28th February

Sure Start inquiry highlights 'confusion' over children's centres
MPs have demanded that the government produces guidance on how local authorities report the number of Sure Start children's centres and the services they provide to address the "remarkable level of confusion" surrounding these "basic issues".

In the interim report of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Sure Start, concerns have been raised about the data available on children’s centre provision, political support of Sure Start and councils’ statutory obligations.

From evidence gathered as part of its ongoing inquiry into Sure Start, the group said local authorities often struggle to identify how many Sure Start centres they operate, what constitutes a Sure Start centre and whether reorganisation of services has led to a reduction in centres or services. 

The report states: "While there are some instances of good practice, there remained a remarkable level of confusion around the very basic issues in many of the discussions.

"Consequently, the group recommends in the strongest terms that the Department for Education (DfE) produce nationally applicable guidance on how numbers of Sure Start centres should be reported. Ideally, this guidance would be accompanied by an easy access guide to explaining the services that lie beneath those centres."

The group also recommended that the DfE establishes quarterly reports setting out the number of Sure Start centres and the level of services delivered locally and nationally.

The group called on local authorities not to abandon their duty to consult parents when making changes to Sure Start services, urging government and council to collaborate to make sure best practice is upheld.

The report adds: "Reports from local groups have raised concerns over the levels of consultation with parents and the group believes there may be a possibility that some of these authorities are in breach of their obligations under the [Childcare Act 2006]."

Concerns around leadership and political support for local Sure Start networks were also raised, with the group saying that where councils appeared ambivalent or lacked commitment to existing Sure Start centres the most significant cuts appear to have been made.

Liberal Democrat Annette Brooke, chair of the APPG, said: "Even with the huge challenges presented by budget cuts to the provision of Sure Start, it is simply not acceptable that local authorities should create such confusion for parents – providing them with little information or opportunity to express their views about services.

"We can only have greater local democracy if we provide people with the facts and the figures they need to get involved in local debates. I find it worrying that a group of MPs has struggled to gain an accurate picture – I can only imagine how difficult it must be for ordinary families to find what is being offered for their children’s future."

Charity 4Children, which acts as the secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group, will conduct a survey of all centres in England asking about the number and type of staff they employ; the number of childcare places they provide; the mix between universal and targeted services and about the extent to which they charge for services.

4Children chief executive Anne Longfield said: "One of the major challenges for local authorities is to maintain and develop their services and support for families at a time of immense economic pressure. 

"It is clear from the APPG inquiry that with commitment and determination this is very possible. We need every council to learn from these creative approaches to put Sure Start at the centre of their vital support for young children and families."

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

27th February

Childcare cost rises 'may make parents quit their jobs'
Some parents could be forced out of work and into poverty as the rising cost of childcare outstrips wage rises, says a report.

A survey by the Daycare Trust charity showed that the average cost of nursery care in Britain for children under two rose by nearly 6% last year.

Average wages rose by just 0.3%.

The government said it was investing an extra £300m to help families with childcare costs and increasing places in free early years education.

The figures, published in the Daycare Trust's annual survey of childcare prices, also show the costs of child minders and of nurseries for children over two rose by nearly 4%.

The report also highlights the impact of the government's recent limits on the tax credits which lower-paid parents can claim to pay for childcare.

Analysis of government figures for last year show that 44,000 fewer families are receiving this help - while those who still get it receive an average of £500 a year less, says the report.

This year's survey finds the average cost of a part-time nursery place for a child under two is more than £100 a week or £5,000 a year, with significant regional variations.

Nurseries in London and south-east England were most expensive, with a top price of £300 a week for a part-time place.

"These above-inflation increases in the cost of childcare are more bad news for families, heaping further pressure on their stretched budgets," said Anand Shukla, Daycare Trust's chief executive.

He said his group warned that "the government's decision to cut tax credits would mean some families found they were no longer better off going to work once they had paid for childcare".

"The figures reinforce Daycare Trust's fear that the loss of this vital lifeline is forcing families out of work and into poverty," he added.

The survey also found a shortage of childcare in some areas, particularly for disabled children.

The Trust wants the government to boost the value of childcare tax credits to the poorest families and to commit itself to free nursery education to all two, three and four-year-olds by 2015.

It also says employers should be encouraged to offer flexible working and childcare vouchers and local authorities should prioritise childcare in their budgetary planning.

The National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) said it was crucial to remember that nurseries faced the same rising costs as families and that good quality childcare was not cheap.

Purnima Tanuku, NDNA chief executive, said parents should use all the financial support available to them, including the 15 hours of free early education which is currently open to all three and four-year-olds.

Ms Tanuku called on the government to ensure that the free hours were fully funded so that nurseries did not make up the shortfall by raising the costs of paid-for hours.

