ITEM NO.
REPORT OF THE STRATEGIC DIRECTOR
FOR CHILDREN’S SERVICES
TO
Customer and Support Services Lead Member Briefing on Monday 21 March,
2011
___________________________________________________________________________
TITLE: Restructure of Early Intervention and Prevention Services
NB: This report needs to be considered alongside the Youth Service and Starting
Life Well structures as these work areas overlap.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
That the restructure of the Early Intervention Prevention Services is agreed.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
1.
BACKGROUND DRIVERS AND CONTEXT
The unannounced inspection of our children’s services has placed specialist
services centre stage in terms of performance improvement and increased
resources. Understandably there has been a push to strengthen the Referral and
Initial Assessment Team, Looked after Children and Child Protection Teams. This
report seeks to state a case for those services which prevent children from
needing to be subject to a plan by intervening early enough to stop problems
from worsening and needing statutory intervention. There have been a number of
high profile research documents which have highlighted the importance of
preventative work in providing positive and lasting improved outcomes for
children and families. Work in this area is focused on whole family engagement,
assessment, and interventions it works to promote collaboration with families and
a range of providers to give support when it can make the most difference. By
providing a range of low cost early interventions we can prevent the need for
more costly interventions later on.
The proposals contained within this report address the following areas:

Locality Teams including:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
Educational Welfare Services
Family Support
Brief Intervention Therapy
Family Group Conferences
Evidence Based Parenting Programmes
Children’s centres including:

i. Local Authority Nurseries
ii. Outreach and Family Support

This service also delivers the work around The Better Life Chance Pilots
and Think Family agendas. It is responsible for enabling and ensuring the
quality of all common assessment framework documents completed in the
service.
In shaping this service consultation has taken place with:





Targeted Youth Team
Starting Life Well/Early Years Team
Senior Management Team
Parents forums
Common assessment framework co-ordinators
Policy and guidance documents have been considered from:


2.
Department of Education
C4EO (Centre for Excellent Outcomes)
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSED STRUCTURE
The aims of the proposed new structure are as follows:



The proposed structure details the staff needed to deliver an effective Early
Intervention Service.
The structure attempts to streamline and de-clutter the staffing structures
which had grown in an unorganised, ad hoc way over the past ten years.
It reflects the urgent need to make savings now whilst protecting future
service for children and families.
It provides a case for rebalancing the system away from expensive and
largely ineffective practice of late or delayed intervention towards early
intervention which offers a real chance of lasting success and savings.
Research has shown that for every £1 invested in early intervention we will
save £7 which would be spend later on.
The aim of the service is to develop a more targeted approach to the delivery of
services to those families most in need. Effective early assessment and
intervention will reduce the need for more costly and possibly less successful
provision later.
Preventative themes include:






Preventing harm to all children and young people, especially those who are
vulnerable or disadvantaged
Preventing health related issues that impact adversely on children and young
people’s well-being
Reducing risk-taking behaviour
Reducing the impact of poverty and poor housing
Preventing exclusion from school and wider education and training
Preventing underachievement



Preventing children and young people from becoming involved in antisocial
behaviour and offending
Preventing isolation from recreational, cultural and social opportunities
Preventing barriers to inclusion
There are several key outcomes which an effective early intervention service
should deliver. Some of those include:





