North Yorkshire – Skipton & South Craven

Children’s centre report

North Yorkshire – Skipton & South Craven c/o Brougham Street Nursery School, Brougham Street, Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD23 2ES

Inspection dates 29–30 April 2014 Previous inspection date Not previously inspected

Overall This inspection: Good 2 effectiveness 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 Good 2 management

Summary of key findings for children and families

This children's centre group is good.  Good leadership, governance and management has ensured that most families have good access to a wide range of targeted and universal services. The group’s manager and her staff make certain that activities and services are constantly improving and carefully tailored to meet local requirements.  Highly effective relationships with a wide range of professional partners, including those in health, schools, adult education and social care encourage the good sharing of information at a local level. This has helped to ensure that a large majority of families access services.  Staff are very skilled because of the close attention that is paid to their professional development. This together with high levels of commitment ensures that the services they provide are of a good quality and have a positive impact on the lives of families.  The group provides very valuable support for families who find themselves in challenging circumstances. Parents praise the support they receive from the centre staff and their professional partners. They say that the services have been a ‘lifeline’ and have made a ‘huge difference’. It is not outstanding because:  Too few children are accessing their entitlement to good quality free early education.  Not enough is done to track the achievement of children and adults over time.  The data provided at a strategic level by the local authority and health partners is not exact enough to allow the setting of precise targets for improvement so that the centre is more able to accurately measure its impact, particularly on target groups.  The local steering groups do not provide governance that has sufficient challenge and they lack an independent chairperson. Inspection report: North Yorkshire – Skipton & South Craven Page 2 of 8

What does the group need to do to improve further?  Ensure that more children access their entitlement to free good quality early education at age two, three and four years of age.

 Develop systems for tracking the achievement over time of adults and children.

 Enhance the impact of leadership of management including governance by working with the local authority and health partners at a strategic level to ensure that the centre is provided with: – data that is accurate, relevant and up-to-date – data that is used to set more precise targets to measure the impact of the group’s work, particularly relating to target groups – improved challenge from the local steering groups, including appointing independent chairpersons.

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.

This inspection was carried out by three additional inspectors.

The inspectors held meetings with the leader of the group. They also spoke to staff who work in the centres, to managers from the local authority as well as members of the local steering groups. Conversations were held with staff from partner agencies, including a range of health professionals and staff from the adult learning services. Inspectors also spoke with headteachers and other educational professionals. Discussions with parents took place at different times during the inspection.

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

Inspection team

Susan Walsh, Lead inspector Additional inspector

Tara Street Additional inspector

Joan Cawdron Additional inspector

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Full report

Information about the group

Skipton and South Centre group consists of two centres, South Craven and Skipton Children’s Centre’s which are situated approximately six miles apart. The Skipton children centre, which also provides services from several satellite centres, serves the market town of Skipton. It shares a site with Broughham Street Nursery School and Skipton Parish Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School. South Craven Children’s Centre provides for a semi-rural area that includes eight villages of differing sizes. It shares a site with Glusburn Community Primary School.

The two centres share a Centre Services Manager and a team of Parent Support Advisers and Early Years Workers. The centres are managed by North Yorkshire County Council. There is a Craven-wide strategic steering group which provides governance and also serves two other children’s centres in the area and both centres also have an individual local advisory board. The group offers early child hood services including family support and health services as well as aspects of adult education. Members of the Early Intervention Team are also located at the Skipton centre. Childcare is offered through Brougham Street Nursery School at Skipton and the Bungalow at South Craven. This provision is inspected separately and the reports are available on the Ofsted website: www.Ofsted.gov.uk

The proportion of children who live in workless households is below the national average in both areas. However, there are pockets of housing where economic conditions are less advantaged, particularly in Skipton. The vast majority of families are from White British backgrounds but there are significant numbers of families from Asian heritages, including families of Pakistani origin in one part of the reach area.

Most children enter Nursery and Reception classes with skills that are typical to those expected for their age.

The centre has identified as particular target groups: families living in those areas of Skipton and South Craven where there are the highest proportion of workless households, young parents, lone parents and families from minority ethnic groups.

Inspection judgements

Access to services by young children and families Good  Most children and families in the area are registered with the group and have good access to the wide range of services that are offered. Active involvement in the local community including partnership work with health professionals, social care and schools ensures that the staff are made aware of families, including those expecting children, that are in the most need of their services.  Staff work hard to involve families who fail to participate regularly. This has resulted in a significant increase in the number of families accessing the services including lone parents, those who are living in the areas where there is the most economic hardship and families from minority ethnic heritages.  Families’ needs are assessed accurately and thoroughly. Multi-agency meetings are used well to ensure support is carefully matched to meet families’ needs. Outreach work is highly effective and involves a wide range of partners. For example, close partnership Inspection report: North Yorkshire – Skipton & South Craven Page 4 of 8

with local health partners has ensured that all teenagers who are expecting babies and other young expectant parents are visited by the group’s staff before the birth of their baby.  Assessment at the age of two is used well to identify children and families who need additional support from parent support workers. Staff work hard to make sure that parents are aware of all the help which may be available to them including their children’s entitlement to free early education when relevant.  However, not enough children take up their entitlement to free early education when it is offered. This is sometimes because good quality provision is not always located exactly where it is most convenient for parents. Additionally, a small number of children are accessing provision that has been judged at inspection to be satisfactory rather than good. The centre is working with local providers and the local authority to extend the range of good quality provision available.

