Calverton and The Villages Children’s Centre

Calverton and The Villages Children’s Centre

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Manor Park Infant & Nursery School, Flatts Lane, Calverton, NG14 6JZ

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This inspection: Good 2

Previous inspection: Select Select Access to services by young children and families Good 2 The quality of practice and services Good 2 The effectiveness of leadership, governance and management Good 2

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Summary of key findings for children and families

This is a good centre.  The local authority ensures the centre has access to a good range of information about the families living in the area. Leaders use this well to successfully register a very high number of families, identify their needs and shape services accordingly.  Leaders, staff and partners, including the very effective parent forums, work well together to ensure a good range of services and activities that families need most are provided. As a result, a high number of families use the centre, including those identified as in most need of support and intervention and their lives are improving as a result.  The centre staff and partners work exceptionally well together to identify children who are at risk of developmental delay or underachievement early on and tackle this with gusto. Planning follows the needs and interests of children, teaching is of high quality and children are confident and motivated

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Summary of key findings for children and families

to learn. As a result, the large majority of children make at least good progress and are well prepared for school.

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It is not outstanding because:

 Effective self-evaluation ensures leaders have an accurate understanding of the centre’s strengths and areas for improvement and address these accordingly. The centre is improving as result. However, current systems do not ensure that the local authority maintains a robust overview of the centre’s performance.  The parent’s forum makes a significant contribution to the leadership, governance and management of the centre and holds the centre to account. However the attendance of partners at the local advisory group meetings is at times sporadic and they are not sufficiently guided to robustly challenge the centre’s performance.

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What does the centre/group need to do to improve further?

 To support the centre on their journey to outstanding the local authority should improve leadership, governance and management by:  maintaining a more robust overview of the performance of the centre, for example by meeting more regularly with the centre leader and providing her with precise criteria to demonstrate their performance against  improving the attendance and contributions of partners at local advisory group meetings  providing local advisory group members with support and training to enable them to robustly hold the centre to account.

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Information about this inspection

The inspection of this children’s centre was carried out under Part 3A of the Childcare Act 2006 as amended by the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009.

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Information about this inspection

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

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Information about this inspection

The inspection covered the following centres: Calverton Children’s Centre and The Villages Children’s Centre.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors held meetings with parents, staff, partners, the senior leadership team and representatives from the local advisory group and local authority.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors visited services at Calverton Children’s Centre and the health clinic where health services are delivered. They observed the centre’s work, and looked at a range of relevant documentation including parent’s evaluations and satisfaction surveys.

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Inspection team

Rachael Flesher Her Majesty’s Inspector Aileen King Additional inspector Ann Taylor Additional inspector

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Information about the centre/group

Calverton and The Villages Children’s Centre Group serves the villages of Calverton, Burton Joyce, Lambley, Woodborough, Stoke Bardoph, Bulcote, Caythorpe, Epperstone, Gonalston, Hoveringham, Lowdham and Oxton. It provides services from two sites in Calverton and Lowdham approximately 6 miles apart and through a range of community venues and events.

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Information about the centre/group

The children’s centre group meets the core purpose by offering a range of services which include; health services, family play sessions, parenting courses, adult learning and family support.

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Information about the centre/group

In total, 840 children under five years of age live in the area. A third of these live in one of the 30% most deprived areas in the country. There are approximately 155 lone-parent families and 148 children living in workless households. Almost all families are White British. The target groups identified by the centre group as having needs or circumstances that require intervention and additional support are: children living in low income and workless households and children living in households where there is domestic violence.

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Information about the centre/group

The group is managed by Nottinghamshire Children and Families Partnership (NCFP) which is commissioned by Nottinghamshire County Council to deliver children’s centre services in Nottinghamshire on their behalf. The children centre group has a shared local advisory group and two parent forums. Most children enter early years provision with skills, knowledge and abilities in line with those expected for their age. There are primary schools on both sites which are subject to separate inspections and their reports can be found on the Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk.

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Access to services by young children and families Good

 Strong partnership working and challenge from leaders and the local authority ensures the centre knows of all families with young children, and those expecting children, in their area and has registered almost all of them.

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Access to services by young children and families Good

 A good but not outstanding number of families who need the centre services the most are identified and accessing them. Staff have been particularly successful in engaging with families living in the 30% most deprived areas in the country and those in most need of their support and intervention. This is because they have been enabled to access activities and services they need and want.

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Access to services by young children and families Good

 Highly challenging access and participation targets are not always set and monitored by the local authority to support the centre on their journey to outstanding as currently their focus is on securing registrations rather than improving engagement of target families.

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Access to services by young children and families Good

 A robust process is in place to ensure staff fully evaluate the need for a service or activity by consulting widely. Services and activities are then planned thoroughly, with clear roles, responsibilities, objectives and measurable outcomes. This enables the centre to monitor and demonstrate the difference these services are making to improving the lives of families and providing value for money.

