Kingsbury Locality, Brent

Fryent Primary School, Church Lane Children's Centre, Church Lane, London, NW9 8JD

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This inspection: Requires improvement 3

Previous inspection: Not previously inspected Access to services by young children and families Requires improvement 3 The quality of practice and services Requires improvement 3 The effectiveness of leadership, governance and management Requires improvement 3

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This children's centre group requires improvement. It is not good because:

 Not enough families use the locality’s services and activities regularly, particularly families where no- one is in paid work. The locality has only recently received the information it needs to identify these families and take action to increase take up.  The quality of services and activities, including the recording of assessments and support for families in most need, varies in its effectiveness and impact, with a few not yet being good.  The gap between the lowest achieving group of children and the rest in their level of skills, knowledge and abilities when these children start school is not improving quickly enough.  Services to help parents improve their English and mathematics skills and get jobs are insufficient and not reaching enough families. The local authority, manager and advisory board do not use data effectively enough to challenge the locality’s performance or its rate of progress in achieving

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This children's centre group requires improvement. It is not good because:

targets. Some targets are not broken down into sufficiently small steps to measure progress or do not state the intended impact or outcome.

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This children’s centre group has the following strengths:

 The locality’s programme of activities has a strong focus on including families from the wide variety of cultural backgrounds in the area and serves the needs of those families particularly well.  Families receive good quality support, advice and guidance that help improve children’s health, welfare and well-being.  Fathers benefit from a well coordinated and popular group that promotes healthy living and increases their involvement in their children’s physical and emotional development.  The strong childminder network meets regularly and plans good quality and exciting experiences for the children in their care.  Volunteers develop good skills and confidence, with over half having gained paid employment.  The very good and broad range of partners work productively with the locality team to provide a seamless service, resulting in high levels of satisfaction from families using the centres. The

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This children’s centre group has the following strengths:

manager, team and advisory board listen to, and value, parents’ views which they use to shape services and activities.

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Information about this inspection

The inspection of this children’s centre group was carried out under Part 3A of the Childcare Act 2006 as amended by the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009. The centres that form part of this children’s centre group are Church Lane Children’s Centre, Mount Stewart Children’s Centre and Willow Children’s Centre.

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out by two of Her Majesty's Inspectors and one Additional Inspector.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors held meetings with the children's centre network manage, senior leaders from the local authority, health partners, a community learning and skills training provider, a Jobcentre Plus representative, advice, support and gudiance partners, early years partners, parents, community involvement workers, family support worker, early years workers and members of the locality advisory board.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors visited a range of activities across all three centres.

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Information about this inspection

They observed the centre’s work, and looked at a range of relevant documentation.

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Inspection team

Janet Rodgers Her Majesty's Inspector, Lead Inspector Marianick Ellender-Gele Her Majesty’s Inspector Christine Field Additional Inspector

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Information about the centre/group

Kingsbury Locality (the locality) has three children’s centres: Willow, a phase one children’s centre; Church Lane, a phase two children’s centre; and Mount Stewart, a phase three children’s centre. The locality covers the wards of Kenton, Fryent and Barnhill. The locality is run by the local authority and has a locality advisory board. The children’s centre network manager (the manager) oversees all three centres. The locality has a team of two community involvement workers, two early years workers, a business support officer, three receptionists, a family support worker and a family support assistant.

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Information about the centre/group

All three centres open five days a week, although Mount Stewart only has activities in the afternoon as it shares its accommodation with a nursery that operates in the morning. Church Lane is in the grounds of Fryent Primary School and Mount Stewart is on the same site as Mount Stewart Junior and Infant Schools. Willow is adjacent to Chalkhill Primary School and has on-site early years provision. The locality’s children’s skills, knowledge and abilities on entry to school are typically in line with those expected for their age. Parents can access services, including play activities, family learning, advice and guidance sessions and health, special needs and parenting support at any of the three centres.

