New Pm

[Guest]

Oh well what goes around comes around.... They put all that up quickly didn't they. I find it a bit creepy to be honest.

 

 

What happens to the Contact point and all the other verfy expensive IT systems that were set up under the last govt? At our local Children's centre- there is an overwhelming presence of the local authority building right to the 'corporate colour, and furniture for building. they have become more about the look and appearance rather than the work that needs to be done. health and safety, registrations and evaluations along with the need to quanitfy everything has taken precdence over everthing else.

 

Partner agencies report feeling unwelcomed as Children's centres are perceived to be a local authority initiative. There is some illfeeling by agencies as most except the children's centre have had their budgets and staffing slashed (HV, midwives JcP etc) Steering groups are just in name as most of the descions are taken centrally at a much higher level. The community engagement has been limited and those who could benefit from the initatives have stayed away- after all they are not called 'hard to reach' for nothing.everyone from HV, adult learning, JcP and family support workers have them on their target list!!!

 

Now that the new govt is in place- I feel that money should now be spent in mainstream services that are struggling to provide statutory services. Again in some areas volunatary services have had theri funding stopped or reduced and with children's centres taking over the service. This has caused resentment and loss of dedicated trained staffing within the children's workforce.

 

Again, this is just one viewpoint and I appreciate others will have differing views on the whole initiative.

[catma]

Somehow I posted twice when I edited so see below!!

Edited May 16, 2010 by catma

[catma]

I'm curious re the "there's nothing going on in them" angle - our CCs aren't running activity sessions all day every day. There are however lots of things happening behind the scenes that the vsiitor may not be aware of - for example our centres offer 1-1 counselling for post natal depression, shared use of sensory rooms with other local providers, outreach sessions in other locations and times to meet with service providers to plan/share further work.

 

The providers in CCs also vary - so the use or misuse of resources may well be their doing, not that of the CC or the LA in fact. I see a CC as a collection of provision that is in a hub location, rather than an entity in itself.

 

If you look at the Ofsted evaluation schedule for CCs you'll see that there is a very comprehensive expectation about the work of a centre which is utterly focused on outcomes for users.

 

I see CCs as mainstream - they are part of the provision for families and children. Maybe that's a bit passe now the focus is solely back on education!!

 

 

Cx

[Marion]

I'm curious re the "there's nothing going on in them" angle - our CCs aren't running activity sessions all day every day. There are however lots of things happening behind the scenes that the vsiitor may not be aware of - for example our centres offer 1-1 counselling for post natal depression, shared use of sensory rooms with other local providers, outreach sessions in other locations and times to meet with service providers to plan/share further work.

 

The providers in CCs also vary - so the use or misuse of resources may well be their doing, not that of the CC or the LA in fact. I see a CC as a collection of provision that is in a hub location, rather than an entity in itself.

 

If you look at the Ofsted evaluation schedule for CCs you'll see that there is a very comprehensive expectation about the work of a centre which is utterly focused on outcomes for users.

 

I see CCs as mainstream - they are part of the provision for families and children. Maybe that's a bit passe now the focus is solely back on education!!

 

 

Cx

 

 

When our CC was proposed the school and community were asked what services they felt were needed

We asked for Speech Therapy sessions (this is a major concern in the area and families need to travel a considerable distance involving a number of buses in a rural area with limited service).

 

unfortunately none of the services identified by the school or community have been provided however existing services have been duplicated

[Guest]

unfortunately none of the services identified by the school or community have been provided however existing services have been duplicated

 

snap!!

 

The 2 CC's locally are less than 2 miles apart, each attached to a primary school. Both have a health centre, with GP, midwife, health visitor, SLT clinics within a few hundred yards of them. They're advertising in the same places, targetting the same families and childminders and often offering the same timetabled sessions (even if on different days) as each other and the local library.

 

Yes, it offers parents/carers a choice but I'm always conscious that non-attendance somewhere else to go to the CC may result in a funding cut for someone else!! As an example, there are 4 parent/carers who regularly attend Rattle & Rhyme at the local library but we've all signed up for Fun Outdoors for 6 weeks - which runs at the same time!!

