Children’s centre report

Farnham Common Children's Centre c/o Farnham Library, Victoria Road, , SL2 3NL

Inspection date 25−26 November 2014 This inspection: Requires improvement 3 Overall effectiveness Previous inspection: Not previously inspected Access to services by young children and families Requires improvement 3 The quality of practice and services Requires improvement 3 The effectiveness of leadership, governance and Requires improvement 3 management

Summary of key findings for children and families

This children’s centre requires improvement. It is not good because:  Not all of the new births in the area are being registered with the centre and only a small minority of children from the priority groups of workless homes and lone parents are sustaining their engagement with the centre’s services.  There are limited checks on the progress made by parents when they access courses run by partners, and there are no links currently with Jobcentre Plus to enhance employability. Volunteering opportunities are available and enable work-related experiences, but take up is limited.  Some case files are not well completed; leaders’ supervision is not focusing on this deficiency in sufficient depth. The centre’s partnership with social care is impeded by the high turnover of social workers, which causes delays in sharing information and planning shared approaches.  The advisory board is extending its membership but has yet to revise its remit and terms of reference. Members are well informed about the community, but have yet to hold the centre fully to account for its performance.  Action planning focuses on the right priorities, but the targets and timelines lack precision.

It has the following strengths:  Strong partnerships with health, early years settings, schools, police, the library and Learning Trust enhance the centre’s growing effectiveness in meeting local needs. The active parents’ forum helps shape services that respond to identified needs.  The centre contributes effectively to strong health outcomes and good development of children in the area it serves.  Good care, support and advice are provided for children and families most in need. Parents’ confidence and parenting skills are nurtured well. Parents confirm that they value the friendliness and support of centre staff.  Newly appointed leaders have an accurate view of the centre’s strengths and areas for development. They show strong determination to move the centre forward.

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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 two Additional Inspectors.

The inspectors held meetings with centre leaders, staff, local authority officers, partners, volunteers, parents and members of the advisory board.

The inspectors visited activities held in the centre including Baby Massage and Little Treasures, and observed a Stay and Play jointly with the centre coordinator at Farnham Royal Hall.

Inspectors took into account parents’ views as expressed directly to them during the inspection, as well as through their recorded evaluations about the centre’s work.

Inspectors also looked at a wide range of documentation.

Inspection team

Christine Field Additional Inspector, Lead Inspector

Alan Comerford-Dunbar Additional Inspector

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Full report

Information about the centre

Farnham Common Children’s Centre opened in 2008. It operates from Farnham Common Library. This stand-alone children’s centre provides a range of services delivered from the library in partnership with local providers and from village halls across the reach area.

Farnham Common Children’s Centre is managed in conjunction with the Burnham Children’s Centre, with whom it shares a coordinator and senior coordinator, both of whom are new to their roles. Burnham Children’s Centre was inspected earlier this year; its report can be found at www.ofsted.gov.uk. Farnham Common Children’s Centre is one of ten children’s centres managed directly by Buckinghamshire County Council. There is an advisory board in place to support governance.

The children’s centre sits on the edge of Buckinghamshire, bordering . Just over 100 families from Slough access the centre’s services. The area served by the centre is mostly affluent, with pockets of disadvantage. It comprises three distinct communities: Farnham Royal; and and There are 675 children under the age of five years in the area, 8% of whom live in workless households. The area served by the centre includes 40 families eligible for the childcare element of Working Tax Credit. Most families are White British. Children start in early education with skills and knowledge at the level expected for their age.

The centre’s assessed priority groups are: children eligible for two-year-old funding for early education; families most in need of additional support; workless households; and first time lone parents.

What does the centre need to do to improve further?  Improve access to services by ensuring that: a good proportion of children aged under one are registered with the centre the large majority of children and families in all priority groups keep in regular contact and engage with centre services until their needs are met.  Strengthen the impact of services for parents by: establishing a robust system for finding out how well parents get on when they access training or education courses, using this to plan appropriate next steps promoting volunteering opportunities more widely pressing ahead with the plans to involve Jobcentre Plus in helping workless and lone parents enhance their employability skills.  Strengthen the supervision of family support work; make sure that case file recording is consistently of a high standard; and, work with social care partners to exchange timely information about the most vulnerable children and families to ensure their protection.  Establish and agree the remit and terms of reference of the advisory board, work to ensure good attendance by all members and focus meetings on challenging, as well as supporting, the centre’s performance.  Sharpen the targets and timelines in the action plan, so that actions are measurable in terms of impact and a good pace is set to making improvements.

