Gosport Children’s Centre Group

c/o Rowner Children’s Centre, Siskin Schools Campus, Nimrod Drive, Gosport, PO13 8AA

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Inspection dates

Previous inspection date 13–14 November 2014 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 Good 2

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Summary of key findings for children and families

This group of centres is good.  The large majority of priority families, including teenage parents, families from workless households and adults with mental health problems, attend services regularly.  Staff provide good quality support for families in the community. This helps parents to create a safer home environment and reduce the risk of harm to children.  The group delivers good quality activities that help parents develop their skills and confidence. Many parents who attend parenting courses understand and manage their child’s behaviour better. A significant number of adults have returned to education or gained jobs through receiving good quality employment advice and support at Rowner and Little Waves centres.  The group has good initiatives and partnership working to improve children’s transition to school. Most two-year-old children take up their entitlement to free education. A high proportion of children

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Summary of key findings for children and families

start school with a good level of development.  Partnership working is particularly strong in delivering activities jointly, in convenient locations that attract families and meet their needs well.  Leadership and management are good, with staff being well managed, trained and supported. The management team takes very effective action to improve activities and services. Members value parents’ and partner’s opinions and take these seriously when considering change.

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It is not outstanding because:

 Partnership working with social care professionals requires improvement. The group is not told about recent families deemed as having children in need to offer them support at the earliest opportunity.  Despite the many initiatives offered within centres, breastfeeding rates and childhood obesity have not improved sufficiently.  Systems to measure the difference the group is making with families are under developed. Staff do not analyse activity evaluations or the skills that children and adults acquire sufficiently.

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What does the group need to do to improve further?

 Implement the protocols with social care professionals to ensure that family support outreach workers know which families have been identified as having children in need at an earlier stage to offer them support. Once the protocols are in place, set targets to judge how effectively these are working.  Review the current breastfeeding and healthy lifestyles initiatives to identify which are working successfully and those that are less effective and need strengthening. Make use of the research being carried out with partners about the links between healthy feeding and childhood obesity to plan activities and promote key health messages.  Strengthen the systems for evaluating and analysing the impact of services and activities by: measuring the difference these make to families in most need ensuring all staff record children’s and parents’ learning effectively.

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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: Haselbridge; Stubblee Hill and Rowner; and Tree House and Little Waves.

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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 inspectors held meetings with the children’s services manager, centre coordinators, lead practitioner, and family support workers. Representatives from the local authority, Action for Children, partnership board, and partners from health, social care, early years, adult learning and employment were also interviewed. Inspectors met informally with parents and grandparents.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors visited a range of activities taking place at each of the centres and in the community. These included Stay and Play, young parents’ groups, the grandparents’ group and baby massage. Inspectors also visited Haven Children’s Centre, which was inspected at the same time and offers adult learning courses and specialist speech and language support. A joint observation was undertaken with one of the coordinators of the Stay and Play at Stubblee Hill.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors observed each centre’s work and looked at a range of relevant documentation.

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Inspection team

Janet Rodgers, Lead Inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Jameel Hassan Additional Inspector Shagufta Shahin Additional Inspector

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Information about the group

The Gosport Children’s Centre Group has three centres which, along with Haven Children’s Centre, serve the town of Gosport. The group is managed by Action for Children, on behalf of Hampshire County Council. The management team comprises the children’s services manager and two coordinators who oversee the day-to-day management of the centres and staff team. Each centre had its own partnership advisory board until October 2014, when these merged into one.

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Information about the group

There are 4,598 children under five years living in the community the group serves. Gosport is a very densely populated town with much social housing and families in temporary accommodation. Each centre includes wards with high levels of deprivation. The population of Gosport is mainly White British, which accounts for over 96% of all residents. Unemployment is relatively low when compared with England and the south east. However, a high proportion of adults living in parts of the Haselbridge, Rowner and Stubblee Hill centres’ reach area are out of work. Gosport has high numbers of teenage pregnancies. Most children start early years provision with skills slightly below what are typical for their age. The group has identified teenage parents, families in workless households, and adults with mental health problems, as its main priority groups.

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Information about the group

The group offers a range of activities and services. These include Stay and Play, health clinics, parenting programmes, breastfeeding cafes and exercise and healthy eating sessions. Stubblee Hill and Rowner and Tree House and Little Waves merged from four centres into two, but continue to offer services and activities at four different locations. All centres, except Haselbridge, hold on-site activities five days a week, and Little Waves additionally runs a fortnightly dads’ group on a Saturday. Haselbridge runs on-site activities on Monday and Tuesday, at Gosport Methodist Church on Wednesday and Thursday, and at a homeless hostel and a masonic hall on Tuesday. Employment advice and support are available each week at Little Waves and Rowner centres. Rowner, which acts as the main hub for the group, is located on the Siskin Schools Campus, which also has an infant school, nursery school and adult learning centre. Rowner additionally offers Stay and Play at St Marys Church. Little

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Information about the group

Waves is located within the St Vincent’s College campus which has an early years centre. Tree House is on the same site as Elson Infant School. Haselbridge is within Haselworth Primary School and linked to Alverbridge Nursery. Stubblee Hill is on the Lee-on-the-Solent Infant School site, along with Sunbeams pre-school and Dinky Ducks Nursery.

