A CHILDRENS CENTRE that has been open for less than eighteen months has been slammed as ‘Inadequate” by government watchdog Ofsted.
Stifford Children’s Centre in Parker Road, Grays was opened in September 2010.
Ofsted made the following criticisms:
1. The overall effectiveness of Stifford Children’s Centre in meeting the needs of users and in demonstrating the capacity for sustained improvement is inadequate.
2. Leadership and management are inadequate and are failing to secure improvements to the provision. The local authority has not clearly identified the area to be served and the centre does not keep a register of families who use its services.
3. Shortly after the centre opened, the local authority reorganised services for children and families and the role of the centre has never been fully established. The impact of changes in service delivery and limited management capacity mean that the centre is not meeting the needs of users.
4. The centre is not effective in targeting and promoting its provision to those families and groups most in need of early intervention and support.
5. Signage for the centre is poor and too few people know of the centre’s existence and what is has to offer. The number of families engaged with the centre’s activities is low.
6. Partnerships are inadequate because services are poorly integrated and do not lead to sufficiently improved outcomes for families. Care, guidance and support are not sufficiently focused on the children and families in the target groups.
7. The centre is not routinely notified of children who are on child protection plans. The parent outreach workers have sufficient skills and experience to work effectively to safeguard families referred to them.
8. The quality of data supplied by the local authority is poor because it is not consistently up to date or focused closely enough on the area where the centre is located. Leaders do not sufficiently analyse management information related to outcomes such as low birth weight and obesity in order to set targets for improvement.
9. There is no coherent strategy to establish effective arrangements to support adults seeking to improve their education and job prospects. Although some benefit from the provision, there are no tracking arrangements to monitor their progress.
10. The centre does not sufficiently seek the views of users in order to develop the provision. There are too few local parents on the advisory board and the centre does not have a parents’ forum. Consequently, families are not adequately involved in decision-making about shaping the centre’s services.
11. Resources are not deployed effectively and efficiently to meet families’ needs and are having little impact on improving outcomes. As a consequence, the centre does not provide adequate value for money.
12. The range of services, activities and opportunities is inadequate because it does not meet the needs of families, including those in target groups. The centre does not have a sufficiently clear understanding of the population to help it plan provision to meet its needs. For example, the centre is unaware of the number of children with disabilities who live in the area, or the number of families where English is a second language.
13. Outreach services are inadequate. The centre does not have the capacity to undertake early intervention work within the community, such as one-to-one support or home visiting, other than for the very few families who have engaged with parenting courses.
14. Several of the key professionals informed inspectors that they have little confidence in the centre because it is generally ineffective.
A spokesperson for Thurrock Council said: “The November cabinet report explained the West Thurrock and South Stifford ward is currently covered by three centres and this is being reduced.
“In future the Stifford centre will deliver early education and childcare/information only.
“The inspection took place in the midst of the planned change.
“Nevertheless, additional support is being provided to the centre to ensure the required improvements are made.”
“It is very important to note that the childcare offered at Stifford has been rated as good by Ofsted and parents using that facility should be confident that childcare there is of a fine quality.”
