A higher proportion of phase 1 children’s centres, the first to be established and set up in the most deprived areas of the country, gained outstanding or good grades, compared with the phase 2 centres.
Ofsted inspected 710 Sure Start Children’s Centres between September 2010 and August 2011, the first full year of inspections for children’s centres.
(A small number of centres were inspected during the 2009-2010 inspection cycle.)
Ofsted has a new legal power to inspect children’s centres and is required to inspect all children’s centre provision by 2015.
Of the total number of 745 centres inspected so far, the majority - 463 - are phase 1 children’s centres, while 247 phase 2 centres were inspected during the same inspection period.
Unlike phase 1 centres, phase 2 centres do not necessarily provide services themselves, but direct parents to services.
Seventy-nine per cent of phase 1 centres were judged good or outstanding: 17 per cent were outstanding, 62 per cent were good, 20 per cent were satisfactory and just 1 per cent of centres were found to be inadequate.
This compares with 63 per cent of phase two centres judged good or outstanding: nine per cent were outstanding, 54 per cent were good, 35 per cent were satisfactory, and three per cent were inadequate.
Jean Humphrys, interim director development, education and care at Ofsted, told Nursery World, ‘A higher proportion of centres were good or better in deprived areas.’
Ms Humphrys acknowledged that part of the success of phase 1 centres could be because at the time of inspection centres would have been running for at least three years, longer than phase 2 centres.
She added, ’To a degree it’s understandable because part of being an established centre is to get to know your community and start to get to know the needs of families.’
She added, ‘Phase 1 centres tend to have good systems for demonstrating their effectiveness and have established really good relationships with the wider community, and work closely with the families in the greatest need.’
She also said that outstanding centres were ‘clear about their main aims – one of the key reasons for children’s centres existing is to bridge the attainment gap for the most disadvantaged children.’
Strong leadership and management and a very strong commitment to families were also key features of outstanding centres, as well as well-qualified staff and staff who reflected on their practice.
She added, ‘Some of the weaknesses we see are around effective record-keeping systems to make sure they’re having an impact and providing the right level of support for families.
‘Less effective centres need to evaluate the impact they provide and be far more rigorous in the use of data to identify families in need.’
CASE STUDY OF AN 'OUTSTANDING' CHILDREN'S CENTRE
Bowthorpe, West Earlham and Costessey Children’s Centre in Norwich, was graded outstanding by Ofsted in July. It is run by Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust and all the staff, including the nursery staff, are employed by the Trust. The nursery, also inspected in July, was judged good by Ofsted with ‘outstanding’ elements.
The Bowthorpe ward is one of the 15 per cent most deprived wards in the country, and the centre covers an area with high levels of lone parents, teenage parents and families dependant on benefits or on very low incomes.
The centre was designated a phase 1 children’s centre in 2005 and then expanded as phases two and three were introduced, and now reaches 2,000 children.
It has an integrated team of health visitors, midwives, community nursery nurses, speech and language therapists and family support workers, and project workers.
It holds child health records of every child born in the ward, which means that early identification of families that need support can start early and the centre can offer targeted, focussed support for each individual family.
It has shared health records with one local GP practice and also delivers services alongside a GP immunisation clinic.
Centre leader Sian Larrington said she thought that one of the main reasons for the centre’s success was ‘the universal provision of health services, but also the capacity to really target services.’
She added, ‘We’re very embedded in the community because we are health-led, and a lot of people have been introduced to the centre through a health visitor or a midwife, which has helped us to establish in the community.’
‘We have a fantastic team who are very highly motivated and develop relationships with families. The other element is that the whole management structure is so integrated in health – it’s really about the integration of the staff.’
Any new families that move into the area with young children receive a visit from a health visitor, which Ofsted said meant that families are made aware of the centre at the earliest opportunity.
Every baby is offered baby massage to support parent-child relationships.
‘If it’s difficult for parents to access we can do the sessions at home and then encourage parents into a class and then another activity or service. Every worker works as an outreach worker, ’ Ms Larrington said.
Two-year-olds
The nursery operates from 8am to 6pm, but the majority of places are sessional, with parents taking up the free entitlement. Around half of the 42 places are the two-year-old offer. Ms Larrington said, ‘We’re registered to take babies, but we’re taking more two-year-olds to meet local need. There has been a sustained uptake [of two-year-old places] and impact going into school, a lot of it because the two-year-old scheme is part of a package of support. It’s not just an offer of a place.’
What Ofsted said
Ofsted’s report praised the centre for ‘excellent relationships forged over time which foster a strong common purpose among the vast majority of providers and professionals’ Partnership working is exemplary.’ It said that the centre provided outstanding care, guidance and support for users, who confirmed they felt ‘extremely well-supported, particularly when feeling vulnerable or in times of crisis.’ One user described the centre as ‘a godsend’.
‘By working in a sensitive and persistent way, the centre ensures that those who are hardest to reach, and need support the most, do in fact receive it.’
The report said that case studies showed that the centre has been successful in engaging hard-to-reach families, where other agencies have not.
