Haringey Council has recently conducted a consultation on its proposed three-year corporate plan and budget. It was called 'Building A Stronger Haringey Together' – disingenuously so, because it is hard to see how many of the goals and objectives of the corporate plan will be achieved in the context of the cuts of £70m over three years which are contained in the budget.
In relation to early years, the proposals in the corporate plan include:
- Strengthen children’s centres and improve access to services
- Improve access to affordable childcare
- Support parents
- Improve the early help offer
Yet the budget includes a spending cut of £1.44m over three years from the early years budget (of which around £2.4m per annum goes to children’s centres) and it is also proposed to remove the childcare subsidy from Haringey’s children’s centres that provide daycare (which comes from the Direct Schools Grant).
The council says that there are no plans as to how the £1.44m cut will be broken down, but the budget includes a reduction in headcount of 22 people and the consultation says that they will need to 'concentrate existing children’s centres on fewer sites', i.e. close some centres.
It is impossible to see how these cuts will strengthen children’s centres and improve access to services.
It is particularly aggravating that the consultation document says that the range of services on offer from the 16 children’s centres in Haringey is 'inconsistent across the borough and that only a small number of parents choose to take advantage of the support available'.
We do not recognise this picture of children’s centres in Haringey. Yes, services vary across the borough, but that is because they are responsive to the needs of the local communities. That is a strength, not a weakness.
And 'only a small number of parents'? The reality is that most centres have exceeded LA agreed targets in relation to registration and user engagement, the majority of centres having registered and engaged with a ‘large majority’ (65-79 per cent), ‘very large majority’ (80-96 per cent) or ‘overwhelming majority’ (97-100 per cent) of all children aged 0-4 in their respective reach areas, which is a fantastic achievement and should be a cause for celebration. This has been achieved in spite of the cut in 2012 of nearly 50 per cent to the ongoing children’s centres budget.
The proposals also talk about enabling us 'to reach out to more parents in their own homes and communities' and becoming 'more focused on outreach rather than expecting people to attend children’s centres'. The Lead Councillor for Children & Families, Cllr Ann Waters, has spoken in this regard of going out to people 'in supermarkets' to reach more families.
This disregards and discredits the excellent and wide-ranging outreach work already done by the dedicated and resourceful staff children’s centres, already on a shoestring budget. It also does not recognise that the 'static premises' of children’s centres (as they are referred to in the consultation) are crucial for offering a safe, trusted and non-stigmatising space for parents and families that is crucial to the early intervention and early help work that already goes on.
The additional cut of the childcare subsidy, together with the children’s centre cuts, presents a real threat to the local authority children’s centres that provide daycare and also to Haringey’s three nursery schools. These nursery schools contribute enormously to the outcomes and well-being of not only their own children and families but also the wider community and the borough as a whole. The value of their contribution derives from the integrated nature of provision in all three centres combined with their status as maintained, stand-alone nursery schools.
Standalone nursery schools with specialist leadership and qualified teachers provide excellent value to children. The fact that the nursery schools also provide childcare and children's centre services enables them to provide a wide range of services to children and families.
The nursery schools have also worked together to offer huge value to the wider community and the borough as a whole, working with the LA and directly with PVIs to improve quality and offer training (through the Haringey Nursery Schools Training & Development Consortium and otherwise), providing opportunities for other agencies to work with children and families (see also above re children's centres), bringing additional funding into the borough, and also providing training opportunities for students and volunteers.
It would be wonderful if every child in Haringey could have access to a nursery school like the three that exist, but in the current economic climate that is clearly not going to happen. But it would be counter-productive to the council’s avowed objectives if these centres were to be lost or their excellence compromised. As explained above, children in the borough as a whole benefit indirectly from the nursery schools, and in addition the nursery schools are based in some of the most deprived parts of the borough and their excellence is key to regeneration of those areas.
The tone of the consultation, as well as the timing (the online consultation was open for a mere four weeks, including the Christmas break, which is not enough for such an important consultation) has not got us off to a good start. But we sincerely hope that Haringey’s councillors and council officials will engage in a real dialogue with the early years community in the borough and adopt an approach which builds on the excellent quality of existing provision rather than throwing it away in a misguided effort to turn over a new leaf.
Natalie Merritt
Chair of Governors, Woodlands Park Nursery School & Children’s Centre
Haringey Children’s Centres Alliance