Aireborough Children’s Centre

c/o Guiseley Infants School, Oxford Road, Guiseley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS20 9DA

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Previous inspection date

14–15 January 2015 Not previously inspected

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This inspection: Good 2

Previous inspection: Not applicable 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

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Summary of key findings for children and families

This children's centre group is good.  Very good partnerships are in place with a wide range of partners. Effective and close partnership working with health colleagues has led to a large majority of young children and their families, especially the small number of those identified as most in need of support, attending activities or engaging with outreach support.  Safeguarding is given high priority. Families whose circumstances make them vulnerable benefit from well-coordinated advice and support from the family outreach workers and a wide range of partner agencies. The progress that these children and their parents make is well supported by staff and carefully monitored by the group.  The group works very well with childminders, providers of childcare and local schools to ensure that they all offer good-quality provision. The promotion of funded education places for eligible two-year- olds is highly effective. The vast majority of two, three and four-year-olds take up early years

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Summary of key findings for children and families

funded places.  Those responsible for leadership, governance and management and the small but well skilled staff team are highly committed and enthusiastic about helping children and their families. Together they assist them to make the best start in life. As a result, the centre group is in a strong position to continually improve.

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It is not outstanding because:

 The gap in achievement between the majority of children and those in danger of falling behind is not closing rapidly enough despite very close work with all early years providers.  Too few adults develop their employability skills through volunteering.  Not all targets in the centre group action plan are sufficiently specific and measurable. Some lack clarity in completion deadlines and do not provide sufficient milestones against which progress can be measured.  Case file supervision records are not always sufficiently detailed to reflect the good quality work that children and families receive from outreach workers.

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What does the group need to do to improve further?

 Develop further the good work with early years partners to close the gap in achievement between the majority of children and those in danger of falling behind.  Increase the number of volunteers and, through this, enhance adults’ opportunities to gain skills leading towards employment.  Enhance the impact of leadership, governance and management by:  making sure that all targets on the action plan are specific and measurable, that timescales for their achievement are sufficiently detailed, and that milestones for measuring progress towards their achievement are consistently included  tighten up administrative procedures so that records of case file supervision identify clearly both the required actions and timescales.

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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; Guiseley Children’s Centre and Yeadon and Rawdon Children’s Centre.

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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 group manager, headteacher of Guiseley Infant School and a local authority representative. They also held meetings with centre staff, parents, members of the advisory board, school governors and a number of partners, including health, education and children’s social care professionals.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors visited a number of sessions held across both centres in the group during the inspection including, ‘Childminder Drop-in Session’ and ‘Stay, Play and Learn’. They also jointly observed a session with the Guiseley Infant School headteacher. They involved the children’s centre group manager, headteacher of Guiseley Infant School and local authority representatives in all team meetings.

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Information about this inspection

They observed the centre group’s work, and looked at a range of relevant documentation, such as the group’s self-evaluation, action plan, a sample of case studies, parent evaluations, key policies and the group’s equality and safeguarding procedures. Throughout the inspection, they also took the opportunity to talk with adult and child users of the group.

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Inspection team

Tara Street, Lead inspector Additional inspector Jane Hughes Additional inspector Sarah Drake Additional inspector

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Information about the group

Aireborough Children’s Centre formed as a children’s centre group in November 2014. It consists of two previously stand-alone children’s centres, Guiseley Children’s Centre and Yeadon and Rawdon Children’s Centre, that have merged and share services, including staff, and one overall leader. The group offers a range of services which include child health services, family play sessions, parenting programmes, adult education, family support services and crèche facilities.

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Information about the group

There are approximately 2,051 children under five years old living within the area, of which 156 live in the 20 to 30% most deprived areas in the country. The families that the centre group has identified in most need of its support are: children and their families who are being supported by social care, including looked after children, children in need, children who are subject to a child protection plan, those on an Early Help Assessment, and disabled children. Most families are from White British backgrounds with a small, mixed minority ethnic community. Housing in this relatively affluent area is mostly owner occupied and privately rented housing. Levels of unemployment are low, with 2% of children living in households dependent upon workless benefits. Most children enter early years provision with knowledge and skills that are in line those typical for their age. There are links to the nine local primary schools and childcare provision is delivered by a range of providers in the area. These

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Information about the group

are subject to separate inspection arrangements and the reports are available on the Ofsted website: www.gov.uk/ofsted.

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Information about the group

Governance of the centre group is provided by Guiseley Infant and Queensway Primary School’s on behalf of Leeds Local Authority, in conjunction with an advisory board that includes providers, delivery partners, members of the local community and users that attend the centre group.

