The network of children’s centres promised for disadvantaged neighbourhoods is the outcome of the government’s policy of integrating care and education services for young children and their families. Children’s centres will offer the full range of early years, education, family support and health services, building on the model of early excellence centres whose role has been to develop good practice in seamless service provision.
East Leeds Family Learning Centre, profiled in the July issue of 0-19, was part of the first wave of early excellence centres. It forms part of a network of facilities around the Seacroft Estate providing everything from nursery care to full-time vocational training for the parents. Early excellence centres have succeeded in reducing family breakdown, helped more special needs pupils stay in mainstream education, and produced substantial savings for other services that have to deal with the effects of social exclusion.
The £1.5bn budget announced by the chancellor in his comprehensive spending review will help to take this work forward, especially now that early years learning, Sure Start and child care are being integrated at government level in one inter-departmental unit with its own minister, Baroness Ashton. But the need to create training, education and career opportunities for child care staff must not be overlooked. This is a chance to establish an integrated early years service in which workers can gain qualifications to climb the career ladder and move freely between the health, education and social care settings in which their skills are required.
It is a shame that Gordon Brown did not take the opportunity, as
we had hoped, to reform the social fund. But if the new resources
are used intelligently , the spending review will be an important
step towards bringing an end to child poverty.