Agenda item

Report of the Executive Director Childrenand Learning.

This report provides an update on the development of Family Hubs in Camden and the preparedness of Camden early education and childcare providers to deliver the new early education entitlements announced by the government in its budget in March 2024.

Consideration was given to the report of the Executive Director Children and Learning.

Debbie Adams, Head of Early Years, introduced the report which covered the following areas: Camden’s implementation of the new Early Education entitlements; Camden’s Integrated Early Years and Family Hub service; funded delivery strands and Family Hub transformation; Family Hub governance; early education and childcare; Camden Local Inclusion Fund; and maintained nurseries.

The Chair thanked officers for the report and invited questions and comments from the Committee. The following was discussed:

·       In relation to Camden’s Local Inclusion Fund (CLIF), a Co-opted Member stated they heard feedback that CLIF was not available when needed the most. Children with profound need were not eligible for this funding unless they were attending an education setting full time.

·       In relation to CLIF, a Co-opted Member stated that the wording in the report of ‘It is hoped that a new approach will also help limit the significant growth in spend that has happened in the last few years’ was the opposite of what they thought was needed and instead it would be desirable to see increased growth in spend on this service and to increase demand of the service. Early intervention in children’s lives prevented problems later in life. In response, it was confirmed that the CLIF budget had doubled over the past few years. Historically CL|F had been funded by the Early Years Designated Schools Grant (DSG), but now it was also funded by the High Needs Block (NHB) because of the increase in demand. The spending had to be manageable going forward for the service in a sustainable way whilst additional needs were exponentially increasing. The Council would be conducting a full needs assessment of the borough around SEND and how resources were spent for high needs. Following that review, there would be recommendations for the Council in how to make best use resources and provide the right support at the right time.

·       A Co-opted Member stated they heard feedback from someone within the service that there was a lack of appropriate spaces to for meeting with families, which was also a problem also raised by the Young Inspectors within their report explaining that it was problematic to hold their family meetings within schools. The Co-opted Member asked how the Family Hub was approaching this issue. In response, it was confirmed that the Family Hubs were making spaces for families to meet social workers.

·       A Member stated that the Governance Board appeared to be overly complex and urged the service to simplify the structure.

·       A Member commented that the Government 2-year-old funding was not fully thought through at central government level, which was now causing difficulty for local services in managing the low level of funding.

·       In response to a Member, officers stated that ‘Triple P’ were parenting programmes with different focusses. Currently Camden was using the programme to focus on 3–4-year-olds who were born during the pandemic, as part of the work to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on those children. Parents attended eights sessions which discussed how parents could develop a child’s home learning environment and how to support family workers.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.