The Local Government Association said councils were doing all they could to run affordable, high quality childcare services in the face of cuts in their grants from central government.

Children's Minister Sarah Teather said the government was "determined to help" and the coalition was putting more money into early years and nursery education than ever before.

"Every three and four-year-old can already claim 15 hours of free early years education a week. But we want to go even further - so will extend these free places to around 40% of two-year-olds as well," she said.

"We're also investing an additional £300m to help families with childcare costs while they look for work, and will maintain the duty on councils to make sure there is sufficient childcare available for local parents.

"These measures will help parents and, most importantly, make sure even more children get a fair start in life."

source: Judith Burns, BBC News Online

23rd February

Childcare ratings website will be free from malicious comments, pledges director
A director of a website that allows parents to rate childcare providers, has made assurances that malicious comments will not be tolerated on the site.

The Good Care Guide, which launched earlier this week, contains a database of nearly 60,000 childcare providers and care home for older people and lets families rate and leave comments against a provider’s listing.

While acknowledging that the website will offer families information that complements Ofsted reports, providers have also raised concerns that the site could attract unfair or false reviews.

But Denise Burke, joint director of United for All Ages, which developed the site alongside My Family Care, said safeguards have been enforced that will prevent such comments and ratings being left.

"We were very conscious that we didn’t want to get the criticisms that TripAdvisor had," she said.

"To make a comment you must sign up and register, leaving a whole range of information, including name and address. You have to wait until we email you back to respond to ratify the email address and ID.

"Then when a comment has been left, we alert the provider by email or phone and give them the opportunity to look at it. If they believe the content to be false, they can report it and we can take that comment down immediately.

"We then go back to the person who left the comment and ask for additional information to substantiate their comment before making a decision."

As well as safeguards for providers, Burke added that any provider attempting to create comments on their setting will be identified.

"The adjudication happens whether it is a positive or negative comment. We hope this will be a very transparent website that gives families the chance to have their say."

The site has already had more than 30,000 hits and hundreds of reviews so far. For every one negative comments there are four positive, according to Burke.

Anand Shukla, chief executive of the Daycare Trust, said the website offered families an additional source of information.

"Of course parents should also do their own research by talking to their local family information service, visiting a number of settings and reading the Ofsted reports," he said.

"But parents tell us that they really want to know what other parents think. They want to know whether their child will fit in and whether they will be happy. This site allows them to get real opinions from other parents using the setting."

The National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) also welcomed the site, but warned that the controls must be maintained.

NDNA chief executive Purnima Tanuku, said: "Parents already share information about their nursery experiences with friends, family, and via social networking sites and the Good Care Guide will provide another way to do this.

"It is positive that the site links through to Ofsted and it could prove to be a useful resource for parents looking for a high quality nursery in their area. "However, it is imperative that the planned robust controls are maintained to prevent malicious or false reviews being posted which could unnecessarily damage nursery businesses.

"NDNA will stay in touch with members for their feedback on how the Good Care Guide works in practice."

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

18th February

Good Care Guide launch prompts concerns
Concerns have been raised about a new website that lets people post their thoughts on care providers in England.

The Good Care Guide aims to give relatives a place to go to share their views on the service they have received from care homes and nurseries.

Government watchdogs helped develop the scheme but critics say firms could be put out of business if damaging posts are published.

Its backers say it will provide "real, honest feedback on what is available".

The guide gives people the opportunity to rate 60,000 care homes, home care, nurseries and nanny agencies in England.

In December, Care Services Minister Paul Burstow told the BBC the website was one of a number of plans to "shine a light on bad practice".

But Sheila Scott, chief executive of the National Care Association, told the BBC: "If a care home is ruined by a malicious comment, which is conceivably possible, then it's not just our member and their staff but the vulnerable people who are put at real risk, so that's our concern."

However, parent Anne Vaughan told the BBC: "It's just another source of information, that's information that's not actually available anywhere else.

"It's as if you've gone round the parents of a particular nursery and spoken to them and asked them what they thought of it, which you really couldn't do even if you were visiting the nursery.

"You'd just have a look round, you wouldn't get any idea of what the people using the nursery actually think of it," she added.

The website allows people to rate providers for quality of care, facilities and value for money, and works in a similar way to the TripAdvisor travel website.

The website, which is run by two companies - My Family Care and United for all Ages - is designed to "help drive up the standards of care due to greater scrutiny".

Government watchdogs Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and a number of charities helped in its development.

Stephen Burke, director of Good Care Guide, said: "Families have been very enthusiastic about Good Care Guide. Clearly they want to express their views about their care provider. Some 80% of comments have been extremely positive, particularly about childcare providers.

"Good providers of care have nothing to fear about Good Care Guide but there are some families who have had bad experiences of care homes in particular."

source: The BBC Online

16th February

Seven in 10 families on financial brink
More than 70 per cent of families are on the edge of financial meltdown, a survey by parenting site Netmums has found.

