30th March

Review calls for EYFS to be streamlined to cut down on bureaucracy
Dame Clare Tickell has proposed that the 69 learning targets set out in the curriculum for under-fives be reduced to 17 to cut down on bureaucracy and increase practitioners' contact time with children.

In the government-commissioned review of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), chief executive of Action for Children Tickell has called for the early years framework to remain compulsory for everyone working with children from birth to five years old, including childminders, but said it must be simplified to help practitioners and enable parents to engage better with their child’s early development.

The review, which was informed by 3,300 submissions from organisations and practitioners, said all early years practitioners should have at least a Level 3 qualification (equivalent to an A level) and the government should consider applying the "teaching schools" model to the early years.

The current EYFS framework measures achievements in six areas: personal, social and emotional development; communication, language and literacy; problem solving, reasoning and numeracy; knowledge and understanding of the world; physical development; and creative development.

Tickell has proposed that these are reduced to three "prime areas" of personal, social and emotional development; communication and language; and physical development. According to the review, these three areas should be underpinned by the "specific areas" of literacy; maths; understanding the world; and expressive arts and design.

Tickell said: "The earliest years in a child’s life are absolutely critical. Next to a loving and stable home environment, high-quality early years education is one of the most important factors in a child’s development. It’s clear that the current EYFS has helped to improve outcomes and is popular with parents and professionals who welcome a framework that lets them know how children are developing. 

"But it’s far from perfect. The current EYFS is cumbersome, repetitive and unnecessarily bureaucratic. And it isn’t doing enough to engage parents in their child’s development or make sure children are starting school with the basic skills they need to be ready to learn."

The review also proposed that parents get a summary of their child’s development, alongside the health visitor check at age two, to help identify any early problems or special educational needs. Tickell said there should also be a stronger link between the EYFS and what is expected of children in Key Stage 1.

The National Association of Head Teachers general secretary Russell Hobby said: "We welcome the acknowledgement that children should be supported by adult-directed learning and are also pleased to see that the transition from early years to Key Stage 1 will be supported with reference to each child’s individual learning style." 

Professor Chris Pascal, director of the Centre for Research in Early Childhood, said: "This review builds on the strong achievements of the sector in raising quality using the original EYFS framework but refocuses attention on those aspects of practice that really shape children’s future lives and frees practitioners from many of the perceived burdens they felt were preventing progress."

The government will respond in full to the recommendations in the summer when it will consult on changes to the EYFS. Changes will come into force from September 2012 at the earliest.

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

CWDC announces remit for its final year of government funding
The government has awarded the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) with £113.4m to continue its workforce development programmes in social work and early years until April 2012.

Announcing its remit for the coming financial year, the council said it will continue to drive workforce development in social work, early years, educational psychology, families and parenting and sector-led support until next April and has committed to continue beyond 2012 despite the loss of government funding.

After March next year, most of the council’s work will be transferred to the Department for Education after the government decided to cease funding for the sector skills council’s work as a non-departmental public body.

Jane Haywood, CWDC chief executive, said: "At the moment, employers are making some tough frontline decisions. We want to support them in this role, and make sure we build on what we know works so we can continue to make a difference to children and young people’s lives.

"This will be our key task and we are confident there is a place for CWDC’s important work beyond March 2012. We will spend time over the next 12 months discussing with our employers and frontline workers how best we can support them. Whatever path CWDC takes, improving the lives of children, young people and their families will remain our raison d’être."

The £113.4m will be invested in the following areas:

• £79.9m for social work of which at least £43.9m will be allocated to the Social Work Improvement Fund
• £16.85m for early years
• £5.2m for educational psychologists
• £0.5m for families and parenting
• £25,000 for residential care workers pilot
• £11m to support sector-led developments including young people’s workforce, safeguarding, integrated working, poverty, disability and fostering, together with organisation running costs such as office and staffing costs

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

29th March

Gove announces £180m bursary scheme to replace EMA
The government has announced it is to replace the education maintenance allowance (EMA) with a £180m bursary scheme to help disadvantaged 16- to 19-year-olds continue in full-time education.

Michael Gove: bursary will provide targeted financial support for the most vulnerable 16- to 19-year-olds. Image: Leo Wilkinson

The bursary will be made up of a guaranteed payment of £1,200 a year to 12,000 of the most vulnerable young people including children in care and teenagers living away from their parents.

The rest will be given to schools and colleges to distribute as a discretionary fund to students who face financial barriers to participation such as transport or equipment costs.

Under EMA, students received a maximum of £30 a week, at an annual cost of more than £560m.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said: "Sadly, we have been falling behind other nations in our educational performance. We have one of the most unequal education systems in the developed world.