A reduction in the number of children subject to a child protection plan
A reduction in the number of looked after children
A reduction in the number of no further action
A reduction in the number of re-referrals
A reduction in the number of teenage parents
In order to achieve these outcomes there will be a need for strong partnership
working and a chance to develop creative commissioning arrangements.
ASSESSMENT OF RISK: Failure to provide early intervention services will result
in the need for more costly interventions later on. Investment in Children’s
centres is crucial to the department’s priority actions and business case within
Salford City Councils overall vision.
SOURCE OF FUNDING: This is being identified and considered throughout the
decision making process on the current budget proposals.
COMMENTS OF THE STRATEGIC DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER AND
SUPPORT SERVICES (or his representative):
1. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
Provided by: N/A
2. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
Provided by: Debbie Fulton
3. ICT STEERING GROUP IMPLICATIONS
Provided by: N/A
PROPERTY (if applicable): The portfolio of Children’s Centres (16 buildings) and
the locality building at Peel Green House.
HUMAN RESOURCES:
Alison Cubbins, HR Consultant
(686 6269)
CONTACT OFFICERS:
Nick Page, Strategic Director for Children’s Services (778 0130)
WARD(S) TO WHICH REPORT RELATE(S): ALL
KEY COUNCIL POLICIES: Health inequalities, child poverty and Better Life
Chances.
DETAILS: See the attached report and appendices’
1. Management Structure
Management Structure:
 Head of Service – Early Intervention and Prevention Service
 Service Manager x 2
 Children’s Centre’s Service Manager x 1
2. Team Remit and Function
The structure shows a reduction in staff by fourteen managers posts and fourteen
other posts, placing frontline services as a priority. This structure sets out a
service which is fit for purpose to manage a period of change towards a more
collaborative and responsive way of working.
The structure shows two principal manager posts who will take responsibility for
overseeing this work across the city, each managing the work of two locality
areas. This is a reduction of locality managers by 50% from the existing model.
The locality teams will manage all aspects of attendance support including any
legal requirements and court proceedings.
The teams will address children missing from education issues. There will be
three to four education welfare officer posts in each locality. Each locality team
will manage a comprehensive family support service across all thresholds of
need. Child in Need and Child Protection teams will be able to access family
support services from locality teams. Twenty four family support workers will be
employed in the service: six per team.
The Early Intervention Teams will manage all Common Assessment Framework
referrals that come into the directorate, they will organise Team Around the Child
and Team Around the Family meetings and reviews. There will be one senior coordinator and two assistant co-ordinators across the service.
The structure proposes the retention to the post of service manager for children’s
centres. This post holder will ensure the future direction and sustainability of our
children’s centres as they become an integral part of early intervention services
focussing on providing improved life chances for those families most at risk of
poor outcomes.
This role will take the place of the current model which consists of four sure start
locality manager’s. These posts will be deleted.
We will move from sixteen children’s centre manager’s to eight children’s centre
cluster co-ordinators who will take responsibility for designing and delivering
children’s centre services in a neighbourhood area. This includes work with
partner agencies. The children’s centres will employ fifty five workers across the
city offering support to families between the hours of 7am – 7pm plus some
weekends.
Salford currently has three posts relating to parenting, a parenting strategy coordinator plus two parenting experts. This new structure proposes that these
roles are combined to create one parenting expert practitioner who will be
responsible for delivering a range of parenting support appropriate to levels of
need across the city. This person will take responsibility for leading a
comprehensive service with a team of parenting practitioners. They will ensure
that the parenting strategy is regularly updated to reflect the changing needs
across Salford. The parenting practitioners and Brief Intervention Team workers
are existing staff.
The proposed strategy includes a new permanent funded childcare coordinator
post. This post is currently being undertaken as additional duties to another post
on an informal basis. It is being recommended that the duties of this post need to
be made more formal in the new structure.
The mainstream budget has £27.5K to fund this post. This post will take
responsibility for ensuring that funded childcare is given, monitored and reviewed
in a fair and strategic way that takes into account quality, best value, choice and
inclusion.
This structure includes Early Intervention and Prevention Development
manager’s one post for each locality. These workers will develop and take
responsibility for a range of work streams that will change over time as the
service requires e.g.








