub and satellite model was the best route for us as we have so much existing infrastructure which it would have been silly to ignore and start again. We felt we needed to connect things that already existed close together better, and call them children's centres and give them some joint management structure,' she says.
All Birmingham's local Sure Start programmes are migrating to children's centres, but not all of its neighbourhood nurseries as the city has 'an embarrassment of riches'. Ms Adams says the Government needs to provide some guidance on the governance of children's centres that are not on school sites.
Kal Nawaz, joint services manager with responsibility for children's centres in Bradford, says that unlike Birmingham the city does not have the physical infrastructure to easily adapt existing premises. In the first phase it was given 7.3m for 18 centres, some brand new. Resources were boosted by Sure Start programme capital.
In phase two, Bradford has been given 3.8m towards the creation of 15 centres. Ms Nawaz says, 'We were really disappointed. We had assumed that the level of funding would be similar, and that constrains us as it will be a challenge to find buildings that we can do up.'
Finding locations with reduced capital and revenue budgets will also be difficult in Stoke-on-Trent, according to Loretta Boswell. 'We are trying to link the children's centre programme with extended schools and, where we can, build on a school site just so long as it's in the heart of the community and the numbers stack up,' she explains.
Being creative in the use of funding and levering in more resources was a key feature of the first phase, which has resulted in the creation of eight centres in the city. The local authority was given about 3.5m in capital in the first phase, but by using local Sure Start programme money and a cocktail of neighbourhood renewal and European funding, a total of 12.6m was spent.
In total the DfES gave local authorities 435m for the first phase and 947m has been allocated for the second. But the Treasury purse-strings have tightened as revenue funds given in the latest tranche are supposed to provide revenue support for centres set up in the first phase.
THE PRIVATE SECTOR
The National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) has been contracted by the Sure Start Unit to help local authorities engage with private sector providers - something that was absent in some areas in the programme's first phase. The NDNA will work with 25 local authorities across five Government regions: the North West, North East, East and West Midlands, and London. Patricia Jackson, the association's head of regional development, says the NDNA has already worked with Ealing borough council in London to develop an effective tendering process which ensures that the private sector can get involved.
'There are local authorities out there who are engaging the private sector and they are doing it well, while in other areas councils are struggling. I see our contract as a conduit for local authorities that are doing it well to share their good ideas and best practice with others,' she says.
ALLAYING CONCERNS
The NDNA initiative may provide a forum for allaying the concerns of private sector providers that their childcare provision may be rendered unsustainable by the development of children's centre facilities.
Patricia Jackson is relieved by the Government's shift away from attaching children's centre funding to the creation of new childcare places. She says reductions in capital allocations for centres may prove 'a blessing in disguise' as local authorities will have less scope for building projects and greater encouragement to look at existing provision.
Loretta Boswell is pleased that the 'goalposts have moved a little' since former children's minister Margaret Hodge's insistence that early years and childcare should be under one roof. She says they can now 'use a campus model, which fits in much better locally, and join up with existing provision wherever we can.'
Hugh Thornberry, director of children's services in the West Midlands for the charity NCH, says the provision of affordable childcare is 'one of the risks that NCH faces in the delivery of children's centres'.
He is hopeful that neighbourhood nurseries can be viable in the future when start-up money dries up and they have to rely solely on fee income. But, he says, NCH's previous experience of offering out of school activities in deprived areas shows that 50 per cent created by 'pump priming grants' had subsequently closed.
NETWORKING
Children's centres are increasingly recognising the potential benefits of linking up with childminding networks. The National Childminding Association (NCMA) says 177 networks have been approved and a further 51 are seeking approval.
NCMA director of training Charlie Rice says recent research by the National Children's Bureau has shown that 'networks make a significant contribution to the quality of care offered by childminders'. They also increase the status of childminding in the eyes of both childminders and parents, help with retention and provide training opportunities.
The presence of childminders in a children's centre provides an alternative to daycare if parents work unsocial hours, and the childminders can use the centre's training and drop-in facilities.
BRIDGE BUILDING
Philip Street, at the time of writing chief executive of ContinYou, which is providing the extended schools support service, is concerned that the most vulnerable families will still fall through the net. 'I am not convinced that by simply placing a children's centre in a neighbourhood or on a school site that will automatically mean it will be accessed by those kind of people,' he says.
Mr Street suggests there should be some provision for intermediaries at the community-sector level to ensure that these families are encouraged to use the centre.
He says ContinYou is planning to set up a good practice network, initially in the West Midlands, around links between children's centres and extended schools 'because there is genuine anxiety about the transition from early years settings into primary schools. It's not seamless'.
RURAL DEPRIVATION
Equally difficult to reach can be pockets of deprivation in rural areas, where the baseline of existing services is poor and isolation is compounded by inadequate transport links.
