SFL102 - Review Children's Centre Provision

Overview

Outline of Proposal

Rochdale borough currently has 16 Children’s Centres which deliver integrated Early Childhood Services to comply with the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 and the Childcare Act 2006.

This proposal sets out a new way of delivering Children’s Centre services across the borough which will meet our legislative duties and ensure services are provided for families with the greatest need. The model will be a hub and spoke model based on a merger of one lead Centre and a number of satellite centre’s incorporating all 16 Children’s Centres. The Lead Centre and Satellites will be merged together in accordance with DfE guidance which means they will be treated as one Children’s Centre and subject to one Ofsted inspection. The decision requested is to proceed with this model for consultation based on merging 7 Lead Centres with 9 Satellite Centres.

In addition the proposal seeks to explore through consultation the possibility of transferring the governance of children’s centres to schools.

General Impact

The Lead Centre will deliver the full Early Childhood Services offer and satellite centre’s will deliver a reduced range of services and be open for on average 20 hours per week depending on the need in the area. All satellite centre’s will continue to deliver Health contacts, early years services, other services will depend on local priorities. The centres will be available for use by other organisations at other times of the day for a charge.

Impact on Service Users

Under this model we will continue to meet our statutory duties under the Childcare Act 2006 and Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009.  Satellite centres will not provide the full offer and service users may be sign posted to lead centres for some services.

The indicative saving for this proposal is £1,001,000

As the proposal will affect service users, we have undertaken an Equality Impact Assessment to identify likely or actual effects on people with protected characteristics. The Equality Impact Assessment will be reviewed and updated as required, taking account of consultation feedback.

You can find the full proposal document and Equality Impact Assessment below in the related documents section.