A Gateway to Services in the Community

Helen Stephenson from the Department for Education shares her thoughts on the importance of children’s centres in bringing together professionals across health and social care to support families, communities and to make sure all children have the best start in life.

One of the best things about my job is being able to visit some inspirational early years provision across the country. I recently visited a couple of children’s centres in Wiltshire and saw first-hand the excellent work carried out. Rise in Chippenham is outstanding and provides a marvellous example of early intervention in the early years. It made me realise how important the work of children’s centres is in making sure that children have the best possible start in life, regardless of background or circumstance. They play a key role in early years development for thousands of families across the country; from providing advice and support to signposting to services within the community. A core aspect of this role is ensuring that children are properly prepared for school and learning.

Good-quality early education

We know that children learn more between the ages of one and six than they do at any other time of their lives. Good-quality early education for two year-olds can really help to develop and complement all the skills a young child is learning at home — and research shows that children are more likely to enjoy and do well at school if they’ve experienced high-quality early education.

Benefits of the two-year-old entitlement

Many two-year-olds are entitled to up to 570 hours a year of free early learning and childcare; the partnership working and targeted outreach work of children’s centres means that they are in an ideal situation to work, alongside the local authority, with families who have eligible two-year-olds to help them understand the benefits of the entitlement for their children.

The benefits of the entitlement extend to parents, too — knowing their child is being encouraged to try new things and develop new skills even when they’re not with them can give them the assurance they need to go back to work, take a college course to refresh their skills, or even get ideas about how to help their child play and learn. Children’s centres act as a gateway to services in the community for many parents and helping them secure the best, high quality provision for their child should be a key part of this.

Working jointly across health and social care

Children’s centre leaders play an important role in bringing together professionals locally to promote early learning for two-year-olds and work jointly with key workers across health and social care. For example, we know that health visitors can often be the first point where parents hear about the entitlement and therefore offer an opportunity to broker advice and support in conjunction with the children’s centre. Working to develop a strong local network means that all families, including those who are less confident or engaged, can be supported to introduce their children to positive and ultimately beneficial learning experiences.

A core part of the inspection framework

This role is particularly important for children’s centre leaders as Ofsted now considers take-up of the entitlement as a core part of the inspection framework.

As you know far better than I, children’s centres have a duty to reach families across the community, with a particular focus on those who are most in need. Early learning for twos has a clear focus on the 40 per cent most disadvantaged children as we know that children from this background start school at a developmental level around 19 months behind their peers, but that with access to good quality childcare the gap can be reduced. To support this movement, many local authorities have set children’s centres specific targets for take-up as well.
We increasingly see the importance of good quality early years provision giving children the best start in life and preparing them for school.

By bringing together parents, volunteers and professional staff, children’s centres support families, strengthen communities and help put children on the path to achieve their potential.

Helen Stephenson is Director of Early Years, Child Poverty, and Children’s Services Strategy at the Department for Education (DfE) where her team is working to improving quality, affordability and choice for parents in early years provision. She joined DfE from the Cabinet office where she was Director of the Office for Civil Society and Government Innovation Group (which aims to mobilise people finance and data to tackle social problems in innovative ways). She led the team setting up Big Society Capital and was responsible for running several of the OCS investment programmes. On joining the Cabinet Office, Helen ran the Charities and Sector Support Team (Charities law and regulation, cutting red tape, infrastructure, strategic partners, business support and skills).

Helen joined the Civil Service from the Big Lottery Fund where she was Head of Strategic Policy and Partnerships. She has worked for a large national charity as a development manager and as a researcher and consultant in the statutory and voluntary sector. Helen has a PhD from Bristol University.

She was awarded her CBE for services to civil society in 2014.