Archived decisions

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Decision Report

1. Executive Summary

1.1. This report sets out a proposal for the re-alignment of the notional catchment areas (NCAs) of nine children's centres and the change of two children's centres from full core offer to graduated models resulting in a reduction in the number of full core offer children's centres from 28 to 26 and an overall reduction in the number of children's centres from 85 to 81.

1.2. The paper seeks to set out the background to the project, consider the impact of these proposals on finance, staff and service delivery and consider the next steps including the process of consultation.

2. Contextual information

2.1. Hampshire County Council currently provides services to children under five and their families through 60 Sure Start children's centres. This figure, following local consultation and national agreement is proposed to increase to 85 centres by March 2010 meeting the Government's target for every community to be served by a children's centre. This will bring to an end three phases of children's centre development covering the period 2004 to 2010 and represents a capital investment in excess of £40m.

2.2. The number of children's centres to be developed in Hampshire was clearly set out by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and this development is overseen by the agents managing the roll-out and implementation of the development of children's centres, Together for Children (TfC). The requirement was for Hampshire County Council to provide a minimum of 53 children's centres in phase 2 in addition to the seven that had been developed in phase 1 with a further 25 being added in phase 3. A request was made by Hampshire County Council to reduce the number of phase 2 children's centres from 53 to 45, however, this application was refused. The guidance further required the Local Authority to develop full core offer children's centres within the top 30% most deprived Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) based on the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) wards and the number of full core offer children's centres was agreed by TfC and the DCSF. All phase 3 children's centres are graduated models.

2.3. Children's centres are expected to have a reach area of between 800 - 1200 under fives. Within Hampshire currently the reach areas range from 346 - 1326 with 23 children's centres having a reach area of less than 800, eight of which are less than 500.

2.4. A full core offer children's centre is required to have integrated early education and childcare on or within 0.5 miles of the centre, to employ a fully qualified early years teacher and opening hours of five days per week, ten hours per day, 48 weeks of the year. This differs to a graduated centre which does not have the same requirement to provide integrated early education and childcare and whose opening hours are reduced to 7.5 hours per day. There is no requirement to employ a teacher. Both full core offer and graduated centres are required to deliver a range of other services including links to Jobcentre Plus and childminders, access to health services, family support and outreach and the provision of advice, information and guidance. However, it is expected that the style of service delivery will differ with much more emphasis within a graduated centre being on delivering services through outreach and in partnership with other agencies and organisations.

2.5. Over recent months it has become clear through discussions with TfC, that the requirements have changed and there is now greater flexibility regarding the number of children's centres that have to be developed by Local Authorities and the quantity of these that meet the criteria for necessitating a full core offer centre as described above.

2.6. Centres should now only be designated as full core offer if a minimum of 50% of the under fives in their NCA live within LSOAs in the top 30% of the most deprived areas. Based on the current guidance Hampshire would only have five centres that qualify as full core offer and as such, would be funded accordingly in order to provide the services as described in 2.4 above.

2.7. Further to this, the County Council took a decision in 2006 to extend the full core offer to all children's centres with an IMD ranking up to 35%. This decision resulted in an additional 10 full core offer centres being developed over and above the eight that would have been required if the 30% figure detailed in 2.2 had been strictly applied.

2.8. Together for Children requires Hampshire County Council to strategically review both the overall number and the geographical make-up of its children's centres as well as the number designated as full core offer centres. While this needs to be an ongoing process, it would be advantageous to take action at selected sites and implement the changes prior to the March 2010 designation deadline. Work will continue beyond this initial review period to identify further opportunities for rationalisation of children's centres across Hampshire. As appropriate further reports will be brought to the Executive Lead Member Children's Services detailing options available to better align service delivery with available resources. It should be noted that while this review is a requirement and expectation, Hampshire County Council is committed to working out the detail of any changes and identifying the best way forward for the effective delivery of services to children and families through children's centres whilst also maintaining 100% coverage of Hampshire.

2.9. It is expected that any required changes to staffing structures as a result of this initial review would be dealt with through vacancy management. While further reviews would seek to deal with staffing issues in a similar fashion, where required to deliver service improvements redeployment and/ or managed redundancy would be considered.

3. Proposed changes

3.1. The following changes to the structure of the County Council's children's centres are proposed. These changes would allow an initial reduction in the number of full core offer centres from 28 to 26 and reduce the overall number of centres from 85 to 81. The reduction in the overall number of centres would be achieved by merging Hampshire County Council managed centres where there are twinned management arrangements in place and some joint service delivery.