"Today we are providing targeted financial support for the most vulnerable 16- to 19-year-olds. £180m will be available for this bursary fund – enough to ensure that every child eligible for free school meals who chooses to stay on could be paid £800 per year – more than many receive under the current EMA arrangements."

But shadow education secretary Andy Burnham described the announcement as "chaotic". "Michael Gove has slashed funding for young people who need help to stay on in education," he said. "This is yet another chaotic announcement from the Education Secretary. From school building to school sport it's the same old story – no consultation, botched decisions and no grip on the detail.

"We also need to know where this money has come from – will we see further cuts to other parts of the education budget to pay for this? If it is additional money from the Treasury then why on earth wasn’t it in last week’s Budget?"

Students currently receiving the EMA who successfully applied for EMA in 2009/10 will continue to receive payments at the same level until the end of the 2011/12 academic year. Young people now in their first year of post-16 study who were in receipt of the maximum weekly EMA payment of £30 will be eligible for £20 for each week they are in education or training until the end of the 2011/12 academic year.

Seyi Obakin, chief executive of youth homelessness charity Centrepoint, said the fund for the most vulnerable young people is welcome. "I know this will mean that further education will now be a real possibility for the homeless young people that Centrepoint helps every day," he said

The government will now begin an eight-week consultation on the scheme with finalised details on allocations to be made to learning providers in time for the 2011/12 academic year.

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

28th March

Young people fear wider gap between rich and poor, says children's commissioner
Children living in poverty fear being bullied and priced out of catchment areas of good schools, a report for the children's commissioner has found.

Commissioned by Maggie Atkinson, the research conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) questioned 73 children and young people from four of the 10 most deprived authorities in England, on the impact of poverty.

While the children spoke of strong family and community relationships that can result from surviving financial struggles, they also expressed the adverse impact living in poverty can have on their education, employment and aspirations.

Young people said they believe that the gap is widening between rich and poor and voiced worries about the impact of scrapping the education maintenance allowance (EMA), increased tuition fees and transport costs.

Children also described bullying and the strain that living in poverty can place on family relationships.

Atkinson said: "Children and families in England are living in challenging economic times. Although many children in the UK are extremely fortunate, 2.8 million are living in poverty bought about by circumstances beyond their control.

"As a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the government has made binding commitments to provide all children and young people with a standard of living that is adequate for their physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development. We cannot turn away from these promises."

The Office of the Children's Commissioner is now calling on the government to tackle inequalities by subsidising transport costs for young people who struggle to access places of education, services or work; improve access to youth services; and ensure education providers and companies provide financial education and better job and training opportunities to children and young people.

The children's views from the report have been submitted to the government and will influence the Child Poverty Strategy due to be published imminently.

source: Children & Young People Now

25th March

LSCBs given advice on how to support childminders
Guidance has been published to advise Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) on how to improve support for childminders

The National Childminding Association (NCMA) advice Supporting childminders has been developed in partnership with the Department for Education and sets out how LSCBs can help childminders with their safeguarding responsibilities.

The guidance encourages LSCBs to spend time establishing relationships with registered childminders and provide accessible training that relates to the local authority’s policy and procedures.

It also advises LSCBs to publicise up to date information and support, share information and provide clear contact points for childminders.

Stuart Turner, director of professional standards at NCMA, said: "Registered childminders have a high level of one-to-one interaction with a child, and as they are often the sole childcare professional in their setting, they are in a particularly vital position to spot any concerns about a child’s welfare.

"Close ties with LSCBs play a crucial role in ensuring childminders can fulfil their statutory duty to report any concerns they have about a child's situation. This new guidance will help LSCBs to audit their practice and consider the current support and communication channels open to registered childminders in safeguarding children."

source: Children & Young People Now

24th March

Budget overlooks families living in poverty, warn campaigners
Campaigners have lambasted Chancellor George Osborne for ignoring calls to protect the most vulnerable families who are set to feel the impact of changes to welfare provision next month.

In his Budget speech to parliament, Osborne said the measures set out for the economy would help families to cope with the cost of living.

But reacting to the speech, organisations that work with low-income families said the Chancellor had overlooked children, young people and families living in poverty.

Rhian Beynon, head of policy at charity Family Action, said: "We were disappointed there wasn’t more on poorer families and children. Under the government’s statutory obligations they really should have published a child poverty strategy by now and appointed a child poverty commission and they haven’t done that so it was very concerning that he didn’t take the opportunity to even briefly refer to what their plans are.

"There are 16 welfare changes coming into force in April, which are not going to be positive for the most vulnerable children and families, particularly in light of the 50 per cent increase in food prices in the past year and inflation of between four and five per cent.