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Information about the group

Schools and registered early years providers are subject to separate inspection arrangements. Reports can be found at www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Inspection judgements

Access to services by young children and families Good  The group engages with the large majority of families and this is particularly good for those families living in areas with high levels of deprivation. Sharing of information between midwives and health visitors has successfully increased the number of families registered, which is now the very large majority. However, health professionals do not routinely share live birth data with staff to help them introduce services to families at the earliest possible opportunity.  The management team liaises productively with a wide range of partners to identify those families who would benefit most from the group’s services and activities. The team gives careful consideration to activities and locations of outreach venues to attract families from priority groups. As a result, the large majority of priority families, including teenage parents, families from workless

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Inspection judgements

households and adults with mental health problems, attend services regularly.  Most children take up their free education place with local pre-school, childminder and nursery settings. The group works well with a wide range of early education professionals to help early years settings improve and the large majority are of a good, or better, quality.  Effective partnership working with health visitors at two-year-old assessments identifies children in need of speech and language development. These children benefit from attending good activities, including those delivered by a specialist speech and language therapist, at the Haven centre.  The group offers a good range of parenting and Stay and Play sessions which focus on specific age groups and families. This includes an innovative group at Stubblee Hill for grandparents who look after children aged under five. Activities are well attended.  Family support outreach workers identify those families in most need very thoroughly and at an

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Inspection judgements

early stage. They collaborate well with health professionals, and more recently social workers, to agree a holistic support plan for the whole family. Last year, family support workers successfully increased the number of families with children on child protection plans that they work with.

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Inspection judgements

The quality of practice and services Good

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Inspection judgements

 The group offers good quality services and activities within well-resourced and attractive centres. The programme of activities is well devised, with a good range of drop-in activities, such as Stay and Play, breastfeeding cafes and the Family Men dads’ group. These run successfully, alongside those identified for specific families, such as Power to Change for women experiencing domestic violence. Parents welcome the child health clinics that run at all centres on different days, giving them immediate advice or support if needed and at convenient locations.  Parents improve their skills through the wide range of courses, such as Incredible Years and Me Time. As a result, many parents understand their child’s behaviour better and use alternative strategies to manage this. They gain reassurance and confidence in their ability to be good parents.  The group works productively with local early education settings to improve transition to school.

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Inspection judgements

Initiatives, such as Keep on Talking, have been very successful in increasing the proportion of children achieving a good level of development when they enter school, which is now good. The gap between the lowest achieving group and their peers is reducing, and actions have started to raise achievement of boys in one centre that has been identified as requiring improvement.  Family support outreach workers provide good quality support and advice. This helps families create a safer home environment for their children, particularly those on child protection plans and where parents have mental health problems. The introduction of the ‘early help hub’ at Rowner centre is improving the group’s links with social care, but is still evolving.  The successful re-introduction of on-site employment services has aided a significant number of parents to return to education, gain employment or gain work experience. Most of the group’s

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Inspection judgements

volunteers are now in jobs or taking qualifications, such as playwork level 2, while doing voluntary work in schools or nurseries.  The Haven centre offers the group’s adults a good range of innovative courses. These provide a stepping stone to English and mathematics qualifications, in topics such as cake decorating, sewing and child psychology. The management team now tracks the progress made by adults it signposts to the college or adult learning centre on the Rowner campus, but this is very recent. The few adults that have been tracked attend and achieve their qualifications well.  The group’s strategies to increase breastfeeding and reduce childhood obesity require improvement. Despite the group offering initiatives that are improving individual families’ lifestyles, these have yet to increase breastfeeding and reduce obesity rates sufficiently.

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management

 The group is well managed, with staff and resources being deployed flexibly and to good effect across all locations. Since taking over leadership of the group in May 2014, the children’s services manager has made significant improvements to systems, audits and partnership working. This has improved the quality of services and activities and increased engagement with priority families. The management team has a good understanding of what needs to be improved and has set challenging action plans.  Staff receive good support from the management team through regular and highly effective supervision and meetings to set targets for staff. They benefit from good quality training and development that align well to the group’s priorities. This has improved staff confidence in supporting adults’ well-being and mental health, working with families in most need and delivering popular activities such as baby massage.

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management

 Leadership is highly effective. The local authority provides good monitoring of, and guidance for, the management team. It sets demanding targets, which are largely met. Partnership advisory board members take an active role in judging the group’s effectiveness. The recent merger into one partnership advisory board for the group brings together a strong team of partners and parents. However, it has not yet secured a representative from adult learning.  Parents have many opportunities to give their views, which the group values and uses towards improvement. During the move from individual centres to the group, the management team consulted well with parents. When planning the group’s programme of activities, coordinators make good use of the online booking system to ensure they meet families’ needs.  Partnership working is generally good. The management team devised a range of ‘pathways’ to maximise partners’ involvement, such as for teenage parents and breastfeeding. Joint delivery

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management

between staff and partners is a key feature within many activities, including those delivered on site at a homeless hostel, maternity unit and local sports college.  Partnership working with social care professionals requires improvement. The group is not told about recent families deemed as having children in need, to offer them support at the earliest opportunity. Children who are looked after and/or subject to child protection plans receive good support.  Safeguarding arrangements are good and safety is promoted well within all centres. Staff receive highly effective safeguarding training, which they use to good effect. The management team has good over sight of case files which has led to thorough and detailed recording of actions and the subsequent progress for families in most need.  The group’s systems for evaluating the impact of services and activities require improvement. Managers do not analyse activity evaluations sufficiently to measure the difference these make to

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management

families who attend. Staff keep individual records and photographs of activities taken by each family. They do not always write down the skills that children and adults acquire to help judge success and impact.

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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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Group details

Unique reference number 80337 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 447641 Managed by Action for Children on behalf of the local authority

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five in the reach area

Centre leader Wendy Lee Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected Telephone number 02392 553816 Email address rowner@actionforchildren.org.uk

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This group consists of the following children’s centres:

 21395 Haselbridge  22967 Stubblee Hill and Rowner  23267 Tree House and Little Waves 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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