A broader perspective of integrated working within the early years in the U.K. and how it impacts on children’s
outcomes
Presented by;
David Norman, Joe Knutson and Fiona Godfrey
Who are we ?
• David Norman, Family Support and Outreach Area Manager in Islington , London. Training background, Social Work.
• Joe Knutson, Deputy Head Teacher at Kate Greenaway. Training background, Education.
• Fiona Godfrey, Head Teacher at Kate Greenaway Nursery School and Children’s Centre. Training background, Education.
Historical Context
• The origins of Sure Start.
• The EPPE project and a focus on early intervention.
• An attempt to challenge child poverty.
• Victoria Climbie, The Laming Inquiry, presented to parliament in 2003.
• Statutory duty Children’s Act 2004
• The joining up of professionals, through training, practice and policy for better outcomes for children.
• The birth of Children’s Centre’s.
• The beginnings of integrated working.
Islington: The People
• Population 206,100 in 93,600 households
– Up 30,000 (17%) since 2001
• 57% under 35 years old
• Diverse: 68% White (of which 48% British), 13% Black, 9%
Asian, 6% mixed, 3% “other”
• 12% households non-English speaking
• 40% Christian, 30% no religion, 10% Muslim
• 8,600 lone parent households
• 18% disabled or long term limiting illness
• Relatively high % LGBT
• 60% single
Two Islingtons
Rich are very rich & poor very poor
47% “Well-educated city dwellers”
Houses that cost over £5m 48% with university degrees
46% “People in high density social housing”
14th most deprived of 354 local authorities 2nd highest rate of child poverty (48%) in the country
33% older people in poverty 17% no qualifications
Employment
• 23,200 (15%) claiming out of work benefits
– 1,400 (6%) 18 to 24 year olds on Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) – BME employment lower than White
• 13,000 (>8%) on sickness and disability benefits
• 6,100 (29%) of households with child dependents (usually 0 to 15 years old) are workless
• 56% lone parents not employed
• NEETs @ 16 not bad but issue is @ 17 and 18
Health
• 24% of households has person with long term health problem or disability
• Lowest life expectancy for men in London
– Cancer, cardiovascular disease
• Behaviour-related risk factors
– 91% do not exercise regularly – 64% do not eat healthily
– 21% (36,200) smoke
Nearly half of Islington’s children live in poverty
• 45% of children and young people live in poverty.
This equates to 18,000 children and is the second highest rate in the
country.
• Of these, 73% live in lone parents households
• Child poverty in Islington is overwhelmingly a
phenomenon associated with worklessness
Islington children’s Centres
• There are 16 Children’s Centres (CCs) in the London Borough of Islington (LBI) managed either by the local authority, a nursery/primary school or a voluntary sector organisation. CCs comprise a nursery, child care and extended day provision, of which a third of places are reserved for vulnerable children. These places are allocated via an Early Years Priority Nursery Panel.
• CC’s also provide a wide range of universal and targeted services either on or off site, in partnership with other agencies in line with a Service Level Agreement (updated annually) set by the LBI. CCs core purpose (see document below) is to improve outcomes for children and their families and to reduce inequalities between families in greatest need and their peers, in order to make a positive impact in three key areas:
• child development and school readiness
• parenting aspirations and parenting skills
• child and family health and life changes.
Priority Groups
1. Children with additional needs who do not meet the threshold for statutory social care 2. Children not in education employment or training
3. Children in a PRU
4. Children persistently absent from school 5. Children at risk of exclusion
6. Teenage parents or those that are pregnant 7. Children at risk of anti-social behaviour
8. Young carers
9. Children suffering poor outcomes through their own or parental alcohol or substance misuse
10. Children’s suffering poor outcomes as a result of their own or parental mental health difficulties
11. Children who have experienced domestic violence 12. Children with a disability
13. Child/young person missing from home
14. children and young people of offenders and/or those in custody
What does a Children’s Centre look like ?
child care & early education
• Early education and childcare from 0-5years old, 48 weeks a year and 10hours per day.
