Opportunity Areas: Ipswich - In evidence

Agroup of two-year-olds and their parents are standing on a jetty in the beautiful coastal village of Walberswick in Suffolk, dangling lines into the water. Although it is only 33 miles from their homes in Ipswich, most have never been there before, or experienced the common East Anglian pastime of crabbing. Some have never left the town.

The trip was organised by Bows and Arrows, a charity which owns six nurseries in Ipswich located in areas of deprivation, using money obtained from the Opportunity Area funding scheme.

More than 8 per cent of Ipswich’s population is under the age of five, and half of all the children in Suffolk who do not speak English as a first language live in the town. While the percentage of Ipswich children achieving good development at the end of the EYFS is in line with the national average, one quarter of disadvantaged children do not meet the expected level in the speaking Early Learning Goal.

One of Ipswich’s four priorities is to support children to ‘develop the behaviours they need to learn’ before they start school, with a focus on resilience, self-regulation, and closing the ‘word gap’ between disadvantaged children and their peers. The Ipswich Opportunity Area (IOA) has invested more than £250,000 in the early years sector, with settings able to apply for funding for projects and access training.

Broadening experiences

Ipswich’s partnership board points out that children from more disadvantaged backgrounds can have limited experiences outside of their communities. The Bows and Arrows coach trip was one of a number of activities the group has carried out with a focus on improving communication, language and literacy among two-year olds.

‘If you have a crab on the end of your line, you are going to want to talk about it,’ explains joint chief executive Anne Denny. ‘Trips are nice informal ways to spend time with families and talk about issues to do with education.’

The settings also used the money to extend staff hours in order to carry out one-to-one reading sessions with children and focused group work. For this, they invested in Elklan Level 2 and 3 training for key staff on speech and language for under-threes. Staff are currently applying their knowledge from training to deliver interventions, and from the autumn some will be accessing further Level 3 and 4 training on speech and language for three- to five-year-olds. ‘We felt it was best to come at the challenge from different angles,’ says Ms Denny.

Funding streams

Funding came from the IOA’s Evidence Based Practice Fund. To get it, Bows and Arrows had to propose an activity and provide evidence it would work, so it turned to the Education Endowment Foundation’s library of evidence-based interventions to build its case. It also needs to show the impact of its work, which it will do using WellComm Assessment, a speech and language assessment process.

‘We are seeing listening and attention improving dramatically in our setting,’ says Ms Denny. ‘We have had three Ofsted inspections resulting in Outstanding ratings since April and in the feedback sessions this project was specifically mentioned, how effective it was for the children.’

Bows and Arrows believes it was the only early years setting to apply for this particular funding stream, which Ms Denny suggests may be down to a lack of promotion, or the rigorous application process, although she says an Opportunity Area representative was on hand to help. Early years settings did access funding from other IOA pots. The IOA has also funded training for early years staff, including a two-day ‘What Children’s Bodies Need’ accredited course.

A SEND conference was held in June and a mental health and resilience conference is planned in 2020. Some 40 early years leaders have accessed coaching and mentoring sessions, and all early years settings are able to apply for a £5,000 workforce development grant for training.

Children’s literacy

Meanwhile, 116 early years professionals from 66 settings were trained in techniques to support children’s language development and in strategies to support parents to continue their child’s learning at home, as part of the Champions for Children Project. The training used the Helping Early Language and Literacy Outcomes (HELLO) improvement framework as a base, including additional elements that support improvements to social and emotional provision. Practitioners received support to cascade the training and approaches to other members of their team.

Funded by IOA, the project was developed and delivered by the National Literacy Trust and learning games organisation EasyPeasy, in partnership with West Ipswich Teaching School. An evaluation of the project found that almost three times as many practitioners asked parents how they shared books or nursery rhymes with their child at home after participating in the programme compared with before, and there was a 63 per cent increase in practitioners making time to discuss resilience and self-regulation with parents. Practitioners were also shown to better demonstrate knowledge and skills on communication and language, and were more likely to take action to create an enabling environment to support social and emotional development.

Amanda Goldsmith, manager and SENCO at ABC Childcare, was introduced to the HELLO audit tool, producing an action plan as a result that included making additional resources available for parents. ‘Staff are undertaking new tasks such as presenting to parents and organising trips, which also enables them to progress their professional development,’ she says. ‘The whole team are now feeling more confident in themselves and their ability to encourage parents to actively interact with their children.’

Adult literacy

There are also plans to support adult literacy. ‘We are very aware of low levels of adult literacy in Ipswich; one in six adults does not even have a reading age of 11,’ says Jemma Hudson, early years lead for the IOA. ‘We are putting together something to support parents, but in the process we have discovered that some of our practitioners also have low literacy levels.’

The IOA is working in partnership with Let’s Talk Reading, a voluntary project that aims to eradicate low literacy in Ipswich by 2025. ‘We are looking at how we can delicately support practitioners and parents at the same time – this has been one of the most challenging projects,’ says Ms Hudson.

As the IOA moves into its final year, those involved are looking at what can be taken forward if no more funding is forthcoming. While Bows and Arrows is pleased with the impact of the work so far, without more funding the group will not be able to sustain extra staffing for one-to-one reading, or pay for trips. On the other hand, upskilling staff will last longer. ‘We will continue to replicate some of the teaching practices when the IOA has ended,’ says Ms Denny.

Ms Hudson says, ‘The networks we have created through the SEND conference and mentoring groups will last – I know these managers find it invaluable they can contact each other. We have also helped to form partnerships, for example between early years settings and adult learning organisations: when I disappear from my role next summer, PVIs will still be in contact with the tutors.’

‘What we are trying to do is leave a legacy that says if we learn from each other, we can absolutely change the system across this town – it has waited a long time for it,’ says Richard Lister, IOA chair. ‘The challenge we have always had is that it is hard to persuade the Government to fund interventions when there is no evidence that they work. We decided to fund some bankers, that we know will work, and some risky things – if 50 to 65 per cent work, that is fine.’

IPSWICH OPPORTUNITY AREA

Targets

By 2021, childcare and education professionals will report a higher level of job satisfaction

By 2021, the gap between the percentage of disadvantaged pupils and all other pupils who achieve a good level of development at the end of Early Years Foundation Stage will be half what it was in September 2017

By 2021, parents who have been supported through this programme will perceive their child to have more developed social and emotional skills

Achievements

Champions for Children trained 116 early years staff in supporting children’s language development

Forty early years leaders have accessed coaching and mentoring. All early years settings are able to apply for a £5,000 workforce development grant

Other training includes What Children’s Bodies Need and a SEND conference

Fifty practitioners have taken part in Elklan communication and language training, aiming to train colleagues and gain Communication Friendly accreditation for their settings