Sure start
How are Sure Start workers coping with the change to
children’s centres? Victoria Neumark visits the Roundabout
centre in Brighton
Government plans: DROPIN
By 2010 a
universal local service bringing together childcare and
services for families:
•
3,500 Sure
Start children’s centres for children under 5 years;
•
free nursery
education 15 hours a week, 38 weeks a year for all three
and four-year olds.
•
full-year
wraparound care for schoolchildren aged up to 14.
(55
words)
Our
new nursery and children’s centre (TEXT)
“I love it
here,” says headteacher Sue Suleyman
(mugshot taken), looking around
her sparkling new nursery, all brightly coloured toys,
beech furniture and soft cushions. Toddlers dig in the sand
pit while a small girl looks at a book with Jenny, a
nursery practitioner. In the babies’ room, tiny ones are
being fed ready for their nap. Foundation stage children
clear away a game of lotto before their organically-sourced
lunch.
It’s not just the brand new premises that Sue likes. “It’s
enabled us to do what we’ve always wanted,” she says. When
Roundabout children’s centre opened in 2006, the one-time
Whitehawk school nursery class was reborn at its heart as a
wraparound nursery, open 8 am to 6pm for ages 3 months to
five years.
Despite only having opened in October, she has already seen
toddlers from the Toddler Unit coming up to nursery class
with better language. “Forty percent of our children have
special needs, ranging from blindness to autistic spectrum.
The long day means that our SENCO (special educational
needs coordinator) can help them one-to-one.”
What has the change meant for workers? Instead of 10
teachers and nursery practitioners taking two sessions a
day, 83 children every week flow through days personally
tailored for them by 20 staff. Some of the children are
paying customers, others benefit from universal free
nursery provision, others are paid for by social services.
“It’s such an exciting time for us,” says Minna Reid,
childcare manager. “We’ve had all the fun of choosing new
toys and planning rooms. And we’ve all had to get used to
new colleagues, cope with building work and new ways of
working. But it’s so much more satisfying now that home
visits and health concerns and education are all here
together.”
Roundabout is a “hub” centre in Whitehawk, an area among
Brighton’s most deprived 30 per cent. The same 40-strong
workforce of health visitors, speech therapists, early
years visitors, nursery practitioners and teachers also
work in two outlying “gateway” centres in schools, serving
the 70 per cent less deprived. Mostly, though, they target
300-400 families in greatest need.
Says Celia Lamden, the Centre manager, “It’s a health-led
service, with health visitors picking up on problems from
birth and early years’ visitors keeping contact. It will
connect seamlessly into Extended Schools when children
reach five: their web of contacts moves with them.”
Teresa, the SENCO, liaises with reception teachers over
each child’s transition; reception teachers visit the
nursery each term. Extended Schools and Children’s Centres
are partners in more than education, though. They share
wider concerns with parents and other services.
“We see the parents a lot. We do a lot of counselling,
putting people in touch with other help. It might be drugs,
alcohol, domestic violence: we know all the agencies. As
part of a bigger setting, we provide a bigger service.”
Minna Reid chimes in. “But the interaction with parents is
positive, too. We’ve got a group planning our gardening.
And our parents’ room hosts session helping people get into
work.”
Celia Lamden, Centre manager, nods. “It’s not just that.
The parents had a big say in how this whole building was
designed and how it should be used. They decide what we
do.” She smiles. “They can’t be passive clients, like
before. Sure Start is about helping families move on,
parents and children.”
(564 words)
Roundabout Centre workers
Debby Bond (mugshot taken)
“From tower
block to seafront, they ring the “poo lady”, laughs Debby
Bond. Community nursery nurse and early years visitor, she
works in tandem with the health visitor and midwife to
scoop up problems before they fester.
Families often find toilet training tricky. “It’s either
too early or too late,” says Debby. “What I really do is
take the heat out of the situation. I get them to establish
a routine. To always use the potty in the bathroom, to make
that association. Sometimes just reassuring the parents
that it’s all quite normal works well.”
But it’s not always that easy. For children on the autistic
spectrum, for instance, visual cues and rewards are
essential. For those who may have had pain or who fear the
“big hole” of the toilet, playing with brown playdough and
reading information books like “Everybody poos” help to
normalise a new routine. And Debby is always on the other
end of a phone to encourage.