The quality of practice and services Good  A wide range of good quality and relevant activities is delivered by the group’s staff team and their partners. There is clear pathway of progression of services and activities from ante-natal to school, that includes good support for families with children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.  Families, who find themselves in complex and chaotic situations, receive prompt attention from centre group staff. Parent support advisors work closely with key agencies and organisations to effectively provide early interventions and support families in times of need. They are particularly good at fostering good relationships, providing help and support where there is economic hardship and at helping parents to overcome domestic violence through the delivery of specific programmes.  Case files and records are maintained to a high standards and the development of a new computerised system has helped to enhance further the quality of record keeping. The child’s voice is playing an increasingly role in planning the type of support given to a family. This means that early help has the maximum impact on the well-being of young children.  Parents and children play together in enjoyable well-planned sessions such as ‘Inbetweenies’ and ‘Welcome Wednesdays’ which enable children to make good progress in their social and language development to get ready for starting school. However, staff have not yet started to collate formal records of children’s progress.  Parents benefit well from parenting courses, gaining an improved understanding of how to manage their children’s behaviour and promote their children’s well-being. The centre enables parents to undertake training and engage in personal development opportunities including volunteering that improves their confidence and self-esteem. However, it has not done enough to measure the achievements of adults over time so that it can more accurately determine the group’s impact on improving employability.  The group is not set specific health targets and does not receive accurate information about important health indicators in the specific areas served by the centre. For example, about the proportion of mothers who breastfeed or local obesity rates for children. Therefore, it cannot ensure that the group’s work is focused on those parts of the area with the highest level of need. Nevertheless, staff work hard with local health professionals to overcome these shortcomings. They offer good quality advice to parents about following a healthy and balanced diet whenever possible and also endeavour to actively support breastfeeding, as well as helping parents to keep their children safe.

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The effectiveness of leadership, governance and Good management  The Centre Services Manager leads by example and has ensured that there is a very well motivated staff team. They share her high aspirations because they are very involved in decision making and in setting the strategic direction of the centre.  Performance management and supervision are well established and methodical. They include direct observation of sessions and interactions such as home visits by the group manager. Staff training and the appraisal process are very carefully linked to where the centre needs to develop further. Close links with educational psychology service help staff to deal with difficult issues.  The highly skilled work force successfully focuses its efforts on having the maximum impact on reducing inequalities, tackling discrimination and improving the well being of local families. The professional discussions that occur between members of the steering group also contribute well to improving outcomes for local families.  Staff take their duties relating to safeguarding very seriously. Policies and procedures are thorough and the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) process is used well to assess need and to decrease levels of risk. The centre provides good support for looked after children, their carers as well as children who have been identified as being in need or who are subject to a child protection plan. This is helped by a very good working relationship with colleagues from social care.  Although the data provided by the local authority has recently improved it is still not exact enough. Additionally, there is insufficient up-to-date information about health outcomes that relate precisely to the reach area. Therefore it is difficult for the recently appointed Local Authority Integrated Services Manager and the Centre Services Manager to work together to set sharp targets for improvement. This hampers monitoring the performance of the target groups.  Leaders are well aware of where the group needs to develop further. They work well together to set goals and ensure that resources and services are available to meet the needs of young children and their families.  Members of the local steering groups have detailed knowledge of the day-to-day work of the centres they serve. However, both steering groups lack an independent chair. Nevertheless, they are aware of the quality of practices and services and of how well staff are managed. They are very supportive but provide limited strategic challenge to the leaders and staff. In part, this is because they are unable to access detailed and accurate data that would allow them to understand and compare the performance of the centres. Improvements would enable the group to be in a stronger position to know precisely how effective the centre is in reducing inequalities for local families.

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What inspection judgements mean 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 Performance is not as good as it might reasonably be expected to improvement 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. Inspection report: North Yorkshire – Skipton & South Craven Page 7 of 8

Group details

Unique reference number 80595 Local authority North Yorkshire Inspection number 442830 Managed by The local authority

Approximate number of children 1565 under five in the reach area Group manager Caroline Porter Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected Telephone number 01609 536114 Email address [email protected]

This group consists of the following children’s centres:  22735 Skipton Children’s Centre  22761 South Craven Children’s Centre

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The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (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, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email [email protected]. 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’. Piccadilly Gate Store St Manchester M1 2WD