Claire Abolins, of Oxfordshire early years partnership, says it has been doing a mapping exercise to look at where it should further develop rural services. She adds, 'This is helpful, but people in rural areas can have additional needs that do not show up in poverty mapping exercises, for example transport.
'In some cases we will fund children's centres in our market towns to provide a service to the rural area nearby, but we are also considering developing a mobile outreach project which will work across Oxfordshire, targeting rural areas that feature most highly in terms of disadvantage.'
The Cotswold market town Chipping Norton illustrates some of the problems.
It has relatively high levels of unemployment, 26 per cent of the population do not have cars and there are poor transport links.
Sue Clempson, head of ACE (Activities, Childcare and Education) children's centre, says it received just 60,500 from the Sure Start children's centres fund to develop health and family support services. This helped to provide a speech and language therapist, a health family support worker and a special educational needs co-ordinator.
However, as the funding was only for one year, the speech and language therapist has been withdrawn and the centre has lost the services of the family support worker, who carried out vital outreach work.
Ms Clempson also highlights concerns over large disparities in pay and conditions between staff with similar qualifications working in and around these centres. Someone with an NVQ Level 3 working as a nursery nurse in the nursery school at the ACE centre earns between 20,295 and 22,512 a year, while someone with the same qualification in the daycare setting earns from 12,584 to 13,582. She insists that affordable childcare should not be created on the back of such stark differentials.
CONCLUSION
There is no doubt the children's centre programme will come under increasing scrutiny in the coming months, not least because of a recent academic study questioning the impact of the 3.1bn Sure Start programme. The pace of change and innovation required will also test the resolve of the Government and all those working in the sector.
Ensuring sufficiently remunerated and properly trained staff, including qualified teachers and highly skilled centre leaders, are available to run children's centres will remain a priority (see Leadership box, page 21).
But, echoing the views of many practitioners in the field, Hugh Thornberry believes the Government, 'needs to hold its nerve and continue to invest long term in improved services for young children as all the evidence from elsewhere demonstrates that this early investment not only improves life chances for the most deprived children but also reduces public expenditure on a range of social problems in the long term.'
CASE STUDY
WORCESTERSHIRE'S FIRST CENTRE
Madresfield Children's Centre nestles at the foot of the Malvern Hills on a working dairy farm, but its idyllic setting does not disguise the fact that it plays a crucial role in reaching pockets of deprivation and needy families.
Traditional Victorian farm buildings have been converted to house the childcare facility as it has evolved, from a pre-school centre that opened in 1994 to a neighbourhood nursery and now Worcestershire's first children's centre. The 450-acre farm, which produces its own ice cream, also houses an independent school for five- to eight-year-olds and a range of out-of-school activities for children up to the age of 16.
There are 170 childcare places, with 130 for pre-school age and 34 of them for children from areas of deprivation. Children's centre leader Alice Bennett says the children enjoy watching the cows being milked or 'the thriving woodland school where they can learn to work with fire, develop their cookery skills and explore the natural surroundings'.
As you enter the centre, large racks of waterproof trousers in varying sizes testify to muddy adventures in the woods. Also on offer is an adventure playground, zip wires and swings, and a range of activities such as gymnastics, dance, ballet and, for older children, carriage driving and kickboxing. There are also outreach services to support isolated families and a 'stay and play' club that low income families can access daily.
Ms Bennett says all staff, many of whom are qualified teachers, undergo continuous professional development. Many have been with the centre since it opened 11 years ago.
While many private sector providers have felt shunned during the first phase of the children's centre programme, Ms Bennett says the local early years partnership in Worcestershire approached her with the proposal for it to become an integrated centre. She believes this was largely because 'we were already providing many of the core services'. She has signed a contract under phase two of the programme to expand the centre's links with health and other agencies.
Cath Ellicott, children's centre projects manager with Worcestershire County Council, says the authority 'started with a low base of childcare'
and 'it was vital that the local authority worked with all sectors, in particular the private and voluntary sector, to ensure that accessible childcare was developed across the county'. She adds, 'Madresfield's excellent indoor and outdoor facilities enable them to be flexible and offer a range of activities in an ideal environment.'
CASE STUDY
FROM SURE START TO A MULTI-AGENCY COMMUNITY-BASED TEAM
Building a multi-agency team has been a crucial factor in the success of Telford's Jubilee Sure Start programme, but manager Jane Clark believes that, in the transition to Telford and Wrekin's first children's centre, staff must also be equipped with community development skills.
Putting the finishing touches to preparations for the purpose-built Sutton Hill centre's opening last month, she says, 'You set yourselves up in a community and you have to attract parents into the children's centre. It's a voluntary relationship, not statutory, and that definitely requires community development skills, which may not be reflected within staff representing different agencies.'