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Information about the centre/group

There are 3,033 children under five years living in the locality’s reach area. The population comprises a diverse range of ethnic heritage groups, with the largest community groups being Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese, Black African and Black Caribbean. Over the last decade there has been an influx of refugees from Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and Sri Lanka, and more recently from Eastern Europe. The locality is a mixed socio-economic area, that ranges from areas with significant social housing developments, such as the Chalkhill estate, to privately owned suburban semi-detached housing that is interspaced with blocks of rented flats. Levels of deprivation are high in the Church Lane and Willow reach areas, where many families have no one in paid work or low incomes.

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Information about the centre/group

Schools and registered early years providers are subject to separate inspection arrangements. Reports can be found at http://www.ofsted.gov.uk

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What does the group need to do to improve further?

 Use management information more effectively to identify families who are not using activities or services regularly, take appropriate action to increase take up and monitor trends closely and routinely for improvement.  Sharpen targets, timelines and measures of impact so the locality can evaluate the effectiveness of all its work.  Inject more challenge through the advisory board and local authority to speed up the rate of improvement and equip them with data in a user-friendly format.  Further develop the arrangements with partners to offer adults good quality courses, advice and guidance to improve their economic well-being and employment.  Build better links with early years settings in the locality and work with them to enable the lowest achieving children to catch up with the rest and increase the take-up of two-year-old funding places.  Increase the consistency and quality of the team’s activities and recording of assessments and

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What does the group need to do to improve further?

reviews by fully implementing the auditing and observation arrangements and providing feedback and coaching to help them improve.

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Inspection judgements

Access to services by young children and families Requires improvement

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Inspection judgements

 Access to services requires improvement because not enough children and families from some key target groups regularly use activities and services, particularly those families where no one is in paid employment. The manager and community involvement workers’ diligent cooperation with partners has increased the number of families registering with centres. They are at a very early stage in using data to focus initiatives on specific families and their progress in improving take up by these families has not been rapid enough.  The locality’s programme of activities has a strong focus on inclusion and raising participation by different ethnic heritage groups and children with disabilities and/or learning difficulties. These particular groups’ needs are served very well and most make good use of services and activities. The locality introduced a voucher system for over-subscribed activities which has been a very

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Inspection judgements

positive initiative for helping families in most need to attend.  The local authority has a very well coordinated and attended fathers’ programme that promotes healthy lifestyles alongside their child’s physical and emotional development. The number of fathers taking part in activities is increasing, but participation by single fathers and those who are not working is lower.  Family support workers meet regularly with partners to plan and prioritise the services, care and guidance for families in most need. This results in seamless and effective support for individual families. These families, including those with children subject to a child in need or child protection (CP) plan and looked after children (LAC), receive prompt help that meets their needs well.  Most families with eligible three- and four-year-old children take up the free entitlement to early education. Only a minority of those with eligible two-year-old children, including families from key

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Inspection judgements

target groups, access this entitlement. The local authority has only recently provided the manager with information about eligible children to help her plan action to increase take up.  Health visitors who carry out two-year-old assessments on children share information and concerns effectively with locality staff to help them design specific activities. This has led to ‘stay and play’ sessions co-run with speech and language professionals to give timely and relevant support to children with additional needs.

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Inspection judgements

The quality of practice and services Requires improvement

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Inspection judgements

 The quality of practice and services requires improvement because the effectiveness of activities varies too much, and a few are not yet good. In the more effective activities, children benefit from exciting learning experiences that aid their personal development and build confident language and literacy skills. In a few sessions, early years workers do not structure activities sufficiently to improve children’s learning and adults’ parenting skills.  The locality’s children achieve a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage. However, the gap between the lowest achieving group and the rest has widened. The locality has insufficient actions in place for improving this or evaluating how well children who have accessed its services achieve relative to their peers.  Children make a smooth transfer to nursery through the ‘getting ready’ programme. The childminder network meets regularly and plans good quality and interesting experiences for the

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Inspection judgements

children in their care. The number of childminders in the Chalkhill estate area is insufficient to meet local demand for good quality places, which the locality has recognised and is taking suitable action.  The locality provides very effective targeted support for families in most need. This is helping to reduce the number of cases escalating to children’s social care services. The family support worker’s and family support assistant’s recording and the timeliness of assessment and reviews for families through the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) vary in quality, with a few having insufficient clarity or detail.  The locality offers appropriately located services and well-targeted advice for improving families’ and children’s health. This has contributed to high levels of young children receiving immunisations and new mothers sustaining breastfeeding. However, programmes such as ‘healthy eating’, ‘busy feet’

