Case study 2: Greenwich
www.nesta.org.uk/feature/case-studies-early-years-practice-england/case-study-2-greenwich/
www.nesta.org.uk/feature/case-studies-early-years-practice-england/case-study-2-greenwich/
Number of children under five: 19,027 (data from 2021 census).
Index of Multiple Deprivation: out of 317 local authorities (LAs) in England, Greenwich was ranked in the bottom quartile on the average rank (60th) measure and in the third quartile on the average score (88th) measure for deprivation. Over a fifth of Greenwich’s residents live in areas ranked in the most deprived 30% in England (based on English indices of deprivation 2019, where rank first = most deprived).
Ethnic diversity: Greenwich has a diverse demographic landscape, including populations from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria, Nepal, Somalia and various African communities that need English language support.
Proportion of children eligible for free school meals (FSM) reaching a good level of development (GLD) measured by the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile: in 2022-2023 Greenwich had 63% of children on FSM reaching a GLD, which was among the highest quintile (20%) in all LAs in Cluster 0 based on Nesta’s previous work (on average, 51.8% children eligible for FSM reached a GLD in this cluster). LAs in Cluster 0 were characterised by high deprivation and lower than average life expectancies.
In this case study, we have highlighted some key elements of practice that staff in Greenwich reported as contributing to good early-years outcomes. These include supporting families through parenting interventions, providing drop-in sessions for parents to talk to speech and language therapists in children’s centres, and supporting early-years providers.
This case study is based on an interview in November 2022 with Greenwich Council's Early Years and Childcare Team Leader and Head of Early Years and Childcare, as well as an online survey completed by representatives from Greenwich Council before the interview.
We have selected this case study because Greenwich had higher percentages of children eligible for FSM reaching a GLD compared to other LAs in the same cluster identified by Nesta’s previous work (please see figures above).
Between 2019 and 2022, Greenwich provided eight parenting programmes for families with children under age five: Solihull Approach, Incredible Years, GroBrain, Mellow Babies/Mellow Toddlers, Bouncing Babies, Baby Massage, Parent Gym, Growing Together, and Bumps to Babies. A locally developed programme, Growing Together, similar to a structured Stay and Play, was also offered in Greenwich to targeted groups of families, such as young parents, parents with postnatal depression, or parents who had to move for their own safety or their children's safety. The interviewee explained:
“Issues are identified at various points in that child's life – very early life – that parent may just need that little extra support around attachment and early learning for their under two. And that work seems to have really, really yielded positive outcomes for both the parent and the child. Friendships have happened and conflicts have been resolved but while the focus is still on the child, the feedback from participants has been really high… What is testament to that is at least 80% retention in those groups and people vote with their feet, don't they?”
Interviewee
Greenwich also offered interventions for mothers with mental health needs who have children aged 0-5, such as support from MumsAid or Time to Talk. In addition to training professionals to understand the needs of parents around mental health and the risks to babies and children, Greenwich issued a monthly e-bulletin, which included a section on mental health and wellbeing for both children and adults, and participated in the Healthy Early Years London programme.
Children’s centres in Greenwich play an important role in detecting, supporting and integrating various resources and strategies for the community. As an early years staff member explained:
“Across the borough there are multiple Stay and Plays every day of the week. And you're not bound by postcode, you go to any one in the borough, you can shop around and go to where it suits you and suits your family.”
Interviewee
In Greenwich, a commissioned NHS provider had overall responsibility for speech, language and communication (SLC) offers. The council offered advice and guidance through website links, flyers, training and recorded webinars on how to identify and make an SLC referral, as well as advice and guidance about SLC to non-specialist SLC staff and volunteers. Drop-in sessions were offered in children's centres where parents can see SLC therapists. As an interviewee described:
“The waiting list for speech and language service is often something that people will raise as something that worries them, even though there's lots of things that we can put in place. I think parents often feel much more confident and reassured if they're actually seeing a speech and language therapist. So, they have speech language therapists to go and visit children centres in drop-ins.”
Interviewee
According to the interviewees, Greenwich also placed a strong emphasis on understanding the diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds of its community, extending support to bilingual and multilingual families. To ensure inclusivity, connections to other initiatives/resources in different languages were established, helping families still learning English to integrate.
A variety of tools were used in Greenwich to assess children’s outcomes throughout the 0-5 period and identify those who may require additional support. These assessment tools included Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Progress Check at Age 2, Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ), Leuven Wellbeing and Involvement Scale, Every Child a Talker, Tapestry Online Developmental Tool, and SLT Developmental Check and Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS).
Child-level data from the child protection register and social care interventions was shared and cross-checked with data from all their childcare providers to check that those children were taking up provision. As an interviewee explained:
“I still think in some authorities there’s a reluctance for their social care section to share that level of data, but we've cracked that.”
Interviewee
When asked about what they thought had made a difference in ensuring high-quality early education and childcare in Greenwich, the interviewees highlighted that they worked in partnership with their school improvement service to provide a wide range of support to nurseries and childminders. A staff member explained:
“And the thing that really works is, supporting the providers so that we're present for the providers. So, we have an advisory service; there's a helpline, there's health email addresses, we directly visit providers, we have meetings with providers, we offer training, we offer briefings. So, there's a whole range of support that's universal for all providers, depending on whether they're preregistered or potential providers.”
Staff member
In addition to universal support, early-years providers were provided with tailored support depending on their circumstances. Every provider was allocated a named advisor and support was offered through in-person visits and training, peer networks, a monthly e-bulletin, pre-recorded webinars, virtual meetings, forums and briefings including a rich out-of-hours offer to be inclusive of childminders. Subject matters ranged from safeguarding and child protection to child development, early-years curriculum and teaching, and equality, diversity and inclusion. As the interviewee described:
“There are different levels of support there, and then when they become registered, before their first inspection, and then after each inspection, depending on the outcome of that inspection, we will offer very specific support. It could be intensive support through our process, we call it the Lyceum or spotlight process, depending on their outcome, where we have intensive engagement with that provider through visits, through training, through staff support and supervision.”
Interviewee
The interviewees also reported that they sought feedback from parents on their experience of early-years providers, and collected data through annual surveys and monthly parents’ drop-in sessions.
“It's a pretty big survey. So that's an annual survey and there's monthly parent-carer forum drop-ins, and there's an ongoing suggestion/comment/compliment/complaint arrangement that parents are reminded about. So it's part of our bread and butter, really isn't it? Just getting that feedback and we expect that of our childcare providers too.”
Interviewee
