Archived decisions

Contact: Maggie Macdonald, Head of Corporate Unit, Early Education and Childcare Unit, Extn 3872

1 Summary

1.1 This report sets out the level of grant allocations requested for 2005-2006 by voluntary organisations within the early years, childcare and family support sectors. They are funded through the Education Department's budgets and administered by the Early Education and Childcare Unit.

1.2 Through the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership the voluntary organisations have to meet the aims and objectives of the Sure Start Strategic Plan for 2004-2006. Each grant agreement sets out the service specification, a schedule of quarterly reporting, robust monitoring and a system for remedial action should targets not be met.

1.3 Funding the voluntary organisations from the Sure Start Direct Grant will enable the County Council to consider other pressing needs on the education budget, including the work of the County Council's Early Years Centres. A report on revenue funding for early years centres will be presented at a future meeting.

1.4 From April 2006, it is likely that the Sure Start Direct Grant funding will cease and a different method will be used to allocate funding to local authorities to take forward the work of the Ten Year Strategy for Childcare and the Early Years Outcomes of the Children Act.

1.5 This work links to the following corporate aims:

· Aim 1 - maximising life opportunities for young children and their families.

· Aim 3 - achieving economic prosperity by providing early education, childcare and playwork career and training opportunities for local communities, while supporting the development of new, small businesses offering early education and childcare.

· Aim 4 - building strong and safe communities through the early preventative work, which takes place with children and young people in early education and out of school childcare settings.

· Aim 5 - improving services, particularly the development of integrated services for young children and their families.

· Aim 6 - developing councillors and staff through the many opportunities to be involved with training, networking and planning provided by the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership and the Early Education and Childcare Unit.

2 Background

2.1 Approval of County Council grants in excess of £5,000 in respect of children under eight is a decision of the Executive Member for Education and proposals are included for approval in this report. There were no other applications for County Council grants within this phase.

2.2 The allocations proposed reflect the work scheduled during the second year of the Sure Start Strategic Plan for 2004-2006. The current levels of direct Sure Start Grant attracted by these organisations in 2004/05 confirms that the work which they do is eligible for Sure Start Direct Grant.

3 Grant applications from voluntary organisations 2004-2005 and the costs of each service for 2005-2006

Hampshire Pre-school Learning Alliance

3.1 The Pre-school Learning Alliance works with the Early Education and Childcare Unit and the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships Board to deliver the Sure Start Strategic Plan. This is to be achieved by:

· employing locally based Development Workers to provide an information, support and advice service for providers. (Including Parent and Toddler groups). All work will contribute to the Sure Start strategic plan.

· enabling volunteers to continue to play an active and integral part within the organisation achieving ownership and accountability.

· training opportunities will be made available for staff, parents and volunteers working and/or involved in early years settings throughout the county, this will be managed by the Alliance regional training personnel. A programme of in service training will provided for locally employed staff.

· supporting Development Workers who will be managed by our senior team. Comprehensive networking and liaison will be maintained to ensure that joint working practices are fulfilled with colleagues in the statutory, voluntary and private sectors, enabling complimentary services to be provided.

· maintaining Alliance support and input with the EYDCP and its sub groups, Local Development Teams, Sure Start projects and other partnerships including the CYPSP.

· monitoring and evaluation will be maintained by the Alliance through line management of staff, user feedback and OFSTED outcomes. The EYDCP monitors and evaluates the quality of pre-school provision. This information provides crucial evidence in relation to the value and effectiveness of the service provided by the Alliance.

· settings that are not required to register with OFSTED will receive support and advice in order to comply with the relevant legislation.

· settings undertaking the Aiming For Quality accreditation scheme will receive support from mentors and assessors in order to achieve the investors in children award.

National Childminding Association

3.2 The National Childminding Association works with the Early Education and Childcare Unit and the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership Board to meet the aims and objectives of the Sure Start Strategic Plan for 2004-2006 and in particular to fund, as in the past, to the total cost of staff who provide the following:

· liaison with the Early Education and Childcare Unit, the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership and its sub groups.

· maintaining Childminding Networks, including early years education and community provision through Children Come First- an Investors in Children approved scheme.

· delivering childminder training & support including briefing sessions and the Certificate in Childminding Practice qualification.

· maintaining the Support Childminder Scheme including support surgeries, administration of the childminding start-up and sustainability grants

· promoting and mentoring quality assurance through the Quality First scheme, which is an Investors in Childcare approved scheme.

· holding regular review meetings with EECU personnel every three months. There are meetings every 6-8 week to support all staff and management meeting and full staff meetings to ensure all services are operating successfully and that agreed outcomes are being met.

· all NCMA activities are evaluated and statistics kept, budgets are monitored and records kept evidencing the work.

Hampshire Children and Families Forum (HCFF)

3.3 Hampshire Children's and Families Forum works with the Early Education and Childcare Unit and the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership Board to meeting the aims and objectives of the Sure Start Strategic Plan for 2004-2006 and in particular to:

· enable two way communications between children and families and the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership.

· distribute and collect information as specified by the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership Board to and from statutory bodies, voluntary and community groups, carers, families, children and young people. Any other information distributed by HCFF in relation to the work of the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership must be presented to and received the approval of the Partnership Board.

· conduct surveys and consultations with parents, carers, children and young people as specified by the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership Board.

