Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, I find that Hansard is really wonderful at tidying things up, but I am not quite sure how it is going to manage to tidy that up. It has been a long afternoon and evening, but I was in the middle of thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, for the work that her organisation, the National Governors’ Association, does in promoting good governance and for the help it has given us in developing plans and establishing good governance in children’s centres. I also thank the noble Baronesses, Lady Garden and Lady Verma, for joining us in this debate and giving me the opportunity to give them the reassurance that they quite rightly require. The noble Baroness, Lady Verma, was particularly concerned about provision for outreach work. I remind the House that we know that parents value the support that children’s centres give through outreach work and outreach workers who do home visiting from children's centres. Effective outreach services can make a real difference, as the noble Baroness suggested, to families who cannot access services, providing important information and access to services such as childcare and family support. All Sure Start children’s centres are expected to provide outreach services. It is important that there are effective supervision and escalation routes in the context of multi-agency working. The important point is that the Children’s Plan is committed to establishing core principles and standards for an effective and comprehensive outreach service supported by appropriate materials and courses to enable some 5,000 practitioners to take up new training opportunities. The DCSF is looking at the development of this work with the Children’s Workforce Development Council, and is working with Sure Start children’s centres as an important hub for that work. The noble Baroness, Lady Verma, asked why Sure Start centres are being put on a statutory footing. I believe that that was the thrust of her speech. She asked whether that would limit local flexibility. We want children's centres to be an integral part of the local infrastructure to support children. The provision in the Bill would ensure that that happens, while ensuring that the local flexibility that we all agree is so important is maintained, particularly with regard to health services. We know that children's centres offer significant opportunities for improving children's health. They are a key vehicle for delivering the Healthy Child programme. National evaluation of Sure Start has found that many successful Sure Start programmes were led by the health sector with health visitors reaching and engaging with families who then willingly accessed children's centre services. There are many examples of good practice. One that would be great to name would be the John Smith Children’s Centre in Tower Hamlets, which has been working successfully with breast-feeding co-ordinators from the PCT. It has initiation rates of 81 per cent, which is a great example of the success of that intervention. We share noble Lords’ desire to maintain a good mix of quality provision. I can confirm that our existing planning guidance for children's centres is clear that local authorities should not duplicate existing provision when they establish children's centres. Therefore, they need to consult private, voluntary and independent sector organisations in developing their local service offer. I hope that I can offer the reassurance that noble Lords are looking for. It is already a condition of the Sure Start early years and childcare grants that local authorities should consult private, voluntary and independent sector organisations when planning children’s centres. We expect them to keep evidence that they have met that condition. We do not expect local authorities to favour one type of provider over another. I understand the desire behind Amendment 203 to ensure that proper consideration is given to ensuring that best possible use is made of children's centres by all statutory partners, but I would not want to constrain local flexibility in determining where best to deliver those services. The Childcare Act 2006 already requires local authorities, the NHS and Jobcentre Plus to work together to provide integrated early childhood services, and our proposed new Section 5E inserted by Clause 193 would require relevant partners to consider providing their services through children's centres. This would include health services, of course, and health visitors in particular. We are committed to increasing the health visitor workforce and to clarifying key aspects of their role. The first phase of the Action on Health Visiting programme launched on 14 October spells out the health visitor’s role in leading the delivery of the Healthy Child programme and in relation to children's centres. It also sets out the next steps to be taken on increasing workforce capacity and capability, which is something that the noble Baroness, Lady Verma, has been concerned about. It is right that local decisions should determine where and how these services would best be delivered and I would expect partners to consider carefully and review regularly how services are delivered according to local circumstances and local need. Despite that rather faulty start to my contribution, but with the reassurances that followed, I hope that noble Lords will not press their amendments.