Spending Review boost for the early years

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth, John Swinney, has announced the Scottish Government’s Spending Review in Parliament.

SPPA is delighted that the review places so much focus on the early years and in particular a commitment to increased preventative spending in services for young children. There will also be a consultation on the introduction of legislation for the early years and early intervention with a draft Children’s Services Bill proposed for introduction later in this parliamentary term.

The introduction of an Early Years and Early Intervention Change Fund, to be channeled through local authorities, is to be warmly welcomed. We hope that at a time of managing pressures and cuts in public expenditure, third sector organisations can be significant partners, providing high quality services and offering real value for money, in helping the government to accelerate the implementation of the Early Years Framework.

We also welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to the proposed Children’s Services Bill, which we hope will give a fair and equal chance to all children to get the best start in life.

Meeting the challenges on qualifications

The deadline draws nearer for the requirement for managers to hold or to be working towards a Childhood Practice Level 9 award and SPPA is conscious that some concerns are still being raised around the country. The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) has been very helpful in responding to queries on the subject so don’t hesitate to get in touch with the SSSC if you have any.

SPPA does appreciate that many small providers, particularly in rural communities, will struggle to meet the aspiration for all services to be led by a manager, qualified to degree level or equivalent. We are acutely aware of the different challenges that our membership faces in ensuring that the workforce has the appropriate qualifications. However SPPA subscribes to having well qualified staff not only to ensure that all children have equality of opportunity to reach their potential, but also to ensure the future sustainability of the sector.

SPPA acknowledges that current models of playgroup service delivery will have to adapt and is working with local authorities to introduce peripatetic management models as a way of supporting change, and one option for groups to consider is to come together in a ‘cluster’ to benefit from this system.

A bright future for all Scotland's children?

Keeping the manifesto promises

Now the Scottish Parliamentary Elections are over and we know who is forming the next government, we can look forward to manifesto pledges being implemented. The SNP, like all the other political parties, have accepted the need to invest in our youngest children to give them the very best start in life. The commitment of £50 million change fund, in addition to the £6.8million Early Years Early Action Fund, to support early interventions projects is welcome and SPPA is keen to discuss with the new government, as early as possible, ways in which it can be a key strategic and service delivery partner in early years services and early intervention programmes.

New legislation is pledged to oblige government, local authorities and health authorities to deliver early years services. In the drafting of this legislation SPPA will be arguing strongly that due regard is given to securing the place of the voluntary sector in the vision for integrated, accessible and relevant early years, childcare and early intervention services.

The voluntary sector has a long history and a wealth of experience and expertise of working with and alongside side children and parents in local communities. This must not be jeopardised by the introduction of new legislation that could be interpreted as excluding the sector.

The record of the voluntary sector as a prime instigator of services which engage children, parents and families together and which sensitively support integrated and collaborative working in ways which tune in to children and family needs, must be made to count. So too should the positive impact that voluntary sector services have on the confidence of both individuals and communities, and on their capacity to develop and improve outcomes for themselves. Without the voluntary sector it would be a poorer vision for Scotland's early years services, our youngest citizens and local communities.

Political parties promise a bright future for the early years

Campaigning for the Scottish Parliamentary Elections is well underway and it is encouraging to hear the four main political parties making the right kind of noises when it comes to the early years. Take even a swift look through the four manifestos and you can’t help but notice the prominence given to policy measures targeted at ensuring our very youngest citizens get the very best start in life

The SNP, who launched their campaign at a nursery in Glasgow, were last to publish their manifesto just this week, and this includes a commitment to a £50m change fund in support of a range of early intervention projects including a ‘new generation’ of nationwide children and family centres. Also included is a pledge to introduce new legislation which would oblige local authorities and the health authorities to deliver early years services.

Scottish Labour’s manifesto states that ‘money spent on supporting a child during the vital early years can also prevent or reduce the need for more expensive intervention later on’, and contains a promise to consult on an early years bill which would include a strong emphasis on pre-birth to three support measures.

A £250m ‘Early Intervention Revolution Fund’ is the flagship early years policy commitment for the Liberal Democrats. In terms of pre-school, this ‘challenge’ fund would look for innovative and original ideas which ‘help children gain social skills prior to formal education through structured and unstructured play, indoors and outdoors, with a play and communication strategy.’

The Scottish Conservatives have highlighted help to parents of pre-five children though a guaranteed level of health visitor support, and have promised to maintain the current 12.5 hours of free entitlement but with a greater degree of flexibility available to parents and an extension of the entitlement to disadvantaged two-year olds.

It is also promising to note that all the parties recognise the vital role the voluntary sector has to play in the delivery of services in the early years and beyond. As a leading voluntary sector provider of services to parents and children in early years groups in communities across Scotland, SPPA is energised by the commitment of our politicians and looks forward to working in partnership with the next Government to deliver a bright future for our children.

