Broxtowe South Children’s Centres Group

c/o Chilwell Children's Centre, Sunnyside Primary School, Inham Nook Estate, Nottingham, NG9 4HQ

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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

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

 A number of families, including those most in need, are participating regularly in the centres’ activities, but the engagement of some targeted families, particularly those from Eastern European and Asian communities, fathers, army personnel, low-income families and those from the Beeston Central area is not yet high enough.  There are not enough adult education and training opportunities to help parents to improve their English, mathematics and computer skills. This limits their progress towards paid work and their ability to support their children’s learning. The systems to track adults’ progress towards learning and employment do not provide clear evidence of the centres’ impact on increasing the economic well-being of families.  Quality-assurance measures are not consistently in place across all services. Consequently, there is too much variation in the quality of the provision offered.  The local authority has been through a period of significant change. As a result, systems to monitor

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

and evaluate the centres’ performance are not fully embedded. Success criteria in the improvement plan are not specific enough or the timescales are too vague. It is, therefore, difficult for the advisory group to hold the children's centre group to account or offer sufficient challenge.

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This children’s centre group has the following strengths:

 Family support work is a strength and the centres’ sustained focus on helping families most in need, including those with very vulnerable children, results in good outcomes.  Despite not having a specific forum, the parents’ voice is captured effectively during sessions, through the work of volunteers, and the newly appointed parent advisory group chair ensures all views are discussed. Families who use the centres rate them very highly.  The group’s partnerships with different organisations working in the area are successful in extending the expertise available to families who most need support.

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What does the group need to do to improve further?

 Increase the engagement of families from targeted groups, particularly those from Eastern European and Asian communities, fathers, army personnel, low-income families and those from the Beeston Central area, so that a large majority regularly access the centres’ services.  Improve opportunities for more adults, particularly the unemployed, to enhance their economic stability by: – increasing the promotion of, and participation rates in, adult-learning programmes including English, mathematics and information and communication technology courses to aid progression into further education and employment – developing further procedures to track and measure how well adults make progress when they access courses or programmes, and use data gathered to help plan future services.  Strengthen the effectiveness of the monitoring of the centres’ performance, ensuring that children and adults consistently access good-quality provision by undertaking more direct

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What does the group need to do to improve further?

observations of provision to drive improvements and to ensure consistency in the quality of children’s centre activities  Ensure that the advisory group provides effective challenge to the centre group about its performance.

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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 Beeston North, Beeston Central and Chilwell.

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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 group coordinator; senior children's centre co- ordinator; the local authority’s lead officer for children's centres; early intervention officer and the data and monitoring officer. Inspectors also talked to specialist staff including health visitors, a representative from the family nurse partnership and the speech and language service. Inspectors spoke to staff from across the universal groups service and family support workers, and representatives from the health agencies, children's social care, adult education, and linked primary school and nurseries.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors visited three children's centres.

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Information about this inspection

They observed the centres’ work, and looked at a range of relevant documentation including case files, the centre’s self-evaluation and improvement plans, parent evaluations, key policies and the centres’ equality and safeguarding procedures.

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Inspection team

Susan Crawford Lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Rachael Flesher Her Majesty’s Inspector Tara Street Additional inspector

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Information about the group

Services for children and families in Chilwell, Beeston and surrounding areas are delivered in three locality areas. The Broxtowe South locality children’s centres group is managed by The Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust on behalf of the local authority. The locality advisory group, comprising most key partners, assists in its governance.

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Information about the group

The group is managed by the children's centre coordinator. The Broxtowe South locality covers the wards of Attenborough, Toton and Chilwell Meadows, Chilwell East, Chilwell West, Beeston Central Beeston North, Beeston West and Beeston Rylands. The group was established in January 2012 and comprises one phase one centre, one phase two and one phase three centre. Services are shared across all of the children's centres and the centres are open five days each week.

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Information about the group

There are approximately 2615 children under five years of age living in the locality area. Data demonstrate that the population is mainly White British, but there is a small Asian and Eastern European community which is a priority group within the children’s centres’ locality. In addition, the Chetwynd Army Barracks is located in the area and is also a priority group. The majority of the areas are ranked among the 30% most deprived nationally, and some small areas are in the lowest 20%. A high proportion of children under five years of age are living in workless households that are claiming benefits. Around 1137 children live in income-deprived areas. Levels of obesity among children are low in all areas, and breastfeeding rates at six to eight weeks are high. Children’s skills, knowledge and abilities on entry to early years provision are below levels expected for their age in most areas, with the

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Information about the group

The centre offers a range of services for families and children under five years. These include child health services and family support, including outreach and signposting for those seeking employment. The centre runs a crèche for some of its activities. The services are run from the three centres and different community venues, including local churches, schools, allotment and Chetwynd Barracks. There is no registered early years provision on site.

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Inspection judgements

Access to services by young children and families Requires improvement

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Inspection judgements

 At 66%, the large majority of families are registered with the group. There is good engagement of the most vulnerable children and families including teenage mothers. However, fewer families from Eastern Europe or Asia, fathers, army personnel, low-income families and those from the Beeston Central area engage in services. The fathers’ group held monthly involves fun, play and an opportunity to gain the Food Safety Level 2 award and a first aid certificate, but attendance overall is low.  Health visitor appointments and checks held at the centres, the breastfeeding group ‘BABES’, the ‘Baby group’,’ Sing along’ and ‘Little Learners’ ensure there is a good balance of sessions open to the youngest children and to specific groups. This is increasing the numbers from some of the key groups who access the centres, but still too few children and families regularly and routinely engage with the centres’ services. The centres have recently extended their marketing activities,

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Inspection judgements

by concentrating on the most deprived areas. However, the targeting of specific areas is not happening frequently enough to have an impact on the number of families seen or to increase membership of the centres.  The very large majority of eligible two-year-olds take up their entitlement to early education, as do most three- and four-year-olds. The centres undertake specific work with early years’ partners. For instance, they provide speech and language training to ensure children experience good- quality support in their communication and language. They work in close partnership with local schools to help promote children’s readiness for school.  Good priority is given to supporting families and children with high levels of additional needs, such as those who are subject to a child protection or child in need plan. Through adopting flexible ways of working, family support workers attend and make valuable contributions at important

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Inspection judgements

meetings with partner agencies. The number of individual families referred to the centres for one- to-one support is increasing and this has helped the centres to identify those families who are particularly vulnerable, and who are engaging well with the centres.