Inspection judgements

Access to services by young children and families Requires improvement  The number of children registered is moving in the right direction and the centre is on track to narrowly miss the challenging 80% target set by the local authority. However, not enough focus is being given to improve access for those expecting children and targeting an increase on the current Inspection report: Farnham Common Children's Centre Page 4 of 8

69% registration of children under one year of age. The centre is not yet capitalising on its strong partnership with health visitors to support this work, especially in registering all new births.  The sustained engagement of children and families from some priority groups requires improvement, because only a small minority uses the centre regularly. Plans are in hand to build on the existing programme and take still more services into the community to widen access for those reluctant to make contact.  There is good take up of free education places by two- to four-year-olds who are placed in good or better quality settings. The centre has forged effective partnerships with early years settings and is working collaboratively to help children, particularly those who are disadvantaged, to get off to a positive start in education.  The centre is pro-active in involving the Citizen’s Advice Bureau to give advice about benefits and debt management, working with colleges to run accredited and non-accredited courses, and the careers service in supporting parents’ choices about employment pathways. However, too few adults, especially from targeted groups, access these services.  Good work takes place to ensure that families in greatest need are known about and stay in regular touch with the centre. The one-to-one work that takes place in families’ homes has a positive impact on their well-being. Information sharing with the police is particularly valuable in supporting those affected by domestic abuse.

The quality of practice and services Requires improvement  The range and relevance of services are increasingly being well matched to local needs. Activities offered by the centre, such as baby massage, are of good quality; but, currently, not enough children and parents from priority groups use them often enough. This is particularly the case for workless and lone parents.  Good work takes place to help parents build confident parenting skills and manage their children’s behaviour positively. Likewise, family support work is of good quality and leads to positive outcomes for most families and children, including those with additional needs and disabilities.  Staff take appropriate action to refer families to children’s social care when concerns escalate. However, case recording systems are currently unwieldy and time consuming. Action planning is completed and updated regularly, but is not currently sufficiently outcome focused; it is sometimes difficult to track the impact of supervisors’ review of cases.  Not enough families, particularly workless families, are accessing adult education opportunities and support into employment. For those who do access these services, outcomes are not sufficiently tracked or focused on improving life chances or reducing inequalities. Links with Jobcentre Plus are currently under developed.  Two volunteers support the centre’s activities, and their contribution is valued highly. However, not enough is being done to promote the work-based experiences that volunteering can offer, particularly to those who want to return to paid work. None of the parents from priority groups are currently being supported in this way.  Some good work takes place to help children get ready for school. Sessions, such as ‘Stay and Play’, ‘Are You Ready?’ and ‘Learning Together’, are well planned to promote the prime areas of early learning. The proportion of children achieving a good level of development is above the national and local authority average. Records of children’s learning have just been introduced and parents told inspectors how much they are enjoying charting their children’s progress. Staff are confident in assessing children’s development. With effective support from Buckinghamshire Learning Trust, they have set up a tracking system to support their work.  The centre promotes healthy lifestyles, through specific activities such as the ‘Fairytale Feast’ that involves families cooking low cost nutritious meals. This is reflected positively in the low rate of childhood obesity. Breastfeeding rates are very high. Mothers told inspectors how relaxed and comfortable they feel to breastfeed their children during activities.

The effectiveness of leadership, governance and Requires improvement management  The self-evaluation form presents an over-optimistic view of the centre’s effectiveness, but new Inspection report: Farnham Common Children's Centre Page 5 of 8

leaders have a firm and accurate grasp of strengths and areas for development. Action planning is focused on the right priorities to take things forward; but targets and timelines lack precision, and these require attention to ensure a rapid pace to the centre’s continuous improvement.  The local authority undertakes effective monitoring of the centre’s performance. It is providing an increased range of information to help the centre target improvement and keep track of the impact of its services on priority groups.  The chair of the advisory board is working very effectively to widen its membership and ensure the regular attendance of key partners. The terms of reference that set out its remit, role and responsibilities have not been revised since 2012. It is time to re-visit these to ensure they meet the board’s requirements. In going forward, members recognise that they must more effectively hold the centre to account for meeting its key performance targets.  The culture of safeguarding is embedded well in centre practice, and parents say how safe they feel when they attend sessions. They comment positively about staff vigilance in keeping resources clean and in excellent condition. Staff vetting checks meet current requirements. Risk assessments associated with sessions and some visits are undertaken assiduously.  A first response system is in place, supported by guidance, to help all agencies involved in protecting children to make appropriate referrals of vulnerable children, including those subject to a child protection plan or assessed as in need. There have been concerns raised in the past about the high turnover of social workers which has caused delays to collaborative work and information exchange. Improvements concerning multi-agency working and information sharing to support safeguarding matters are currently being looked at by senior local authority officers. A link social worker was allocated to the centre in August and visited for the first time during the inspection.  The centre shares its building with the community library, which is seen very much as the ‘hub’ of the community. Links with the library are mutually supportive and enhance the resources available to meet the centre’s objectives. For example, storytelling and craft sessions take place weekly and are well attended. Families feel fully involved in decision making at the centre. There is an active parents’ forum and regular evaluation of services.

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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. Inspection report: Farnham Common Children's Centre Page 7 of 8

Children's centre details

Unique reference number 21142 Local authority Buckinghamshire Inspection number 451696 Managed by The local authority

Approximate number of children under 675 five in the reach area Centre leader Samindip Bing Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected Telephone number 01753-646422 Email address [email protected]

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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. 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

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