 

When I popped into the Library i explained why I wouldn't be there and while they were understanding they may not run the session if attendance is low!! The first week we didn't attend there were only 3 children there

 

I understand the thinking behind the CC's but it's hard to justify the thinking behind this sort of "over provision"

 

The family support workers from both CC's are great and try really hard to engage the "hard to reach" families but the locations of the CC's makes their job harder - they're seen as too posh, too far out of the town centre, too far off the bus route and the outreach sessions are at some of the "nicer" schools, or church schools, in the area - where the target families feel unwelcome

 

There's just no "easy" answer is there............?

 

Nona

Edited May 16, 2010 by Guest

[Guest Mrs Tiggy Winkle]

- the purpose designed building, the stunning physical environment within and the resources that I can only dream of. I admit I don't go there very often but when I do it's is almost empty. The lovely 'buggy park' still gleams with 'newness' etc etc

 

 

I am sure everyone in the CC where I work would be green with envy too. We are just grateful to now have a building to call our own! Not purpose built, not able to run much from it, but it is OURS, much of it was painted by the staff or even by parents from some of our 'hard to reach' families. A lot of the furniture and fittings were built with our blood, sweat and tears and we are all incredibly committed to making things better for all the families in our area. So while there may be some pristine CCs out there, I just want to stand up and have the others counted too!

 

OK ... I'll duck back below the parapet again now!

[Guest]

I am sure everyone in the CC where I work would be green with envy too. We are just grateful to now have a building to call our own! Not purpose built, not able to run much from it, but it is OURS, much of it was painted by the staff or even by parents from some of our 'hard to reach' families. A lot of the furniture and fittings were built with our blood, sweat and tears and we are all incredibly committed to making things better for all the families in our area. So while there may be some pristine CCs out there, I just want to stand up and have the others counted too!

 

OK ... I'll duck back below the parapet again now!

 

Aah, the beauty of the right service, with the right staff, in the right place.........

 

Nona

[Guest]

Ooh lots of passion here. I do think that there has been a lot of capital expenditure spent on CC's but there are lots of different issues that are much bigger than any CC. Engaging with some services has and is fraught, supervision of staff is a major issue as is recruiting personnel from health eg. SLT's, HV's, midwives and also JCP. The joys of multi agency working when they do work are fantastic but take a lot of work to get all the services together. As for CC's being within two miles of each other i cannot comment - we have centres quite close but each of them serve very different communities. Running services all day every day is not really a practical option for anyone - yes of course there are open drop in sessions but we can have up to 60-70 people in one of our buildings but if you came in you wouldn't know that there were that many in the building. A lot of our parents we deal with do not like to travel, some have never been on a bus and are too nervous to get on one let alone walk two miles for services.

Having spent 7 years working out of a community building for a preschool with charitable status who had to pack away every day I do know what the issues are and I agree balancing the finances can be difficult and I firmly believe in choice for parents which is being eroded by funding plans.

I agree that HV's should be part and parcel of a universal service but they are overstretched and struggling to meet the needs of parents. I do find this very sad but things will not change in a hurry unfortunately. I think it would be an even greater waste if the centres which have been set up are abandoned. That would be criminal but capital funding for centres is now at an end so lets hope that funding for staff continues so that parents can continue to have the services they most need.

Nikki

[Marion]

From today's Times on line

 

Michael Gove’s schools budget is likely to be almost unscathed, although cuts will have to be made to other areas of spending under his control such as the SureStart centres for toddlers.

[Guest]

about time! sure start tried to do too many things and in many cases ended up being used by those 'yummy mummies' and those who were on matrnity or career breaks. We are too soft on those very families whose parenting we want to change and as participation in the activities is vountary, it misses the very people we want to engage.

