Close ties with the voluntary sector have been an integral part of Northumberland County Council's drive to reach vulnerable families in some of the most far-flung rural areas of the UK. They have also resulted in an innovative link-up between children's services and local fire stations.
Head of early years and childcare Yvonne Fraser says that the county has been divided into six geographical areas to deliver services. The managers of two of them are employed by the children's charities Barnado's and NCH.
'Both are still employed by these organisations but are full members of my management team and are involved in the planning and decision-making about the whole of the early years agenda and the ten-year childcare strategy,'
Ms Fraser explains.
The development of Northumberland's Family and Children's Trust (FACT) has accelerated the process of bringing groups of key professionals together to improve outcomes for all children in a given geographic area or a community of need. Integrated teams are developing links with schools in school partnerships, health centres, GP surgeries and children's centres.
Guy Kirk, children's centre programme manager, says that an extended services strategic planning group brings together the work on children's centres and extended schools.
He says the council has developed an innovative model to deliver the requirement for qualified teacher input into children's centres. The consultant teachers team has been enhanced and there has been close consultation with the regional foundation stage consultant to ensure that the use of teachers in the centres is maximised.
He says it would help local authorities if the Government, which expects them to plan for the long term, made its own more long-term commitments to funding services. 'They should say, "There's your three years funding and soon we will tell you what the next three years will be",' he adds.
AIMS AND FUNDING
* In the first phase (2004-06), 13 centres have been opened, aiming to reach 3,573 children aged under five, with a target of 239 new pre-school childcare places. The county received 1,710,633 (1,610,633 plus 100K rural uplift) in capital and 306,108 (286,108 plus 40K rural uplift) in revenue.
* In the second phase, ten new centres are being developed to reach another 7,391 children in the 30 per cent most disadvantaged areas by March 2008.
By 2010 the council aims to provide children's centre services to all 15,792 babies and children under five in the county. For 2006-08 the council received 2,296,550 in capital (2,046,550 plus 250,000 rural uplift) and revenue of 1,913,732 (1,628,435 plus 285,297 rural uplift).
* Barnado's, NCH and local charity Children North East run several of the children's centres, while the Northumberland fire and rescue service provides premises and support for centres in some of the most rural areas (see case study). For example, Haydon Bridge fire station houses a local toddler and playgroup, and provides a base for the West Tynedale breastfeeding support group and a 'baby cafe'.
* The link with the fire service has garnered awards and the partnership between the community dental service and Sure Start in Newbiggin, which has resulted in a 17 per cent reduction in tooth decay among young children, has won a Partners in Excellence award.
EXTENDED SCHOOLS
* All 212 schools in Northumberland are moving towards the provision of extended services through 15 extended school partnerships. Each partnership has been given 35,000 through the local authority standards fund to appoint a co-ordinator and the local authority is planning to fund this post for two years up to April 2008.
* Funding includes a Sure Start grant specifically for the development of extended services on first school sites, and an extended schools grant for all phases of education.
* School partnerships will be required to produce a plan outlining key priorities for implementation of the core offer by 2010 and how these will be met through collaboration with the integrated team attached to each partnership. The local authority will consider match funding some of the cost to deliver the partnership plan.
* Individual schools will not be expected to deliver the full core offer, but children and families will have access to it at partnership level.
* Quarterly progress meetings are held between the school partnership co-ordinator and key integrated team members to discuss the impact of interventions on specific local issues and to report on progress.
TOWARDS THE TEN-YEAR CHILDCARE STRATEGY
* There are currently 6,889 daycare places in the county: 2,540 with childminders, 2,515 in private day nurseries, 1,834 in maintained nurseries.
* A consultant's report commissioned by the council found wide variations in occupancy levels, with 22 per cent of group providers and 29 per cent of childminders reporting that they are operating at high levels of occupancy (over 90 per cent), while 25 per cent of group providers and 26 per cent of childminders operate at occupancy of 50 per cent or below.
* The survey found that 85 per cent of group providers had vacancies, while among childminders the vacancy rate is 56 per cent. Where vacancies exist in group provision, 38 per cent are filled immediately, compared with 25 per cent in childminding. On average, 36 per cent of childminders report that it takes three or more months to fill a vacancy, compared with 26 per cent among group providers.
* Full daycare providers report particularly high levels of vacancies (97 per cent) and pre-school playgroups report relatively low levels of vacancies (72 per cent).
* 40 per cent of group providers and 25 per cent of childminders indicated they require support to meet the needs of children with specific requirements. Group providers primarily needed training and additional staffing, and childminders needed help with policies, procedures and training.
CASE STUDY: JAN CASSON
When Jan Casson was looking in vain for premises for her Sure Start local programme in north Northumberland, the local retained fire station offered her a 'temporary' home. It was the start of a remarkable partnership which now sees the fire and rescue service hosting children's centre services in some of the most inaccessible areas of the county.
Jan now manages three children's centres covering 750 square miles, from Berwick near the Scottish border down to Alnwick and Wooler, where midwives, a health visitor and a playworker are based at the fire station.
'I moved in with a desk, a filing cabinet and a wastepaper basket. Now there are 11 of us. There can't be many fire stations that have a Relate service running from them,' she says. The Wooler station also has a community space - an extension jointly funded by the fire service and Sure Start - which is used by childminders and other organisations.
She describes the fire station at Wooler as the hub of the community, while the spokes are the numerous buildings - many of them church and community halls -which are used to take outreach and other services to families and children.
'The fire service now fits all the smoke alarms and carbon monoxide monitors for our vulnerable families, and they also fit stairgates. If we visit one of our families and spot a potential fire hazard we get a fire officer to do a safety check,' she adds.
Jan says the centre also has what she terms a 'creche protocol', which means that firemen with caring responsibilities for children can bring them to be looked after at the centre if they are called out to a fire.
The unique collaboration between Sure Start and the fire service, which recently won a Partners in Excellence award, has also looked at ways of reducing child pedestrian accidents. Every child in north Northumberland aged four to eight is being given a fluorescent jacket, thanks to sponsorship from a company which provides breathing apparatus for the fire service.
Brian Hesler, chief fire officer for Northumberland, is an enthusiastic architect and advocate of the partnership between his service and the Sure Start children's centres. But he concedes that in the early stages there was some scepticism among firemen about its relevance.
However, he says, now that the partnership has 'grown arms and legs', there is genuine support from his staff and a recognition that involvement with Sure Start, on issues such as smoking cessation, brings obvious benefits to the fire service.
As a result of the fire service's input into the Safe Steps project run by Berwick council, the number of house fires fell by 20 per cent, casualties from fires were reduced by 70 per cent and the number of young children attending hospital accident and emergency departments fell from 230 a year to 40.
His staff have also received training in issues around child abuse and domestic violence. If, during a visit, they spot evidence of either, they can refer it to the appropriate body.
The partnership, which has resulted in the fire and rescue service playing a pivotal role across the county, will soon be taken to a new level with the development of the Rothbury fire station, which will be specifically designed to meet the needs of both the fire service and a Sure Start children's centre.
Mr Hesler says, 'The Sure Start project has been the most successful one I have ever been involved in. It has been absolutely phenomenal. We now have a joined-up community caring service.'