"While a lot of people will welcome what he had to say about small businesses helping to support job creation, we wouldn’t agree with the premise that a strong economy starts solely from support for business. Some part of supporting a strong economy comes from getting those really vulnerable families back on their feet and into work, and strong welfare and services are a part of that picture."

Beynon added that while an increase in the personal tax allowance announced by Osborne will benefit some low earners it will not make much difference to the very lowest paid or help those who are out of work.

Helen Donohoe, director of policy at Action for Children, said children were completely ignored in Osborne’s speech. "He didn’t mention children once. While he said lots about reducing the burden and there were lots of references to families, the people we work with are the most vulnerable. They don’t drive cars and they don’t engage with anything to do with gift aid. They certainly don’t take holidays.

"There was nothing in the Budget for us that really directly demonstrated the government’s commitment and understanding that people who are the most vulnerable in Britain today need support. It is not about private sector enterprise for them, it is about direct, hands-on, well-financed and resourced support.

"There is a whole population of people who feel they have been ignored by this Budget and who are not understood by the Chancellor and his colleagues."

Dr Katherine Rake, chief executive of the Family and Parenting Institute, added: "Today’s measures need to be put in the context of [Osborne's] cuts programme instigated last year. Various reforms have directly hit families with children. The painful package included the scrapping of the child trust fund, the end of universal child benefit, and the removal of the baby element of child tax credits. His new relief measures may fail to plug the hole in family budgets."

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

23rd March

Commissioning of children's services could be at risk, warns report
The government must urgently clarify the role of local health and wellbeing boards in children's services commissioning, a report has warned.

The study, which evaluates the impact of the government-backed Commissioning Support Programme (CSP), makes recommendations on how councils can continue to drive improvements in commissioning after the support programme draws to a close this week.

It suggests that local authorities should carry on producing children and young people’s plans to assist in planning services, despite the fact that the government has removed the duty on councils to create such documents.

The CSP's report also claims that the commissioning of services for children could be at risk unless local authorities have some sort of access to support to identify and rectify their own failings.

On workforce development, the report concludes that the role of a strategic commissioner should be professionalised and that a broader range of professionals across children’s services should be trained in commissioning.

Lorraine O’Reilly, director of the Commissioning Support Programme, argued that there are still significant challenges to overcome to make sure that effective commissioning is used to improve outcomes for children and young people.

"CSP has responded to incredible demand for tools and training on commissioning," she said.

"We are concerned that there is currently no ongoing provision for this beyond the life of CSP. Momentum will be lost without securing robust networks across the sector. It is crucial that mechanisms are in place that will enable local authorities to assess the effectiveness of their services and to measure themselves against others."

O’Reilly urged government to build on the work of the programme.

"Successful practices such as the CSP self-analysis and planning standards on commissioning should be embedded into subsequent support being considered by the Department for Education (DfE) commissioning board, while also retaining the networks of commissioning champions across local areas established by CSP as a means to ensure the consistent excellence in practice," she added.

The CSP estimates that it has helped local authorities achieve savings of £200m to date.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) canvassed the views of 50 directors of children’s services (DCSs) as part of an independent evaluation of the CSP being carried out for the DfE.

The final PwC report is due to be published later this year but early findings show that 64 per cent of DCSs believe the support programme led to a significant improvement in commissioning in their area, 89 per cent thought it helped make more efficient use of resources and 93 per cent said using the CSP was a worthwhile investment of their time.

source: Lauren Higgs, Children & Young Peope Now

22nd March

Home-Start launches project to help families gain full benefits
A project to help families gain their full benefits entitlement is to be launched across most of the UK.

The charity Home-Start UK is to offer families the service, called Maximising Income for Families, across all 334 areas it operates in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The move follows a pilot that launched in 2009 across 25 Home-Start areas and involved two other charities, Turn2Us and Child Poverty Action Group.

Although full evaluation of the pilot will not be published until June, early evidence of success has prompted the nationwide roll out.

Another factor is the need to explain to families forthcoming benefits changes outlined in the Welfare Reform Bill.

Julie Campbell, Home-Start UK project manager for Maximising Income, said: "Major reform to the welfare system means that there has never been a more vital need to offer support to families in navigating the system.

"It is hoped that through the project, thousands of families can be helped out of financial difficulty and the inevitable stress this places on family life."

Home-Start’s 16,400 volunteers will now be offered Open College Network accredited training in helping families navigate their way through the benefit system.

This also covers tax credits, charitable grants for heating costs and children’s furniture as well as milk vouchers. Some families involved in the pilot were able to gain an extra £210 a week.

It is estimated that £5bn worth of tax credits goes unclaimed each year.

