North Yorkshire – North Craven and Upper Wharfedale Group

North Yorkshire – North Craven and Upper Wharfedale

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c/o Hellifield Community Primary School, Kendal Road, Hellifield, Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD23 4HA

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This inspection: Inadequate 4

Previous inspection: Not previously inspected Access to services by young children and families Inadequate 4 The quality of practice and services Inadequate 4 The effectiveness of leadership, governance and management Inadequate 4

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Summary of key findings for children and families

This children's centre group is inadequate.  The number of families who participate regularly in the centres’ activities does not represent a majority from the local area. The local authority and other key partners are not providing the centres with the full range of available information to identify and establish contact with the majority of families most in need of support. Families are unclear about all the services on offer.  Not enough parents, especially from workless households, enhance their education, engage in training, volunteering or extend their workplace skills. Links with Jobcentre Plus are not as strong as with other partners.  Partnerships with health organisations do not result in improved outcomes for families. The centres’ staff do not receive useful local information such as breastfeeding rates and obesity levels to help plan activities. Delivery of services is not sufficiently well integrated.

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Summary of key findings for children and families

 Tracking of children’s development is not consistent enough to demonstrate that the centre group is making a difference in preparing them well for school or improving their health outcomes.  Leadership, governance and management are too weak to ensure the centre group can improve and too few parents, particularly from target groups, are involved in helping the centres to set priorities. Leaders are not clear which families in the area are most in need of support.

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This children’s centre group has the following strengths:

 The staff provide effective outreach support for families in isolated rural areas by visiting them at home and at accessible local venues. Individual support is highly valued by families, particularly those with disabled children. Staff are seen as positive role models by those who use the centre group’s services.

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

 Increase the number of families using the centre group, especially those most in need, through the local authority establishing more effective protocols for sharing key data and information, such as the reported incidents of domestic violence, and through more effective marketing of what services are on offer.  Improve arrangements for establishing the effectiveness of the centre group by tracking the progress made by those who use its services, including health promotion, children’s readiness for school and parents’ achievement in further education and employability training.  Extend the opportunities for more adults, particularly those from workless homes, to enhance their economic well-being by: - building stronger links with training providers and Jobcentre Plus - carrying out regular checks on individual education and training needs - actively promoting volunteering so that more parents sign up

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

- establishing a system to track how well adults make progress when they access courses or programmes, and using the data gathered to help plan future services.  Improve partnerships with health organisations and other key partners so that services such as baby clinics and health related drop-ins are better integrated and that information about rates of breastfeeding, obesity, tooth decay, accidents and immunisation is used to help plan and prioritise actions and ensure services are matched to families’ needs.  Strengthen leadership of the centre group by: - the local authority providing effective support to help the centre group identify families most in need of help - senior leaders providing greater challenge to help set clear targets for improved quality and increased performance.  Increase the effectiveness of governance by: - urgently reviewing arrangements for the advisory boards - appointing and supporting independent chairs and increasing the number of parents who serve

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

on the boards so their views are formally considered - increasing the frequency of meetings and keeping accurate written records of decisions and actions - enabling the advisory boards to adopt a more active role in challenging the centre group’s leader and to have greater oversight of the performance, priorities and improvement of the centres.

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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 North Craven Children’s Centre and Upper Wharfedale 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 and a senior manager from the local authority. They also held meetings with centre group staff, parents, members of the advisory boards 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 during the inspection including’Themed Thursdays’ and ‘Brainy Babies’. They also visited Settle Health Centre.

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Information about this inspection

They observed the centres’ work and looked at a range of relevant documentation.

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Inspection team

Daniel Grant, Lead inspector Additional inspector Sarah Drake Additional inspector Shirley Barnes Additional inspector

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Information about the centre group

North Yorkshire – North Craven and Upper Wharfedale Children’s Centre Group formed as a group in April 2013. It comprises two previously stand-alone children’s centres that have merged and share services, including staff, and one overall manager. The group meets its core purpose by offering a range of services which include child health services, family play sessions, parenting courses, adult learning and family support. These services are delivered to families from the children’s centres’ buildings, community venues in the area and through outreach home visits.

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Information about the centre group

There are approximately 865 children aged from birth to five years in the reach area. The large geographical area covered by the centre group is sparsely populated. It is largely affluent with only a few families living in areas considered to be within the 20% to 40% most deprived in the country. The target groups identified by the centre group are: low income households, teenage parents and pregnant teenagers. At 95%, the large majority of families within the area served by the centre group are White British with the remaining 5% made up of mainly Chinese families in the Giggleswick and Settle areas. Housing is mostly private with small pockets of social housing. Levels of unemployment are low, with only a small number of children living in households dependent upon workless benefits.

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Information about the centre group

Most children enter early years provision with knowledge and skills that are typical for their age. North Craven Children’s Centre is based on the same site as Hellifield Community Primary School and Hellifield Pre-School. Upper Wharfedale Children’s Centre is based on the same site as Grassington Primary School. These settings are subject to separate inspection arrangements and the reports are available on the Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk.

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Information about the centre group

The centres are managed directly by North Yorkshire local authority, in conjunction with separate advisory boards for each centre made up of delivery partners, members of the local community and parents.

