South Thatcham and Area Children's Centre

Children’s centre report

Lower Way, Thatcham, RG19 3RR

Inspection date 12–13 March 2014

This inspection: Good 2 Overall effectiveness Previous inspection: Not previously inspected 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 is a good centre.

 Through its partnerships with other professionals, the centre knows most families with children under five in the area and is enabling them to benefit from services at South Thatcham or other children’s centres in West Berkshire.  The centre, in collaboration with its key partners, runs a range of high quality activities to promote the early learning and development of young children and the skills and confidence of their parents. As a result, it is having a considerable impact on the well-being of families in the area.  All parents and children attending the centre enjoy the activities it offers, including those families it has identified as most in need of its help. The centre also visits families in their own homes, to support those who might not otherwise attend the centre to keep their children safe.  The centre leader provides strong leadership based on a clear determination to do the best for families in the area. She is well supported by well-qualified and highly respected staff and the clear expectations of the local authority. This has resulted in increasing numbers of families coming into contact with the centre and continuing improvement in the services it offers.  The centre is a very busy and popular place and is at the heart of its community. It offers a warm welcome to all and provides support, advice and training to parents at a time when they most need help, whatever their needs. It is not outstanding because:  There are a few families with children under five years in the area who are not yet using children’s centre services regularly. The centre does not have enough details about these families, including newborn children, because information is not routinely shared by the health authorities.  Parents do not play a significant role in contributing to the running of the centre through the parents’ forum and the advisory board.  The centre is not yet tracking the long-term impact of its work on the learning and development of children or on the economic well-being of families through adult learning and training.

Children’s centre report

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 centre leader, family support workers, members of the advisory board and parents' forum and representatives of key partners from health, education, the Traveller support service and adult learning. They also talked to a number of parents attending activities in the centre.

Inspectors observed the centre’s work, and looked at a range of relevant documentation including information about the safeguarding of families, evaluations completed by parents and the centre’s self- evaluation and plans for improvement.

Inspection team

Graham Lee Additional Inspector, Lead Inspector

Anthony Mundy Additional Inspector

Lesley Talbot-Strettle Additional Inspector

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Full report

Information about the centre

South Thatcham and Area Children’s Centre is a stand-alone, phase three centre that opened in 2009 when an existing community facility was taken over by the local authority and the building completely refurbished. The centre meets is core purpose by providing early education, family support and outreach work, help for parents to enter training and employment, child and family health services, benefits advice and parent information services. The centre also provides additional support for childcare through its work with childminders.

The centre is managed directly by the local authority. It shares a joint advisory board, consisting of representatives of key partners, with the North Thatcham Children’s Centre. On a day-to-day basis, the centre is managed part-time by the centre leader, who also has responsibility for managing other centres in the area.

The centre is located in purpose-built premises in the town of Thatcham in West Berkshire. It serves urban areas in Thatcham and more rural localities, principally around Aldermaston, Crookham, Woolhamton and Brimpton. Most services are provided at the centre but some are delivered in Woolhampton and Aldermaston community venues.

There are approximately 1,175 families with children under five in the area served by the centre. Most children are of White British origin, although there are some families of minority ethnic, largely Asian, heritage. There is also a Traveller community, mainly based around a site near Aldermaston. The centre serves a largely affluent area and proportions of children living in households reliant on benefits and where their parents are out of work are relatively low. Children’s levels of skills and understanding on entry to early years education are broadly typical, or better, for their age.

The centre has identified teenage and new parents, the Traveller community, and families living in rural communities as groups in particular need of support.

What does the centre need to do to improve further?  Ensure that the sharing of information with key partners, especially health, enables the centre to know about all children under five years living in the area and to work to engage more in its services.  Increase the opportunities for parents to contribute to the running and shaping of future services through the parents’ forum and the advisory board.  Develop systems for measuring the long-term impact of the centre’s work on children’s learning and development and in checking how well adult learning benefits the economic well-being of families.

Inspection judgements

Access to services by young children and families Good

 Over recent years, the number of families benefitting from the centre’s support, advice and activities has grown steadily. Now most families in the area with children under five years are registered with the centre, or with other children’s centres in West Berkshire, and join in regularly with services.  There remains a small minority of families with under fives in the area who are not involved with the centre’s work. Leaders and staff are not entirely clear about who these families are, as ‘live birth’ data are not routinely shared with the centre by the health authorities.  The centre has been successful in extending its work in the more rural parts of the area it serves, particularly in Aldermaston and Soke where most families are now registered. The involvement of families is also improving rapidly in the most deprived area of Brimpton and Woolhampton, although

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lower overall. This is largely because the Traveller site is located in the area and the transient nature of this population has an impact on the levels of engagement.  Nevertheless, the centre has a very fruitful partnership with the local authority’s coordinator for Traveller education. Trusting relationships have been established and services are delivered on the Traveller site and well attended by those in residence at any time.  The centre works well with pregnant mothers and new parents, in collaboration with health, especially those who might need additional help following the birth of their babies. Health visitors refer these mothers to the centre for the very popular baby massage sessions. More than 70 have attended over the past year and most go on to benefit from other services offered by the centre.  There are relatively few teenage parents in the area and the centre is not clear if it knows about them all. However, it is very successful in encouraging all those it does know of to attend services, both those aimed specifically at them, such as ‘Bumps and Babies’, and those that are more general. For example, during the inspection a group of teenage parents were happily joining in a ‘Stay, Play and Learn ’ session.