Funding for the pilot came from the former Department for Children, Schools and Families. Part of the cost of this latest roll out is being met through council budgets, as part of local efforts to combat child poverty.

The launch is not being funded by the Department for Education, although some of the Home-Start areas have managed to secure Lottery funding to offer the service to families.

source: Joe Lepper, Children & Young People Now

Parents employed outside of normal working hours struggle to find childcare
More than two-thirds of parents who do not have normal working hours struggle to find childcare that meets their needs, a Daycare Trust survey has found.

Open All Hours? Flexible Childcare in the 24/7 Era assessed the demand for childcare outside the standard 8am to 6pm opening times and found most parents had difficulty getting childcare overnight, at weekends and in the evening.

The survey of 400 parents, including NHS employees, airport workers and care home workers found 16 per cent of parents work shifts while one in 10 works more than 40 hours per week and four in 10 parents work hours that vary from week to week.

As well as the survey and interviews with parents and providers, the charity analysed Childcare Sufficiency Assessments and the Labour Force Survey.

Anand Shukla, acting chief executive of the Daycare Trust, said: "Our report demonstrates the enormous barriers that parents who work outside typical hours face in accessing childcare.

"Daycare Trust is highlighting this hidden problem faced by so many shift workers ahead of this week’s Budget. Many of these parents are in a weak labour market position, and it is crucial for our economic recovery that parents are practically supported to stay in work."

The study found that lone parents and low-income families are most likely to be found in jobs that demand atypical hours. More than half of parents said that childcare needed to be more affordable and four in 10 said that an inability to access childcare at short notice was a barrier.

The Daycare Trust’s report comes just days after the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills announced it is repealing regulations due to be enforced in April that would have given parents of 17-year-olds the right to request flexible working arrangements.

The charity has recommended that the government allows parents to request flexible working hours including the power to reject out-of-hours work and request more regular hours.

It also wants government to provide more support and guidance to childcare providers and larger employers; increase promotion of the financial support for childcare; and to make the free early education entitlement available from 7am to 7pm.  

According to the charity, councils must also assess demand for childcare more closely, promote and support childminder networks, and offer grants to support local providers in establishing atypical childcare schemes.

Labour committed to values of ECM
Every Child Matters (ECM) is more relevant today than ever before, Labour's shadow children's minister has claimed.

In the party's first hint at the future direction of its landmark children's policy, Toby Perkins argued that the ethos of ECM must be maintained.

"ECM is even more relevant today in the context of the level of cuts to public spending and the potential for partnership working to break down," he said

But Perkins denied that the policy must be maintained as a brand, adding that Labour is keen to renew its thinking around children's services.

"Whether it is reinstated in name is a moot point," he said. "What we certainly would do is ensure that the values that informed the introduction of ECM were at the heart of our policies."

Perkins brushed off claims that ECM was too obsessed with targets, but admitted the processes used to implement future policies would be different.

"Broadly, you can always make that criticism of almost any government initiative but ECM put a fundamental focus on children, and while you should always be looking at policy to make it as efficient, relevant and personal as you possibly can, it was a significant step forward at the time," he explained.

source: Lauren Higgs, Children & Young People Now

18th March

Financial crisis has lowered children's wellbeing, finds Children's Society
Children's wellbeing has taken a significant blow as a direct result of the financial crisis, according to the latest report by The Children's Society.

How Happy are our Children found that young people whose family income has decreased in the past year are more than twice as likely to have low wellbeing than those whose family income has increased.

Through a series of surveys and a focus group between October 2010 and February 2011, 4,000 children and young people were questioned.

The biggest influences on respondents’ wellbeing were named as friends and family. The proportion of young people with low wellbeing was found to be higher in households where no adults were in full-time work at 16 per cent compared with 10 per cent of other children.

The Children’s Society chief executive Bob Reitemeier said: "Today’s findings are deeply concerning for everybody who has the interests of Britain’s children at heart. As the spending cuts take hold, the wellbeing of our children is under threat.

"The consequences are likely to hit the most vulnerable children hardest. We fear that they will pay a life-long economic and social price for current political decisions. It is vital that when local and national government make cuts that affect our children’s lives, wellbeing must be prioritised, not forgotten".

Last November, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that he had asked the Office for National Statistics to lead a consultation on how the nation’s wellbeing can be measured. He said he wanted the exercise to start from April this year.

source: Jessica Lewis-Bell, Children & Young People Now

17th March

Budget 2011
The Daycare Trust has stepped up its call to have the reduction in the childcare element of working tax credits reversed. Parents already struggling with the financial burden of rising costs of living coupled with the increasing costs of childcare face further hardship when the changes come into force on the 1st April.

source: Daycare Trust Childcare Services e-bulletin

Children's centre census to track changes to Sure Start
A census for children's centres has been launched by charity 4Children to monitor changes to services being offered under the Sure Start programme across England.

