EARLY YEARS FRAMEWORK: DRAFT FINAL REPORT FROM INTEGRATED SERVICES TASK GROUP.
Introduction.
- The Integrated Services Task Group consists of around 30 members from Scottish Government, COSLA, local authorities, the NHS, voluntary and private sector organisations and regulatory and inspection bodies. The Task Group agreed to form three sub-groups to look at childcare, pre-school and interventions beyond pre-school. The Task Group and sub-groups engaged with a range of other bodies (including ADES and ADSW) and our gratititude is recorded here to all who have contributed to this report and who are very likely to be further involved as the report is refined in the weeks ahead.
- The Task Group considered the overarching tasks which apply to all the Task Groups but their specific tasks were as follows:
-Implementing existing pre-school commitments and examining targeted additional services for vulnerable 0-3s.
-Refreshing the direction of childcare, including consideration of its role, purpose and value. Reducing fragmentation; addressing cost/funding issues and the roles of formal and informal carers. Considering the future role of childcare partnerships in the new strategic context.
-Joining up the education experience for children, managing more effectively the transitions from pre-school to school, including wider applicability of approaches such as nurture groups.
-Implementing the planned reduction in class sizes to 18 in a way that has greatest impact on outcomes for children.
-Optimising health protection and health promotion for children 0-5 and school children, including the phased introduction of free school meals.
-Developing a sense of how to sustain the intervention beyond early years and how the EYF will connect to the Curriculum for Excellence, the More Choices, More Chances agenda and Getting it Right for Every Child, with the aim of improving outcomes for all children.
-Examining various models for delivering more integrated services eg children’s centres, networks or partnerships etc. Consider the practicality of a holistic family support service approach and the role of advice and information services. Securing a place for Gaelic within early years services.
-A continuing focus on equipping children with good literacy and numeracy skills.
Summary of main conclusions.
- More detailed reports on the tasks follow later but a summary of our key conclusions is set out below. These are not presented in any order of priority. There are also much more detailed reports from the three sub-groups (which include examples of integrated services, innovative approaches and research/document references) which can be made available. They have not been included in this report solely on the grounds of brevity:
-The views and opinions of children, parents and carers must be sought and taken into account in all stages of planning, commissioning and delivery of services for children of all ages;
-Although the Concordat and the development of Single Outcome Agreements will change the ways in which everyone works, local authorities, the NHS and other providers must still ensure that they still meet their statutory obligations eg to protect children, support those with disabilities and other support needs;
-Universal services need to be strengthenedin terms of their skills and capacity so that they feel more confident in identifying and addressing issues without the need to refer children towards more targeted services unless this is absolutely necessary. This would help to address children and families who may have latent or emerging issues but who are not yet in need of intensive multi-agency interventions and would reduce risks of stigmatisation; this is a key issue for parents, especially those who feel vulnerable in asking for support.
-Service planners and providers need to take account of rurality and remoteness factors in providing high quality services which provide satisfactory degrees of flexibility and choice for children and families;
-Planned and coordinated transitions are essential at all stages of a child’s life;
-We need to avoid fragmented and uncoordinated policies which translate into fragmented and uncoordinated delivery of services. We need to have clear linkages between key policies eg Curriculum for Excellence, Additional Support Needs, Substance Misuse, Better Health/Better Health, Equally Well. Pre-school and childcare need to be fully embedded into wider integrated children’s services planning;
-Successful development and roll out of Getting It Right for Every Child (including the integrated assessment framework) should be regarded as the “golden thread” through which child-centred and personalised services are delivered to all children and families, including those who may be vulnerable or at risk.Delivery of the EYF needs to firmly embedded in the next round of Outcome Agreements to ensure coherence and Community Planning Partnership “buy in”;
-We should break the false distinction between pre-school education and childcare, perhaps referring to “services for under-5s.” Pre-school isn’t solely about education and needs to encompass a child’s life in a more holistic way. Similarly, childcare services should encompass a more holistic approach to include parenting, family and community and should also link into services for adults.We should be describing how we care for children and promote early learing effectively in all settings whether formal or informal to give children the best possible start in life.
