Appendix 2

Area for Improvement / Action being taken
  1. Childminders and children’s centres

Some areas of provision remain only satisfactory. Despite improvement in early years provision overall, almost 30% of childminders remain satisfactory and 14 are inadequate.
The overall effectiveness of children’s centres is variable, with four of the seven inspected judged to be satisfactory. / As part of the Children's Services Transformation work it was agreed to decommission the support provided to childminders through a contract with the National Childminding Association (NCMA). This was based on an assessment of the risk and impact on children and an evaluation of the NCMA service.
We currently offer the following support:
  • Email/text alerts of important/urgent information
  • web pages offering business support and advice
  • Free safeguarding training
  • Subsidised CPD courses on paediatric first aid and other key issues from the EYFS framework
  • Children's Centre support networks
  • Support from Early Years Consultants to childminders who are graded inadequate or where a complaint is raised
Future planned developments include:
  • development of peer support groups
  • dedicated web area
  • childminder reference group to feed into the Early Years Consultative Group
A further 3 children’s centres have been inspected since the publication of the report. In total 4 have achieved a satisfactory grading, with 6 achieving good with some outstanding features. The low number of inspections (10 out of 82 children’s centres) means that the data is not statistically robust, but gives Hertfordshire a 60% good/outstanding rate compared to the national average of 67% good/outstanding.
Hertfordshire's Children's Centre model is a minimalist one based on sustainable funding levels and is a fully commissioned service with no Centres directly managed by the local authority.
Hertfordshire did not receive the previous high levels of Sure Start Local Programme funding and so is unlikely yetto match the higher performance levels of LAs where programmes have been in place longer with access to significant additional resources and direct management from the LA. However Hertfordshire has a recognised national reputation for its programme, as demonstrated by acceptance onto the Sure Start Children's Centre Payment by Results trial. This will enable us to establish baseline data and local measurements in order to fund Children's Centres based on the results they achieve for the local children and families whose health, education and parenting attainmentsare causing concern.
Hertfordshire Children's Centres are supported in their quality improvement through an SLA with the Early Years team in Standards and School Effectiveness who use Children's Centre Improvement Partners to deliver a Self Improvement Form (SEF), annual conversation and RAG process which informs a differentiated support offer based on the identified needs.
Children's Centre performance is also supported through:
  • One Stop - a monthly e-magazine of best practice, policy developments and case studies
  • Annual conference with workshops led by out of county children's centre managers
  • Termly briefings for managers and for lead agencies
  • Representation on the Early Years Consultative Group
  • Free/subsidised CPD courses
  • IT support for their individual websites and for the performance tracking database

  1. Ofsted categories for schools

Too many secondary schools remain satisfactory. Two came out of an Ofsted category of concern in the latter part of 2010, but a further two secondary schools have recently received a notice to improve. Monitoring visits show good progress and support from the local authority. Similarly, too much secondary school sixth form provision is satisfactory with one now judged to be inadequate. / We are maintaining support and challenge to schools to raise attainment and improve the quality of teaching and learning for schools in categories and in lower attaining schools. We will also target schools that currently have between 40% and 50% of pupils attaining 5+A*-CGSCE or equivalent (including English and maths) in anticipation of the raising of the attainment floor standard measure in coming years.
  1. The achievement gap

The gap in achievement between 16-year-olds from low-income families who achieve at least five A* to C grades at GCSE (including English and mathematics) and all other pupils of the same age has widened in the last two years. / Narrowing the achievement gap remains a key priority for schools. We will support and enable schools and educational settings to identify and target vulnerable pupils at risk of underachieving and support them effectively; facilitate school partnerships to target resources to meet the needs of individual children and groups at risk of underachieving, prioritising areas in greatest need. We will support schools in the most effective use of the Pupil Premium funding in raising the achievement of this group of pupils.
  1. Commissioning of children’s homes

Eleven of the children’s homes commissioned by the local authority are satisfactory and one is inadequate. / Children’s Services policy is not to commission or place any child or young person in a placement where the service is deemed to be inadequate.
Occasionally units can receive an inadequate notification following an inspection by Ofsted after a child has been placed. Monthly checks are undertaken by the commissioning team to highlight any provision that receives an inadequate Ofsted inspection after we have placed a child. A risk assessment is immediately undertaken to ascertain if a placement move is required.

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