The Department for Education and Skills has written to Sure Start children's centre managers and practitioners, local authorities and primary care trusts setting out updated guidance and further research showing how services can best be delivered to meet the individual needs of all young children and their parents.
The revised practice guidance on children's centres includes new sections on working with particular groups, including disabled parents, the families of prisoners, parents with substance misuse problems, and families in temporary accommodation. It also raises the importance of ensuring outreach and home visiting services are used to increase the contact with families who are at greatest risk of exclusion, and of developing more effective multi-agency working arrangements.
The updated Planning and Performance Management Guidance, meanwhile, is intended to help children's centres and councils review the centres' performance, and includes suggested key performance indicators to work against.
As if that wasn't enough, the government has also published a discussion paper on the governance and management of extended schools and Sure Start children's centres, research on extended services in primary schools, and a national evaluation of outreach and home visiting services in Sure Start Local Programmes.
That lot should keep us all busy until Christmas! Happy reading...