-Childcare must be seen as supporting the development of the child – not just a way of easing parental employment or training. We recognise, however, the important role which childcare plays in respect of tackling poverty and unemployment;
-The special needs of looked after children need to be considered at every stage and embedded in assessment, planning and delivery of services. We need shared responsibility, clarity and consistency of decision making eg stable placements and permanence, coordination between courts, hearings, adoption etc. These decisions should be informed by an explicit intent to improve the outcomes for children rather than solve a “ problem”. Decision making bodies should be held to account for the outcomes arising from their decisions.
-We need a stable, well qualified and well remunerated workforce in the pre-school and childcare sectors (indeed, across all children’s services) to ensure successful deliver of the EYF and improved outcomes;
-In planning their early years services, local authorities may wish to make appropriate links with their local strategies to develop Gaelic.
Childcare.
4. Universal childcare services act as a gateway and as a conduit for families who need extra support and this is a non-stigmatising and positive route potentially available to all families, especially those who would not readily seek support via the statutory routes; e.g. health, education, social work, justice or other support agencies. Families and children may not actually seek support, or know what help is available. Childhood professionals in childcare services have a clear role to play in both providing general care and support to a child to meet the needs of the whole child, as outlined above, and in terms of identifying and supporting children and families through the levels of general or more targeted support.
5. Professionals and support staff in childcare are able to build up good relationships with children and their families, are often able to identify potential difficulties facing children and their work is also part of the solution to many of these problems. If these staff are equal members of a children’s services workforce which receives training in common principles and good practice in working with children and young people, then this will reduce fragmentation and false professional barriers, as well as improving the skills of the current workforce and leading to improved pay conditions and the “real and valuable” jobs set out in the governments aims for justice and solidarity.
6. The provision of good quality flexible childcare is a clear element of universal preventative strategies, for example, enabling parents to work or train helps prevent the problems associated with poverty. Children’s physical and mental health, early learning social and physical development is actively promoted through good quality childcare. It is also important to stress here that every childshould be able to access good quality holistic child centered care without this necessarily being provided in terms of intervention to meet current or potential problems, but in recognition of their overall rights to play, care, learning and leisure support, this should be based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
7. Every worker, including childminders, in registered childcare services, currently undergoes child protection training and services have policies in place to support children and families should there be concerns about a child’s development, behaviour, or emotional and physical well being. Some community childminders (SCMA) and sitter services further contribute to the GIRFEC agenda, in being able to provide immediate respite care for a child in emergency situations, as well as longer term support to families in crisis. Group daycare providers also currently support short or long term support of children through social work financed placements, see for example, evidence in School’s Out.[i]
8. To maximise the full potential of childcare to support children and families as part of a holistic approach through GIRFEC, there needs to be integration of childcare at a community and service delivery level (e.g. recognising childcare services as a solution for placements for vulnerable twos), integration at policy, resources and strategic levels (Childcare Partnerships) and at the workforce development level, where professional staff who understand the holistic needs of children and can engage with the wider community should be supported through access to relevant qualifications for this role (for example using the national standards for childhood practice and developing pedagogy qualifications). This workforce should also reflect the diversity of our society and link closely with education colleagues to ensure families can access a professionally led blend of early years education and childcare.
9. Informal care through family and friends, especially kinship carers providing long term replacement parenting support, is also a source of support for children experiencing gaps in their care. There is a role for childhood professionals to work with family support agencies in supporting these carers, by providing respite care, help information advice and community resources.The “army” of grandparents and relatives providing childcare, could also be supported by imaginatively extending, for example, community toddler groups and services providing high quality resources to assist them in their role. Parenting support strategies must include these informal carers, and they and the children involved should be consulted about decisions relating to a child’s welfare. Fathers are increasingly involved in direct care of their children and resources provided from integrated community childcare centres and parenting support agencies should be open to a diverse range of carers.
10. Ensuring the universal provision of childcare to meet the needs of children and families is part of the process of supporting equality and diversity. Parents, in particular lone parents, those living in rural areas and parents of children with additional support needs, or who need respite childcare in order to deal with other family circumstances, benefit from the equal opportunities enabled by the provision of childcare. Increasingly fathers and grandparents also need access to childcare and parenting support. Parents who themselves have additional support needs also need extra support. Good quality childcare also enables children from different social, cultural, religious and economic backgrounds, and with different needs, to mix together and this contributes to a positive promotion of equality and diversity principles, as well as integration into the local community for children with ASN or refugee or asylum seeking families.