The centre has a 42-place day nursery, to be run by a private provider under a service-level agreement and backed by European funds; a large training room; a health room for health visitors, midwives and other practitioners to use; as well as smaller rooms for therapeutic work.
Wednesdays have been earmarked for the core staff team to meet to discuss cultural and management issues because the experience of the Sure Start programme has shown that it can take up to six months for a practitioner to adjust to a new role in a multi-agency team.
Jane says, 'It takes time to unpick management issues, for example where an agency is going to be housed. People have found it difficult to be on the establishment list of an organisation and be based somewhere else, but it is essential to build a team.'
She also does not want to see parental involvement diluted in the transformation to a children's centre.
'The local authority has five sub-groups linked to the five outcomes in Every Child Matters, but we also need to have some locality management.
Parents have to have influence on the governance of a children's centre. If it is managed from a central civic area, there is no sense of local ownership and you lose the closeness to children and families that you got from being in a Sure Start local programme,' she says.
'What we had in the past in children's services is people working together in a building where they happened to go in and out of the same door at the beginning and end of the day. What we have got to do in children's centres is get a sense of common identity and purpose based on the experiences of young children and their parents.'
LEADERSHIP TRAINING AND THE ROLE OF EARLY YEARS TEACHERS
Local authorities must ensure that a qualified early years teacher is employed by each children's centre on a half-time basis. But DfES planning guidance says this should be regarded as a minimum requirement and that the teacher should be working full-time within 12 to 18 months of the centre being designated.
The remit of the teacher will go far beyond the provision of educational activities. The DfES says teachers must be early years specialists with extensive experience of working with young children and be 'reflective, analytical and committed to continuous professional development'.
While they will take the lead in planning the Foundation Stage curriculum, the Government says they must also be committed to multi-agency and team working, and have a knowledge of observation-based assessment and documentation and be able to share this with families.
So far local authorities have not encountered problems in recruiting teachers to work in children's centres, but research by the National Children's Bureau suggests that finding experienced teachers who are prepared to make the switch from the classroom may become more difficult as the number of centres increases.
The NCB also says that, given the sharp differentials in pay with other staff such as nursery nurses, teachers may have problems fitting into a team.
Meanwhile, the process of training the leaders of children's centres is well under way with 400 currently undertaking the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL), developed by the National College of School Leadership (NCSL) and the Pen Green Centre.
Maggie Farrar, NCSL assistant director of leadership programmes, stresses that heads of children's centres face 'a complex leadership task'. She says, 'A lot of it is about relationship building, understanding the interdependence between home and the importance of parents, the centre and the community.
'We also have a multi-disciplinary advisory group who have steered the programme through its early days. It has the support of health, social care and educational professional organisations.'
CASE STUDY
TEACHER TAKES THE LEAD IN PLANNING AND SUPPORTING STAFF AND FAMILIES
The experience of the Hayes neighbourhood nursery and early years centre in north-west London typifies the often dizzying speed of Government initiatives. Designated a neighbourhood nursery in 2001, building work was completed in May 2003, only for it to be redesignated as a children's centre a month later.
Head of centre Gerry Sycamore is enthusiastic about its new status but regrets that she had no prior knowledge of the change, 'as if we had known we were going to become a children's centre we would have designed it differently'.
The centre, the first of 15 to be created in Hillingdon, will hopefully soon have a new creche where parents can leave their children. It has a 95 place day nursery, with 70 neighbourhood nursery places, 10 private places and 15 places for referred children, maintaining the former local authority day nursery's practice of reserving space for children in need.
With the support of an outreach team funded by the local primary care trust, the centre is also involved in the Health Opportunity Promotion and Education project - a partnership to improve the health of travellers, asylum-seekers, refugees and homeless people of all ages in Hillingdon.
There is also a support group for people and families who do not speak English, including interpreters and advocates.
A key addition to the centre's staff last year was qualified early years teacher Christine Mustill, a former Foundation Stage co-ordinator in a primary school. Gerry Sycamore acknowledges that there was some uncertainty initially over her exact role in the centre's work.
She adds, 'Now we are much clearer about her responsibilities. She leads on all aspects of planning, she supports and participates in assessments and provides parent consultation evenings. She also monitors the quality of the learning environment and provides one-to-one continual professional development (CPD) opportunities for staff working in the Foundation Stage.'
Christine, who works half-time at the centre and is also an early years advisory teacher for the local authority, says that giving a lead in teaching rather than telling staff their approach was wrong was central to developing her role and relationship with other centre staff.
She explains, 'I didn't want to come in and say that I'm in charge and this is what we are going to do. I made it clear to staff that they were not wrong, but that I was seeking to take the work forward. I am available to help with CPD in any area staff want, particularly issues like record keeping and pedagogy.'