“I love finding new ways to connect,” says Debby. “Engaging
with families and children is the biggest thrill: it’s our
biggest skill, too.”
Jackie
Catt (mugshot taken) describes her exciting new project
We wanted to help
families where feelings are a problem. So we set up
a weekly nurture group, as they do in
some extended schools, to provide an
emotionally warm environment.
Debby had gone on a course which looked at
the links between child and animal abuse. And we both love
animals, too! So we decided to use
animals.
Four three-year olds were invited to join us for six
weeks. They were all
children who were playing up at home. Our idea was to help
them control their feelings by learning to express them.
We did a pre-visit to their home and the course
ended with a presentation session where the parents saw all
the art work and heard the children’s stories. They were
delighted.
The children each were given a small soft toy to
“adopt”. Every week they
had some structured play with the toy using the language of
feelings: “What would make your dog happy? What does your
dog do when he’s happy? Is that the same as what you do?”
and so on. And every week they would end with some free
play with their animals.
We talked about keeping safe, about how to
tell people what you feel and what words you can use, about
how to keep safe from animals when you are out and about
how to keep animals safe, about hygiene: washing your
hands.
Our activities were painting,
stories, magnetic pictures, model-making, singing, drawing.
And, of course, imaginative play with the soft toys.
Of course they had to keep the toys! They got a
certificate and a badge with the animal’s name, presented
by a colleague who has a deaf cocker spaniel, a rescue dog.
It was a good thing he was deaf as the children
get quite noisy when they are excited, but he didn’t mind a
bit.
One mum said her boy was a different child.
When she took
him to the city farm he was so kind and thoughtful about
the animals. And another one said what good advice we had
given about standing still when a dog runs at you: her
little girl was so sensible in the park.
Of course, when you work with the children, you are really
working with the whole family.
(576 words)
BOX
A week at Roundabout Children’s centre
Everyday:
9-10 am Pregnancy and Chlamydia testing. Health visitor and
midwife offer antenatal care and counselling.
Out of centre: Early Years visitors in touch with families
Monday:
9.15-11.15: Drop-in Parent and toddler group: art
activities
1-3pm: Drop-in Toddler group, physical play
3-5pm: Contact visits, supervised by social services
Tuesday:
10-12 am: postnatal depression support group
12-1pm: drop-in group for antenatal care and support
1-2.30: nurture group (see box)
3-5 pm: dermatology clinic for parents and children (eczema
and psoriasis)
Wednesday:
9-11: drop-in Toddler group, music
10-12: dads and male carers’ drop-in group
1-3: Toddler group, healthy eating, exercise
3-5: sessions with visiting play therapist
Thursday:
10-12: healthy matters, drop-in group for baby massage,
breast feeding support, baby health
2-4: advice session from Jobcentre Plus or Working Links
for benefits and employment
3-5: Safe as Houses, domestic violence worker available
Friday:
10.30-12.30: Child Health clinic with health visitor
12.30-2.30: Out and About, activities like swimming or
going to the park, going on public transport to develop
confidence
(173 words)
Roundabout
Centre users (all names have been changed) COLUMN
Jan is a bit slow,
her family say. Her Mum helped her with her first but she
has moved to Worthing and it’s hard to come over on the
buses more than once a week. Now the second baby, Alan, is
crying a lot and Jan’s husband Derek can’t sleep.
When the health visitor Emma came, she noticed that Jan was
not mixing the bottles correctly. She sat down with her and
spent an hour practising. After this, Debby the early
years’ visitor rang in to check that all was well. Weaning
hit problems when Jan let Alan have chocolate like his
older brother Sam. He got a stomach bug and lost weight.
Emma visited again and encouraged Jan to come to the
drop-in healthy eating group. Meantime, Roundabout found a
slot for Sam in its free respite provision at the nursery.
Since Jan has to bring him twice a week, she calls in on
Emma, who is arranging speech therapy for Sam. On Friday,
they are all going swimming for the first time, on the
Centre’s Out and About programme. It will be the first time
that the children have been on a bus.
Rita’s husband hit her
again last night. When she dropped off the twins for their
daily nursery classes, she was crying. The teacher, Jenny,
asked if she wanted to talk and when she said that she did,
took her into the parents’ room. Rita felt so worthless
that she couldn’t believe that anyone wanted to help her.
She even felt that her children’s eczema was her fault.
