Agenda item

The Associate Director, Children and Families introduced a report which provided an update on Early Years and Children’s Centre Services.

Members noted that the Children’s Centre had remained opened throughout the Covid-19 pandemic from March 2020 to date, with the exception of Early Education and a range of family services, which had been discontinued in order to comply with social distancing measures. Targeted services had been provided throughout this challenging period to ensure the needs of the community were met. The lifting of restrictions from 12 April 2021 would enable the resumption of the offer of services to smaller groups.

It was noted that the Children’s Services Centres were used by partners to deliver a range of services, such as the Healthy Early Years Accreditation and worked with Public Health to encourage healthy eating and good health practices at an early stage. Funded early education entitlement and provisions for 3- to 4-year-olds had remained and would be resumed. However, there had been a significant decrease in the take up of 2-year-old funded early education places, mainly due to home schooling.

The Department for Education (DFE) funded holiday activities, food program and Winter grant scheme (£15 per week) had been on offer whilst the children had been at home during lockdown. In addition, children that were eligible for free school meals would receive a voucher for the Easter holiday period. Holiday activities and the food programme during this period would launch the focus on healthy eating, cooking on budget and encourage the move from sedentary lifestyle. The Easter programme would take place virtually and parents would be required to participate in physical activities.

It was anticipated that the summer holiday programme would be face-to-face and would be developed further to widen the opportunities to all providers and to extend the provisions so that they could be offered to all parents with eligible children, as well as those who were subsidised.

Further update would be reported to the Panel at the conclusion of the summer programme.

The Panel was informed that the curriculum for early years would be changing in September 2021 and seven schools in Slough had been taking part in an early year’s documentary programme as part of a pilot scheme.

Online services as well as early years resources had been developed and available for all and responses to evaluation of the services provided had confirmed that the services had been well received. It was noted that the positive outcome should be  attributed to the effective partnership working with private, voluntary and independent providers.

The Panel raised a number of issues during a wide-ranging discussion summarised as follows:

·  Members asked whether the support programmes were only available to parents on low income. It was explained that the winter programme had been available to parents of children that were eligible for free school meals.

·  Members noted that 5,000 children in Slough were eligible for free school meals and asked what support was being provided to schools that were providing breakfast clubs, as a high performing school was currently funding this provision from its school budget. It was explained that a large number of schools were providing breakfast but the Council could not mandate for that provision.  Breakfast provision was very costly and therefore had challenging funding implications. The message to encourage the provision of breakfast would continue to be promoted.

·  Members noted that up to March 2021, the Children’s Centres had 85% occupancy rate and asked whether the centres were now providing all services. It was explained that occupancy rate had increased during Covid-19 and services such as mental health had seen an increase and continued to rise. When restrictions were lifted, provision of services such as occupational health would be resumed.

·  Members raised concerns about the level of obesity which was higher than the national average and queried whether this was due to Covid-19 and asked what measures were in place to educate parents post lockdown. It was explained that data had yet to be published but suggested that the obesity level was likely to have increased. Plans were in place to address this issue as part of the Easter holiday activities which would be offered online. Online resources and the food programme, aimed at educating parents would also be available.

·  Members asked whether children of parents not on low income could join the breakfast provisions and it was noted that many schools already allowed this, but may vary from school to school.

Councillor Kelly declared an interest as he worked for a school. He remained in the meeting and took part in the discussion.

·  Concerns were raised regarding the thirty to forty early years children that were stranded abroad due to the pandemic. It was explained that this number of children was not considered to be an immense problem for the Council, as many of the children were accessing remote teaching. In response to better planning to take account of junk food outlets close to schools, it was noted that the Council was committed to addressing the issue of obesity. The Associate Director, Children and Families was requested to provide a list of 2-year-olds that were eligible to 30 hours pre-school.

·  Members welcomed the high level of health visitor support and targeted parents but queried that dental health was not as well targeted. It was explained that extensive work had been done with parents who accessed the service but noted that it was more difficult to support those who were not accessing the service.

·  In response to a query raised about Early Years school places being withdrawn from children who were still abroad, it was explained that places would usually be withdrawn as a last resort and that children in early years were not of statutory school age and would only be taken off roll if they had been off persistently.

In response to a question as to whether health and safety checks were being undertaken, it was explained that tooth brushing programmes were being delivered virtually in addition to videos. The Health and Safety team had also been working with providers and had distributed guides to ensure Covid compliance.

The Chair then invited Councillor Strutton to address the Panel under Rule 30.

Councillor Strutton welcomed the virtual programmes that had been provided and the resources that could be easily accessed. He raised concerns about the 30% of 3-year-olds in Slough that had higher tooth decay compared to the national average, highlighting that 170 children had undergone major surgery in 2018. Councillor Strutton asked for further details on the number of families that had traveled abroad during Covid -19 and raised concerns about potential safeguarding issues. It was explained that substantial progress had been made in addressing the issue of tooth decay prior to the pandemic but progress may have been negatively impacted by the pandemic. A tooth brushing video had however been produced to encourage dental health. Children missing education was noted as an issue that would be addressed through a multi-agency approach.

Resolved –  That the Early Years and Children’s Services report be noted.