CASE STUDY
DEVELOPING NURSERY SCHOOLS IN BRADFORD
Many maintained nursery schools have been forced to close, but in Bradford the council is determined to preserve the child-centred ethos and high-quality provision as it transforms the city's seven remaining maintained nurseries into children's centres.
Abbey Green Nursery School and Children's Centre - its title designed to convey the integration of care and education - is situated in the Manningham district, which has been scarred by riots in recent years. 'We are just one street away from where they took place and therefore we know that it is very important to build up community links,' says head of centre Margot Dixon.
Her predecessor, Carole Ver, retired this year but was the architect of the transition to an integrated centre.
Margot Dixon says Carole's legacy is services that mean specialised care and earlier intervention for families most in need. She says, 'Now that we cater for nought to fives, the children will be spending a longer time here during the biggest learning journey of their lives. We know that we can develop these services to ensure they get really good-quality provision from when they are babies, and continuity after that.'
The centre operates a keyworker system but staff work across all age ranges 'so that integration really works', emphasises Margot.
She says, 'We have a child-centred ethos and high-quality provision, which we are bringing to all the new services, and we have outreach workers who run mother-and-toddler groups and visit homes before children start here.
We are also advertising for the new post of parental involvement officer, who will pull all these services together and make sure we are offering all the things that parents want.'
The seven Bradford nursery schools work closely together, with heads and staff meeting regularly and staff training together at least once a year.
Kal Nawaz, joint services manager at Bradford council with responsibility for the children's centre programme, says it was logical to include maintained nurseries as they have 'a history of focused expertise'. She adds that family centres are also involved in the development of children's centres as 'they have developed relations with local communities and provide a raft of services which are very similar to those you would find in a children's centre'.
CASE STUDY
CHILDMINDING NETWORK COMPLEMENTS DAYCARE
The vibrant childminding network at the Gardener's Lane Children's Centre in Cheltenham complements rather than conflicts with its daycare facility, according to centre manager Lin Fitzsimons.
She says, 'I think the childminders go hand in hand with the daycare. We would direct some parents to the childminding service because of the hours they are looking for, such as evenings and weekends, which we cannot accommodate in the nursery. Some childminders have also developed specialisms in caring for looked after children or those with special needs.
'The childminding network can use the drop-in facilities we have here. They are very much part of the service-user population, but also parents can use them to access daycare. The most exciting thing about it is to make sure parents and children have freedom of choice.'
For childcare development officer Fran Nevin, who co-ordinates the childminding network, the link with the children's centre has provided manifold benefits.
She says, 'The facilities in the centre are wonderful and it feels very much like a community.'
When the childminders attend the centre the children in their care have access to a playroom, which boasts a range of activities including arts and crafts, games and dressing up clothes. They can also use the outside play area and there is a large soft playroom.
Childminders can undertake training and attend other events at the centre 'at affordable rates'. In addition, with the parents' consent they can leave the children they are caring for at the creche while they participate.
Fran holds regular meetings with link and network childminders at the centre. The link childminders play a key role as they are matched with new childminders, help them through the registration process, and advise them on business aspects and the art of filling vacancies.
The network childminders are part of the National Childminding Association's (NCMA) quality first network. They are monitored to ensure that their paperwork is in order and that the way they care for children meets agreed standards.
Fran says, 'If a childminder goes on holiday they can easily arrange holiday cover with another minder, and they and the parents can feel reassured because the children will know each other.'
Useful contacts
* Phase 2 planning guidance, www.surestart.gov.uk./events/newsevents/whatsnew/index.cfm?news=149
* Details of all Sure Start children's centres, www.surestart.gov.uk/surestartservices/
* Sector events and conferences related to the children's centre programme, www.surestart.gov.uk/events/
* For details of the NDNA project to get local authorities working with private sector providers contact NDNA regional officer Patricia Jackson, e-mail: patricia.jackson@ndna.org.uk
* Frequently asked questions and answers related to the children's centre programme, www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/faqs/foundation_stage/1162267/
* For details of childminding networks visit the National Childminding Association, www.ncma.org.uk
* For details of the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership contact the National College of School Leadership, www.ncsl.org.uk
* For details of 4Children's proposals for 10,000 children's centres, www.4children.org.uk
* The National Children's Bureau is working with six local authorities on a project looking at ways in which children's centres can be fully inclusive of children with disabilities, www.ncb.org.uk/projects
* The Pre-school Learning Alliance is developing and piloting an integrated model for the delivery of interdisciplinary support for parents in isolated rural areas. The model will combine web-based information and signposting with community-based staff in Cornwall and Cumbria to deliver services that might typically be offered in children's centres, www.pre-school.org.uk
