Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Children’s Services.  To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families

The Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families introduced the report which sought approval of Haringey’s Early Years Strategy 2023-26.

Councillor Hakata congratulated Children’s Services for receiving a ‘good’ Ofsted rating and commended the hard work of the team and the Cabinet Member.

In response to Councillor Barnes, the following was noted:

-       Where funding was available, the service would always look to access this.  £1.2m of funding had recently been received for family hubs.

RESOLVED

That Cabinet approve the publication of Haringey’s Early Years Strategy 2023-2026.

Reasons for decision

Our Early Years strategy reflects our ambition for an integrated and better co-ordinated approach across all services for young children, their families and carers. Through this strategy, our vision is that we develop an improved early years offer which ensures families can access the services they need to enable young children to have the best start in life and long-term foundations to thrive.

Following the Early Years review stakeholders felt that the lack of a dedicated Early Years Strategy led to inconsistency of approach and a reduced focus on the importance of intervening in the early years.

The strategy will give a clear focus on early years and provide a distinction between Early Years and Early Help. The strategy lays out clear objectives and outcomes for children and young people in the borough, and how we can work co-productively and in partnership to arrive at these outcomes.

The Early Years strategy would ensure that there is more focus on the developmental benefits of prevention and universal support in the early years.

Alternative options considered

The alternative was to continue without a strategy, however a strategy was deemed necessary to provide a clear pathway to improving outcomes for the youngest children in the early years and facilitating co-production and partnership working across the early years sector. The strategy will enable us to implement a robust monitoring process, tracking our progress in working towards the agreed aims and priorities.

Funding for early years provision could be at risk without the outcomes, priorities and benefits being clearly structured through a strategy.