Developing services for 0 - 19 year olds
Please note this consultation has now closed
- What we want for our children and young people
- What we currently offer
- What we would like to do
- Children's Centres
- Play Services
- Staff in the children’s centres and play services
- Next steps
- How can you have your say?
What we want for our children and young people
We want every child and young person in Haringey to have the best start in life and support them throughout their childhood and into early adulthood.
To do this we have a wide range of services outside schooling such as children's centres, before and after school clubs, play centres and the youth service.
We work with health services and the private and voluntary sectors to provide the best services to children and their families.
We want to continue improving services for children and families as we know this will also improve the quality of life for all residents in Haringey.
We want to create services for children and young people aged 0 – 19 that meet the needs of children, young people and their families.
What we currently offer
- We have 10 children’s centres and we are opening seven or eight more by April 2008.
- Of the 10 children’s centres the council directly manages five, three are self managed as nursery schools and the remaining centres are managed by nearby or on-site primary schools.
- The centres to be opened by April 2008 will be developed as part of primary schools and managed by them.
- Children’s centres provide a range of services to the local community, including childcare for 0-5 year olds, health services, outreach work to vulnerable children in the community and information to parents.
- We have 16 council managed after school clubs and holiday play schemes providing services for 4-12 year olds.
- As other services have developed, such as children’s centres and schools providing after school clubs, some areas of the borough have a lot of services offering similar things and other areas with little or no services to meet the needs of the local community.
The Youth Service provides activities and support for 13-19 year olds, this includes
- three youth centres and mobile teams.
Together these services are developing more opportunities especially for children who do not currently access services, and for older children outside of school hours.
What we would like to do
- We want to make sure that there are opportunities for everyone.
- We want to ensure children, young people, their families and the local community are at the heart of this process.
- This consultation focuses on changes to children’s centres and play services.
Children’s centres
We would like all children’s centres to be part of Haringey Council, but we want most children’s centres to be run by schools.
- We would like three of the five council run children’s centres (Stonecroft, Park Lane and Woodside Children’s Centres) to be linked to nearby schools or existing self-governing children’s centres. These schools would take on the management of the centres overall, delivering services through a formal agreement with Haringey’s Children and Young People’s Service on what they have to provide. This means that at least 13 of the 18 centres would be managed by local schools.
- We would like to look further at the possibility of aspects of the management of Noel Park Children’s Centre to be taken on by a nearby primary school or a local community provider. Noel Park Children’s Centre is different to the other existing children’s centres because it does not directly provide childcare or education and the council does not own the building, so we need to look at different options.
- We would also like to explore further options for the Triangle Children’s Centre in partnership with the board of the New Deal for the Community (NDC) which has played an important role in funding the centre’s development. The centre is different to others as it provides wider services for people of all ages in the whole community, not just for children and their families.
- We need to have a stronger emphasis on reaching out to children and families not presently accessing services, understand why this is and what we need to do differently to meet their needs.
- Closer working between schools and children’s centres will allow us to support children and families through a child’s various life stages. It will allow us to better identify and help children and families in need of support and improve communication between different services.
Play services
- We want to look at how some or all of the play service after school clubs could be run through schools or children’s centres, which would provide better coordinated services with the council continuing to oversee the quality of what is provided.
- We think that schools are the right places to run our after school clubs – indeed many run their own already. Through schools we can provide more joined up services especially for working parents.
- We are keen to look at how we can develop new activities with schools, the voluntary sector and youth services for children aged between 8-13 years and for children and young people with disabilities.
Staff in the children’s centres and play services
- We value the important work that our staff working in children’s centres and play services provide and this will carry on even with the changes we would like to make.
- We will not be asking private providers to run the children’s centres or play services. We are confident that these changes benefit everyone.
Next steps
Once this consultation closes on 11 February we will prepare a report for the Council’s Cabinet meeting in March . The report will include the outcome of this consultation. The Cabinet will make a decision on the basis of all the views. Any changes to children’s centres and play centres will be discussed in detail with those affected and with trade unions. Any changes recommended by the Council’s Cabinet would be carried out between April 2008 and April 2009.
How can you have your say?
This consultation closed on 11 February 2008.
Notes
The 16 after schools centres are Alexandra Play Centre, Broadwater Farm Play Centre, Campsbourne Play Centre, Chestnuts Play Centre, Crowland Play Centre, Falkland Play Centre, Hornsey Ridge, Mulberry Play Centre, Muswell Hill Play Centre, Noel Park Play Centre, Rhodes Avenue Play Centre, Stroud Green Play Centre, Tower Gardens Play Centre, Triangle Play Centre, Welbourne Play Centre and West Green Play Centre.
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