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Agenda item

Children's Centre Contract - Insourcing of the South Locality Children’s Centre Delivery

The Children & Young People Sub-Committee is asked to: -

 

1.     Receive the update on the Children's Centre Contract award for North and Central, and the insourcing of the South Locality Children’s Centre Delivery 

 

2.     Consider whether there is assurance that there is sufficiency of children’s centre provision to meet local need.

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee considered a report set out on pages 41 to 52 of the

agenda, which provided an update on the Children's Centre Contract award for North and Central, and the insourcing of the South Locality Children’s Centre Delivery. The Director of Education introduced and summarised the report.

 

The Sub-Committee asked why the Council was not able to find a provider for the South Locality but were able to for the North and Central Localities. The Director of Education explained that this was largely due to the funding envelope available, concern around Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE), a lack of clarity around building costs and issues with the internal capacity of the bidders. After the first round of commissioning, bidders had been asked to provide the reasons for not bidding and a warming exercise has been conducted.  The provider for the North and Central Localities had not been able to take on the South Locality due to a lack of capacity.

 

Members asked if there were any lessons that could be learnt as a result of the failure to commission for the South Locality. The Director for Education explained that learning had been taken into account after the first round and had led to conducting a warming exercise, but this had not been enough to result in a successful bid. Members heard that unfortunately some things could not be changed, such as the funding envelope and the services the Council needed to be provided, TUPE and lack of clarity around the maintenance costs of buildings. Members heard that there was always an attempt to develop learning after any commissioning exercise. The Director Quality, Commissioning & Performance added that these were small providers, and the unknown costs were bigger risks for them than a larger business.

 

The Sub-Committee queried the £97k budget pressure due to redundancies and asked why only families in the South Locality would experience reduced services as a result. The Director of Education responded that the risks to service delivery in the South were low, and that ways to mitigate removing this amount from the budget would be looked at to ensure that impacts would be minimal; an example of this was encouraging staff at risk of redundancy to apply for vacant posts within the Parenting Team.

 

Members asked about the Purley Oaks Centre and the importance for parents in building relationships with staff before they were likely to ask for help; currently the Centre was only open for two and a half hours a week and it was asked why this was so limited. The Director of Education explained that, as part of the Hub and Spoke Model, most activity would be carried out in the Hubs with reduced activities in the Spokes; because staff had just transferred in on current terms and conditions, the model was still being developed and this had been more complicated at Purley Oaks due to staffing issues. Staff at the Purley Oaks Centre were available one day a week and would be signposting where families could go for additional services at other Children’s Centres.

 

Members asked how existing services users were being supported into the new model, with some families having to travel further which would affect families without cars. The Director of Education explained this had been looked at during the consultation and that bus routes had also been considered and made available to families. It was acknowledged that the service had been reduced but that services would be signposted to families. There had been a long consultation on this strategy, but ultimately services had needed to be reduced in line with budget reduction. The Hub and Spoke Model was not just about Children’s Centres and also focuses on delivering health services and more with partners.

 

The Family Hub model being adopted is in a transitionary phase and a delivery plan for the Early Years Strategy will look at what else was available to families with young children and making this as accessible as possible.The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People praised the Early Years Strategy and explained that this would feed into Family Hubs going forward.

 

On the risks of the £97k budget pressure, the Director of Education explained that the biggest risk was staffing, and that staff could leave due to anxiety about job security. Mitigations to this were staff from the education department who were spending time in the Children’s Centres.

 

The Sub-Committee asked how performance would be measured between the North and Central Localities and the South Locality and heard that the Key Performance Indicators would be exactly the same, and that delivery in the South would receive challenge from the Improvement Board.

 

Members asked about families being signposted to other Centres who could not get into the Purley Oaks Centre and how this would happen if the Centre was at capacity or closed. The Director for Education explained that the Model could not account for every family in the borough, but that signposting would take place through GPs, Health Visitors and other partners. It was important to ensure communication with partners was happening effectively and that that they were aware of what services were available. The Corporate Director Children, Young People & Education explained that the implementation plan of the Early Years strategy would be important in joining services up.

 

Members asked how the Children’s Centres would interact with the Family Hubs and it was explained that these had not yet been implemented, but that Children’s Centres would be incorporated into Family Hubs, but this was still at a very early stage. Children who would normally attend Children’s Centres would receive services through Family Hubs, but further work on this was still required. Partners are still delivering services in Children’s Centres through the Hub and Spoke model, and the Early Years Strategy was developed with partners.

 

The Chair asked if having Health Visitors in hubs would put additional pressure on these services and heard that this was unlikely as it would not require additional resource. On why the service had been insourced, the Sub-Committee heard that this had been the only option as a commissioning a provider had not been possible.

 

 

Conclusions:

 

The Sub-Committee were pleased to see that the Council had ensured Children’s Centres were still available in the South Locality by insourcing the delivery of the Centres.

 

The Sub-Committee were concerned about the limited opening hours of the Purley Oaks Centre and how effectively families who would usually rely on this service would be signposted to alternative resources.

 

The Sub-Committee were concerned about the £97K budget pressure from insourcing the South Locality but were reassured that this would be looked at holistically to avoid a reduction in service for the South of the borough.

That the Sub-Committee receive an update on Children’s Centres once the Family Hub model had been fully implemented to see how this was performing.

 

Recommendations:

 

  1. That the Sub-Committee be invited to visit the Children’s Centres with the Cabinet Member in the North or Central areas, with a visit to a Children’s Centre in the South once this has had a chance to bed in.

Supporting documents: