Ofsted reveals weakness in children's centres' support for parents
Joe Lepper
Friday, July 1, 2011
Children's centres need to improve their support for parents and how well they prepare children for later life, according to Ofsted.
The inspectorate has published its first complete year’s figures for inspections of centres for 1 April 2010 to 31 March this year.
Among the weakest aspects were the extent to which children are developing skills for the future and the help they offer parents with money problems and finding work. Just two-thirds were judged to be good or outstanding in these categories.
The use of evaluation to improve services also requires improvement, with only six out of 10 achieving good or outstanding scores in this area.
Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children, said: "We know that in some areas the links between children’s centres and Jobcentre Plus need to improve to help parents be economically stable and with employment issues."
She urged centres to ensure they improve their evaluation, especially as the coalition government has placed a greater emphasis on linking funding to evidence of success.
Among the strengths highlighted by inspectors were centres’ focus on keeping children safe and offering them a good quality of care. Nine out of 10 achieved good or outstanding judgements in these areas.
Over the period covered, 498 centres were inspected. Of these, 73 per cent were judged good or outstanding in terms of overall effectiveness and almost all (98 per cent) were judged at least as satisfactory. Only 10 were judged to be inadequate.