The children’s charity will survey children’s centres managers in March every year, using data collected over the next fortnight — before ringfenced funding is removed and reduced – as a baseline to judge changes to provision.

Children’s centre managers will be asked about the number and type of staff they employ; the number of childcare places they provide; the mix between universal and targeted services; and the extent of charges for services. 

Anne Longfield, 4Children chief executive, said: "In recent weeks we have all been anxious about the scale of potential closures of children’s centres. With a growing number of local authorities committing to keeping centres open, our attention is now moving to ensuring we are able to monitor changes to service provision. 

"This survey will be a vital tool in allowing us to track trends and report back a national view of how services are changing. The survey will take less than 10 minutes for centre managers to complete and we hope that as many as possible will do so."

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

16th March

Rise in demand for Barnardo's emergency grant sparks calls for Budget shake-up
Children's charity Barnardo's has revealed demand for its emergency grants has risen by 19 per cent since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2007, sparking calls for vulnerable families to be afforded more protection in next week's Budget.

The children’s charity is calling on Chancellor George Osborne to make changes to universal benefit such as winter fuel payments and TV licences, and instead target some of this money for the most deprived families.

The call comes after Barnardo’s research showed demand for its grants for economically disadvantaged young people and families has risen by more than £63,000. In 2007/08, £329,838 was handed out to families rising to £364,443 in 2008/09. Initial projections of the total handed out during 2010/11 come to £393,443.

Barnardo’s chief executive Anne Marie Carrie said: "Families need financial help, now. There is room for more redistribution of funds – free TV licences, winter fuel allowance and child benefit should be better targeted.

"By ending these universal benefits and compensating families and pensioners on low incomes so they don’t lose out, £3.9bn would be left over to help combat the pending catastrophe for the poorest families, pensioners and children."

The government has already announced changes to the Social Fund, which helps low-income families with living costs that are not covered by weekly benefits through grants and "crisis loans".

From April, access to the fund will be restricted, it will be unringfenced and left to local authorities to distribute. Applications to the government’s Social Fund rose 18 per cent this year to £6m. Of these, £3.5m were for crisis loans – a rise of 25 per cent. 

Carrie continued: "If this mounting pressure on poor families is ignored we are storing up even greater trouble for the future; employment is the only long-term route out of poverty.

"With almost 60 per cent of children living in poverty having a parent with a job, it is imperative that they are not left worse off through work – yet the government has created disincentives to work which need to be reassessed and fast."

source: Jessica Lewis-Bell, Children & Young People Now

10th March

Tax credit cuts will hammer hard-working single parents
New research out today shows that single parents with two children, working full-time and paying for childcare could lose on average up to £2,000 a year when the government’s tax credit cuts take effect in April.

A report commissioned by single parent charity Gingerbread from Landman Economics (1) shows that cuts to tax credits, including cutting the proportion of childcare costs covered by tax credits from the current 80% maximum to 70%, will mean that:

• A single parent working full-time on the minimum wage (£12,334 annual gross income), with two children and paying £300 a week or more for childcare, will lose support totalling around £1,620 a year (13% of their gross income);
• A single parent working full-time and earning the national average wage (£25,948 annual gross income), with two children and paying £300 a week or more for childcare, will lose around £1,900 a year (7% of their income); and
• All single parents will face a reduction in their gains to work, with an average cash loss of £492 a year for those using childcare.

Gingerbread Chief Executive Fiona Weir said:

“Single parents constantly tell us how vital help for childcare costs is in making work pay, but this new analysis shows that the forthcoming cuts will be a devastating blow on their finances. We urge the government to reverse this decision in the March Budget, or else many single parents will be facing really stark decisions about whether they can afford to remain in work”.

The report also shows that, despite the government’s drive to push more single parents back into work – with provisions in the Welfare Reform Bill to require single parents of 5 year olds to look for work from 2012 – the package of tax credit reforms will actually reduce the gains to work for all single parents. For single parents in work and paying for childcare, the average cash gain to work will be reduced by almost £500 a year from April 2011.

Fiona Weir added:

“The government is sending out really mixed messages – at the same time as introducing a Welfare Reform Bill intended to make work pay, it is actually making it harder for single parents to do so by cutting help with childcare costs and reducing the financial gains to work.

“As well as committing to long-term reform, the government must ensure that working single parents don’t lose out between now and the introduction of Universal Credit”.

Single parents who will be hit by the changes have told Gingerbread:

Louise: “It’s infuriating that the Government’s encouraging us back to work but then cutting the support that we need to make that possible. I do a bit of ironing for a tenner a week but it looks like I’m going to have to be doing a lot more of that.”