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Inspection judgements

The quality of practice and services Requires improvement

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Inspection judgements

 Information for adults about potential work opportunities is made available at each of the centres which enables some adults to access current vacancies. Some parenting courses have been provided, but these are not linked closely enough to support the progression of individual learners or to track how they are improving adults’ work-readiness. There is no provision for adults to improve their communication technology, numeracy and literacy skills.  The children's centres’ activities are not consistently monitored. Leaders do not routinely observe or evaluate the quality of activities and groups. As a result, teaching is too variable and leaders have not consistently identified what improvements need to be made to improve the quality of learners’ experiences and progress.  A high number of families experience personal challenges in their lives and the centres’ work to help them move on is highly valued and effective. Case files and case studies provide compelling

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Inspection judgements

examples about how significant the centres’ actions are in empowering families to sort out their problems and look forward to a better future with confidence parents confirmed this in discussion with inspectors.  Parenting skills, first aid courses and home visits have a positive impact on parents’ ability to support their children and keep them safe. Sessions, such as ‘Busy Toddlers’, enable parents to enjoy time with their children, as they experience good-quality multi-sensory activities, messy play, or singing together. Help is on hand to respond to any questions or concerns that families may have. Health outcomes, such as obesity levels in young children, are better than those seen nationally and are improving. The proportion of mothers breastfeeding at six to eight weeks is above average and reflects the centres’ strong links with health services and the focus on encouraging a healthy lifestyle.

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Inspection judgements

 The volunteer programme has achieved the ‘Investors in Volunteers’ status and has been successful in enabling participants to undergo work-related experiences in all three centres. Consequently, some parents have been able to secure paid employment. Close links with the ‘Hope Centre’ mean that families in crisis receive food bank vouchers. The centres fund transport costs for some families who would not otherwise be able to access services, and this is clearly reducing the inequalities that some families face as a result of living in areas that are not well served by public transport networks.

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management

 The local authority has worked hard to develop a clear strategy for improvement, which values the role of children’s centres as an integral part of its delivery. Although priorities identified in the group’s improvement plan are accurate and targets are mainly ambitious and challenging there is a lack of specific timescales and measurable success criteria. As a result the centre group cannot accurately measure the effectiveness of its work. This has also weakened the ability of the advisory group to offer effective challenge regarding the group’s on-going performance.  Leaders have not yet used all the information available to them to find out why some families are not engaging. They know that more needs to be done to increase the number of families in most need of support accessing the centres’ activities. They understand the centres’ strengths and have set targets to improve. For example, leaders have set a challenging target to increase the number of

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management

teenage parents accessing services.  Regular supervision meetings and the establishment of a more reflective performance management process ensure that many staff are well supported. The recent implementation of peer support where staff undertake observations of each other’s work helps to improve the quality of the provision. However, not all staff have been monitored which means that some practice has not been challenged and is not consistently good across all activities and services. Effective systems ensure that staff are recruited with the right level of qualifications and skills required to fulfil their roles. Safeguarding is well managed and all staff are appropriately trained and competent in their protection of children.  All staff have an in-depth knowledge and understanding of procedures to keep children and families safe and they attend regular relevant training. The centre group works closely with health and social

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management

care colleagues in order to reduce the risk of harm to children, including those subject to a child protection plan, looked after children or those identified as in need. By working together, partners have had a significant impact on the lives of some families, including those whose difficulties have been assessed using the Common Assessment Framework.  The centre group has been through a period of significant change, including a reduction in staffing and the temporary closure of one of the centres. However, because of the efficient safeguarding systems in place, those children and families who are considered to be most vulnerable continue to be protected.  Partnerships with health and social care are particularly strong and ensure that families who most need support get timely and effective help. Parents value highly the support they receive. One parent who made their views known said, ‘The centre goes above and beyond the call of duty to

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management

ensure families’ well-being improves.’  Parents’ views are regularly sought after sessions and courses; the ‘You said – we did’ board keeps everyone abreast of what changes are being made. Parent representation on the advisory group is increasing and a parent who is taking on the role as chair of the advisory group is being mentored and supported in this role by the outgoing chair. Parents also make their views known by completing regular questionnaires. The advisory group ensures that the parents’ voice is heard clearly in decision-making.  Resouces, including staff deployment, are used appropriately to meet the needs of children and families. The centres work well with some key partners and support new initiatives in the wider community. They ensure families who need the most help can access the services they need by providing crèche places and in some circumstances funding for transport costs.

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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 80660 Local authority Nottinghamshire Inspection number 442728 Managed by The Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust on behalf of the local authority

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under five in the reach area

Centre leader Karen Ellis Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected Telephone number 0115 9935780 Email address karen.ellis@nottshc.nhs.uk

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This group consists of the following children’s centres:

 20252 Beeston North Children's Centre  20251 Beeston Central Children's Centre  20705 Chilwell 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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