 

 

Sure start is likened to the headstart programme but the US version is very differnt from what we have to offer. from being a speciilist support agency we have tired to be 'something for everyone' and become 'nothing for anyone'!! Headstart is a very directed prgramme of suppost but in the UK we baulk at 'labelling' anyone and hence the watering down of the initiative. Perhaps undedr the new govt we will go back to what sure start was meant to be.

 

[catma]

about time! sure start tried to do too many things and in many cases ended up being used by those 'yummy mummies' and those who were on matrnity or career breaks. We are too soft on those very families whose parenting we want to change and as participation in the activities is vountary, it misses the very people we want to engage.

 

 

But surely they have as much right to access services as any other parent. What defines a "Yummy" - money, class, socio-economic status?? I'm not sure higher income=better parent!!!

Cx

Edited May 23, 2010 by catma

[Guest]

Yummy mummies!

 

Those who can pay for the services and would have attended the sessions even if there was a charge attached to it. We did a publicity drive last weekend for our centre and found that most people who were registered with us and used our sessions were on maternity leave- and a couple who had gone back to work were deciding if they wanted to attend a cc stay & play session (free) or the local toddler group.

 

this group of families are the ones who see the benefits of attending group sessions and hence do so. But are we about duplicating the toddler groups that are already out there or should be we looking to fill another niche in the market.

 

Our children's centres do not have HV involved in them -they are still in GP surgeries and their case loads do not fit into the cc reach area.

 

I think CC do a god job but sometimes our services are taken up by the motivated ones and the 'hard to reach'- well they are 'hard to reach'!

 

CC started out to be about child development and good outcomes- but inbetween the focus changed to getting parents back to training and employment.

[Marion]

My problem with CC is the "one Size Fits All" model based on city living with good transport links rather than rural areas with infrequent bus services which means that some of those "hard to reach" families can't access the services even if they want to because unless you have a car or live in the village where the centre is situated you just aren't going to get there with a few children in tow.

[HoneyPancakes]

Guilty, guilty, guilty. I am one of those Mummies who accessed lovely anti-natal yoga and swimming classes outside my own CC, and maybe the family income might have been able to stretch to cover the cost. But, if I hadn't had the support they offered I would have been a much more expensive case to deal with as a post natal depression candidate - bereaved and a long way from home. I did feel guilty at the time but now I think of it as a saving.

 

Fe

[HoneyPancakes]

Oh, and i think my CC has paid my membership to FSF! And they've accessed all the funding for me to do the DHC and NVQ3 and heaps of other training. Don,t think that's been wasted either.

 

Fe

[catma]

It was always about supporting parents back to work wasn't it - same as 15 hours in nursery, etc etc.

 

So are you arguing for CC to be means tested? It seems a bit harsh to judge everyone's needs by the external and subjective measure of whether a centre thinks they can afford something or not, or begrudge them access because they've gone back to work!

 

Equally you could argue that those very same parents are the ones who become the backbone of the centre, who sustain the activities so when you do get an out of reach family there's something worthwhile turning up for...otherwise it could just be tumbleweed blowing through the community cafe!!

 

Cx

Edited May 23, 2010 by catma

[Guest Mrs Tiggy Winkle]

If you look at the Ofsted evaluation schedule for CCs you'll see that there is a very comprehensive expectation about the work of a centre which is utterly focused on outcomes for users.

 

Cx

 

Ask me about this after Wednesday... we have visitors coming Tuesday!!!

[catma]

I'll be really interested to know how it goes - we are waiting for out first CC to get the call out of 16 that are eligible right now!!

 

Did you use the Ofsted SEF??

 

Good luck,

Cx

[Gezabel]

just listening to the news and the latest 'cuts' by our new government

Child trust funds are scrapped and a long list then scrolled on screen one of which was 'Every child' scheme

Did anyone else see this or hear more information?

[Cait]

I just saw that too

[purplewednesday1]

The new coalition govt has committed to continue the free nursery places for preschool children (does that mean 3 and 4 year olds?) or are they using the word "preschool" very carefully to avoid specifying which age group (2, 3 or 4) that they mean?

 

pw xx