Becky: “This will be very, very hard for me. I was going to try and set up a pension but I won’t be able to afford those payments every month now. I’ve already cut down on all our non-essential spending”

source: Gingerbread

Special educational needs proposals do not go far enough, warn sector leaders
Government proposals for children with special educational needs (SEN) must go further to ensure families receive adequate provision and can challenge statutory services that don't deliver, sector leaders have warned.

While the SEN green paper, published today (9 March), has been broadly welcomed as a positive step towards improving the lives of children with disabilities and SEN, experts have called for the government to allow for sufficient resources to implement the reforms.

Campaigners have also said the government’s aspirations for children with SEN could falter because of a lack of funding and cuts to specialist services.

Campaign group Every Disabled Child Matters said: "The green paper is not clear about where responsibility lies to ensure that a joined-up package of support is delivered for disabled children and their families.

"There is no clear indication of the way that statutory services will be held to account if they do not deliver, and how families with disabled children can seek redress if they do not receive the support they need to lead ordinary lives. This implies that the onus will remain on families to fight to ensure they get support."

Srabani Sen, chief executive of Contact a Family, also voiced fears that families will be left with little power to hold services to account if they do not receive the support they need. "The introduction of a simplified assessment process has the potential to make lives less stressful for families," she said. "However, the green paper is not clear about where responsibility lies to ensure that a joined-up package of support is delivered for disabled children and their families, and that those carrying out assessments have the right skills and knowledge. 

"Professionals involved in a child’s care must be made accountable if they do not deliver and there is no clear indication of how this would work in the green paper."

Christine Lenehan, director of the Council for Disabled Children, said the green paper sets out a positive vision for future SEN provision, but bringing it to reality will be a challenge.

She said: "The green paper represents a welcome commitment on future direction. However, it comes at a challenging time for the sector with substantial uncertainty about the future of jobs and services. Expectations on the voluntary and community sector are high and these will need to come with real resources and status if we are going to make the impact the government envisages."

The National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) said the green paper does not tally with actions currently being taken by local authorities and health services.

Brian Gale, NDCS director of policy, said: "The government wants to improve outcomes for children with SEN and took steps five months ago to protect frontline education and health services. But despite this several local authorities and health trusts have been making cuts of up to 50 per cent to the very staff and services that are vital to achieving these objectives.

"We agree with the overall aims of the green paper but to meet these at a local level, we urge local authorities and health services to reconsider their budgets now, so that they can give children with SEN the vital support they need."

Baroness Shireen Ritchie, chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said cuts to funding are placing councils under increasing pressure.

"We must be clear that if council support for SEN is to continue at its current level, which is something that all local authorities want to see, it must be sufficiently funded," she said. "In the recent local government financial settlement, councils saw funding for early intervention cut by 25 per cent. Councils have been leading the way on giving parents greater control over their children’s education through personalised budgets, but the government needs to make sure that the funding from health, education and social care is available to meet these costs."

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

9th March

Pupil special needs statements to be scrapped
Ministers are due to unveil a major shake-up of special educational needs (SEN) support in England's schools.

Under the proposals, education and health care plans are set to replace statements, which detail the support children with the severest level of need can expect.

The plans would be drawn up after a single assessment, rather than the numerous checks children now undergo.

A green paper detailing the proposals is due to be published on Wednesday.

The SEN system is one of the most controversial areas of England's education system. In 2006 a Commons education committee labelled it "not fit for purpose".

Currently, children who have a severe, multiple health or learning need or disability are supposed to be assessed by their local authority for the support that they need at school.

'More mediation'

A statement of special educational needs is then drawn up. This relates to about 2.7% of children in England. A further 21% have a lower level of SEN which is supported directly by the school.

But parents and special needs campaigners claim councils can be unwilling to "statement" pupils, because of the legal entitlement and possible extra costs that it brings. Many face a long fight to get to the stage where a statement is drawn up.

And although statements are supposed to have regard to health needs there can be problems getting access to the services required because they are funded separately.

The whole process can lead to numerous assessments by different agencies involved with the child, such as the school, health and social services. The Council for Disabled Children estimates that a disabled child experiences 32 different assessments on average.

It can also mean delays in children getting the support that they need to learn effectively and a huge amount of stress for parents who are left to fight for what they believe their child is entitled to.

A possible new single assessment system, and accompanying education and health care plan, is to be piloted in 25 local authorities to try out how to get all the services working with the child working together.

'Conflict of interest'

It is envisaged that instead of a child undergoing many separate assessments on separate days, everyone involved would meet together at the same time.

There have also been complaints that the organisation carrying out the assessment, the local authority, is the one who pays for the support it sets out.