· support projects, which meet, identified and evidence-based gaps in service provision. Signpost parents and carers to the Children's Information Service as the first point of contact for information on early education and childcare provision.

KIDS Centre

3.4 KIDS Centre is a voluntary initiative jointly funded by KIDS, a national organisation for children with special needs and the King George's Fund for Sailors for Hampshire children. It is recognised that such a family centre, providing good quality services to children with special educational needs and disabilities, requires funding to support its work.

3.5 The purpose of this funding is to enable the development of high quality inclusive nursery provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities, to assist in providing information, support and specialist training to those caring for and working with children and to offer parents baby activity programmes that are attached to counselling, support and training sessions, which are available from the time of diagnosis.

3.6 The service specification sets out that KIDS Family Centre is commissioned to:

· provide inclusive nursery places for 40 children on a part-time basis.

· seek to enable children with special educational needs and disabilities to develop their skills and abilities and fulfil their potential hopes and aspirations.

· provide high quality inclusive educational opportunities within the framework of the Qualification and Curriculum Authority's Foundation Stage curriculum guidance to benefit children with a diverse range of needs.

· demonstrate that assessment procedures are consistent with the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice.

· provide practical early interventions through the baby activity programme, while counselling, supporting and training parents.

· provide training opportunities for staff, parents and volunteers ensuring the highest possible levels of professionalism are maintained. The training will include:

¬ special needs awareness

¬ child protection

¬ communication

¬ behaviour management

¬ health and safety, including moving and handling

¬ personal care

The Elizabeth Foundation

3.7 The Elizabeth Foundation aims to supports the needs of babies and children of pre-school age, 0-5, who are deaf or hard of hearing, and their parents and families, who have chosen to develop oral/aural language and communication skills which will help to maximise the child's future life choices and inclusion in mainstream education.

3.8 These aims are met by offering a range of practical services, delivered according to the individual needs and choices of families. For the youngest babies and children, these services are often referred to collectively as "early intervention services".

3.9 The Newborn Hearing Screening Programme is causing an increase in the diagnosis of deafness in very young babies and children. Other demonstrable trends include the higher survival rates for very early premature babies.

3.10 Technological advances in digital hearing aids and cochlear implants mean that wider language and communication options are now open to children who are deaf, if they can access a good early intervention programme such as that provided by The Elizabeth Foundation. The RNID "Hearing The Future" conference on 22 November 2004 heralded some of the advances that have been made.

3.11 A family exit survey completed by families when their children leave The Elizabeth Foundation at age 5, provides evidence of the lack of alternative provision that families have experienced and confirms how The Elizabeth Foundation has filled that gap.

3.12 Internationally, The Elizabeth Foundation is part of a community of front line early interventionists that include John Tracy Clinic (USA), the Option Schools Network, and Champion Centre (NZ); all are exemplars in their field.

3.13 In the UK, the DfES has over the past year released new guidance on Removing Barriers to Education and supports a major initiative addressing the changing pattern of childhood disability. The Elizabeth Foundation employs a range of indicators to monitor how successfully these outcomes are met.

Forest Bus

3.14 The Forest Bus operates mobile community development projects to deliver a variety of group activities, targeting children, young people and their families, focussing on those who live in areas disadvantaged by rural isolation.

3.15 Funding enables the Forest Bus to deliver early years work, focussing upon the needs of children in hard to reach areas where there are few amenities and where children under 5 do not access any other learning through play opportunities or pre-school play groups. Out of school play activities are provided for children over 5. The children who receive this service are disadvantaged by where they live and are excluded from mainstream activities due to lack of transport, the effects of living on long term benefits, their ethnicity or cultural origins.

3.16 The Forest Bus employs part time workers who deliver play opportunities to children and young people from under 5 years to 14 years. These workers will be trained to level 2 in playwork. In addition all staff will receive training in child protection, valuing diversity and cultural awareness.

3.17 Senior Development Officers from the Early Education and Childcare Unit's field teams work closely with the Forest Bus to ensure the relevance of the service delivered and to support new developments at appropriate locations.

3.18 The service specification sets this out and the service delivery is monitored quarterly.

4. Legal Implications

4.1 Recent legal advice stated that any grant to a voluntary organisation must be specific to the delivery of the Sure Start Strategic Plan for 2004-2006 and can only be awarded to those voluntary organisations, which can assist in that delivery, because of the type of services they provide, currently.

5. Financial Implications

5.1 The 2005/06 funding for grants to these organisations from the Sure Start Grant has been achieved by the redeployment of resources within the overall Sure Start strategic plan. The grant proposals are contained within the Sure Start grant funds available for the period 2004-2006.

6. Personnel implications

6.1 None

7. Impact Assessment

7.1 Race and equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact has been identified.

8. Crime prevention issues

8.1 The report and the decision arising will have no direct impact upon crime prevention issues.

9. Views of the Local County Councillor

9.1 Not applicable.

Recommendations

1. That the Executive Member for Education agrees the distribution of the Sure Start Direct Grant 2005/06 as tabled in para 3.

Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB The list excludes:

1 published works

2 documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

· Sure Start Strategic Guidance 2004-2006

· Grant applications and service agreements for:

Hampshire Pre-school Learning Alliance

National Childminding Association

Hampshire Children and Families Forum

KIDS Centre

Elizabeth Foundation.

Forest Bus