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Access to services by young children and families Good

 The centre group provides a very warm, welcoming atmosphere which puts families at ease and encourages them to participate in activities. Typical comments from parents are, ‘The children always come first but staff also let mums know that they are doing a good job’ and ‘it’s an incredibly welcoming and comfortable environment.’  The centre group works diligently to promote very good partnership working and information sharing with Early Start health partners about those expecting children and new births. This early contact with families has contributed to the successful identification and engagement of a large majority of children living in the community, particularly those who are reluctant to participate and the small number of those identified as most in need of support. This enables centre group staff to quickly support families and prevents the escalation of some challenging situations, thereby greatly

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Access to services by young children and families Good

reducing the numbers of children being referred to social care. Staff are committed to increasing this number so that most families can benefit from this good level of support.  Families and children who are being supported by social care, including looked after children, children in need, children who are subject to a child protection plan, those on an Early Help Assessment, and children with additional educational needs benefit from good-quality services delivered in their own homes or at any of the well-established venues. Very good partnership working with social care ensures that families who are in most need of help are swiftly identified and very well supported through effective advice.  Families have access to a good range of useful information, advice and guidance about early childhood services. The vast majority of families most in need, access free nursery places for their children who are aged two, three and four years in the range of good and better early years

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Access to services by young children and families Good

provision. This is due to the highly effective effort of staff to encourage and support families to take up their place.  Good attention is paid to promoting greater equality of access to the group’s services, particularly for families most in most need of support. For instance, counselling sessions are available for those adults with mental health issues alongside very good one-to-one support in the home and foster carers benefit from use of the centre and its good quality resources for their coffee morning sessions.

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The quality of practice and services Good

 The quality, range and relevance of services provided by the group are good, with the right balance between those available to all and those supporting specific parents. Staff effectively review the delivery of services to monitor if the needs of children and the outcomes of the session have been met. This ensures that the impact of practices and services in improving children’s well-being and improving the lives of families, particularly those that the groups have identified as most in need of extra support, is maximised.  Dedicated staff build close, trusting relationships with parents and the number of parents’ self- referring themselves to services is growing. Staff are highly committed to improving families’ life chances and reducing inequalities for the children that live in the area, particularly in accessing parenting programmes. For example, parents commented that, ‘Staff are approachable and down to

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The quality of practice and services Good

earth, you can tell them anything and things get done’.  Sustained breastfeeding, levels of childhood obesity, uptake of immunisations and the number of mothers smoking in pregnancy are all positive features. This is due to the concerted effort of centre group staff and health partners in raising families’ awareness of healthy living through activities such as, ‘’Baby Clinic with Bumps and Babies Group’ and weaning support.  Partnerships with all schools, early years providers and childminders in the area are very strong. Together, they share ‘good’ practice, access training and have high aspirations for improving the lives of children and their families. Many partners commented that the group manager had ‘played a key role in improving the quality and consistency of provision in the area’. As a result, outcomes at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage are very good and improving. However, the gap

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The quality of practice and services Good

between the lowest achieving children and the rest has increased between 2013 and 2014 and the group recognises that further work is needed to analyse this data across the reach area and plan future work to reverse this trend.  The centre group provides a good range of family and adult courses, including first aid, safeguarding, and food hygiene. Parents are building their confidence and developing skills to support job applications through family learning courses such as, ‘Story Sack’ making sessions and ‘Supporting Your Child’s Language Development’ which are accredited. However, despite a positive induction programme, the group only has one volunteer developing skills that could lead to employment and the group is not proactive enough in identifying and developing this aspect of their work.

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Good

 The committed leaders, governing body and local authority have managed a period of significant change and restructure effectively, whilst continually driving improvement. Staff well-being is at the forefront of each meeting and, as a result, staff morale is high.  The small but well qualified staff team have access to a good range of training and professional development opportunities which further develops their existing skills. They act as good, positive role models and use resources effectively. They are well-deployed and used efficiently across the area to promote strong relationships and instrumental in increasing a greater uptake of services of by those families identified as in most need. Consequently, parental satisfaction is very high.  The local authority supports the centre group well. In addition to its annual conversation a number of quality monitoring visits throughout the year have a good focus on improving the quality of the

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Good

services.  The group’s advisory board is very well attended by a wide range of partner agencies and of parents from a range of backgrounds from across the area. They are highly committed to building the group’s services in response to families needs with an ethos of ‘Reaching out and strengthening the community’.  Overall, the range and quality of management information is good and used well to measure the impact of most services on individual families. The process of self-evaluation has good involvement of staff, advisory board members and the governing body. As a result, leaders have an accurate picture of the strengths of the group and the areas for improvement. However, not all the targets in the centre group action plan are sufficiently specific and measurable. Some lack clarity in completion deadlines, and do not always not provide milestones for measuring the progress towards their achievement.

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Good

 Responsibilities relating to safeguarding are taken very seriously and children’s well-being is central to the groups work. An effective referral and assessment system enables accurate and early identification of need. The group provides good support to help families with disabled children, as a result, they are effectively reducing inequalities. Family outreach workers maintain extremely detailed case files. However, the records of case file supervision are less robust in identifying clearly both the agreed actions and timescales for them to be achieved.

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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 85179 Local authority Leeds Inspection number 461215 Managed by Guiseley Infant and Queensway Primary School’s on behalf of the local authority

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five in the reach area

Centre leader Matthew Podd Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected Telephone number 01943 874100 Email address m.poddcc@guiseleyinfants.org.uk

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This group consists of the following children’s centres:

 21325 Guiseley Children’s Centre  23713 Yeadon and Rawdon 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:

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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