Although Birmingham City Council, the largest local authority in the UK, is embarking on a controversial £300m programme of spending cuts, it plans to retain all 75 of its children's centres (News, 2 June).
The scale of the cuts being imposed is equivalent to saving £300,000 every working day for four years, according to the leader of the council, Mike Whitby.
About £10m is being cut this year from the budget for the city's Sure Start children's centres in a programme of re-organisation which will see managerial posts axed, efficiency savings and a reconfiguration of Birmingham's 13 community day nurseries.
Key elements in the re-shaping of council services described in the authority's business plan for 2011 will be early intervention, prevention and collaborative working with other public agencies. These principles will apply particularly to the future provision of children's services.
WHOLE PACKAGES OF SUPPORT
Under the proposals, the city's children's centres will be grouped into 16 localities (see below) and the existing community day nurseries will be absorbed into the children's centres and their staff allocated to locality-based Integrated Family Support Teams.
There have been predictions locally that up to 200 jobs could be lost in the city's children's centres and family support services.
The authority argues that by improving integrated working and at the same time cutting back office staff, managerial posts, and building and running costs, it will be able to save money to invest in locality-based frontline services tailored to support children and their families.
The thinking behind the shake-up in provision is that this will ensure that family support services, including childcare, are designed and delivered to meet local need. A council spokesman says, 'The model reflects the government agenda to realign services that are responsive to each child's/family's needs at a local/community level that will improve outcomes and life chances for Birmingham's children.'
But staff at the community day nurseries are to vote on possible strike action. They say that under the proposals, if a nursery is next door to a children's centre, the daycare will in future be provided at the centre and the nursery building will be used for other children's services.
The nursery nurses, whose union GMB has launched a petition to save the nurseries, say their settings provide daycare to some of the most vulnerable children. The council insists its plan will provide a better service for all, including the most vulnerable as the children's centres and community day nurseries will identify and design packages of support for families using the Common Assessment Framework.
The council spokesman says, 'This reconfiguration will address the "gap' of available services at Level 3 to young children and be part of the extension of services to children aged from nine months to 11 years. This will mean families can receive holistic support, and be more costefficient than current delivery due to savings in building running costs. Daycare overheads will be reinvested into frontline delivery, and by integrated working with the children's centres, whole packages of support will be available.'
THREE-WAY PARTNERSHIP
Collaborative, integrated, locality-based working is already a key feature of the Fox Hollies children's centre, which serves the deprived areas of Acocks Green and Tyseley in south Birmingham. The phase two children's centre, which runs services at two local primary schools and a community centre, is run by Barnardo's and Birmingham City Council, while its nursery is run by the Pre-school Learning Alliance.
'Fox Hollies is a hub centre with satellites,' says nursery manager Emma Beard. 'We support them. We used to provide creche places for the satellites when they were running parenting or smoking cessation groups but now do not have the spare capacity.
'We are the first point of call for the Flying Start team when they are looking for a nursery place for a family they are providing intensive support for. They call us as we have experienced staff, we do have some availability and our staff are used to collaborative working.'
For the first three years of operation, Barnardo's underwrote the nursery financially to allow it to build up its numbers. This is the first year it has had to survive without that cushion, but Miss Beard says because of the occupancy levels now being achieved, it should be sustainable.
'When I joined in August 2009 the occupancy rate was 23 per cent. It is now around 93 per cent. We have achieved this by being accessible to parents and families. I have a pile of applications for places going into next year.
'We have funded two-year-olds, children on the child protection register and children from working families. Last year we had 23 children on two-year-old funding who are still with us and now have eight more this year.
'Obviously the nursery and children's centre staff are working for two different employers - Barnardo's and the Pre-School Learning Alliance - and are commissioned by Birmingham City Council. This presents challenges. But I think we do it well. We were subjected to an Ofsted under a pilot scheme for children's centre inspections and got rated as good with outstanding aspects.'
So far there has not been much impact from the proposed changes. 'A major change has been that the children's centre teachers have gone back into the primary schools. That is a big loss. Our teacher supported the staff with planning and observations. Of course the nursery staff are all trained in the EYFS, but having an expert with 30 years teaching experience was a great support.'
The centre and nursery staff work together to build a strong relationship. 'We have a joint staff room in the building. I know this does not happen in every children's centre, but it really helps. The staff get to know each other and this helps us adopt an integrated approach with our families.'
Miss Beard supports her staff in their continuing professional development and encourages them to progress to foundation degrees and on to a BA. 'I have been on two leadership and management courses and have just submitted an application for the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership.'
BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL'S PLANS FOR CHILDREN'S CENTRES
The new arrangements for Birmingham's Sure Start children's centres will operate from April 2012. The city's 75 children's centres will be networked into 16 localities.
Each locality will have one integrated family support team, with just one management and governance structure for all the centres in a locality, all funded on a locality basis rather than individually.
The city's 13 community day nurseries will become an integral part of the children's centres, with staff re-organised and absorbed into the family support teams.
The core work of each locality will be:
- Targeted outreach to local families with children under the age of 11
- Partnership working with Job Centre Plus and health agencies
- Partnership working with mainstream and specialist services such as for disabled children and social care
- Provision of activities such as the parenting/child social skills programme the Incredible Years.
The children's centre and community day nurseries will identify and design packages of support for families using the Common Assessment Framework.
The family support intervention will include early child development (health and learning), successful language acquisition, and early parenting.