Sure Start Speke

Message from Susan Roberts, Sure Start Speke Director

Hi everyone

I'm a little late with my New Year greeting but things have been quite hectic with the many changes since we moved into the new centre.

Ironically as we celebrated our official family centre launch and the success of the Sure Start programme so far, we received news that our funding will be reduced dramatically by April 2006.

As ever we remain optimistic and have begun to develop a long term funding strategy; part of that is the achievement of charitable status which will allow us to access funds that previously were unavailable to Sure Start Speke. We are also in discussion with our mainstream partners, South Liverpool Primary Care Trust, The Liverpool Women's Hospital Trust and the Local Authority to discuss the continuation of some of the services set up through Sure Start.

It will be a challenging year if we want to preserve what we have; the good news is that we have built a sustainable community asset that will continue to deliver services for children and families with long term commitment to core funding for children centres.

The Board remains committed to high levels of parental involvement and we have been working quite closely with Parklands Extended School to extend that involvement. We are jointly planning a conference for parents in June and aim to get 100 parents from across Speke to attend; this idea was well supported at our successful ìCurry Eveningî which was attended by 16 parent representatives from Sure Start and local schools.

The consultation event is intended to inform parents on issues they have identified, and also consult on their views; a date will be finalised shortly and all parents who attend will receive a £20 gift voucher. We hope that this will become an annual event in the area giving parents the opportunity to have a say in services and get feedback from agencies working in the area.

If you have any ideas about the content of the day please get in touch with Paula Bowman, Family Involvement Coordinator, 425 4028.

The Parent Mentor Project has proven to be really successful and the health visitors are really pleased with the impact on immunisations and clinic attendance, Sure Start workers have also noticed an increase in numbers for all their groups. Through word of mouth we have had 13 enquiries from local women who want to be considered for our next intake, we would like to see an increase in interest from local dads.

We will be recruiting during April for a 5 week skills passport training in care, anyone attending this will be given a £20 a week training allowance and guaranteed an interview for one of the ten jobs. We are also looking to recruit an additional two parent mentors to work with families of children in Parklands High School to provide support in the community. All jobs are offered on a 1 year fixed term contract but during this time you will be supported to access longer term employment and offered on the job training. Ring Jackie Fryer on 425 4028 or check out the local JET and Jobcentre Plus nearer the time for more details.

Our nursery is going well and we are on target with our predicted numbers of children. We will shortly be recruiting a teacher who will support children in the centre, but also provide advice on curriculum to Parklands nursery as well as bringing all foundation stage teachers in the area together to support each other in delivering a quality curriculum for our children. The teacher will also link closely with Chris McRoe our speech therapist to develop training and support for parents who want to have more involvement in their child's education.

Middlefield crèche have put in an application to become a full day care provision and both our centres will be working toward the National Day Nursery Quality Assurance scheme. Places at Middlefield mean that parent's can have some respite or attend training with a very modest pricing structure.

If you haven't already tried our café, you are really missing out. Tony our chef is serving up an exciting new menu every week; you can get a delicious meal for £3 children's meals are £1.50 and that also includes their drink and dessert. The Sure Start waist lines are gradually swelling with too much sticky toffee pudding! All profits from our café are ploughed back into services for children so we can justify our big bellies. Why not come along, eat well and help support your community.

We are working with partners on the third annual Speke Carnival and hope to build on the success and popularity of the last one which was a fantastic day despite torrential rainfall. On that note all I can say is our sunny disposition will keep us enthusiastic about anything we set out to achieve and together we will continue with our commitment to influence and shape services for children in Speke.

Susan Roberts
Director, Sure Start Speke