Issue - meetings

[Report of the Deputy Chief Executive. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Children and Families.]The report will ask Cabinet to consider options for the future commission of Haringey's Children's Centres. The paper will summarise the outcome of our statutory consultation exercise and make recommendations to Cabinet for the future delivery model for Children's Centres in the borough.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Families introduced the report which included: detailed feedback from the consultation on the proposed commissioning model for Children’s Centres at Appendix I; the findings of the equalities impact assessment of the proposals at Appendix II, the actions to mitigate the impact on service users; analysis of the issues was contained in the sections of the main report; and the legal duties of the Council were contained in section 8.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Families reminded Cabinet of the context behind the proposed changes to the Children’s Centre services and closure of 9 Centres. The financial challenges the Council was facing over the next three years meant that the Council would have to make some difficult decisions about which services it offers and must ensure that it is utilising remaining resources to best effect.

Councillor Waters acknowledged that 87% of respondees did not want to see closures   and valued the stay and a play provision provided by the Centres. However, these changes would allow the Council to continue to support the community and help provide access to the most vulnerable.

As part of the plans Children’s Centres will deliver services from fewer physical premises, but will continue to offer comprehensive support as well as making services available to more people and ensuring standards were more consistent from place to place. The Council had listened to views about the proposed community access points and these would not be taken forward as their role and focus was not fully understood.  Instead there would be focus on making sure that the remaining Children’s Centres were providing a good comprehensive support with focus on safeguarding and universally accessible services. There will be more integration with health services with a health check provided to all 1 and 2 year olds in the borough. There will be integrated outreach using staff and partners to provide better services to children.

Councillor Waters advised that  there will  continue to be a strong emphasis on parental involvement and the majority of remaining Children’s Centres would be located in areas where need is the greatest. There were plans being developed to expand services to a wider age range of 0 – 19 year olds, or 0 -25 in the case of those children with additional needs.

These Centres will also be open more frequently and will provide additional support to groups including fathers and young parents.

These proposals would see Children’s Centres work more closely with parents, carers, health visitors and GPs, as well as many others in the community to ensure they are able to provide more support directly in the community. 

Councillor Waters advised that there would be a full timetable for development of the Children’s Centres and there was a tremendous amount of information to take forward from the consultation to support this work going forward.

In response to Councillor Morton’s question on the average journey times to the Children’s Centres from their location in the borough, it was noted  ...  view the full minutes text for item 109