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Access to services by young children and families Good

 Outreach work is effective in reaching out to more families including those in the rural community. Staff make good use of home visits and existing provision to engage more families and to provide support and intervention and as required.

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Access to services by young children and families Good

 In consultation with families and partners, staff and the extremely proactive parent forums plan community activities and events during the school holidays for the whole family. This encourages their engagement and ensures they have access to their support all year round which families’ value.

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Access to services by young children and families Good

 The centre has correctly identified families facing issues of domestic violence as a target group. Through their partnership working and outreach work staff are successfully identifying more of these families and supporting them accordingly to promote their safety and welfare.

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Access to services by young children and families Good

 The local authority, centre staff and partners promote and facilitate the very good take-up of two-, three- and four-year-olds of their free entitlement to early education funded places in good and better provision to narrow the achievement gap.

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The quality of practice and services Good

 Services and activities are of good quality and the centre can demonstrate how these are improving the lives of the good number of families accessing them. However, leaders are not robustly challenging staff to tenaciously encourage even more families most in need of these services and activities to access them.

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The quality of practice and services Good

 Children are happy and settled in the groups and show confidence and independence as they interact with staff, the environment and each other. Staff skilfully plan and provide high quality play and learning experiences based on their observed interests, needs and stages of development. Children are engaged and actively learning and make secure progress as a result.

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The quality of practice and services Good

 Very Good support and intervention is provided for disabled children and children with special educational needs, their families and professionals such as childcare providers working with the children to secure consistency. As a result, needs are identified early, interventions swiftly secured and outcomes are improving for the most disadvantaged or vulnerable families.

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The quality of practice and services Good

 Staff skilfully engage parents in their child’s play, learning and development, and model effective teaching and parenting skills to parents who adopt these practices into their daily routines. Parenting courses and home visits are also provided where families need more intense support which further promotes the good health, safety and welfare of families.

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The quality of practice and services Good

 Effective partnership working and progress tracking tools ensure all children accessing early years provision are well prepared for school and achieving a good level of development. As one head teacher stated: ‘gaps in children’s learning are narrowing due to the focus and intervention groups including the children’s centre input.’

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The quality of practice and services Good

 Good opportunities are provided for adults to volunteer at the centre and parents are empowered and enabled to run their own groups and contribute their views to the running of the centre. The centre has Investors in Volunteers status and provides volunteers with access to good quality training and support, with many going on to paid employment.

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The quality of practice and services Good

 A good number of parents access the range of adult learning opportunities and services to develop their employability skills and improve their economic well-being, with successful outcomes.

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The quality of practice and services Good

 The role of some parents in the centre through the parent groups secures excellent value for money. They make a significant contribution to enhancing the range of services on offer, both for the benefit of the children’s centre and the local communities. For example, by running their own stay and play sessions, organising day trips and fund raising for resources.

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The quality of practice and services Good

 Those using the centre feel welcome and safe and highly value the differences the staff and services make to their lives. They state the centre provides ‘a lifeline of support’, has improved their parenting skills and promoted the good health of their families.

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Good

 Staff are very well led and managed and there are robust performance management and professional development arrangements in place. This results in a highly skilled, qualified and well trained work force who work very well together as team to support the most vulnerable families in their community. Staff feel valued and supported and state the centre ‘is a lovely place to work’.

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Good

 Strong partnership-working and clear and effective policies and procedures ensure that the centre is working collaboratively to support looked-after children, children identified as in need and children subject to child protection plans and Common Assessment Framework (CAF) processes. This ensures that families receive swift and timely support from the range of professionals required.

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Good

 The centre has secured excellent involvement of some families in the running of the centre and provision of services. Highly effective parent groups are established and ‘You said, we did’ evidence confirms parents have a strong voice and are actively influencing and enhancing the provision. User’s evaluations and surveys show they are very satisfied with the centre and its services and feel valued and listened to.

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Good

 The centre uses their self-evaluation and good range of data and information available to them to ensure they have a secure overview of the needs of the reach area. This is used to shape services, set targets for improvement and demonstrate the difference they are making to the lives of families.  The local authority does not have a robust overview of the centre’s performance. It does not meet with the centre leader regularly and it does not provide leaders with clear criteria to simply demonstrate their performance. For example clear targets are not set and monitored around improving the engagement of families.

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Good

 The effectiveness of the local advisory group has correctly been identified by the centre leaders as an area for development. Representation and involvement of partners is not as strong as for parents. Members have not been provided with the necessary support and guidance to enable them to robustly challenge the centre’s performance against the good range of information they are provided with at meetings.

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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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Centre/Group details

Unique reference number 80664 Local authority Nottinghamshire Inspection number 443653 Managed by Nottinghamshire Children and Families Partnership (NCFP) on behalf of the local authority

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five in the reach area

Centre leader Glenis Smith Telephone number 0115 9118700 Email address Glenis.smith@nottshc.nhs.uk

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This group consists of the following children’s centres:

 Calverton Children’s Centre 20544  The Villages Children’s centre 21247 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:

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. This template is available at www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/130186. 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 No. 130186

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