Partnerships in the early years: past, present and future

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Partnerships in the early yearspast, present
and future

• Dame Gillian Pugh
• Early Childhood Forum
• 12th May 2008

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Partnerships

• Between parents and professionals
• Across all early years services
• The early work of Under Fives Unit/Early
  Childhood Unit
• Vouchers and the pre 1997 vision
• Early Years Development and Childcare
  Partnerships
• Between early childhood organisations ECEF,
  LAEYN
• Between the voluntary and statutory sectors
• Every Child Matters, 2004 Children Act and the
  Childrens Plan
• Challenges and opportunities

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A Framework for Parent Involvement

• Non-participation - parents using a childrens
  centre or a school as a consumer, who either lack
  the confidence to become involved, or decide they
  do not wish to be involved
• Support parents support for the centre or
  school from the outside, through practical help
  or by endorsing the schools philosophy-
  attending open evenings, fund raising, supporting
  childrens activities at home
• Participation parents physically involved in or
  contributing to the work of the centre/school,
  under the supervision of teachers-
• - parents as helpers, helping in the classroom,
  going on outings with staff and children,
  supporting home work
• - parents as learners sharing in childrens
  activities and family workshops, adult education
  classes

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A Framework for Parent Involvement

• Partnership a working relationship that is
  characterised by a shared sense of purpose,
  mutual respect, and the willingness to negotiate.
  This implies a sharing of information,
  responsibility, skills, decision making and
  accountability
• - parents as co-educators and co-workers,
  jointly planning and implementing a programme
  for their child
• - open access to information and records
• - sharing in diagnosis and assessment
• - participation in management
• - parents as workers, visiting homes, running
  groups, counselling other parents
• - wider involvement in the community
• - parents as researchers
• Control parents wholly responsible for running
  the group, selecting and employing staff and
  children, budgeting etc.
• Working Towards Partnership in the Early Years
  Pugh and DeAth, NCB (1989)

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Definitions of partnership

• A working relationship that is characterised
  by a shared sense of purpose, mutual respect, and
  the willingness to negotiate. This implies a
  sharing of information, responsibility, skills,
  decision making and accountability
• (G Pugh E DeAth Working Towards Partnership in
  the Early Years1989)
• The elements of a successful partnership model
  are
• a common aim, mutual respect, open
  communication, sharing power, negotiation,
  working together and complementary expertise
• (H Davis et al Working in Partnership with
  Parents 2002)

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What other words do we use?

• Networking
• Cooperation
• Collaboration
• Coordination
• Integration

• Sharing information
• Services work together towards consistent goals,
  but maintain independence
• Services plan and work together and avoid overlap
  and duplication
• Services work together in planned and systematic
  manner towards shared and agreed goals
• Different services become one organisation.
  Pooled budgets, common management systems

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Early years services pre 1997

• Patchwork of fragmented and uncoordinated
  services, a low national commitment to developing
  and resourcing pre-school services and the
  absence of a national policy on what services
  should be provided, for whom and by whom
• Services discretionary, with no coordination
  between services run by education, social
  services, health, leisure, employers, private and
  voluntary organisations
• (G Pugh Services for Under Fives developing a
  coordinated approach NCB1988)

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Early Childhood Education Forum

• Set up in 1993, bringing together the 40 major
  national organisations working with and for young
  children
• To work on policy, curriculum, training,
  inspection and funding of services
• and to speak with one voice for young children
• Today, as the Early Childhood Forum, still the
  main partnership organisation with 53 members
• And Local Authority Early Years Network

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Partnerships post 1997

• Post vouchers setting up Early Years
  Development and Childcare Partnerships
• Early excellence centres
• Sure Start local programmes
• Childrens centres

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Every Child Matters and 2004 Children Act

• Every Child Matters is about improving outcomes
  for all children and reducing the gap between
  those who do well and those who do not.
• Integration of services is a means to this end,
  not an end in itself.

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Childrens trusts as catalysts for local change
Inter-Agency Governance strategic direction,
partnership and accountability
Integrated Strategy planning, commissioning,
pooled resources
Integrated Processes information sharing, common
assessment
Integrated People common core,
multi- disciplinary teams co-location
Children Young People
Families Community
Leadership at every level
Involvement of children young people
Shared Vision
Source DfES
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Childrens trusts as catalysts for local change

• Children and young people at the centre, within
  communities

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Integrated people

• Integrated qualifications framework across whole
  workforce
• New professional roles pedagogue, early years
  professional
• Staff trained with a common core
• Effective communication and engagement with
  children, young people and their families and
  carers
• Child and young person development
• Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the
  child
• Supporting transitions
• Multi-agency working
• Sharing information
• Multi-disciplinary and multi-agency teams
• Children and Young Peoples Partnership Board
• Multi-agency panels
• Multi-agency teams
• Co-location
• A lead professional

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Integrated processes

• Information sharing
• A single database containing core information
  about all children
• Common assessment framework
• A single tool for initial assessment and referral
  
• Joint training

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Integrated systems

• Strategic planning, through the Children and
  Young Peoples Partnership Board which produces a
  single Children and Young People Plan
• Joint commissioning with pooled resources needs
  assessment, resource mapping, service mapping and
  service redesign

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Inter-agency governance strategic direction,
partnership and accountability

• Director of childrens services
• Lead member (elected councillor) for childrens
  services
• Plus
• Minister for children, young people and families
  within Department for Children, Schools and
  Families
• Joint inspection framework

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The long term vision

• Developing integrated education, childcare,
  health and social care, including family support
  services 0 19 through
• Childrens centres
• Extended schools
• Improved services for young people
• With better support for parents
• Provided by a better qualified workforce
• And more effective interplay between universal
  and specialist services

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Partnerships between the voluntary and statutory
sectors

• Strengths of the voluntary sector
• Able to reach the most vulnerable and
  marginalized children, young people and families
• Works with and in communities
• Underpinned by strong values of equality and
  empowerment
• Innovative, entrepreneurial and resourceful
• Flexible, unbureaucratic and responsive to local
  needs
• Involves service users, with many becoming
  volunteers and paid workers
• Provide joined up responses to individual needs
• Independent from government
• Has proved that it can provide high quality
  services

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Barriers to voluntary sector involvement in
service provision

• Capacity
• Many voluntary organisations do not have the
  skills, knowledge, structure or resources,
  including staff capacity, to realise their full
  potential (HM Treasury 2002)
• Contractual
• The uneven playing field in relation to local
  authorities, lack of recognition of the Compact,
  and inability to charge for full costs, short
  term contracts (92 for one year), unwillingness
  to share risk
• Legislative and financial
• Inability to recover VAT, high cost of tendering
  (time, legal costs, complexity of contracts),
  burden of reporting and compliance
• Cultural
• The sector seen as well meaning but
  unprofessional

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Implications of voluntary sector involvement

• The voluntary and community sector should be
  involved in all layers of the ECM onion in
  strategic planning, commissioning and service
  delivery
• But some organisations may require support to
  participate on an equal footing eg. VCS Engage

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A statutory/voluntary sector partnership Thomas
Coram Childrens Centre

• Partnership between Camden and Coram
• Education and care, all day, all year for 120
  children
• Parents centre
• Drop-ins, open access and targetted
• Adult education
• CAMHS and health input
• Music therapy
• Parenting groups
• Outreach work and family support
• Work with fathers and young parent
• After school club

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Working in early years partnerships (Childrens
Plan 2007)

• DCSF piloting partnership working between
  schools, childrens centres, early years and
  childcare providers and health services
• To look at benefits and challenges of different
  models of collaboration
• To create a more coherent 0-7 phase
• To encourage smoother transitions between
  providers, and into school

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Barriers to integrated working and working in
partnership

• Unequal power bases and lack of respect
• Different entry requirements, rates of pay and
  conditions of service between professions
• Different beliefs and value systems
• Different levels of autonomy and accountability
  frameworks
• Different training and professional codes of
  conduct
• Different language and poor communication
• Focus on different priorities and outcomes

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Positive strategies in working in
multi-professional teams in integrated childrens
services

• Respecting specialist expertise (rethinking what
  I know, who I am and what I do)
• Maintaining good personal relationships with team
  members
• Exploring diverse perspectives of team members
• Working towards a shared language
• Effective leadership
• Sustained preparatory work, and time for
  developing shared values and common protocols,
  and exchanging skills and knowledge
• A flexible approach to changes in roles and
  responsibilities
• Co-location
• Clear lines of communication
• Ongoing support and training for all staff
• Developing Multi-professional Teamwork for
  Integrated Childrens Services Angela Anning,
  David Cottrell, Nick Frost, Josephine Green, Mark
  Robinson. Open University Press 2006

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Taking partnerships forward

• Partnerships are about relationships whether at
  individual or strategic level
• Working in partnership is complex and difficult
  and it takes time to build trust and develop
  respect between partners
• Some partners may need additional support to
  participate on an equal footing
• Shared vision and aims are essential
• So are protocols for working together, joint
  training, co-location, clarity over
  accountability, and supportive management and
  funding
• Integrated/joined up structures on their own
  wont improve outcomes for children. Change
  should be based on evidence of need and
  evaluation of what works. Best practice can be
  shared, but it cant be bottled.