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Inspection judgements

and ‘tiny ballers’ have yet to reduce obesity in young children, which is above national rates.  Parents develop a good understanding of their responsibilities for children’s safety through first aid courses and themed ‘child safety’ weeks. External professionals provide them with very effective counselling and advice that help them deal with a range of issues, such as housing and benefits. The locality believes these are improving children’s welfare and well-being, but do not always set targets and measure the impact of these services.  Parents improve their skills and confidence through the well-organised volunteer programme. Over half the volunteers have gained paid employment over the last two years. The locality’s plans for a partner to deliver employment support within centres are at a very early stage.  The locality offers parents a good range of taster and introductory adult learning courses, including

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Inspection judgements

those that develop their English alongside creative activities and parenting skills. Staff do not follow up how well adults achieve or how many progress onto more advanced or substantial programmes.

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management

 Leadership and management require improvement as leaders and managers do not use data well when setting and monitoring targets. The local authority has set very demanding targets for the locality but these lack incremental steps to enable progress to be measured. Much of the data provided to leaders and managers are very recent and are not used effectively enough to focus improvement initiatives or make reliable assessments, such as in self-evaluation.  The manager and advisory board have high aspirations for the locality and demonstrate enthusiasm and a commitment to improve. The advisory board uses its wide range of expertise to support the locality’s work and helps set the strategic direction. Members challenge some aspects of the locality’s work but do not receive data in a user-friendly format, which restricts their ability to question performance or progress.  Parents play an active role on the advisory board and represent families’ views well. Staff take

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management

parents’ views seriously and use them to plan new activities and services and when organising day trips in the summer. Parents express very high levels of satisfaction with the locality and its centres.  The locality has strong strategic partnerships which greatly enhance what the centres offer families, and ensure activities and services are relevant. Since taking over the role a year ago, the manager has significantly improved the way information is shared with partners, which is now very effective.  The manager uses supervision, case file audits and team meetings to manage the team effectively and has a sound awareness of where further improvement is needed. Where performance has dipped, appropriate action has been taken. The local authority reviews the locality and manager’s performance regularly, but its formal annual review and scrutiny of the self-evaluation judgments lack rigour.  The locality meets its legal requirements for safeguarding. Joint working and information sharing

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management

between staff, the family solutions, early help and children’s social care team are effective in supporting children on CAF, CIM, CP plans and looked after children. Staff and partners place a good focus on ensuring families are safe, but a few do not promote sufficiently strongly the local authority’s policy relating to parents using mobile phones in centres.  The locality has good quality facilities and resources. Staff are well trained and have relevant expertise. The locality has adequate, but stretched, staff resources due to one employee being on long term sick leave and waiting for a new member to join the team.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding Practice consistently reflects the highest aspirations for children and their families and as a result inequalities are reducing rapidly and gaps are closing. Grade 2 Good Practice enables most children and their families to access good quality services that improve children’s wellbeing and achieve the stated outcomes for families. Grade 3 Requires improvement Performance is not as good as it might reasonably be expected to be in one or more key areas. Grade 4 Inadequate The needs of children and families in its area are not being met and/or the leaders and managers are not providing sufficient challenge to bring about improvement to the quality of services.

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Children's centre group details

Unique reference number 80074 Local authority Brent Inspection number 433107 Managed by The local authority

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five in the reach area

Centre leader Antoinette Anyejiuwa Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected Telephone number 0208 937 3890 Email address churchlanecc@brent.gov.uk

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This group consists of the following children’s centres:

 20728 Church Lane Children’s Centre  23726 Mount Stewart Children’s Centre  23281 Willow Children’s Centre guidance ‘raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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This group consists of the following children’s centres:

(Ofsted) regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille,

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This group consists of the following children’s centres:

please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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This group consists of the following children’s centres:

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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