The quality of practice and services Good

 The centre works very well with key partners to provides a good range of services that support children’s learning and development and health, and the confidence, skills and well-being of parents and their families.  The centre works well with local schools, early years settings and childminders to prepare children for school. During the inspection, the highly successful and good quality all-day ‘Stay, Play and Learn’ sessions attracted large numbers of parents throughout the day, including from those groups identified as needing more help. Parents speak positively about the various ways the centre enables their children to develop good social and learning habits.  The centre contributes significantly to the above average outcomes for children at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage by providing good quality early learning experiences. In the South Thatcham area, the gap for the most disadvantaged is closing and is much narrower than it is for West Berkshire as a whole. However the centre is not yet tracking the progress of children who have accessed its services through the Early Years Foundation Stage to assess the impact of its work on their long-term development.  The centre’s effective partnership with health professionals contributes to strong and improving health outcomes for children. Breast feeding is sustained well and supported by trained volunteers. Many parents go on to take advantage of other services once they have attended these sessions or other health-related activities such as the Well Baby and child health clinics.  The centre’s commitment to developing parenting skills is also a prominent part of its work. Parents report time after time how well activities such as ‘the Incredible Years’ and the post-natal group have helped them to develop their confidence and parenting skills and enabled them to establish a support network.  The centre works closely with the West Berkshire Community Learning Partnership to provide advice and support for parents to gain the training and skills they need to enhance their employability. As a result of a recent teaching assistants course, for example, one parent is about to take up her first post in this role. Volunteering in the centre and the community is also used effectively to develop parents’ confidence and secure a potential pathway into work. However, the long-term impact of this work on the economic well-being of families is not yet being routinely tracked.  The centre works with families in their own homes to encourage those most in need to come to the centre, when they might not do so without that additional encouragement and support. It also takes services to the rural communities to involve families who might not otherwise come to the centre, especially Travellers.  The centre is at the heart of the community and highly valued by those who use its services. One parent commented that ‘centre staff go that extra mile, beyond welcoming. They really care about us and remember our children’s names’. This was typical of the views expressed by parents.

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The effectiveness of leadership, governance and Good management

 The centre leader has the complete respect and confidence of staff and users of the centre and has created an atmosphere in which everybody has high aspirations for the community. She has driven improvements almost since the centre opened and this has led to increasingly better outcomes for children and families, especially those most in need of help.  The centre works in close partnership with health professionals, social services, adult learning, schools and early years settings to produce the best possible outcomes for families. The centre also has a strong and purposeful relationship with the local authority, who checks its performance closely. Challenging targets are set which are largely met. The centre’s work, however, is hampered because it is not being provided with ‘live birth’ data by the health authorities.  Staff are highly effective and well qualified and trained. They are very clear about how they are contributing to the centre’s work, and arrangements for their supervision and appraisal are supportive and challenging. Staff are in no doubt that they ‘have to deliver’, as one put it.  The joint advisory board is widely representative of a range of key partners and professionals. It knows about the centre’s strengths and weaknesses and how the performance of staff is being managed. It has the capacity to offer support and challenge to the centre leader. For example, members of the board have been in consultation with the health authorities about the sharing of ‘live birth’ data. However, the board has not always been as effective as it might because its work has been hampered by a number of changes in its leadership and currently no parents are part of its membership.  The centre consults widely with parents about the services it offers and levels of parental satisfaction are very high. There is also evidence that some services have been shaped in the light of the feedback provided by parents. However, although the parents’ forum has recently been re- established, there have been too few opportunities for parents to contribute more formally to the running of the centre through the forum.  The safeguarding of young children and vulnerable adults is a very high priority for everybody at the centre. Staff work very well with families experiencing difficulties to reduce the risk of harm to children. Records show that children subject to a child protection plan, the common assessment framework or those identified as being in need are supported well and that outcomes for them and their families improve over time.  The centre is well resourced and the extensive outdoor area is used to good effect to support children’s learning and development. The centre makes very good use of its physical resources and staff to provide the best outcomes possible for parents.

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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 be in improvement 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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Select details

Unique reference number 22778 Local authority West Berkshire Inspection number 430277 Managed by The local authority

Approximate number of children under 1175 five in the reach area Centre leader Debbie Rowe Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected Telephone number 01635 877642 Email address [email protected]

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