Linking work with neighbourhood teams
Child poverty strategy
Family group conferences
Working with public health
Working with drug and alcohol using parents
Group work structure
Business planning and quality assurance
Improving systems, demonstrating impact
Finally, the structure proposes the permanent employment of twenty family
support workers. These workers will provide family support to families across the
thresholds of need. They will provide individual tailored family support on a case
work basis. These workers will be managed and supervised by the locality
operational team managers.
There are currently four locality practice managers. They manage the locality
teams on a day to day basis and offer supervision to family support workers and
educational welfare officers.
The structure allows for the retention of a family information service manager
however it is recommended that this service area is reduced significantly. It may
be considered that this service best sits within the corporate call centre.
A.
CHANGES TO POST TITLES
Post Title Change
Locality Manager
Operational Manager
Senior Family Support
worker
Children’s centre
manager
Proposed Title
Intervention and Prevention Service Manager
Practice Manager
Family Support Co-ordinator
Changes to Grade
Evaluation required
Evaluation required
Evaluation required
Children's Centre Cluster Co-Coordinator
Evaluation required
Common Assessment
Co - ordinator
Common Assessment
Co - ordinator
Senior Common Assessment Co-ordinator
Evaluation required
Assistant Common Assessment Co-ordinator
Evaluation required
NEW POST TITLES
Early intervention and prevention development officer, parenting expert and
childcare panel co-ordinator grades to be determined through job evaluation.
Appendix 1 – Early Intervention and Prevention Structure Chart
Management
Head of Early Intervention and Prevention
Service
Intervention and Prevention Service
North/Central
Central
Front Line Services - Delivering to families
Early Intervention & Prevention
Development Officer.
Practice Manager.
Education Welfare Officer x 4
Family Support Co-ordinator x 1
Family Support Workers x 6
Brief Intervention Worker
Intervention and Prevention Service
South/West
Children's Centre's Service Manager
North
South
West
Early Intervention & Prevention
Development Officer.
Practice Manager.
Education Welfare Officer x 3
Family Support Co-ordinator x 1
Family Support Workers x 6
Brief Intervention Worker
Early Intervention & Prevention
Development Officer.
Practice Manager.
Education Welfare Officer x 3
Family Support Co-ordinator x 1
Family Support Workers x 6
Brief Intervention Worker
Early Intervention & Prevention
Development Officer.
Practice Manager.
Education Welfare Officer x 3
Family Support Co-ordinator x 1
Family Support Workers x 5
Brief Intervention Worker
Children's
Centre Cluster
Co -ordinator
Children's
Centre Cluster
Co-ordinator
Children's
Centre Cluster
Co-ordinator
Children's
Centre Cluster
Co-ordinator
Children's
Centre Cluster
Co-ordinator
Children's
Centre Cluster
Co-ordinator
Children's
Centre Cluster
Co-ordinator
Children's
Centre Cluster
Co-ordinator
Deputy
Children's
Centre Manager
Deputy
Children's
Centre Manager
Deputy
Children's
Centre Manager
Deputy
Children's
Centre Manager
Deputy
Children's
Centre Manager
Deputy
Children's
Centre Manager
Deputy
Children's
Centre Manager
Deputy
Children's
Centre Manager
55 Children's Centre Workers - working flexibly across the whole service depending on needs of the community
Commissioned Services (Currently)
In House City Wide posts:
Family Intervention Projects
Better Life Chances
Childcare Panel Co-ordinator x 1
Common Assessment Co-ordinator x 1
Assistant Common Assessment Co-ordinator x 2
Parenting Expert x 1
Parenting Practitioners x 6
Family Group Conference Co-ordinator x 1
Family Information Service Manager x 1
KEY
Required
Corporate
Commissioned
Appendix 2 – Children’s Centre mapping
Children's Centre's Service Manager
North and Central
South and West
Area 1
Area 2
Area 3
Children's
Centre Cluster
Co-Ordinator
Children's