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Inspection judgements

Access to services by young children and families Inadequate

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Inspection judgements

 Only a minority of families regularly uses the centres’ services. Although increasing very slightly over the last year, the number of families using the centres’ services who are identified as in most need of support is not rising quickly enough. Even so, the centre group manager and her staff team are becoming increasingly effective at identifying all of the families in the area.  The centre group staff do not routinely receive sufficient accurate information from the local authority, health visitors or other key partners to help identify all of the families in the area who are in most need of support. For example, those with a new baby, families in workless households and families where there has been reported incidents of domestic violence.  Staff do not have an adequate understanding of the needs of the local community because they do not know enough about those most likely to need help. The proportion of families using funding for

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Inspection judgements

good quality childcare for two-year-olds is low and staff are unsure if the families who most need this support are using it.  Support for families known to have a disabled child is good because staff work effectively with key partners and understand each family’s needs. All of the teenage parents known to the centres are registered and are using appropriate services.  Staff work hard to ensure that the centres are warm and welcoming to families but attendance is low. A very limited range of activities is offered at the Upper Wharfedale Children’s Centre building, which total just four hours and 15 minutes per week. This centre does not have a car park and families have found this to be a barrier which restricts their use of the centre.  Staff provide effective outreach support for families and make sure they remain engaged until their needs are met. A minority of families who are unable to access the centres, for example, those

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Inspection judgements

living in remote rural areas, receive effective individual support from staff visiting them at home to help improve their parenting skills. However, outreach work is not sufficiently effective in identifying more families in most need of support.

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Inspection judgements

The quality of practice and services Inadequate

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Inspection judgements

 The centre group staff do not have a good enough understanding of the needs of the local families so they are unable to evaluate thoroughly the effectiveness of what they do or accurately plan services to meet local needs. As a result, the centre group does not put sufficient emphasis on ensuring the impact of its services improves life chances and reduces inequalities for local families.  Universal sessions, such as ‘Diddi Dance’ and ‘Stay and Play’, are popular with families and help those who attend the centres to see what else is on offer and how it might help them. Staff are seen by many families as positive role-models because of their knowledge and experience, for example, giving effective advice on play and communication. However, not enough families benefit from the centres’ good work.  Staff from the centre group provide good individual support for families during home visits. Clear and detailed records provide good evidence of the progress made by families as a result of this

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Inspection judgements

support, such as helping isolated parents to increase their self-esteem and develop sufficient confidence to meet with other parents.  Teenage parents and families with disabled children are clearly targeted and receive good levels of support. However, those with other needs, such as families from workless households and lone parents are not identified so the centre group is unclear about the needs they may have.  Links with local schools and early years providers are generally well established. However, the centre group is not able to demonstrate how effectively it is helping to prepare children for school because children’s progress is not tracked.  Health partnerships are weak and do not result in sufficiently well-integrated services for families. Midwives and health visitors run clinics from Upper Wharfedale Children’s Centre but staff from the centre are not sufficiently involved. Local health data are not given to the centre group or used

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Inspection judgements

effectively to plan services and match families’ needs. There are no systems to check adults’ individual education and training needs.  Arrangements for encouraging and supporting parents who want to gain qualifications and improve their job prospects are poor. The centre group does not know how many parents, especially those from workless households, enhance their education, engage in training, volunteering or extend their employability skills. Links with Jobcentre Plus are not well established and systems to track how well adults make progress when they do access courses are not in place.

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management

 Although important staffing issues have been successfully addressed by the manager since the centre group formed last year, this resulted in periods of staff absence. These have led to considerable disruption to the team’s capacity to deliver services and to the manager’s capacity to develop and improve the performance of the centre group.  The advisory boards are not effective and so governance is inadequate. Too few parents serve on the boards and there are no independent chairs. Efforts to revitalise the boards have been unsuccessful. Meetings are not held frequently enough and are poorly attended. Written records of meetings lack detail and are unreliable. The advisory boards have very little impact on the quality of services provided. Members lack an informed understanding of the centre group’s data, priorities and provide little challenge to leaders on how to improve the centre group’s performance, including

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management

that of staff, and so reduce inequalities for local children and families.  The local authority and its key strategic partners do not have adequate arrangements to ensure that the centre group identifies families most in need of support. Protocols have not been established to allow the centre group to receive sufficient, accurate information. Consequently, the centres’ work to support these families is not fully effective. The centre manager does not receive sufficient support from the local authority senior leaders to ensure the centre group improves. She cannot set clear and challenging targets to improve quality of services and performance across the group.  The centre group leader ensures that the staff receive appropriate training, professional development and supervision. Toys, equipment and other resources at the centres are of a satisfactory standard and are valued by families who use them.

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management

 Self-evaluation is not rigorous or effective enough to inform the centres’ priorities and to set challenging targets for improvement. The centres have adequate arrangements to seek the views of parents and children regularly and frequently at the end of sessions.  The centre group staff work effectively to reduce inequalities for some families who use the centre, such as those with disabled children. However, the centres are not reducing inequalities enough for other groups, such as lone parents and those from workless households, because too few of them are involved in the centres’ activities. The centres do not provide sufficient opportunities for parents to fully participate in formal discussions on the advisory boards to help influence the work of the centre group.  The centre group has adequate safeguarding arrangements and effective policies and procedures which ensure that families using its services are safe and well protected. Staff use the Common

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management

Assessment Framework (CAF) effectively and have a good level of experience and knowledge of safeguarding. The centre group works satisfactorily with key partners to promote the welfare of children in need, looked-after children and those subject to child protection plans. However, information relating to incidents of domestic violence is not routinely shared with the centre group staff.

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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 80592 Local authority North Yorkshire Inspection number 442829 Managed by The local authority

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under five in the reach area

Group manager Rachel Copping Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected Telephone number 01609 533990 Email address Rachel.copping1@northyorks.gov.uk

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This group consists of the following children’s centres:

 22168 North Craven  23386 Upper Wharfedale 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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