Number of children under five: 13,044 (data from 2021 census).

Index of Multiple Deprivation: out of 317 local authorities (LAs) in England, Warrington was ranked 175th (average rank) and 148th (average score) (based on English indices of deprivation 2019, where rank first = most deprived). 

Ethnic diversity: in 2021, according to Census 2021, 93.5% of people in Warrington identified their ethnic group within the "White" category, 3.3% within the "Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh" category, and 1.6% within the "Mixed or Multiple" category. 

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 2022-23, Warrington had 52.8% of children on FSM reaching a GLD, which was among the highest quintile (20%) in all LAs in Cluster 6 based on Nesta’s previous work (on average, 50.1% children eligible for FSM reached a GLD in this cluster). LAs in Cluster 6 were characterised by a high proportion of commuter towns with a higher than average working age population.

In this case study, we have highlighted some key elements of practice that staff in Warrington reported as contributing to good early-years outcomes. These include taking a whole family approach, sharing data to identify service gaps and providing targeted support to families. Warrington also used parent forums and parent champions to improve services and improve the lives of children with disabilities and additional needs.

It is based on an interview in October 2022 with Warrington Council's Early Years Lead, as well as an online survey completed by representatives from Warrington Council before the interview.

We have selected this case study because Warrington 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, Warrington provided a range of parenting programmes for families with children under age five, such as Family Nurse Partnership, Family Links, and Incredible Years. There was also the Nurture programme, a universal intervention delivered by parenting leads either in the home, peer to peer, or through a blended approach, to support the wellbeing of parents with children aged three to four. Warrington also worked with Private Voluntary and Independent (PVI) providers of early education and childcare to support parenting and the home learning environment, for example, delivering the Raising Early Achievement in Literacy (Real) Project. These interventions had received positive responses and shown improvement in children’s outcomes, with outcomes being recorded on Warrington’s database IYSS.

Perinatal mental health services were delivered across Warrington and Cheshire. For example, Baby and Infant Bonding Support (BIBS) supported parents who had difficulty bonding or developing their relationship with their baby. Parents in Mind offered peer support and group sessions both face-to-face and online to parents struggling with the challenges of pregnancy or caring for a child. Warrington also used Newborn Behavioural Observations (NBP) to work with young children (aged 0 to 2) while observing and supporting parent-child interactions.

Warrington’s Families First projects involved transforming Family Hubs and supporting families into work in addition to encouraging families to take up funded early education entitlements. A whole family approach was highlighted by the interviewees: it was not just the child being supported, but the whole family. For example, when a referral was made into Warrington, it went through MARS (multi-agency referral inter services), which then helped families to access appropriate services.

To help families with children with special educational needs and disabilities, Warrington used community and parent champion approaches and supported parents through WarrPAC (Warrington Parents and Carers Forum). Run by a voluntary group of parents and careers, WarrPAC provided virtual parent forums and championed families with SEND children. Working in partnership with local families and organisations to ensure the effective running of services, WarrPAC aimed to improve the quality of life for children and young people with disabilities and additional needs. 

Health visitors, health practitioners, GPs, and speech and language therapists in Warrington were encouraged to send Early Health Notifications to identify children with additional needs and help them to get involved with the service as early as possible. If a child was identified as needing SEND support before they started school, they were offered a health visiting service, Early Years SEND Support (formally known as Portage), which provided support on improving children’s outcomes through activities and looking at the family as a whole. If the child was attending a nursery, a SEND outreach practitioner would go in and support that nursery, as well as the child and the family, through activities and finding additional support for the child. They would signpost them to a different service if required or identify if the child needed an educational psychologist assessment/referral into a Child Development Centre. Warrington also had specialist provisions, where children with more complex needs would be provided with the designated provisions, or by their special schools. A specialist nursery provision in the area supported children with SEND, which included a pathway into a nursery. 

The interviewees placed importance on their work supporting children’s early speech, language and communication development. Key messages on communication top tips for parents were promoted throughout children’s centres, early-years settings and health environments, to promote the value of Talk, Share, Play among parents. 

During the 9-to-12-month health check, the WellComm speech and language toolkit was used in Warrington to identify children who needed support for speech, language and communication (SLC) development. In addition, Warrington used Chatterbox for older children (18 months to two and a half years). Other examples of support for SLC provided by Warrington included Elkan, Early Language Development Programme (ELDP) and Every Child's A Talker. Additionally, Warrington introduced more training around SLC and changes to the EYFS through professional development programme phase 3 (PDP3). Warrington also used early-years outcome tracking evidence supplied by settings to identify areas and settings where additional training or support was needed.

A key feature reported by the interviewees in Warrington’s early-years work was integrating and sharing data. The early-years team had close links with health and other agencies, which enabled them to get a whole picture of Warrington’s performance. For example, Warrington had an employment support service for parents with early-years children called Parents First. Warrington matched and shared two-year-old data with Parents First, to get parents referred into their service and help them get into employment.

To support information gathering, Warrington promoted early-help assessments. These helped identify what the family did well, and what they might need to improve their outcomes. At the time of the interview, Warrrington was looking at a new data warehouse, as well as Liquidlogic, to better identify gaps in services and support families. 

To support the take up of the two-year-old free entitlement to early education during the child’s two-year health review, Warrington also used predictive data analysis to identify families and areas that were less likely to engage. This was combined with other approaches, such as sending out targeted letters and text messages directly to eligible parents, leaflets delivered by practitioners to eligible parents, and targeted social media campaigns. A more streamlined administrative process was also designed to support take up of early education.