Windows of Opportunity

Barbara Mands urges children’s centre leaders to embrace the changes that are happening and to notice new windows of opportunity to work closer with other other professionals. One example of this is the integrated review for two year olds.

At a time of unprecedented and relentless change within local authorities, with no blueprint to work to, children’s centre leaders must be a champion for those families who are hardest to reach. They should not be distracted from their core purpose to ensure that enough resources are still prioritised and effective support services are in place so that those families with young children can continue to be identified and offered the right support at the right time.

Embrace change

The context is challenging, especially when we take health changes into consideration. There are ongoing pressures to deliver more for less and transform traditional ways of working. This is to be embraced and can create new windows of opportunity for closer and more joined-up working between all professionals and services working with young children.

Prepare for the new integrated review

One area I do want to focus on for children’s centre leaders is two year olds — increasing the take up of the new early education entitlement and preparing for the new integrated review at two to two and a half.

Firstly, we know that the new two-year-old entitlement is working well with many parents taking up a place for their child. However, from experience we know that some families do need hand-holding and encouragement to find the best setting for their child and support to visit a setting through to actually taking up a place. These families are often the ones who are the most difficult to reach and the frontline children’s centre staff who identify these families, work with them and put support packages in place, are critical.

Develop a clear narrative

At a time of financial cutbacks children’s centre leaders must develop a clear narrative that engages the local policy makers via the various strategic agendas and be ready for the external challenge that comes from Ofsted and the Department for Education, to ensure that valuable frontline staff remain in post and are able to prioritise these families.

Otherwise, we are at risk of young children not taking up their early education entitlement and chances to improve outcomes for them at the earliest opportunity will be lost when we know these are the children who need it most. For these children, the journey to being ready for school could be delayed possibly by up to a year and even more if a family continue not to take up an early education place when their child reaches three or four.

It’s vital therefore that the children’s centre workforce is there to do this important support work to engage families as early as possible.

Combining the best of early education and health checks

Secondly, we now have on the horizon the coming together of the Early Education Progress Check and the Health Progress Check from September 2015. The challenge is to create a meaningful and holistic integrated review at two to two and a half that combines the best of both checks, that all parents will want to engage with, and identifies any early support needs.

Reach all two year olds

Currently there are two progress checks, one carried out by health visitors and the other by early years staff. Each check has a slightly different focus and they can be completed at different times whilst a child is aged two. Shared agreement on the best tools to use and multi-agency training to deliver the check is a priority over the next few months. The size of the task should not be underestimated including reaching all two year olds, not just those who attend settings or health visitor drop-in sessions.

Children’s centre leaders should take a strong position together with health partners to plan the new integrated review in a way that builds on existing relationships between health visitors, children’s centre staff and early years staff working in childcare settings to create a shared dialogue. There may be existing or new local partnership arrangements that can be used as a forum to build trust and mutual respect through this common agenda and shared purpose to reach and improve outcomes for all young children.

Work with health policy makers

An added challenge for the integrated review is that it feels as if there is a shift away from those important early intervention services that are so important to be able to signpost to. If professionals are unable to signpost to services because they are no longer there then the early windows of opportunity to address or reduce any health issues that affect a child’s learning and development are then missed. Therefore children’s centre leaders should work with health policy makers to find new ways to work in partnership to minimise risk or provide services in a different way. This could also include increasing the confidence, knowledge and skills of other staff working with these children to deliver some of that early intervention as part of the day-to-day service they offer, whether that is a children’s centre drop in or a child attending a local playgroup, day nursery or childminder.

Whatever the future holds for the way services are delivered to families the facilitation of good relationships by children’s centre leaders and prioritising front line support is key to making sure that they make the most of the windows of opportunity to intervene in a more targeted way when families most need it.

Barbara Mands has many years of experience within education and children’s services, predominantly in early years childcare strategy and policy roles. She previously worked as City of York Council’s Head of Extended Services and is currently head of childcare strategy within the same local authority and is the strategic lead for two-year-old education places.

Integrated Review at Age 2: Implementation Study, Department for Education, November 2014