Redbridge West Group 2

c/o Orchard Children's Centre, Orchard Estate, Liston Way, Woodford Green, IG8 7BL

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This inspection: Outstanding 1

Previous inspection: Not previously inspected Access to services by young children and families Outstanding 1 The quality of practice and services Outstanding 1 The effectiveness of leadership, governance and management Outstanding 1

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Summary of key findings for children and families

This children's centre group is outstanding.

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Summary of key findings for children and families

 Governance provided by the local authority is highly effective and has made a significant contribution to the effectiveness of the group, which is clearly at the very heart of its community.  Leaders work very successfully to ensure that the quality of service and practice is consistently high.  Highly efficient information sharing between partners, including health and social care, ensures that almost all families, including those expecting children, are known. Exceptionally strong partnerships with health visitors, midwives and library staff underpin the group’s outstanding reach into its community. At 96%, virtually all two-year-olds and under are registered and accessing services.  Almost all young children living in the most deprived areas which the group serves are registered and the very large majority take up services. The large majority sustain contact until their needs are met and have access to excellent information, advice and guidance. This is particularly so for those

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Summary of key findings for children and families

living on the Orchard housing estate.  Over the last twelve months the group has enabled families, including lone parents, to access on average £6,000 of benefits not previously taken up and so improve their economic well-being. As one parent said to inspectors, ‘I will now have a roof over my head, food, electric, gas and a good night’s sleep.’  Joint working with local nurseries and childminders, particularly those caring for children with special educational needs, is highly effective. Last year almost all of the Reception-age children who previously accessed the group’s services achieved a good level of development. The group recognises that even better use can be made of information about children’s development, including health, to plan services in going forward.  Due to the group’s successful support, the large majority of mothers sustain breastfeeding at six-to- eight weeks, with many continuing for much longer.

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Summary of key findings for children and families

 Very effective services enhance parenting skills and support the development of healthy lifestyles. Parents benefit from excellent support which builds their self-confidence and helps them to take positive steps towards training or employment. Those in greatest need receive timely and well coordinated help to overcome personal challenges and get back on track.  Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the group’s staff, who are passionate about what they do, very well trained and supported, and totally focused on improving children’s and their families’ lives and reducing inequalities.

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

 Use information, particularly relating to children’s progress and health outcomes, even more effectively to plan consistently outstanding services for families and to inform the group’s evaluations.

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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 Orchard and Ray Lodge and Oakdale.

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out by three Additional Inspectors.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors held meetings with the children’s centre deputy manager, staff, a wide range of partners including representatives of adult learning, childcare, schools, welfare support and children’s social care. They also met with the chair of the advisory board, several local authority staff, parents and the group’s critical friend.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors visited all three children’s centres and observed a range of sessions, including Baby Music, Active Healthy Kids, and an English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) course. They also jointly observed a session with the deputy children’s centre manager. The centre manager was not present for the inspection.

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Information about this inspection

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

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Inspection team

Michael Blakey, Lead Inspector Additional Inspector Lesley Talbot-Strettle Additional Inspector Sarah McDermott Additional Inspector

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Information about the centre group

Redbridge West Group 2 consists of two children’s centres: Orchard and Ray Lodge and Oakdale. Ray Lodge shares a site with Ray Lodge Primary School. Until February 2014, Oakdale Children’s Centre was managed by Oakdale Junior School. Both centres are now managed directly by the local authority as one group. The schools are subject to separate inspection arrangements and their reports can be found at http://reports.ofsted.gov.uk. A Redbridge-wide advisory board is in place to oversee governance.

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Information about the centre group

Approximately 2,915 children aged under five years live in the area served by the group. The area includes 21 local super output areas. Two of these are in the 30% most deprived in England. One of these is the Orchard housing estate where Orchard and Ray Lodge Children’s Centre is situated, at the base of a block of high-rise housing. Approximately 190 children live in this area where the needs of families are greatest and the majority of children live in poverty. Unemployment rates are higher in the Orchard estate area, but are well below national levels elsewhere, including Oakdale.

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Information about the centre group

The area is very diverse with a wide range of families from different ethnic backgrounds. The most prominent group is White British, although in the Roding Ward area almost half of the families are of Indian ethnicity. Children’s skills and knowledge when children start school are broadly in line with those expected for their age.

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Information about the centre group

The children’s centre group has identified the following priority groups of families: those living on the Orchard housing estate; children of White Other ethnic backgrounds; and two-year-olds who are eligible for free early education. In addition, the centre group focuses on supporting families in greatest need, including lone parent families and children with special educational needs.

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Inspection judgements

Access to services by young children and families Outstanding

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Inspection judgements

 Leaders and managers use all available information very well to identify the needs of children and families and prioritise which groups need additional support, including those known to social care.  The group has worked tirelessly to improve access to services, particularly for those children who live in the most deprived areas where their needs are greatest. As a result, over 90% of children living in these areas have engaged with services in the last twelve months, and the large majority have on-going contact.  As a result of excellent partnership working and information sharing with health services, almost all children are known. Almost all under ones and almost all under two-year-olds access services and over three quarters participate in activities regularly.  The group has made a significant and sustained impact on improving the access to services for families living in the Oakdale Children’s Centre area, since it joined the group in 2014. As a result, in

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Inspection judgements

this relatively more affluent area, most children are now in regular contact.  Most minority ethnic families and the large majority of lone parents are engaged in the group’s services. Leaders have correctly identified that families of White Other ethnic backgrounds are a priority for its support because children with this heritage are underachieving at the end of Reception. Due to the group’s highly successful work, most of these children now use services that are well matched to meeting their needs.  Previously the centre group had focused on engaging children of Pakistani origin because they were underachieving. The group’s effective work with partners has ensured their regular take up of services and the gap in achievement has closed.  Most two-year-olds who are eligible for free early education take up their free entitlement. Joint working with early years partners, particularly those caring for children with special educational

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Inspection judgements

needs, is highly effective and means that this priority group actively engages in services that help meet their needs. The quality of practice and services Outstanding

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Inspection judgements

 The group delivers a wide range of activities which are open to all families and very effectively ensure that priority children and families attend regularly. The centres also provide highly effective one-to-one support for families. Specialist programmes, such as Empowering Women, help to develop confidence and self-esteem. Parents say that their children ‘love it’ when taking part in an activity and clearly settle very well as a result of their regular attendance.  The group has been highly effective in narrowing inequalities. Children living in the most deprived areas, including those housed on the Orchard estate, achieve well by the end of Reception. The group’s work demonstrably helps to prepare children ready for school. In 2014, 62% of children who had accessed the group’s services achieved a good level of development. This is well above the 53% level seen nationally.  The group has recently implemented a more comprehensive tracking system to show the impact of

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Inspection judgements

services on children’s progress better at all early years settings in the locality. The local authority and centre group staff work very well with these settings to promote best quality provision.  At 72%, the proportion of mothers who sustain breastfeeding at six-to-eight weeks is well above the level seen nationally. The group’s own tracking of those that attend the Breastfeeding Café shows that the majority of these mothers continue to breastfeed after three months in order to give their child a healthy start. Data on local obesity rates are not currently available to the group and this hinders otherwise highly effective planning and evaluation.  The group’s own monitoring of activities and services over time, confirmed by inspectors, shows that the quality of practice is consistently good or better. Parents say that sessions are excellent and that they have access to exemplary information, advice, support and guidance. One parent told

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Inspection judgements

inspectors, ‘At every session they ask everyone if there is any help that they need.’  Very good tracking processes are in place to monitor the progress that adults make as a result of attending a range of courses or other support, including excellent parenting courses. Parents speak extremely highly of the difference that services make to their lives, particularly in preparing them to return to work. One parent said, ‘Before the classes my husband would go to the interviews as he had English and I did not. Now I am ready to go.’

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management

 Resources are used exceptionally well to deliver well-attended consistently high quality services that make a significant difference to the lives of children and families from priority groups. Partnership working is exemplary in many aspects of the group’s work and adds significant value to the quality of service delivery. The group estimates that almost £277,000 of additional benefits has been accessed by families in the last 12 months due the specialist help families receive.  Governance is highly effective. Those responsible for the strategic and operational development of children’s centres at a local authority level have shared learning and embedded a wide range of systems and processes, which demonstrate the group’s excellent capacity for continuing improvement. For example, the consistent use of ‘report cards’ to evaluate the difference services make to families, and then to plan for further improvement, is a significant strength of the group’s

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management

work.  The annual conversation review, undertaken by the local authority, is probing and accurate. The process helps leaders to identify the tweaks required to further improve on the areas for development. For example, the local authority rightly suggested that improvement planning could be more precise with the addition of specific and measurable targets.  The manager has developed a high performing group of centres in which responsibility is shared between staff at all levels. Performance management processes, and staff training opportunities, are very effective and clearly link to the group’s very well targeted development plans. Supervision takes place in a timely manner and is clearly recorded on the case records of priority families. This helps to ensure that family support workers are well managed in their day-to-day work.  Safeguarding procedures are very robust and ensure that vulnerable children are well protected. All

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management

staff and volunteers are safely recruited and parents say that they feel safe at the centres. Very close day-to-day working with social workers helps to ensure that children who are subject to child protection plans, those in need and in care are very well supported. Likewise, the Common Assessment Framework is used extremely well to provide effective multi-agency support to vulnerable families.  Leaders and managers use all available data and other information very well to plan appropriate services. However, in going forward, the group has correctly identified that it requires access to timely additional health data so that it may continue to focus on delivering outstanding services for children and their families, during a period of reducing resources.  Parents are routinely involved with the parents’ forum, in the day-to-day running of the group, and a parent attends the Redbridge-wide advisory board meetings. The work of the advisory board is

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management

complemented by the ‘critical friend’ role, undertaken by a board member. The ‘critical friend’ visits the centres to provide very effective challenge and support to managers and staff. This helps to ensure that the centre group is constantly striving to do the very best it can for children and families.

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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 80253 Local authority London Borough of Redbridge Inspection number 454072 Managed by The local authority

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five in the reach area

Centre leader Geraldine Cole Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected Telephone number 020 708 8344 Email address orchardcc@redbridge.gov.uk

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This group consists of the following children’s centres:

 Orchard and Ray Lodge (URN: 22265)  Oakdale (URN: 22222) 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. 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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