Ofsted chiefs: More Staffordshire centres require improvement
Five more children's centres in Staffordshire have been told they must improve standards by Government watchdog Ofsted.
Centres in Burntwood, Lichfield and East Staffordshire have both been inspected recently and been rated as 'requires improvement' and 'inadequate' respectively.
It comes as bosses at Staffordshire County Council issued a report highlighting the failings of its children's centres.
Other centres in Cannock Chase and Stafford have also been criticised by Ofsted this year.
Just 15 per cent of youngsters aged five and under are accessing children's centres in Staffordshire, bosses said.
Both the Lichfield and East Staffordshire centres were failing to attract enough people to use its services, according to Ofsted.
The Lichfield report, which relates to the Charnwood Children's Centre in Purcell Avenue and Springhill Children's centre in Mossbank Avenue, Burntwood , said: "The quality of services provided by the group is generally good but the numbers of children and families benefitting from them are too low.
"Data shows that just a quarter of one of the key priority groups - workless and low income families - use the centres' services regularly.
"Insufficient numbers of children and families use the group's services regularly and not enough is being done to find out why numbers attending some activities are so low."
The report said there were 4,354 children aged under give in the centre's catchment area, of which 16 per centre were from low income homes.
Earlier this month four centres in Stafford and Stone were also told they needed to improve.
Inspections had taken place in Stafford, Castlechurch, Silkmore and Manor Hill children's centres in June.
A report which goes before Staffordshire County Council's safe and strong communities select committee next Wednesday (AUGUST 6) said four more inspections of children's centres in the county would take place before March 2015.
It summarised from the most recent Ofsted inspections that not enough families were accessing the services and leadership was 'complicated and fragmented'.
Stakeholders have been consulted the centres and the report said of their findings: "The current system is fragmented and a lack of coordination between agencies can make things difficult for parents and providers.
"Pockets of good practice can be seen across partnership agencies, but there is an inconsistency in the quality across the county.
"Prevention and early intervention are key to a good start, however we are still intervening too late."
Earlier this month Councillor Mike Lawrence, children's and community chief, said the council was working hard to identify how centres could be improved in future.
Staffordshire County Council has to make £109 million of savings over the next five years. As part of those cuts it is looking at children's centres across the county and the way they are run.