"At the moment we know that parents' confidence in the system is seriously undermined by that perceived conflict of interest," a Department for Education spokesman said.

So ministers will also look at involving state-funded voluntary groups in co-ordinating the support packages families need.

This might mean a deaf children's charity co-ordinating the package of need for a child who has hearing problems, for example.

More mediation will be encouraged for cases where parents and local authorities cannot agree on the support for a child, in a bid to reduce the adversarial nature of the system.

There are also plans to give children personal budgets so that their parents can control how the funding allocated to them can be spent.

source: Hannah Richardson, The BBC

Services for disabled children to be axed despite £800m investment
Specialist services for disabled children across the country are facing the axe despite additional government investment for short breaks provision, charity Kids has warned.

The charity has reported that Blackburn and Darwen Council is ceasing funding for its short breaks services resulting in their closure from April. Kids' free play sessions in East Riding of Yorkshire are also to end after the council pulled its funding. The charity has also voiced its disappointment that Wigan council cuts have resulted in the imminent closure of its key worker service for families with disabled children and a home learning and support service.

Emma Clarke, Kids national director of direct short breaks, said: "Intervention in the formative years is particularly critical for disabled children and opportunities for them to mix with their non-disabled peers can measurably improve their life chances.

"Non-residential short breaks can also improve families’ wellbeing, for while the children are getting out and enjoying a trip in the community, their parents also get a break from full-time caring."

Last December, the government announced an additional £800m investment for short breaks for families with disabled children. Kids has reasserted claims that with the funding not ringfenced it could be diverted to other council priorities.

"We appreciate that this is a challenging time and that local authorities are having to make difficult choices," Clarke added. "However, it is desperately sad and worrying that services that are meeting the needs of vulnerable groups so successfully are having to close. Kids will be working closely with staff and families, as well as with partners, to support them during this challenging period."

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

8th March

Children's services take hit of more than half a billion pounds
Children's services departments are set to lose well in excess of £500m by the end of the month as councils finalise their 2010/11 budgets, analysis by CYP Now has revealed.

Figures obtained from 87 of the 152 local authorities with responsibility for children's services revealed cuts totalling £305m for the next financial year.

Extrapolated across all top-tier authorities, the figure could rise to at least £533m. 

Details provided by local authorities and recorded in council budget papers outline a range of cuts, with children's centres, school transport, and youth services in the firing line as authorities attempt to balance their books.

Of the 87 authorities for which figures were garnered, 72 face cuts, one authority is forecasting no change and 14 reveal budget increases.

Of the respondents, Bolton appeared worst affected with a 22 per cent cut to its children's services department. But Essex revealed it would be increasing its budget by 26 per cent.

The average percentage cut to children's services for the authorities covered is 5.59 per cent. This figure is higher than the 4.4 per cent average local government settlement cut cited by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles in last October's spending review, which revealed figures ranging from cuts of 8.9 per cent to an increase of 0.25 per cent.

Protecting services

But Andrew Cozens, strategic adviser on children and adult services at the Local Government Group, said a more realistic indicator of the impact of reductions in government funding on councils is the average eight per cent cut in the revenue support grant from central government.

The fact that, at 5.59 per cent, the average cut to children's services is below this indicates certain services for children have to an extent been protected, he added.

"Children's social care pressures are still acute and councils have to respond to this," Cozens said.

But Cozens believes that budget pressures within children's services are falling on areas that now come under the early intervention grant, cash that was previously largely ringfenced through a range of grant schemes.

"The relaxation of the model where a lot of money was earmarked or ringfenced means directors of children's services have had to work hard to justify budget positions," he added.

This analysis is borne out by many council papers outlining budget proposals.

A recurring theme is the need to invest more money in propping up services for children in need, invariably citing increased demand in the wake of the Peter Connelly tragedy.

In addition to the end of ringfencing, the amount of funding provided by the early intervention grant is 10.9 per cent down on the value of the separate streams that make up the grant, according to central government.

But the Local Government Association puts the figure closer to 32 per cent when taking into account non-ringfenced grants from the Department for Education that have now ended as well as £311m of in-year cuts to area-based grants.

Local accounting practices and the way directorates are organised make exact like-for-like budget comparison difficult; some authorities do not include previous grants making up the new early intervention grant in their 2010/11 budget.

This means that the level of cuts could be higher than officially stated by authorities.

Knock-on pressure

Debbie Jones, chair of the Association of Directors of Children's Services resources committee, said she believes budget figures being published mask the true scale of cuts.

"There is no question that children's services have been disproportionately hit when you take into account in-year reductions and the reductions announced in December," she said. "The other important thing that is becoming clear is that reductions in other parts of council services such as health services and benefits will have a knock-on relationship with demand on children's services, which turns into additional financial pressure."