• Children from both working and non working families attend and access the same provision.
• Some entitlement hours and some charged hours.
• One third of our intake are special referrals, including children with SEND.
• Free places for the most disadvantaged children.
E.G the funded 2yr olds, referral places.
• Charges on a sliding scale to make fees more affordable.
• Supported places for families re-entering the workplace.
• Same staff, same venue, same quality. The aim is to NARROW THE GAP. (Proxy measure of success is educational outcomes over time.)
Universal Services and Activities
• Ante natal /post natal clinics
• Breast feeding support
• Baby massage
• Stay and plays
• Childcare
• Saturday stay & play
• Childminder support
Targeted Services & Activities
• Family Support
• Bilingual family support
• Clinical Psychology
• Speech & Language Therapist
• Parenting Courses
– Mellow parenting – Incredible years – Solihull
– Strengthening families, Strengthening Communities – Caring Dads
• Housing support
• Benefits Support
Early Help and Family Support
• Children and families may need support from a wide range of local agencies. Where a child and family would benefit from coordinated support from more than one agency (e.g.
education, health, housing, police) there should be an inter- agency assessment. These early help assessments, such as the use of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF), should identify what help the child and family require to prevent needs escalating to a point where intervention would be needed via a statutory assessment under the Children Act 1989 (p12)
Working Together to Safeguard Children, 2013
Partnerships with parents
• Services in the EY allow for regular contact with parents.
• Parents respected as ‘ first and enduring teacher’
• Many services are universal and therefore reach all parents.
• From this platform pathways are used, signposting happens to other services, some targeted.
• Unless Child Protection, most services are with consent/preventative level allowing parent ‘buy in’
• Stay and Plays and mixed demographic settings allow for ‘modelling’ and
‘expectation setting’
• Theory of environment impacting on outcomes.
How many families are we reaching ?
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
reach
National and Local Government
• Children’s Centres and Integrated Working have been a national agenda, interpreted in various ways according to community need, physical infrastructure and funding.
• Islington is lauded as an Early Intervention
borough and has promoted and protected it’s children’s centres and EY education.
• Driven by a need to improve education outcomes and health and wellbeing.
Accountability and Quality
• The local authority hold accountability for the CC outcomes in terms of OFSTED.
• Local authority have worked to promote uniformity of practice measured by data sets.
• The head teacher and the Governing Body are accountable for early education and childcare.
• Changes in funding to either are consulted on and redesigned in partnership with lead staff.
The impact over time
Early Years Foundation Stage Profile Headline Analysis 2015 Good level of development
This is defined at the percentage of children who achieve at least the expected level in the early learning goals (ELGs) in the 3 prime areas of learning, plus maths and literacy.
Islington is now 11th out of 14 inner London local authorities for GLD
attainment, a drop of 2 places from 2014. Out of 152 LAs in England, Islington is 106th.
GLD% 2013 2014 2015
Islington 44% 58% 63.8%
Inner London 53% 62% 67.7%
England 51.7% 60% 66.3%
Are we narrowing the gap in attainment ?
Gap for lowest attaining children
This looks at the total average point score and the gap between all children and the lowest 20%. The gap is calculated as the percentage difference between the mean average of the lowest 20% and the median average for all children.
Equality Target 2013 2014 2015
Islington 33.4 34.7 32.7
Inner London 35.9 33.2 31.4
England 36.6 33.9 32.1
Some reasons for success
• Continued borough-wide focus on lowest 20% and identifying vulnerable children.
• Growing impact of children’s centres.
Challenges and Reflections
• Tribalism…and if we were to do this again ...set a common language early that doesn’t change, set training programmes for all professionals to allow for understanding of IW.
• Communication between agencies. Shared data.
• Change in stages and too rapid can mean exhaustion and fragility.
• Staff retention. Doing it all again
• Personalities can make integrated working successful in the shorter term……but needs to be based on the principles of practice, procedure and policy.
• Hard to reach parents….and there always will be.
• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-centres-their- impact-on-children-and-families for recent research on the impact of Children’s Centres
Questions?