The survey of more than 2,000 mothers, carried out this month, found that one in five mums is missing meals so her children can eat.

Meanwhile, a quarter of families are living on credit cards, five per cent take payday loans and one in 100 has turned to loan sharks to stay afloat.

It also revealed that almost half of families have sold or pawned goods to make money to live and 16 per cent of parents are being treated for a stress-related illness due to a lack of cash.

"It’s shocking that seven in 10 families in the UK today are living on the edge, feeling there is little more they can do to make ends meet and fearful of the future," Netmums founder Sally Russell said. 

"Mums shouldn’t be missing meals to feed their children or turning to loan sharks in modern Britain. 

"It is essential that we all work together to support families that are struggling. It is also critical that the government steps up to make sure that there is support for the very poorest, but also recognise that its policies need to be able to support a much wider group of families."

The Department for Work and Pensions said welfare reforms will have a "dynamic impact" on some of the poorest families and will lift more than one million people out of poverty.

"We continue to support low-income families and put £6.5bn a year into financial support for lone parents, but we know that debt remains a real driver of poverty," a spokesman said.

"This is why we need credit unions to be supported and strengthened to ensure that illegal loan sharks can't plague the homes of vulnerable people and offer a real alternative to doorstep and payday lenders.

"We are working on the best ways to help credit unions expand and modernise so that more families can have access to affordable credit."

source: Neil Puffett, Children & Young People Now

13th February

Nurseries demand ringfence for free childcare funds
Early years providers must receive the money allocated by government to deliver free childcare places through a ringfenced fund to make sure they can deliver the scheme successfully, nurseries have warned. In its response to the government’s consultation on the free entitlement to early education for three- and four-year-olds and disadvantaged two-year-olds, the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) gathered the views of its members who stressed the importance of earmarked funding.

The membership organisation also urged local authorities to work closely with providers when interpreting and applying the revised code of practice, which governs how the entitlement must be delivered. 

Purnima Tanuku, NDNA chief executive, said: "The funding allocated to early years provision must reach the frontline otherwise it is not sustainable for many nurseries to participate in the free entitlement.

"This could become a particular problem with the plans to expand places for more two-year-olds from less advantaged backgrounds due to the higher ratios required and additional needs that these families may have."

NDNA maintained in its response that funding for the two-year-old offer must sit in the dedicated schools grant, not the unringfenced early intervention grant, which it currently is.

Tanuku added: "We also want to see clear, user-friendly data on funding for the free entitlement in each local authority available for parents, communities and providers so they can hold their local authorities to account.

"Providers, local authorities and national organisations must work together if we are to maximise the benefit of the government’s investment in the early years."

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

3rd February

Damning report finds £2billion free nursery scheme 'has failed'
Labour's multi-billion pound investment in free nursery education has failed to raise school standards, a damning auditors’ report revealed yesterday.

Free sessions for all three and four-year-olds - costing up to £1.9billion-a-year - have failed to translate into improved exam results at age seven.

The scheme was specifically intended to boost children’s development throughout primary and secondary school.

But a report by the National Audit Office found ‘it is not yet clear that the entitlement is leading to longer-term educational benefits’.

The authors found that the quality of nurseries was patchy across the country, partly due to poor qualifications among some staff.

Providers were allowed to go an average of 47 months between official inspections, denying parents current information about nursery standards.

Labour introduced free nursery places for four-year-olds in 1998, adding three-year-olds to the scheme in 2004.

By September 2010, both three and four-year-olds were eligible for 15 hours per week of free education, for 38 weeks a year.

The Coalition plans to expand the scheme still further, reaching 40 per cent of two-year-olds by 2014/15.

But the public spending watchdog found no evidence the scheme had improved children’s learning - despite the introduction of a so-called ‘nappy curriculum’ for nurseries setting down a raft of developmental milestones.

The first children to benefit from two years of free nursery sessions from age three sat national tests for seven-year-olds in 2009, auditors said.

Yet results in the so-called ‘key stage one’ tests have shown barely any improvement since 2007.

‘The department did intend that the entitlement would have lasting effects on child development throughout primary school and beyond,’ the report said.

‘National key stage one results, however, have shown almost no improvement since 2007, so it is not yet clear that the entitlement is leading to longer-term educational benefits.’

There was tentative evidence of an effect on children’s learning at five, the report said, but it had failed to last until age seven.

The findings come as a blow to the Government, which has estimated that better education standards driven by the free nursery places will boost national wealth.

Nursery: Free lessons were rolled out for three and four-year-olds costing up to £1.9billion a year under Labour. Pictured is a Gaelic speaking Nursery in Edinburgh

Civil servants claim that a pupil achieving five GCSEs at grade C or above will go on to reap lifetime earnings £45,000 than a classmate with no GCSEs.