3.2. Eastleigh - The Windmill Children's Centre serving Bursledon and Old Netley to be merged with The Sails Children's Centre serving Hamble-Le-Rice, Butlocks Heath and Netley Abbey. The merged centre to become an enhanced graduated model, (a graduated centre with childcare on site) in line with TfC guidance providing services for 1055 under fives. Currently the two centres are twinned with shared management arrangements which would initially remain unchanged to provide stability and minimise disruption. Over time the situation would be reviewed and when opportunities arise staffing levels would be adjusted to make best use of resources. Current service delivery would remain unchanged.

3.3. Havant - Mill Hill Children's Centre serving Stakes to be merged with Small Steps serving Waterloo. The merged centre to remain as a full core offer centre providing services for 1012 children under five. Management and service delivery to remain unchanged, future opportunities for change to be considered as set out 3.2 above.

3.4. Rushmoor - Butterflies Children's Centre serving Westheath and Empress to be merged with Dragonflies Children's Centre serving Cove, Southwood and St Johns. The merged centre to remain a graduated offer centre based within the existing Butterflies building serving 1404 under fives. As outlined in 3.2 management arrangements and service delivery to remain unchanged at the present time.

3.5. Owls Children's Centre currently serving Mayfield, Fernhill and Grange to have its NCA adjusted to take in parts of Empress, increasing the number of under fives by 179 to 1429. This adjustment is necessary to allow the merger of Butterflies and Dragonflies by ensuring the number of under fives in each NCA is maintained around 1400, a figure recommended by TfC.

3.6. East Hampshire - Hillside Children's Centre to be merged with the newly proposed phase 3 centre serving Selborne, Downland, Binstead and Bentley. The new centre to provide services for 909 children under five. Management to be provided through the existing arrangements at either Chase Children's centre or Hillside Children's Centre. This would effectively support the use of the mobile unit which currently covers the Hillside NCA for the whole of this rural area.

3.7. New Forest - Phoenix Children's Centre serving New Milton, Bashley, Becton, Hordle, Milford and Fernhill to be re-designated to a graduated centre from a full core offer in line with the level of deprivation identified.

4. Finance

4.1. The changes to the current children's centre structure as outlined in section 3 would incur no additional costs. All staffing structures would be left in place for the short to medium term and, where NCA alterations are required existing budget shares would be adjusted accordingly if this directly impacts on the formula for the allocations.

4.2. Going forward it is expected that cost savings would be made as a result of the reduction in the number of qualified children's centre teachers being employed where the centres are being re-designated from a full core offer to a graduated centre. Over time, a more cost effective management and staffing model would be developed to take account of the merging of centres and this would be discussed and agreed by the Children's Centre Board.

4.3. Changes to staffing models would take place through vacancy management with opportunities for transferring staff considered where possible. During this process particular attention would be given to ensuring that service delivery is not detrimentally affected with transition arrangements put in place as necessary and staff would be fully involved with Unions consulted as necessary.

5. Consultation

5.1. Subject to approval Children's Centre Services would consult with relevant stakeholders within the areas where changes are proposed. This would include consultation with staff, parents, Partnership Boards, local County Councillors and partners such as Health and Jobcentre Plus.

5.2. The consultation would take place through local meetings in the centre(s) and through a consultation document to be distributed to the groups named above and would also be available on the Children's Centre services website during the period from 1 January 2010 and 12 February 2010.

5.3. A final decision on the proposed changes based upon the outcome of the consultation would be sought from the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services at his decision day on 10 March 2010.

6 Recommendations

6.1 It is recommended that approval be given to consult on the changes outlined within this report with effect from 1 January 2010 - 12 February 2010.

7 Legal Implications

7.1. None

8 Financial Implications

8.1. None

9 Personnel Implications

9.1. None

10 Impact Assessment

10.1. A full impact assessment would be undertaken in conjunction with any authorised consultation process.

CORPORATE OR LEGAL INFORMATION:

Links to the Corporate Strategy

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Other Significant Links

IMPACT ASSESSMENTS:

1. Equalities Impact Assessment:

1.1. Equalities have been considered and no adverse impact identified

2. Impact on Crime and Disorder:

2.1. These proposals would have no impact on crime and disorder

3. Climate Change:

a) How does what is being proposed impact on our carbon footprint / energy consumption?

Opportunities would be assessed to reduce the impact in developing a model of service delivery.

b) How does what is being proposed consider the need to adapt to climate change, and be resilient to its longer term impacts?

No specific measures have been identified