While some children's centres remained unscathed by the Government and local authority cuts which followed the emergency budget in June, many are now battening down the hatches in advance of the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review, due to be published on 20 October.
Some settings, including the 1st Place Children and Parents Centre in Southwark, south London, have spent the summer exploring how to increase revenue to ensure they can withstand even the harshest of cuts.
Nicola Howard, director of 1st Place, explains, 'We have braced ourselves for a reduction in funding. When the Government is talking about cuts of up to 40 per cent to each department, we can only assume that those cuts will hit us as well. It feels as if we can't really plan anything until after the review has happened.'
1st Place is a voluntary-sector children's centre with charitable status that was set up to serve the Aylesbury estate in Southwark, London. The estate is home to 7,500 people who speak 33 languages between them and who make up one of Britain's most deprived communities. The estate, labelled 'Hell's Waiting Room' by the national press, was thrust into the spotlight in 1997 after Tony Blair gave his first speech as prime minister from there, to show that the Labour Government would tackle social exclusion.
'For a long time we have been encouraging the families who use 1st Place to expect more and to ask for more,' says Nicola, 'but cuts will mean that there will be fewer services available to them and we will have to manage their expectations. I just hope that the Government will not judge children's centres on short-term outcomes. In some cases, we are dealing with inter-generational problems and these are not things that can be changed overnight.'
Residents of the Aylesbury estate campaigned for two years to have their own children's centre based in a local park rather than at the bottom of a high-rise block in the estate, as was initially proposed by Southwark Council. The setting uses its location in Burgess Park to promote environmental responsibility; it uses eco-friendly materials and has an outdoor space where parents and volunteers can learn about growing fruit and vegetables. The children's centre building features solar panels on the roof that generate some of the electricity for use within the centre and feed some back into the National Grid.
BANANAS ON THE BEACH
Opening in 2005, 1st Place has grown into a fully integrated setting with a 51-place nursery for children aged from six months to four years. It features a sensory room, a childminding centre, a creche, an outdoor area for children and 'Bananas on the Beach' - a large sandpit area complete with palm trees.
The setting offers three English-as-a-second-language (ESOL) classes per week at different levels, as well as courses on early childhood development for parents. A nutrition team gives parents advice on shopping and eating healthily and there is a walking group which parents can be trained to volunteer to lead. Health visitors run anteand post-natal classes and there are other ongoing courses and training.
Nicola says, 'One of the schemes that is running here is a video project, where parents are trained in video-making. Other sessions include Bookstart, stay-and-play sessions, music groups, a group for fathers and creative workshops. Also, from September, there will be a project based here to support victims of domestic violence, along with counselling sessions and support groups for sufferers of postnatal depression.'
1st Place is a registered charity financed via a combination of Sure Start funding, fees paid by parents and revenue generated by hiring out space in the building.
'We are funded by the Sure Start grant and we receive the free entitlement funding,' Nicola explains. 'We are also taking part in the pilots for two-year-olds and we have just been given funding to have three full-time places for vulnerable children under three.' In many ways, 1st Place is a perfect example of how David Cameron's Big Society vision is already functioning in some communities.
The setting is run by a board of trustees, largely made up of parents, and has a commitment to employing local people. The children's centre and the childminding centre have enabled many local families to take up opportunities for training, volunteering or paid employment.
'Before Sure Start, there was very little childcare in the Aylesbury estate area, which made it difficult for parents to go back to work or study,' says Nicola.
The setting benefits from the help of many volunteers who work at the children's centre, some of whom go on to secure paid employment at the setting.
'We have fantastic volunteers who are absolutely committed to the work that they do,' Nicola says. 'Volunteering helps them to expand their career path in a way that many would not previously have considered.
'The people who come to the children's centre and the people who volunteer often have a very low level of confidence. Working in a supportive environment helps to boost their confidence,' she adds.
STAFF BANK
Even before the current financial squeeze, the team at 1st Place had devised some innovative ways to increase revenue, one of which is to keep a bank of staff for its creche who are available to be hired out to other settings on a temporary basis.
Nicola says, 'We use this staff bank to cover annual leave and sickness among our staff, so we have continuity within our setting. It also helps us both to generate revenue and to provide flexible work for local people.'
Nicola believes that having voluntary status gives 1st Place some advantages over maintained children's centres in dealing with future funding cuts. She explains, 'Being outside of local authority control means we have the opportunity to steer our own ship and have greater freedom to make decisions about what we offer here.
'A lot of what we provide at the moment comes from one revenue stream and if that is cut then it will have a big impact on our services. So we are exploring the opportunities that we do have, which include offering more services to other settings in the maintained and the private and voluntary sectors. The challenge for us is to work out how we increase our revenue while staying within the sphere of our work,' says Nicola.
The uncertainty over exactly where cuts will be made means that it is much more difficult for settings such as 1st Place to find additional revenue streams. Many local community groups and projects regularly hire the training rooms within 1st Place. If these projects are axed, it will have a knock-on effect on the setting's revenue.
Nicola feels that one answer to the debate over whether children's centres should be targeted towards disadvantaged families or offer universal access would be a system where there would be 'some services for all, but not all services for everybody'.
'I think there is room for some targeted and some universal services,' she says, 'It is an absolute joy to have a drop-in session that has people from diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. For example, support groups for people with postnatal depression or parenting advice: these affect everybody, regardless of how much money they have, but we know that in general parents who face the most challenges need the most help. I do feel that we made more of a difference when we were working in a more targeted way.'
Outreach is one area in particular that Nicola feels is vital for the continued success of Sure Start and one which she believes should be immune from any financial threat in the coming round of cuts post-review.
She says, 'The outreach side of Sure Start is crucial, especially in urban areas with high-density populations who move around a lot. There are many layers of challenge with disadvantaged families and nothing can replace the face-to-face contact that is achieved through active outreach.'
