Agenda item

The Head of Child and Family Development Service introduced the report and provided an update to the Committee following the BID review at the end of 2019 and subsequent staffing restructure of the Child and Family Development Service.

It was reported that consultation with staff on the proposed restructure commenced in January 2020 however the review was put on hold due to the pandemic. Consultations had now concluded and work to recruit the new structures was nearing conclusion. The report highlighted the work underway to evolve the childrens centre delivery offer in line with national agendas of the best for life and family hubs. It was noted that one of the main reasons for restructuring the service was to make the service more modern and efficient and allow nurseries to compete in the financial sector. The impacts of the pandemic and practice highlights were also outlined to the Committee.

In response to Member questions regarding performance indicators, it was noted that nurseries that were registered with Ofsted were provided key performance indicators that had four different grades. All three Council early years centres in the Borough currently had a good grading from Ofsted and that was used as a performance indicator.

In terms of staffing restructure, it was explained that key roles across the Council were increased and their job scopes were broadened to include both family support work and running groups. Members welcomed further information on the staffing restructure both pre and post restructure. It was also clarified that Ofsted registration required a certain amount of level 2 and 3 qualified workers in nurseries per child ratio and unqualified workers were usually apprentices whilst they were completing training.

It was explained that in order to reach out to residents in terms of universal and targeted services, timetables were published on the Council’s website, there were active Facebook pages for childrens centres and service users were signposted relevant activities and opportunities. There was also outreach in the local community through events and awareness was raised by leaflets.  The Council had contact details for previous service users and often contacted them via email or text about potential services of interest. It was highlighted that a benefit of hosting midwifery and child health services was that families were encouraged to register when they first attended events therefore enabling the Council to be able to send targeted emails to families and encourage them to attend. There was also ongoing work with partners who were able to raise the profiles and awareness of different services.

During Members questions, it was noted that the number of early years places varied and this had been streamlined across all three sites to meet staffing rations. Although there was capacity for fee paying places, families that were deemed vulnerable were prioritised. It was explained that the three early years centres had to compete with the private sector and, although occupancy had increased, this needed to be balanced against staffing costs to meet commercial viability.  

In regard to changes to childrens centres post restructure, deprivation and the funding of additional capacity, it was explained that childrens centres were now managed by the local authority and all three localities had a similar level of funding. There was however capacity to move locality budgets arounds to meet the need and demand of parents living in those areas.

The Committee heard that the family hub model was one of the latest government initiatives and the idea was to bring services together to support children and families at the earliest opportunity.  

Members commended officers for their work and were impressed by the way services were focused on preventative action. It was acknowledged that market management was challenging. The Committee considered that it would have been helpful to receive statistical information to make assessments on how the service was performing and agreed that it would be useful to receive a follow up report.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the Committee noted the information presented in the report

2.    That the Chairman and Labour Lead would agree areas of focus for the follow up report.