Centre Cluster
Co-Ordinator
Children's
Centre Cluster
Co-Ordinator
Deputy
Children's
Centre Manager
Deputy
Children's
Centre Manager
Deputy
Children's
Centre Manager
Area 4
Area 7
Area 8
Area 5
Area 6
Children's
Centre Cluster
Co-Ordinator
Children's
Centre Cluster
Co-Ordinator
Children's
Centre Cluster
Co-Ordinator
Children's
Centre Cluster
Co-Ordinator
Children's
Centre Cluster
Co-Ordinator
Deputy
Children's
Centre Manager
Deputy
Children's
Centre Manager
Deputy
Children's
Centre Manager
Deputy
Children's
Centre Manager
Deputy
Children's
Centre Manager
55 Children's Centre Workers - working flexibly across the whole service depending on needs of the community
Central Hubs
North Hubs
Swinton
Moorside
Children's
Centre
Mossfield
Children's
Centre
Belvedere
Children's
Centre & Local
Authority
Nursery
Higher
Broughton
Children's
Centre & Local
Authority
Nursery
South Hubs
Lower
Broughton
Children's
Centre
Winton
Children's
Centre & Local
Authority
Nursery
West Hub
Cadishead
Children's
Centre
Little Hulton
Children's
Centre & Local
Authority
Nursery
Eccles
Children's
Centre
St Paul's
Heathside
Children's
Centre
Other children's centres in area contributing to service delivery
Charlestown &
Lower Kersal
Children's
Centre
Larkhill
Children's
Centre
Primrose Hill
Children's
Centre
Hershal Weiss
Children and
Family Centre
Key
Local Authority controlled nursery
Commissioned services
Summerville
Children's
Centre
Barton Moss
Children's
Centre & Local
Authority
Nursery
Fiddlers Lane
Children's
Centre
Appendix 3 – Children’s Centre Map
Appendix 4 – An example of a typical model for children’s centre cluster service delivery
Salford Children's Centre Core Purpose
• Adult learning and employment support
• Early learning and childcare
• Child and family health
• Parenting and family support
• Outreach and information for families
Broughton Children's
Centre Hub
Irlam and Cadishead
Children's Centre Hub
Other Early Intervention and Prevention Services
Higher Brougton
Children's Centre
Lower Broughton
Children's Centre
Hershel Weiss
Children and Family
Centre
• Locality Teams
• Targeted Youth Services
• Work and Skills Team
• Starting Life Well/Early Years
• Teenage Pregnancy
• Drugs and Alcohol Team
• Parenting
• Educational Welfare Officer
• Family Support
• Brief Intervention Therapy
• Family Group Conferences
• Common Assessment Co-ordinators
Hersel Weiss Children and Family Centre
Specific Services
Broughton Children's Centre Hub Core Purpose Area Specific
Area Specific
Lower Broughton Community Specific
Services
Early Learning and Childcare
• Soft Play
• Book and toy library
• Childminders drop in
Early Learning and Childcare
• Childcare provision
• Stay and Play
• Support and leadership for local childcare providers
• Childminder networks
Early Learning and Childcare
• Childminder support
• Stay and Play / Speak easy
• Father’s family fun
Parenting and Family Support
• Outreach
• Family support advice drop in
• Citizen Advice Bureau sessions
Adult Learning and Employment Support
• Family learning first aid
• Computers for men
Child and Family Health
• Perinatal counselling
• Nurse clinic
• Baby clinic
• Men's heath and safety awareness
Parenting and Family Support
• Outreach
• Evidence based parenting courses
• Support for individual families
• Citizen Advice Bureau sessions
• Parents forums
Adult Learning and Employment Support
• Job Centre Plus
• Skills and work
• Adult learning classes/groups
Child and Family Health
• Oral health advice
• Health visitor well baby clinic
• Information for expectant and new mothers
• Midwifery services
• Baby massage
Parenting and Family Support
• Outreach
• Parent survival course
• Evidence based parenting courses
• Support for individual families
• Citizen Advice Bureau sessions
Adult Learning and Employment Support
• Numeracy course
Child and Family Health
Midwifery:
• Bundles of joy course
• Clinic
• Breastfeeding support
Well baby clinic
Cadishead Children's
Centre
Irlam and Cadishead Children's Centre Hub
Core Purpose - Area Specific
Area Specific
Early Learning and Childcare
• Stay and Play