BUCKING THE TREND: ESSEX

According to Essex council, its children's services budget will see an increase of 26.03 per cent in 2011/12. At a time when many councils are criticising the government for passing down cuts, Essex's budget appears to buck the trend.

The council has pledged to redesign early years and childcare services, saving £4.5m and restructure residential care services to save £1.7m.

But Essex has also promised to invest to increase the number of children who are able to return to mainstream schools from alternative provision.

The authority is also one of the pilot areas for the government's "community budgets" scheme, which aims to improve services for families with complex needs, while delivering better value for money.

Other areas of investment outlined include services for children with special needs and looked-after children.

BEARING THE BRUNT: BOLTON

At the other end of the scale, Bolton's children's services department is bracing itself for a cut of 22.28 per cent. Overall, the council is making savings of £41m in 2011/12.

It claims that of the £25.4m worth of grants it receives for children's services, £10.6m will no longer be available.

"The department must undertake a wholesale review of all services that it delivers," according to the council.

A total of £12.9m will be cut from the children's services budget, meaning a reduction in universal services will be inevitable.

Cuts will be felt in the Sure Start programme with closures of children's centres on the table.

The council also plans to scrap all Connexions personal adviser posts given the government's support for an all-age careers service.

source: Neil Puffett, Children & Young People Now

4th March

Experts call for clearer nutritional guidance for childcare providers
Childcare providers and parents need clearer guidance on what under-fives should eat and drink while in childcare, according to the government-commissioned Advisory Panel on Food and Nutrition in Early Years.

The panel’s report Laying the Table found significant demand for a national source of practical guidance that all childcare providers can choose to follow, to help give children the right portion sizes and types of food and give parents a national benchmark.

The review findings come after latest figures from the National Child Measurement Programme revealed almost a quarter of children are overweight or obese by the time they start school.

Panel chair consultant paediatrician Dr Anthony Williams said: "The message from childcare providers is clear. They want to feed children well and know that it’s vital to start healthy eating habits early, but at the moment they have no clear advice on how to achieve this in practice.

"In this report we show how providers could be more certain that they’re meeting their children’s nutritional needs. It would save staff time on researching and developing menus, and would help parents know what to look for if they want to be sure their children are well fed in childcare." 

While finding evidence of good practice among childcare providers, the panel said current research suggests some providers are giving young children food that is more appropriate for older children and adults, meaning children are not getting enough carbohydrates and essential minerals such as iron and zinc, and are consuming too much salt and sugar.

The panel, which was set up under the Labour government in March last year, is made up of nutritionists, policy advisers and national organisations representing children’s centres, childminders and maintained, private, voluntary and independent nurseries. It is supported by the School Food Trust.

The report also called for the commitment to nutritious food and drink to be a statutory component of the Early Years Foundation Stage and listed access to a registered public health nutritionist for all councils among its recommendations.

Responding to the report, children's minister Sarah Teather said: "It’s important we help every child develop healthy eating habits early on that can last them a lifetime. That's why it's vital healthy eating is promoted in nurseries and Sure Start children’s centres.  

"The panel’s report is a valuable contribution on how best to support childcare providers in doing this. I know that Dame Clare Tickell will be considering the report as part of her ongoing review of the EYFS."

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now

3rd March

Funding for early intervention services cut by £50 per child
Funding for services including Sure Start children's centres and teenage pregnancy provision is being cut by an average of £50 per child in the next year, according to research commissioned by shadow education secretary Andy Burnham.

The House of Commons Library was asked by Burnham to find out how much funding would be available next year for each child from the early intervention grant compared to the funding available this year.

The early intervention grant is replacing 22 funding streams, some of which have already been hit by in-year spending cuts. The government claims that the value of the early intervention grant will be a 10.9 per cent reduction on the sum of the grants this year.

According to the research, some of the poorest areas such as Hackney and Knowsley will be hit with £100 reduction for each child.

"The Prime Minister made a personal promise to protect and build on Sure Start," Burnham said. "Now we know that these were just hollow words and yet another broken promise to the families of our country."

The figures showed that in some wealthier areas including Richmond, Buckinghamshire, Wokingham and Surrey, the cuts will be around £30 per child.

Overall, funding for early intervention services will be down by 22 per cent the data shows, challenging the government’s claims.

Burnham added: "The areas being hit hardest are the most deprived. It’s not only unfair, it’s the wrong long-term decision for the country. By cutting too far and too fast and asking children and families to bear the brunt, this Tory-led government is showing that they have no idea what pressure ordinary families are under."

source: Janaki Mahadevan, Children & Young People Now