Early Years & Childcare

The Early Years, Play and Childcare Service has been developed by the County Council (Education and Social Services) to support the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership in responding to the extensive government initiatives in early education, play and childcare which are now collectively know as “Sure Start”. Children’s Services are being developed in all local authorities and there is renewed emphasis on the provision of integrated education, health and social care services.

Sure Start is the Government’s framework for bringing together early education, childcare, health and family services. It encompasses targeted services in areas of greatest need and universal services for all children and brings together the related initiatives:

Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships;
Sure Start Local Programmes;
Children’s Centres

The Sure Start agenda forms the “Starting Early” element of the wider strategy for Integrated Children’s Services set out in “Every Child Matters” and “The Children’s Act 2004”. The Ten Year Strategy and Childcare Bill are proposing that it is the duty of the Local Authority to ensure sufficiency of childcare by ‘managing the market’, improving outcomes for children and providing information to parents. It links to initiatives for older children such as the Children’s Fund and more recently Extended Schools.

The Sure Start vision is to provide integrated and high quality services so children can grow up to contribute positively to their communities and society as a whole. The aims are to achieve better outcomes for:

Children, and particularly, closing the gap in outcomes between children living in poverty and the wider population by equalising health & education inequalities;
Parents, by providing increased opportunities to effectively participate in the labour market (should they wish to), ensuring pathways out of poverty and strengthened families and communities;
Communities, by helping to reduce crime, enhance productivity; promote a stronger labour market and the building of a civic society.

The Sure Start Unit has developed a series of principles to inform and underpin the work of local authorities and others in delivering services:

Working with parents and children;
Services for everyone;
Flexible at the point of delivery;
Starting very early;
Respectful and transparent.

Local Authority role:

The Government expect the local authority (Somerset County Council) to provide leadership and to join up agendas by bringing local partners together, in a participative way, to progress Sure Start delivery. In doing so, account has to be taken of the broad range of issues including: health, education, social services, planning, neighbourhood renewal, employment and the local labour market. The specific responsibilities of the local authority are:

Strategic Planning for Delivery;
Consultation and Partnership;
Supporting Delivery;
Financial Accountability;
Monitoring Performance;
Promoting Children’s Development.

Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership:

Ensuring a strong partnership with all local partners, parents, children and communities is key to ensuring that the services delivered are those that are needed and wanted. The Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership (EYDCP) in Somerset is effective and makes a valuable contribution to the planning and delivery of services and will continue to support and advise the local authority in its work.

The Children and Young People’s Planning Partnership has representation from agencies working with children and families in Somerset and is responsible for recommending development of all children’s services to the Chief Executives of the County Council and Primary Care Trusts. The EYDCP has representation on this wider partnership.

Delivering Early Years – Childcare (Sure Start) in Somerset:

The Early Years Play and Childcare service within Somerset County Council takes responsibility for the delivery of the strategic and operational plan. The majority of the delivery is undertaken directly by local authority staff with specific pieces of work contracted to other organisations through Service Level Agreements.

The work of the Services falls into 4 thematic areas:

Integrating Services for Young Children and their Families
Developing & Sustaining Childcare
Quality, Access and Inclusion
Developing the Workforce

Five District Council based multi-disciplinary teams made up of:

Childcare Advisers: supporting/developing childcare provision and providing local information for the public about childcare;
Foundation Stage Advisers: advising all early years settings (pre-schools, nursery, reception classes in schools) on providing a high quality service. Early Years Mentors work alongside Foundation Stage Advisers with local clusters of schools and pre-schools.

We are developing 16 Children’s Centres across Somerset by March 2006, which provide quality integrated care, and education 8am-6pm, minimum of 48 weeks a year, as well as family and health programmes. The aim is to provide accessible and affordable services to local families. We have been given a further target of another 17 Children’s Centres to deliver by March 2008. The aim is to develop a minimum of two per locality. The Children’s Centres will be delivering integrated services within the community and will connect with the extended schools agenda.

Particular targets for the service up until March 2006 include:

Ensuring the sufficiency of early education places for 3 and 4 year olds.
Developing integrated early education, childcare, health and family support services (Children Centres) in the most disadvantaged communities in Somerset. This will involve integrated existing Sure Start, Early Excellence and Neighbourhood Nursery Initiatives so there are 16 Children’s Centres by March 2006.
Raising quality of provision and targeting Foundation Stage and Childcare Adviser time to do so.
Creating and sustaining childcare places where they are needed and often on or near to school sites.
Inclusion of children with Special Educational Needs in mainstream settings.
Substantially increase recruitment and training for staff working in the sector.