Cuts cast a shadow on the future of voluntary sector children's services

It is an uncertain future. Isn’t it ironic that while there is now an ambitious and positive policy environment in place to support the Government’s aim of getting it right for all children and young people, SPPA and many of our member service providers are experiencing severe financial cuts and constraints on budgets which are inevitably affecting our capacity to sustain, just at current levels, the services being offered to children and families across Scotland?

The cuts in funding by some local authorities have resulted in several SPPA staff redundancies and have also prompted a review of how the organisation delivers its services to groups. At group level we are hearing more and more about sustainability issues, and so we are carrying out a survey to ascertain the impact of reductions in partnership funding and of grants to our groups.

In our manifesto, SPPA calls on our elected representatives to work with the voluntary early years sector as a key strategic and delivery partner. This message is being taken to Ministers and officials in the Scottish Government, to local authorities and, as we move towards the election, in May to all political parties. SPPA is stating that playgroups, toddler and under-fives groups set in local communities, in rural and urban locations, and reaching some of the most excluded of families, must be an integral component of services available to children and families. We are highlighting that they are a valuable community resource which provide preventative and early intervention opportunities that help children, support parents, and build family and community capacity. SPPA believes their future is in jeopardy because of the financial cuts, and if services are curtailed or closed through short term decision making about saving money, the informal, non judgemental and capacity building approach of these services, will be lost to future generations of children and parents. And what an impact that would have on the wider community, as involvement in playgroups and toddler groups is often a stepping stone to further learning and development and engagement in other community activity, training or work.

Community based services help 'join the dots'

Professor Susan Deacon's report, ‘Joining the Dots, a better start for Scotland’s Children’, is a welcome contribution to the growing evidence about the need to invest in the early years in order to give our children the best start in life. In Scotland, there is an ambitious positive policy environment in place to support getting it right for children and young people set against the backdrop of a severe economic downturn and constraints on budgets across the board, which is likely to last for a number of years.

We can view this as a dilemma and a problem or we can grasp it as challenge and opportunity to ‘join up the dots’ and be more creative and innovative in how we work with and alongside children and families to deliver better outcomes. Family centres, as suggested in the report, offer one approach, but it is one among others. SPPA believes there are already structures and partnerships in place that could be used to deliver just as effective preventative and early interventions approaches.

In many parts of Scotland, the voluntary sector playgroup and toddler group has been part of the fabric of the community for many years. SPPA promotes and advocates for their significant contribution to building the capacity and resilience of children and families in local communities. These services engage with families from different circumstances and situations. For many it is the toddler or playgroup which provides their first interaction, outwith the home family environment, with an early years service.

Their informal, non judgemental and capacity building approach of working with and alongside parents and children, involving them and their families in the work of the group, fosters environments where children, parents and families learn and play together. Parents are supported in their parenting role and positive family relationships are nurtured, friendships are formed, peer support networks are established, and healthy lifestyles are promoted and role modeled. The experience of toddler and playgroup is carried back into the home and into other spheres of family life. The skills and confidence parents gain through their involvement is often a stepping stone to further learning and development and engagement in wider community activity.

SPPA believes it is an opportune time to build on these community based services, and to unlock and support the potential they have to drive and deliver creativity and innovation in providing services for children and families, and in working collaboratively with other services.

Read Professor Deacon's report here.

PVG Scheme a welcome improvement to child protection measures

Today sees the introduction of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups Scheme (PVG Scheme) in Scotland, which will help to ensure that children and vulnerable adults are protected from those who would wish them harm.

SPPA and its member groups share the responsibility to provide early years and childcare services that keep our youngest children safe from harm. SPPA welcomes the Scheme as an improvement on the current system of disclosures, as it provides the means for continuous updating, and offers employers a quick and simple checking process to establish that someone is a member of the PVG Scheme and that they are not disqualified from working with children. The Scheme reduces the bureaucracy encountered under the current system and introduces a degree of proportionality that was previously absent.

Excluding people who would wish children harm is core to our services. The PVG Scheme gives a legislative context to protection, but all services must be mindful of their obligation to implement robust safe recruitment practices that include, for example, the use of application forms and interviews, seeking self disclosures, checking references and gaps in employment, and ongoing supervision.

The PVG Scheme only applies to people who work, paid or unpaid, with children and protected adults and it does not apply to parents helping their children or personal arrangements that parents make with friends and family to look after their children. In the coming year, the primary focus is on people new to regulated work with vulnerable groups, or who are changing posts, joining the scheme. In the following three years there will be a period of retrospective checking. Employers should be notifying their current staff that they will be expected to be members of the Scheme in the future, and that they will be subject to retrospective checking at some point during the three years following year one of going live. To become a member of the PVG Scheme costs £59.00. It is up to employers and individuals to decide who pays the membership fee. There are other costs associated with accessing scheme record updates.

Visit the SPPA website’s Frequently Asked Questions section for further information on the scheme.