It needs to bring 5,542 extra children to the five GCSEs benchmark to ensure the nursery places scheme breaks even.

Auditors found that the free nursery entitlement cost £1.6billion in 2010/11, rising to £1.9billion in 2011/12.

The Department for Education has no clear information on how much the scheme cost prior to this, it emerged.

But the best nurseries were not necessarily the best-funded, and quality was variable across the country, the research found.

In some areas, just 64 per cent of nurseries were judged by Ofsted to offer a good standard of education, against 97 per cent in others.

Overall, three in 10 children received their free sessions at nurseries not rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.

Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said the Department for Education needed to do more to assess the long-term benefits of the scheme.

This was necessary ‘to get the best return for children from the £1.9billion spent each year.’

source: Laura Clark, Mail Online

How we can help children improve their health
The health of our children and young people matters to us, and it matters to them. We want them to understand what makes them healthy, what keeps them healthy, and what to do when they have worries, are not feeling so good, or are simply ill.

In this week's Scrubbing Up, Barbara Hearn, deputy chief executive of the National Children's Bureau, says the launch of the government's Children's and Young People's Forum presents a key opportunity to improve services for them.

Teenage years are the transition years. Adolescents face choices that will affect their health now and in the future.

But while they can get information from parents, will it be up to date? When they ask their mates, will they be well informed?

While health promotion plays a key role, a significant and early point of private contact with health services for a teenager is their GP.

Some children and young people express feeling embarrassed and judged when they seek advice from their GP. They can find it hard to describe their own health concerns and find it hard to understand their doctor's response.

While GPs continue to improve in terms of their own confidence and capacity to make a child patient feel comfortable it is not yet a guaranteed good experience for those under 18's everywhere.

Practices need to be attuned to just how intimidating an all adult environment can be for teens and pre-teens to enter.

Three changes are required. Firstly, better professional development. GPs do have some training in child development but it is insufficient.

Learning how to talk to 12 -18 year olds; and even more importantly, how to listen to what they have to say; how to encourage them to speak up; and to be confident that they understand what is said to them before they leave, takes time.

"Practices need to be attuned to just how intimidating an all adult environment can be for teens and pre-teens to enter”

We can include young people as the 'teachers' here to help GPs learn how to interact effectively with their younger patients.

GPs would benefit from feedback about their manner, the quality and simplicity of their communication, their clarity in explaining diagnoses, treatments and next steps -thereby going beyond theory to learning by doing.

Secondly, the 10-minute patient slots are simply too short to establish a relationship with a tentative young person.

Once it was clear that a patient was under 18, a double slot could automatically be booked, and re-booking done with the same GP or only GPs that have had the training.

Thirdly, to ensure the services GPs are offering are the right ones, young patients should be involved - alongside other patients - in decisions about the services their GP surgery provides.

In addition, children and young people are rightly a target for public health services.

The fact of their youth means there is time to prevent damaging behaviours and flippant attitudes developing. And time to help them establish good patterns of managing their health for the rest of their lives.

It is time to break the myth that has grown-up over the 60 years of the NHS, that health services manage your health for you making it OK to get 'hammered' and end up in A&E; or to try a drug and see what happens; or remain ignorant of what is going on inside your body while fretting over glamour and goodies on the outside.

Involvement of young people invariably moves into the 'too difficult' box, to be dealt with later, but later never comes.

Young people are avid learners. They contribute through voluntary activity far more than adults and are deeply committed to and interested in the health services.

We need to think of these reforms not as 'do to populations' but 'do with them'.

Children and young people are those with the time and energy to put into making our communities healthy. And in doing so they are able to educate themselves and their peers in ways which can change lives.

source: Barbara Hearn, National Children's Bureau

2nd February

Statement in response to the welfare reform bill vote in the House of Commons
'The government has today made life more difficult for some of the poorest and most vulnerable children in the country.

'The Children’s Society recognises the benefit cap grace period, additional hardship funds, and the exemption of some Employment Support Allowance claimants are genuine concessions. But this does not go far enough to reduce the disproportionate impact of this policy on the most disadvantaged children.

'The vote to include child benefit when calculating the benefit cap means that more than 220,000 children have an uncertain future as they and their families will struggle to pay for fuel bills, basic essentials or, in some cases, the roof over their heads.

'It is particularly disheartening that the government has voted through cuts of up to £1,400 a year for as many as 100,000 disabled children. This will have a significant impact on day-to-day living for families with disabled children, including buying essentials like food and clothes.

'Our analysis shows that 40 percent of disabled children live in poverty. The government has dealt a serious blow to one of the most vulnerable groups of children in the country.'

source: Enver Solomon, The Children’s Society