Children and Families –
Early Help and Prevention
Children’s Centre Consultation
Workshops
September 2013
Aims of session
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To inform of current context
To gather feedback and generate discussion around the
findings of the Telephone Questionnaire part of the current
consultation process
Opportunity to discuss and feedback on a proposed
delivery model
Context

Agreed Principles for future delivery of Children and
Family, Early Help and Prevention Services
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Agreed Outcomes for future delivery of Services
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Early Help Forum areas
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Linked to Children’s Centre Core Purpose
Future Children’s Centre delivery in
Northamptonshire
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Services to be commissioned in all parts of the County, for the
first time, with delivery starting July 2014
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10 Lots will be offered (early Help Forum Areas)
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Other organisations, particularly Health, will play a key role
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Bidders will be required to identify and grasp opportunities
relating to buildings including current Children’s Centres,
Libraries , Health venues and other community assets
Each awarded contract will be for three years with the option
to extend for a further two years, if appropriate
Potential Yearly Budget
Lot
Corby
Daventry
East Northants
Kettering
Northampton Central
Northampton East
Northampton North
Northampton West
Northampton Total
South Northants
Wellingborough
Total
Children’s Centre
Allocation
£1,164,832
£850,926
£999,363
£1.372.449
£1,029,039
£1,276,884
£763,825
£1.006.951
£4,076,699
£670,153
£1,269,288
£10,403,710
% of Total
Budget
11.20%
8.18%
9.61%
13.19%
9.89%
12.27%
7.34%
9.68%
39.19%
6.44%
12.2%
100%
Children’s Centre Consultation/Market
Research
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Telephone survey – random sampling
Face to face engagement with parents / carers – Borough
Councils / community venues once a week and workshops
over the last two weeks
Survey Monkey (still open)
Today - Engaging with current and prospective providers on
the consultation findings and the virtues of a potential model
Summary findings of Consultation (Face to Face)
Weaknesses and Threats
Concern about the split between 0-5s and 5+ - how will duplication
be avoided when both age ranges involved?
Concern about the split between libraries (universal) and other CC
services (targeted) – doubt that this would be joined up
Services/organisations not working effectively together and maybe
less likely to do so when there is a third party
Feeling that libraries do not provide the right environment for 0-5s
and their parents compared to CCs
Parents want to be able to go where they choose for CC services more than they do now – don't see this model enabling that
Summary findings of Consultation (Face to Face)
Strengths and Opportunites
Skilled generalist (single person) seen as a strength – retaining
involvement and acting as advocate
More access points at a local level will raise the profile of CCs and
draw in more children and families
Reassurance that the budget is set and not focused on securing
lowest price for targeted CC element of the delivery model
Continued LA scrutiny - holding commissioned providers
accountable for high quality delivery with contracts terminated if
quality not sustained
Positive that local providers have a chance to tender
Proposed Delivery Model
Enable a greater proportion of the available funding to focus
on “early help and assistance” and “targeted participation”
through supporting families that welcome and benefit from this
Aim to optimise the use of community buildings, especially
libraries to potentially provide more access points to
Parents / Carers for activities and services
Possible Future delivery model
Universal: Library Plus Service
Targeted Commissioned Services
Information and Advice Service
Supplying information about a range of
services, including childcare and employment
support. Supporting families to access
appropriate Children’s Centre services
Stay and Play Services
Supporting parents in their role as their
children’s first educators
School Readiness Services
Working in partnership with parents and
childcare providers to improve outcomes for
children
Health, Lifestyles and Well Being
Services
Targeted activities to improve outcome for
parents and children. Includes ante-natal and
post natal support delivered in partnership with
midwives and health visitors
Improved Parenting and Family Support
Services
Early Help services for families that need extra
support, including Looked After Children and
their families and Children in Need and on Child
Protection Plans
Services to improve adults personal
skills, education and employability.
Links to benefits and debt advice, adult learning
opportunities and JobCentre Plus
Registration Service
Linking registration for Children’s Centre
services with general participation
events at the library and with birth
registration and library membership.
Volunteer Service
Using its quality mark Investors in
Volunteers, Library Plus will recruit, co
ordinate a network of volunteers to
support Children’s Centre services,
including participation in Advisory Boards
and Parent Forums
Stories Song and Rhyme Service
Building on the existing offer of general
participation events in libraries
Discussion Questions
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What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats associated with this model?
How could the principles work within Early Help Forum
areas? What would need to be in place?
BREAK
15 minutes
Coming next...
Possible future delivery model and your thoughts around this
Overview of Telephone Survey Findings
•
•
246 of the interviews were with parents from a “deprived”
area, defined as living in a Lower Super Output Area which is
one of the 30% most deprived nationally. 6
74 of the interviews have been with parents from a “rural”
area, using the NOS definition associated with the “Village,
Hamlet and isolated dwelling – Sparse and Less Sparse –
Lower Super Output Area” – Estimated in Northamptonshire
that <10% of those who live in these SOA’s have a child under 8
therefore 74 out of 990 is only marginally “under representative”
•
of the interviews have been with parents from a “deprived”
area. In this context, a deprived area is defined as a Lower
Super Output Area which is one of the 30% most deprived
nationally.
Overview of Telephone Survey Findings
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62% of those living in a deprived area and only 43% of
those living in a rural area have used one of the Sure Start
Children’s Centres since 2010
Only 30% and 20% respectively are doing so currently.
Usage from those living in a deprived area are similar to
those for parents in a non-deprived area (60% and 26%
respectively)
Significant differences evident relating to those who live in a
rural area re use at both levels relative to the overall County
figure
Overview of Telephone Survey Findings
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21% of parents in a deprived area use one of the library
services regularly and a further 23% use one occasionally.
The proportion using one of the services at least
occasionally is significantly lower amongst parents in a
deprived area (44%) compared with a non-deprived area
(50%).
However, parents in a rural area are no less likely to use
one of the library services than those in a non-rural area.
28% of parents in a rural area are regular users, and a
further 20% are occasional users, of one of the library
services. By comparison, 24% of parents in a non-rural area
are regular users and a further 24% are occasional users.
Overview of Telephone Survey Findings
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Majority of current users of a children’s centre who live in a
deprived area would be willing to access Children’s Centre
activities from an alternative venue if a suitable venue could
be found. 37% of these parents stated that they would be
“extremely willing” 49% that they would be “willing” to do so.
However these figures are not significantly different from
those for parents in a non-deprived area (43% of these
parents would be “extremely willing” and a further 50%
would be “willing” to do so).
Without exception, all current users of a children’s centre
who live in a rural area claim to be willing to access
Children’s Centre activities from an alternative venue if a
suitable venue could be found though acknowledgment of
the small sample size should be made
Overview of Telephone Survey Findings
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29% of parents not currently using one of the Sure Start
centres and living in a deprived area would “definitely”
consider accessing Children’s Centre activities at an
alternative venue if a suitable venue could be found. A
further 54% would “possibly” consider doing so.
However These figures are not significantly different from
those recorded for a non-deprived area (30% and 50%
respectively)
An identical 29% of parents not currently using one of the
Sure Start centres and living in a rural area would
“definitely” consider accessing Children’s Centre activities at
an alternative venue if a suitable venue could be found. A
further 53% would “possibly” consider doing so.
Overview of Telephone Survey Findings
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One of the library sites would be seen as a suitable
alternative by the great majority of current users of one of
the Sure Start centres living in a deprived area. 49% of
these parents believe that one of the sites would offer a
“very acceptable” alternative venue and a further 32% that it
would offer a “quite acceptable” alternative venue.
These proportions are slightly, but not significantly, lower
than those recorded for users of one of the centres living in
a non-deprived area (51% and 37% respectively)
47% of current users of one of the Sure Start centres living
in a rural area believe that one of the sites would offer a
“very acceptable” alternative venue and a further 47% that it
would offer a “quite acceptable” alternative venue.
Overview of Telephone Survey Findings
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If library sites were made available as an access point linked
to Children’s Centres it would seem likely to attract some
parents not currently using the Sure Start Children’s Centres.
35% of parents living in a deprived area and who are not
currently using one of the centres claimed that they would be
“very likely”, and a further 45% that they would be “quite
likely”, to use one of the library sites if made available
However no significant difference between parents in a
deprived area and those in a non-deprived area in this
respect (30% of parents in a non-deprived area would be
“very likely” and 44% would be “quite likely” to do so)
24% of parents living in a rural area and who are not
currently using one of the centres claimed that they would be
“very likely”, and a further 47% that they would be “quite
likely”, to use one of the library sites if made available.
Overview of Telephone Survey Findings
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The “types of activities and services offered at the venue”
was seen as the most important on average of the six
prompted factors in determining willingness and ability to
access Children’s Centre services. 55% of parents in a
deprived area rated this factor as “very important” and a
further 34% rated it as “quite important”.
This factor was also seen as the most important amongst
parents in a non-deprived area, for whom a similar level of
importance was recorded
This factor was also seen as the most important on average
of the six prompted factors for parents in a rural area where
58% rated this factor as “very important” and a further 34%
rated it as “quite important”.
Overview of Telephone Survey Findings
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65% of parents in a deprived area expressed willingness to
attend one of the workshops to investigate the issues in
more detail.
Conversely only 49% of parents in a rural area expressed
willingness to attend one of the workshops to investigate
the issues in more detail.
The level of willingness expressed by parents across the
county was 56%
Next steps (Short and Medium Term)
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Written report by independent facilitator relating to a)
customer consultation and b) prospective / current provider
engagement
Incorporation of views within forthcoming Cabinet Paper
Interpretation and as required, following any Cabinet
decision, adaption of current proposed model into
development of the specification
Acknowledgement that further engagement of parents and
carers in each EHF area required – to be led by the awarded
organisation (s) supported by NCC
Awarded contracts will enable some flexibility to vary the
delivery model if above engagement highlights the need to
One final question -
Do you think that the proposed model has the potential to
increase access and ongoing usage of Children and Families
Early Help and Prevention Service (CFEHP) for parents /
carers with a child under 5?
Please use your sticky dot to indicate your thoughts :
Very Likely
Likely
No Effect
Unlikely
Very Unlikely
Events update
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Partnering Events – 1st/2nd October – NVC led but
principles supported by NCC
Consortia Working For Contracts: Sharing Without Merging –
10th / 16th October - NVC led but principles supported by
NCC
Thresholds and Pathways Re-Launch – Autumn / Winter –
NCC led
Existing providers should also look out for details of
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New Ofsted Framework and SEF Training – 18th September
Financial closedown information session – October-date tbc
Training around new data profile – November-date tbc
Further Detail relating to Early Help and
Prevention – Children and Families

http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/en/councils
ervices/socialcare/plans/prevent/Pages/Preventionstrategy.aspx