Council and democracy

The Government has selected Hertfordshire County Council’s Children, Schools and Families (CSF) department to pilot four important new schemes.

Following on from the success of the pilot children’s trust in Stevenage, the Government has again chosen Hertfordshire to map out the best way forward in delivering effective services for children and young people.

John Harris, director of children's services and chair of the Executive Group for the Hertfordshire Children’s Trust Partnership, said: “We are delighted to be positioned at the forefront of children’s services reform. All four pilots aim to improve services across the country and we will be watching their progress closely in the months to come.”

The four pilots are:

• Flexible entitlement to nursery provision
• Free places for two-year-olds
• Parenting Early Intervention Pathfinder
• Substance misuse

Flexible entitlement to nursery provision

Currently all three and four-year-olds are entitled to five free two-and-a-half-hour nursery sessions a week during the school term. These can be taken up in a state-maintained nursery school or class, or in a private or voluntary pre-school, nursery or school.

Under a new scheme to be introduced nationally by 2010, this entitlement will be increased to 15 hours a week. Parents will also be able to claim their child’s hours over as little as three days if they wish.

From April 2007, Hertfordshire County Council will run the pilot in Borehamwood, Hatfield, Hemel Hempstead, Letchworth, South Oxhey, Stevenage and Watford. The area boundaries will be the same as those used for children’s centres.


Free places for two-year-olds

Hertfordshire will also be joining a DfES national pathfinder scheme under which children whose families receive one of the relevant benefits or tax credits will be eligible for a free place for a full year rather than just one term. Hertfordshire has funded and run its own scheme since 1999 for children in the term of their third birthday, but accessing the DfES scheme will mean that children can start the term after their second birthday.

Children who are in the care of the local authority will also be eligible for the scheme, in order to give them the best possible start to their education.


Parenting Early Intervention Pathfinder

Hertfordshire County Council has been chosen by the DfES to participate in an early intervention pathfinder project targeting eight to 13-year-olds who are showing signs of drifting into anti-social behaviour.
Their parents will be invited to take part in the “Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities” parenting course. This programme has been shown to produce dramatic results, including improvements in the confidence and skills of parents, relationships within the family and in the behaviour of their children.

Things are moving ahead quickly. In October 25 professional staff members from CSF were trained to run the parenting courses by child psychologist Dr Marilyn Steele, who developed the course. Further training courses will be held during 2007 and will include staff from partner agencies, including voluntary and community organisations.


Substance misuse

Hertfordshire Young People’s Substance Misuse Partnership has been recruited to help lead the way in a national initiative to reduce drug use by young people. The county was chosen as a ‘high focus area’ because it has a targeted youth support pathfinder. This new programme will involve sharing best practice and innovative thinking in drug prevention, early intervention and treatment with local authorities across the country.

Many different partner organisations have committed to the project and participated in a workshop in late July to identify priorities for the High Focus Area initiative, which runs from September 2006 to September 2007. In addition to identifying the issues involved for each of the key risk groups, partners committed support for a new National qualification in drugs and alcohol that is being developed, the first of its kind for workers dealing with children and young people.