Annual Report
The Northamptonshire Early Years and Childcare Service has published it's 2007-8 Annual Report. It’s a comprehensive guide to the achievements for the service within Early Years Education and the Foundation Stage; Workforce Development; the Area SENCo team; SureStart Children’s Centres and the Families Information Service.
Additionally, easy to read pie charts explain how the service allocated its 2007-2008 budget across the sector. Simply click on the link below to download a copy of the report.
Children's Service Directory
A new website (see Related Links below) has been designed to reflect the new direction of the Families Information Service (FIS). To help people to find the information they need the website features 4 key zones:
- Parent’s & Carer’s zone
- Practitioner’s zone
- Young People’s zone
- Children’s zone.
The site is a "one-stop-shop" for parents and young people who are looking for information on any aspect of children’s services across Northamptonshire, from local Brownies to activities in school holidays. There are over 500 services and organisations currently featured on the site.
If you are interested in featuring your service on the Children’s Service Directory website, please call the Families Information Service (FIS) on 01604 237935.
New Children's Centres on the way
During 2008-2010 a further 19 Sure Start Children’s Centres will be developed in Northamptonshire, this will ensure more families have access to high quality local services.
Following the success of existing centres, we are anticipating a great deal of interest from prospective providers as we move into this next phase of development. A rigorous commissioning process will be adopted for the progression of these, to ensure all new centres are best placed to serve the needs of local children and families.
From September 2008 the Local Authority will be inviting expressions of interest from prospective providers across all sectors, (statutory, private and third sector), who would like to be considered to lead and manage a Sure Start Children’s Centre.
Childcare Sufficiency Assessment
Between January and the end of March 2008, the Early Years and Childcare Service conducted a consultation exercise to help establish the demand for childcare places throughout the county.
The outcomes from this research will enable the local authority to ensure that there are sufficient childcare places for families in the county.
The consultation was part of the process, known as the Childcare Sufficiency Assessment which was required by the recent Childcare Act. This was a pioneering piece of legislation as it was the first ever act to be exclusively concerned with early years and childcare.
We welcome feedback on the Assessment which will be continually updated.
The findings of this consultation are available to view below: