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Does a Sure Start guarantee a sure future for children's centres?
14 September 2009
The Sure Start programme has been at the centre of the
Government’s recent reforms of children’s services. With National
Sure Start Childrens’ Centre week this week, and the 7th Annual
National Sure Start Conference fast approaching, it is apparent how
far the programme has come since it was first introduced.
The first Sure Start Childrens’ Centres were established in 1999
and, ten years on, the Department for Children, Schools and
Families (DCSF) is launching National Sure Start Children’s Centre
Week to celebrate the successes of Sure Start Children’s Centres
and promote the services they offer.
As the centres are encouraged to hold open day events and
generate publicity and participation in the wider community, we
briefly examine the progress of these valuable centres and some of
the practical issues which have cropped up from experience in
advising on elements of the legal issues with the programme.
The story so far
In July 1998 a White Paper entitled ‘Modern Public Services for
Britain’ was published. It made a recommendation that new
Children’s Services should be introduced. It was hoped these
services would be multifaceted in nature and improve the lives of
children and parents from areas in need of these types of
services.
This was followed up by a Green Paper, ‘Meeting the Childcare
Challenge’ in 1998 which set out the National Childcare Strategy,
and subsequently the ‘Every Child Matters’ Green paper in 2003.
Originally, it was intended that there would be 250 Sure Start
Local Programmes by March 2002. However, following early success, a
10-year strategy for childcare, published in December 2004, pledged
that by March 2010 there will be a Children’s Centre in every
community.
A successful start
With the March 2010 deadline fast approaching, Children's
Centres are appearing in communities with startling speed. National
Sure Start Children’s Centre week hopes to ensure that these
centres are made as successful as possible within their local
communities. This includes launching initiatives to promote
awareness of what they are doing, utilising the resources available
at these centres and at the same time making sure the community are
aware of what extensive help and support they have right on their
doorstep.
Much of the evaluation into the success of the centres may only
become possible once a generation has passed through their doors,
but early research into their progress has produced some positive
results. For instance, a 2008 report by Ofsted into the progress of
Children’s Centres1 showed that the services delivered
to the community had a very positive effect on the lives of the
children and parents and many of the users felt the services on
offer were very valuable.
Further, a more recent Ofsted report published in July
20092 showed that the successes were continuing, stating
that ‘nearly all of the centres had established an effective
balance between providing integrated services that are open to
everyone and those that are targeted towards potentially vulnerable
families’.
Securing the future success of children’s
centres
Whilst the rapid expansion of the centres means that the DCSF is
on track to meet its target of 3,500 centres by March 2010, the
logistics for those commissioned to set the centres up are
complicated, time consuming and sometimes appropriate locations for
the centres can be difficult to secure.
For example, to date Children’s Centres have been procured
through a variety of different methods including traditional
procurement, specific new builds and partnering arrangements with
other organisations. Whilst many projects run smoothly and to plan,
sometimes the urgent need for services in the community has
resulted in centres opening before formal arrangements and legal
documentation have been finalised.
Perhaps it is at this stage that the providers’ professional
advisors could help more and alleviate early problems? We have, in
advising on and dealing with the property side of securing
Childrens Centre premises, come across various problems (and
solutions) to some interesting questions.
For example, while centres can often be located on land already
owned by a local authority, i.e. a school site, sometimes they may
be located on land owned by other bodies such as in community
centres or on parish council or church land. As a result,
negotiations with bodies who are not Sure Start partners, or who
are not fully familiar with the programme, can be protracted due to
the fact these bodies are unaware of the obligations placed on the
service provider.
The tremendous success of the Children’s Centres has meant there
has been a strain, not only on the service providers themselves but
also on the local authorities’ corporate and property departments
in drafting bespoke contractual agreements to govern the occupancy
of their buildings by non local authority personnel, or in dealing
with non Sure Start partners to secure occupancy of their
premises.
There also appears to be no uniform approach taken by the
Government or local authorities to the drafting of key legal
agreements, or even any real guidance on an encouraged form or
structure, so that there is consistency across the country.
It would be very useful if the DCSF could provide some
additional guidance to assist local authorities (and other bodies
involved) in setting up the centres so they are aware of the
various requirements that need to be considered and incorporated
into the legal documents. Perhaps developing skeleton precedent
documents that could be used uniformily across the country could be
an effective way to aid the procurement process of Children’s
Centres?
Solutions to some of the above problems can often be found by a
round table discussion with the partners and their advisors.
Sharing of information and experiences by service providers and
their respective professional advisors can also go a long way to
helping agree uniform approaches to obstacles and problems and can
set the tone for a more ‘partnering’ approach towards resolving the
legal issues.
Of course, the issues mentioned above relate only to a handful
we have encountered, and so we would like to hear other views that
you may have on the development of these centres, and the methods
your organisation has used to tackle the challenges and problems
you have no doubt faced.
1 ‘How well are they doing? - the impact of
children’s centres and extended schools’ - OFSTED (January
2008)
2 ‘The impact of integrated services on children and
their families in Sure Start children’s centres – OFSTED (July
2009)
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The content of this bulletin is provided for the purposes of
general interest and information. It contains only brief summaries
of aspects of the subject matter and does not provide comprehensive
statements of the law. It does not constitute legal advice and does
not provide a substitute for it.