• Support and leadership for local childcare
providers
• Childminder networks
Parenting and Family Support
• Outreach
• Evidence based parenting courses
• Support for individual families
Adult Learning and Employment Support
• Job Centre Plus
• Skills and work
• Adult learning classes
Child and Family Health
• Midwifery services
• Health visitor clinic/drop in/assessments
• Forum sessions
• Movers and shakers
• MEND 2-4 (shared with Cadishead)
• Breastfriends advice and support
• Baby weaning
Key
Lead Centre
Linked Centre
Satellite Venue
Fiddler's Lane
Children's Centre
Cadishead Community Specific Services
Early Learning and Childcare
• Mojo's breakfast club
• Childminder's Stay and Play
• Story sessions
Parenting and Family Support
• Outreach
• Evidence based parenting courses
• Support for individual families
• Citizen Advice Bureau sessions
Adult Learning and Employment Support
• Skills and work
• Job Centre Plus appointments
• Computers don't byte
Child and Family Health
• Midwife clinic
• Healthy babies and parents
• Dad's and kids sure swim
• MEND 2-4 (shared with Fiddlers Lane)
Appendix 5 – Budget Information
Budgets Available
2010/2011
£
Early Intervention Grant Allocation
Sure Start Children's Centres allocation
2011/2012
£
6,963,226
EY Sustainability ( Sufficiency & Access ) allocation
£
£
6,064,970
588,312
512,420
7,551,538
Locality Team Budgets
E2111 North
S2111 North
E2112 South
S2112 South
E2113 West
S2113 West
E2114 Central
S2114 Central
S2102 Breif Intervention
Total budgets for all four Locality Teams
Less: Savings / efficiency proposals
Revised Total budgets for all four Locality Teams
289,766
193,452
249,932
132,440
236,169
225,348
298,980
44,700
46,484
1,717,271
0
1,717,271
Total Budget Available
1,717,271
6,577,390
289,766
194,998
249,932
133,985
236,169
227,412
310,487
46,425
46,484
1,735,658
-234,000
1,501,658
9,268,809
1,501,658
8,079,048
Less: Additional Team structure saving based on the original proposed strucutre
-495,299
Less: Additional £1million budget saving required across all the service
-1,000,000
Revised Total Budget Available
6,583,749
Less: Saving on the reduction of the Education Lead Teacher posts
-405,589
6,178,160
The total service saving from 2010-11 to 2011-12 is £3,112,214 - a 34% saving
The changes made to produce additional staffing savings of £516,864 are:
Combining the parenting & funded childcare admin post
CC admin/reception posts reduced from 20 to 8 posts
Removal for 4 x Family Intervention Service/Locality Information Coordinator posts
Removal of the Missing from Education ( IT ) post
Deletion of the Crisis Team
Move Early Intervention and Prevention Business Support Officer post from support services to operational
structure ( no saving )
Addition of 1 x CAF Co-ordinator
Total
-21,565
-276,156
-96,784
-31,091
-104,724
0
35,021
-495,299
Appendix 6 - Impact Assessment
Change
Combining parenting support and childcare administration post.
Impact
As part of the administration review plans, we have reduced our
administration support. By working in a more flexible way we should
be able to continue to cover this service area. Each of these activities
will now be done over 2.5 days.
Reduction of children’s centre reception workers.
This is also a consequence of the administration review. The impact
will be less staff available to welcome/let people into centres, answer
telephones etc. We are moving towards a cluster model of delivery
and this should enable us to continue a high quality service. We hope
to use volunteers and parents more to meet and greet other parents.
Removal of Family Information Posts
The duty to provide information to families will now be met in a range
of different ways some by children’s centre workers, others through a
more corporate approach.
Deletion of the crisis team from the structure
This team are now moving into the child protection/child in need
structure.
Addition of an Assistant Common Assessment Framework coordinator
This additional capacity will allow for the planned developmental work
around common assessment processes.