Speaking at Sure Start’s annual conference in London this week, Chris Barnham, deputy director, Early years Quality and Standards at the DfE, outlined the importance of measuring effectiveness.
‘The network of centres is established and we are past the stage of talking about numbers,’ he said. ‘The challenge now is to make them as effective as possible.
‘The Government wants to be clear on what effectiveness means and the revised statutory guidance will help to clarify children’s centres’ duties. Accountability arrangements will be strengthened but this will be done on a local level, marking a move away from a centrally prescribed model.’
The conference also flagged up the Government’s progress on integrated health and education reviews at the age of two, as part of its Supporting Families in the Foundation Years programme. It believes that integrating health and education reviews will provide a more complete picture of a child’s learning and development, and is currently developing a model with the DH and DfE. This will be tested in 2013, with a consultation in 2014, and roll out in 2015.
NEW STYLE INSPECTIONS
Speaking on behalf of Ofsted, Liz Elsom, divisional manager, EYFS Framework, said that a new inspection framework for children’s centres, which would be delivered in April 2013, would move away from a focus on outcomes to look at the impact of services. A consultation kicks off in October. 
‘Evidence to demonstrate that impact will be school readiness, improved parenting, families’ economic stability, healthy lifestyles and parents’ understanding of their responsibilities,’ she said. ‘There will also be a new emphasis on the children’s centre leadership in the context of local authority support and direction.’
MEASURING PERFORMANCE
Payments by results remains a controversial issue for children’s centres and was a subject of debate at the conference. One member of the audience said that the PBR pilots currently running should be called the ‘not taking the money off you’ pilots.
A trial in Oldham has highlighted the complexities involved in measuring outcomes. Aaron Atkinson, service manager at Oldham Council said, ‘Results such as breast feeding rates, EYFS profile scores and sustained contact with the centre are among the many areas that can be used to measure effectiveness, but how do you make projections on these and when do they equate to payment? In our trial we found that the biggest challenges were information sharing and creating an integrated model with other agencies.’
Mr Atkinson’s colleague, Maria Greenwood, head of preventative services, said she anticipated legislative changes to support data sharing in the future, and this would fit with the new style inspections – and it would be ‘a paradigm shift’.
FUNDING FOR TWO-YEAR-OLDS
In her presentation NDNA CEO Purnima Tukanu said providers were currently in the dark as to which two-year-olds were eligible for free places. ‘It begs the question of how nurseries are going to promote places to parents if they do not know who those parents are,’ she said. ‘There is also a lack of clarity around investment. With twos funding being put in the Dedicated Schools Grant, which is ring-fenced, how does this sit with the Government’s localism agenda?’
She added, ‘Health services will have to be on board with the two year-old offer and two year check, and we would also like to know where we are at with the target to raise the number of health visitors by 2015?’
A delegate raised the point that the two-year-old offer should be closely linked to children’s centres, and said ‘Unless you impact on the parenting you are wasting your money.’
Another said, ‘You can’t just drop a two-year-old into a setting and expect this to get a result. There needs to be a social context and this should be a way of sustaining the children’s centre role. After all the offer is not ‘free’, it is being paid for by the tax payer and should ultimately benefit society.’
Linda Randle-Bissell and Joanne Lomas from Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council talked about their experience of putting the two-year-old funding into practice. They emphasised the importance of working in a joined-up way with health services to address low take-up. Ms Randle-Bissell said, ‘We prioritised the funding from data obtained from GPs and our model is centred on working closely with health visitor teams. Partnership working is key.’
Delegates said they were still waiting for the Government’s report on the two-year-old pilots. They also called on the Government to identify how much of allocations in next year’s Dedicated Schools Grant would be for use outside of the two-year-old offer.
EARLY INTERVENTION
In her presentation Naomi Eisenstadt, senior research fellow at the University of Oxford and the first director of Sure Start, questioned definitions of early intervention and outlined the complexities involved in identifying children who were most at risk.
‘Looking at problems around poor parenting, the root causes are unemployment and poor housing. But in order for universal services to work, the nuances of problems arising from these must be fully understood,’ she said.