But she decided to talk to someone from Safe as Houses the
next day. With their help, she was able to go to the police
and then arrange for re-housing. She made an appointment to
see the dermatologist and got advice and cream for the
boys’ skin. She made an appointment to see someone form the
Community Mental Health team at Roundabout and is seeing a
cognitive behavioural therapist.
Now she is developing social skills in the parents’ drop-in
group. Last week, she made the coffee. Today, she suggested
that they try simple sewing as a group. “I’d like to know
how to sew on a button,” she laughs.
Millie
spoke for the
first time today! She has been in the nursery for six
months. For the first month, she sat in the corner. For the
next two months, she held on to Jenny’s skirt whenever she
could. Millie is the subject of a child protection order
and her visits with her father take place at the centre
under supervision. No one knows if her mutism is connected
to this.
Jenny is cutting up fruit for the morning snack. She says,
“If we can just make her time at nursery calm and fruitful,
we will have helped.” Millie is laughing. “Apple?” she
asks.
Dan
has
four children, no job, and spent 10 years drinking Special
Brew. For the last two months, he’s been going to the dads’
drop-in group. Carl, who runs it, is a bloke with two
teenagers of his own. He used to be a plumber and builder.
He is a man’s man but he enjoys children. He’s opened Dan’s
eyes.
Next week, Dan puts in his application to train as a
teaching assistant. Barry from Jobcentre Plus helped him
with the form and the Criminal records check. He reckons
he’s got the experience – four children! – and he actually
liked school when he was little. They’ll let him volunteer
at the nursery, to practise under supervision.
(599 words)
Timeline
1994 Gillian
Pugh, doyenne of parenting education at the National
Children’s Bureau, urges vision: by 2010 every child
between birth and the age of six to access an early
childhood centre. Well-trained staff would deliver a
curriculum personalised for each child, alongside adult
education classes and parenting groups for parents and
carers within a network linking health and education.
“Britain would then finally have become a child-friendly
society,” said Gillian Pugh, made Dame Commander of the
British Empire in 2005.
1997: Newly
elected Labour asks Gillian Pugh to lead review of
provision for children.
1998: Gillian
Pugh repeats what early years professionals had known for
years: that the early years were key for brain development,
that high-quality early education is vital, that parents
and styles of parenting need to be part of education– and
that services must be brought together to respond
holistically to the needs of children and families.
1998 £540m Sure Start begins: 250 local programmes cover
150,000 children in the most disadvantaged areas; 250 more
soon added.
2002 Victoria Climbie is tragically killed by her two
guardians in Haringey: the latest in a long line of
failures by agencies collaboratively to protect very
vulnerable children.
2003 Green Paper Every Child
Matters, described by
Tony Blair as the most important document relating to
children for over 30 years published (see box). Instead of
targets, it looks to personal outcomes.
2004 Children Act requires local authorities and other key
agencies to work together to promote children’s well being,
to set up local Safeguarding Children’s Board, to devise a
single children and young person’s plan, and to appoint a
children’s services director.
2005 Evaluation of the first Sure Start local programmes
shows 20 per cent “least advantaged” do not share benefits.
Planning for children’s centres focuses on a 70-30 split.
2006: First report from Ofsted on pilot extended schools
and children’s centres said children, young people and
adults had more self-confidence, better relationships,
raised aspirations and more positive attitudes to learning.
2006 Children’s centres begin opening: currently around
1,500 but 3,500 by 2010. Merging with Sure Start local
programmes, they include early education and childcare
places, in group settings, with childminders and at home;
parenting and family support; health advice and
information; preventative services to support additional
needs, including outreach work in communities; and support
for parents moving into training or employment.
By 2010 all schools are to become
extended schools, offering a
range of activities beyond the traditional school day.
Says Dame Gillian Pugh: This is a bold vision and one which
is tackling many complex and intractable problems. It will
take many years to come to fruition.
(441 words)
BOX (optional)
Every Child Matters outcomes:
•
being healthy – enjoying good physical and mental health,
and living a health life style
•
staying safe – being protected from harm and neglect
•
enjoying and achieving – getting the most out of life and
developing the skills for adulthood
•
make a positive contribution – being involved with the
community and society and not engaging in anti-social or
offending behaviour
•
economic well-being – not being prevented by economic
disadvantage from achieving their full potential in life.
(81
words)
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