Brighton & Hove City Council - Agenda item

Report of the Executive Director of Children’s Services (copy to follow)

Contact Officers: Steve Barton and Caroline Parker

Ward(s) Affected: All Wards

57.1 RESOLVED: That the Committee agreed:

(1) That the committee notes the results of the public consultation and the attached Equalities Impact Assessment.

(2) That the committee agrees that the following seven children’s centres should continue to be designated and provide a reduced range of children’s centres services from 1 April 2016: Roundabout (Whitehawk), Moulsecoomb, Tarner, Hollingdean, Hangleton Park, Conway Court and Portslade.

(3) That the committee agrees that the following children’s centres should no longer be designated but will continue to be used as venues for limited services: The Deans, West Hove, Hollingbury and Patcham and City View.

(4) That the committee agrees that the Cornerstone Community Centre (which is not a council building) will no longer be a designated children’s centre.

(5) That the committee agrees to a revised core offer of both universal and targeted services from 1 April 2016. The revised offer is described in Appendix 2 and includes the following:

· The Healthy Child Programme delivered by health visitors;

· Open access baby groups in venues across the city;

· One drop-in stay and play group in each of eleven venues across the city with priority for families with identified needs and children under two;

· Offering more parenting talks and discussion groups to reach more parents at an earlier stage and fewer longer parenting courses;

· Promoting volunteering and community/parent run groups to run from children’s centres including those which are no longer designated;

· Evidence-based interventions delivered in groups and home visits for families most in need and least likely to attend the centres.

· Improved support for families with young children facing multiple disadvantage as part of the city’s Stronger Families Stronger Communities Programme;

· More focus on support for training and employment and less on parental involvement of advisory groups in children’s centre services

(6) That the committee agrees children’s centres should be developed as hubs for a wider range of services including services for older children, and services delivered by parent run and community groups as part of the City Neighbourhoods Programme.

(7) That the committee agrees that, following the consultation and discussions with the children’s centre review groups, further work should be done to explore new funding and business models including:

· A hiring policy for children’s centres so that external groups could use the space and possibly charge

· Options for using volunteers to provide home visits, whether this could be developed by the voluntary sector and how it could be funded

· A ring-fenced fund based on contributions from parents and others that could be used to pay for additional stay and play groups or to develop options for using volunteers to provide home visits

(8) To note that, should any additional funding be available, the Children’s Centre Review Group’s priorities would be to maintain the same number of stay and play groups in Tarner, to maintain the Stories and Play group in Rottingdean and to increase home visiting including exploring the options described in 2.7.

57.1 The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Children’s Services on the Children’s Centre Review. The report was introduced by the Assistant Director Stronger Families Youth & Communities and the Head of Surestart.

57.2 The Chair told the Committee that the administration took no pleasure from reducing the number of Children’ Centres, which was a result of cuts to funding from central government and which was affecting all local authorities across the country. He gave a pledge to protect the remaining seven children’s centres, and said that the current twelve buildings would continue to provide support to children in the city

57.3 Councillor Brown said that no one wanted to see the closure of any of the centres, but it was important to be realistic and by keeping seven of the buildings as Children’s Centres would ensure that there would still be provision across the city.

57.4 Ms Sjuve asked for assurance that the authority had explored whether health services could be delivered from children’s centres. The Executive Director of Children’s Services said that there had been a S75 agreement between the Council and Sussex Community NHS Trust to provide integrated services, but the Trust had moved away from this. The authority would be happy to review the matter if the Trust wanted to. Ms Sjuve suggested that s75 wasn’t the only way to work, and said that the Trust would be very happy to discuss other ways of working. The Head of Sure Start explained that health visitors and midwives already work from children’s centres and the Healthy Child Programme delivered by health visitors is an essential part of the children’s centre core offer of services.

57.5 Councillor Brown referred to the final bullet point in recommendation 2.5, and proposed that the wording be amended to read ‘More focus on support for training and employment and less on parental involvement of advisory groups in children’s centre services’. The proposal was seconded by Councillor Taylor. The Committee agreed with the amendment.

57.6 RESOLVED: That the Committee agreed: