The Future for Children’s Centre Leaders


Using an overarching family support model, Jackie Lincoln considers what’s going well in children’s centres, what we’re concerned about and what needs to happen next. She is looking out for opportunities to build on good practice and establish new commisioning arrangements to deliver activities and childcare services.

I have travelled an interesting journey over the last 26 years from being a local authority head of early years, planning, designing and implementing Sure Start Trailblazers, then working as a strategic adviser on the roll out of the national programmes and now as an independent consultant working with a number of local authorities and also back, experiencing first-hand, the impact of current policies as a part-time children’s centre leader.

In considering the future role of children’s centre leader, I have decided to organise my thoughts as I would in an overarching family support model — looking at what’s going well, what we are concerned about, and what needs to happen.

What’s going well?

  • Sure Start Children’s Centre brand provides a clear identity for families
  • An established framework for multi-agency working, for example, team around the child and common assessment
  • Increasing evidence of the impact of children’s centres and integrated working
  • Extension of this integrated working model to 0–19 age range across an increasing number of local authority areas
  • Funding streams to early years providers for 2, 3 and 4 year olds with free entitlement and the forthcoming early years pupil premium (EYPP).
  • Commissioning of children’s centre services delivery from providers external to the local authority — where the specification is clear and linked to children’s centre outcomes and the quality of service is effectively evaluated
  • Examples of good partnership with private and voluntary sector early years providers, who are providing the childcare for the children’s centre reach area
  • Partnership with schools in working on transition and school readiness.


What are we concerned about?

  • Uncertain political landscape and continuing change
  • Reducing resources, “salami slicing” decision-making approaches which doesn’t prioritise specific service areas
  • Loss of “corporate memory” as key senior management and decision makers leave and take with them their expertise, knowledge and commitment to the delivery of children’s centre services
  • Closure of buildings and amalgamation of centres where this reduces access to services and leads to underuse of purpose-built facilities
  • In the wake of pressures on the children’s social care agenda, maintaining an appropriate balance of investment in universal, early intervention and prevention services. There is a worry that opportunities for the early identification of needs, often picked up in universal sessions, will decrease as there is a shift of emphasis towards those families already in need
  • Uncertainty about changes to the future Ofsted framework and being able to achieve good or outstanding inspection outcomes in an environment of diluted services
  • Discontinuation of the children’s centre manager leadership programme (NPQICL) despite being praised for its effectiveness.

What needs to happen?

We need to take and make opportunities.

The recommissioning of birth to five health visiting services this year provides a key opportunity for further shaping universal children centre delivery for prospective parents, parents and children up to the age of two. The specification sets out the requirement for community based delivery of health services and use of children’s centres to do this…there is an urgent need to examine potential combined resources arising from this exercise before any further children’s centre buildings are closed.

We need to take opportunities to build on good practice and establish new effective commissioning arrangements for the delivery of activities and childcare in children’s centre premises.

Opportunities for early identification of need

We need to maximise opportunities for the early identification of need (particularly for the 2–5 age group and especially those in receipt of the 2-year-old free offer and eligible for the EYPP). Children’s centre leaders can do this by working in partnership with PVI early years providers (and using existing examples of good practice) to look at how early years and childcare settings can promote home learning and be upskilled in recognising family stress. With this support and training, they can be confident about referring families for early intervention and potentially deliver low level family support themselves.

The integrated approach

Taking opportunities for further developing and embedding the integrated approach works well for the professionals in their collaboration and continuity of service for families with children and young people across the 0–19 age group. There are exciting discussions about children and family hubs and school alliances which are striving to pull together complex partnerships to improve communication and the quality of services. However, we must remember that families usually look to services at the point, age and stage of need — which is why I feel we should maintain the identity and brand of “children’s centre” for parents and the public, whilst as children’s centre leaders, we recognise that we need to work as part of a wider professional network of support.

Children’s centre leaders need to identify additional champions who can influence decision making on policy and resource allocation at a senior level in the local authority. We need to present and highlight our local evidence on how very early access to services, parent support and health delivers the core purpose of improving outcomes for children and that this can be achieved by balanced investment in universal and targeted services.

Finally, there is a need for us to take the opportunity to influence the policies of a new government and lobby political parties in advance of the forthcoming general election.

From 1994 to 2001 as head of service, Jackie Lincoln led the development and transformation of integrated early years and childcare services in Leeds and contributed through various working groups to the development of subsequent national policy. She was subsequently appointed as an adviser to local authorities by the Department for Education and supported the roll out of early years childcare, Sure Start and extended services programmes. Jackie provided strategic support to Children’s Trust partners in delivery of 0–19 children and young people’s agenda until 2010. Since then she has worked as an independent consultant continuing to provide support to local authorities and is also employed, part time, as a children’s centre services manager for North Yorkshire County Council.