11. Central to the development, delivery and support of the provision of childcare to support this overarching integrated children’s services framework, is to ensure that, at every level, that children with additional support needs and those looked after, or in need of extra support through family or individual circumstances, are able to access appropriate childcare, play, learning and leisure services which are recognised as a key component of the individualised support that child may need for their development and inclusion, as well as supporting their families or foster/ kinship carers.Specialist childcare and youth day/evening services could be developed to meet the needs of children at high risk, including those excluded from school or persistent offenders. With potential integration of childcare centres and a pool of professional staff, with particular specialist skills, such services could be extended from the existing universal provision rather than set up apart from the community.
12. Childcare is an essential element of addressing poverty, inequality and deprivation. As well as the direct support it gives in enabling parents or carers to work or train for work, children experiencing the effects of inequalities through poverty and deprivation need access to play, care learning and leisure opportunities, especially if they are from a workless household reliant on benefits. The negative impact often caused by rural deprivation can be countered through the delivery of a range of quality childcare services.Childcare is therefore an essential component of the Scottish government’s economic strategy, and the targets related to equality, fairness and justice.Childcare also addresses the health,learning and well being of children from deprived backgrounds, enabling their development, meeting their physical and emotional needs, and giving extra support in terms of inclusion into their community.Childcare has a key role to play in supporting children whose families are homeless, who may be moving from place to place, or who are affected by poverty.
13. Childcare is also a sourceof employment and training for work, although the low pay and poor conditions of employment of childcare workers must be addressed. The inclusion of men, minority ethnic, disabled and a wide variety of ages, to reflect our diverse society also has to be addressed. With some types of services only able to offer part time posts, further integration of the delivery of childcare services is required in order to provide wider and more permanent work opportunities.
Where are we now?
14.Forty five percent of all children were in receipt of some kind of childcare. Informal childcare was much more commonly used than formal care with the overall most common type being care provided by a relative. In January 2007 there were 4,457 registered childcare and pre-school education centres, of which 142 (3.2 per cent) were closed or not operating. There were 6,020 registered childminders, of whom 5,510 (92 per cent) were active. Childcare and early education centres are managed by a mixture of state, voluntary and private agencies. The largest providers are local authorities who provide 61% of nurseries, 58% of children/family centres, nearly 30% of crèches, just over 20% of play schemes and 18% of out of school care.
15. The legal definition of a “child” in Scotland is based on age, usually up to 16, sometimes 18, and every single child has the need and indeed the right to be cared for in terms of their social, physical, intellectual, cognitive and emotional development. Good quality childcare should meet children’s needs and rights to support which covers all of these aspects of their development. It is still the case that the locus for much of that care is with parents (carers) and where parents choose others to provide this care for their children they mostly turn to close family, such as grandparents, or close friends, for support.
16. However it should be borne in mind that these national statistics are for childcare and early education. Therefore the bulk of the LA figures may be based on 1,537 local authority pre-school education establishments not necessarily providing childcare or wraparound care. A further 1,213 early education places are delivered by providers in partnership with the local authority, from the private, voluntary and independent sectors.The voluntary sector dominates as the management model for playgroups 79% provide nearly half of out of school care 47%, and sitter services 46%.
17. Formal childcare is provided as a service to meet the needs of the child, to ensure their overall well being, and as a service to meet the needs of society, usually for economic reasons, for example, enabling parents to work and as one of the measures used to address economic inequalities, addressing issues around poverty and exclusion from the labour market.To date, most funding investment in “childcare” (rather than sure start or early intervention) has been based more on that economic imperative than based on the child-centred principles embedded in GIRFEC. Residential childcare workers in social care cater for very vulnerable children yet there are low levels of qualified staff and pay and conditions in this field are poor.Childcare is also provided for children in need of specialist support by organisations such as Aberlour, Barnados, Children First, NCH, Capability Scotland, Stepping Stones for Families, Save the Children and other national charities.