Developing inclusive provision for disabled children in children's centres
Contact officer: Lynne Godfrey, Children's Centre co-ordinator
Tel: 0151 225 6256
Email: lynne.godfrey@liverpool.gov.uk
Start date: 1st May 2007
End date: 1st August 2007
Purpose of the exercise:
To consult on the re-allocation of disability support funding from the former Scope nursery (now part of Walton Children's Centre) to develop inclusive childcare provision for disabled children under 5 years across the city.
Disability support funding aims to:
- enable more severely disabled children to go to local provision
- improve childcare for disabled children
- provide more parental choice
- make more effective use of available funding
- support a more joined up approach to meeting the needs of the disabled population, which complements other children's services work and addresses central government priorities.
Who was consulted and how:
Three consultation sessions were held in May and June for professionals, parents and other stakeholders. The sessions were advertised on the Every Parent Matters Network website (which exists to support parenting organisations in Liverpool), through Children's Centres and by direct contact with professional groups and agencies. These included the Liverpool Primary Care Trust, Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust and Liverpool City Council's Children's Services staff. A consultation paper also went to the Liverpool Sure Start Board and short briefing paper was circulated to all councillors through their weekly newsletter, with a 2 week consultation period.
Findings:
All feedback received was positive and there were no objections to the proposals.
Results:
The results were reported to the council's executive board in September 2007.
Read the report![(MS Word [61.5Kb] opens in new window)](/images/Word.gif)
that went to the executive board.
As a result of the exercise, a plan for re-allocating the disability support funding has been agreed, with the following objectives:
- to support childcare for disabled children in children's centres and other early years settings, through extra support, equipment and staff training
- that the re-allocation be phased in over a period from September 2007 to March 2010
- the funding to be allocated by a sub-group of the Early Years panel, which will also monitor and review the use of the funding for individual children
- a comprehensive training programme be put in place to support this initiative
- a series of briefings to be run on the funding process for providers and parents.
The process will be implemented from November 2007.