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Early Years services for children in the region are provided jointly by Carmarthenshire County Council, Ceredigion County Council, Pembrokeshire County Council, Hywel Dda University Health Board and third sector partners.
The services provided are interdependent and connected. Families can access different kinds of support as their needs change.
The right help at the right time framework draws on the principles of proportionate universalism. This means that all families receive support but those with greatest need receive most support.
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Family Information Services
Each local authority collates information for families about childcare and other services available in their area.
Assessment for Care and Support
Statutory Children’s Services are responsible for supporting and protecting vulnerable children and families who have additional needs beyond what health, education or community services can help with.
Wherever possible, Children’s Services will aim to support families to function without statutory intervention.
Children’s Services have a duty to safeguard children who may be at risk of harm and to promote the welfare of children and young people. Where a safeguarding concern is raised and professionals believe a child’s needs cannot be met without statutory service involvement, children may be referred for “Assessment for Care and Support”.
This means that an Assessment Team will consider the care and support needs of a child and their family and investigate any concerns about a child’s safety. The assessment will consider whether the child’s needs can be met with support, or whether they have ongoing needs and may need longer term support from the Child Care Team.
A number of intensive statutory services exist to support children and families, for example the Integrated Family Support Team, Family Intervention Team, Substance Misuse Services, or Domestic Violence Services.
Where needed, children are added to the child protection register, and a child protection plan drawn up.
Each child’s case will be regularly reviewed until the child is no longer considered at risk of significant harm.
Protective Support
Protective Support Services provide for children and young people in need of protection, protective action or urgent need of safeguarding.
Every child must have a person with parental responsibility. Where families are unable to care for their children, Local Authorities become their parent (known as corporate parenting). Wherever possible, we try to keep families together – children have the right to live in a family. Corporate parenting should always be a last resort.
The welfare of these children is the collective responsibility of the council, their employees, and our partner agencies. We are responsible for making sure that they thrive, we act to protect their rights, and ensure the best outcomes.
Children’s social care is organised by each council, but we will act together across services and councils to deliver the best care.
Flying Start
Flying Start helps families with children under 4 years old by providing:
- Part-time childcare for 2 to 3 year olds
- An enhanced Health Visiting service
- Access to parenting programmes
- Support for children to learn to talk and communicate
The Guiding Principles for the Flying Start programme are as follows:
- Multi agency working and co-location – to facilitate and enable multi agency working and colocation wherever possible.
- Early identification, effective assessment and referral to ensure that families receive support at the earliest stage possible.
- Enabling effective transition between services – utilising information sharing protocols and a committed, well trained workforce that put families first.
- Information sharing and safeguarding.
- Good multi-agency governance arrangements.
- A commitment to ongoing evaluation in order that programmes can be better moulded to suit what works and more responsive to what is needed.
Since 2007 Flying Start support has been targeted at children living in the most disadvantaged areas of Wales. From 2022 this support will be substantially expanded to reach larger numbers of children in all areas. When fully rolled out, Flying Start will become a universal offer, with all children aged 2 to 3 years eligible for 12.5 hours of funded, high-quality childcare for 39 weeks of the year.
Additional Learning Needs
For children with Additional Learning Needs (ALN) statutory provision is described in the ALN Code. The code places the learners’ views, wishes and feelings at the heart of planning for the support each child needs to enable them to learn effectively.
An Early Years ALN Lead Officer in each Council will support early identification of child needs, including those who are not attending maintained schools. They will work in partnership with the Health Board, and raise awareness of ALN in their area.
Local Authorities will put in place Individual development plans (IDPs) for children with ALN. Where necessary, IDPs will include additional learning provision (ALP) agreed by health services, social services and other services, as well as education. IDPs will contain an action plan that is clear about which agency is responsible for delivering the individual elements.
Families First
Families First is a universal Welsh Government programme providing early help and preventative support to families with children and young people aged 0–25 years. Support is delivered through a whole-family approach, addressing both underlying issues and presenting needs.
The Healthy Child Wales Programme (HCWP)
The Healthy Child Wales Programme sets out the strategic direction for Health Boards in Wales, for delivering early intervention services designed to ensure that children achieve optimum health. This is achieved through collaborative working with families, partner agencies and service providers working with pregnant women and families with young children.
It describes the progressive universal core programme for all families with children under 7. The level of intervention is determined by the Health Visitor’s assessment of family resilience and vulnerability. Standard support is available to everyone, with enhanced or more intensive support offered to families with the greatest need.
The programme aims are:
- to help families make healthy long-term choices
- to support positive parent–child relationships and secure emotional attachments for children
- to promote positive maternal and family emotional health and resilience, helping children to meet all growth and developmental milestones so that they’re ready to go to school
- to support the transition from home into school
- ensuring a commitment to safeguard the health and welfare of all children aged 0-7 years in Wales
The Childcare Offer for Wales
‘The Childcare offer for Wales’ provides working parents and students with a mixture of childcare and early education for children aged 3 or 4.
Childcare includes:
- nurseries
- child minders
- playgroups
- crèche
- out of school child care
- nannies
Childcare is one of the biggest challenges facing working families in Wales. Supporting families with good quality, flexible and affordable childcare supports economic regeneration, can reduce pressures on family income, and helps parents go to work.
Welsh Government has committed to providing 30 hours a week of funded early education and childcare for working parents of 3- and 4-year-olds, for 48 weeks of the year.
Early Years Education
From September 2022, the Curriculum for Wales Framework will be used by nurseries and schools to guide the education of children aged 3 to 16 years. The curriculum is designed to be inclusive and meet a wide range of needs. It has four purposes:
- To enable all pupils and children to develop as ambitious, capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives;
- To enable all pupils and children to develop as enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work;
- To enable all pupils and children to develop as ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world;
- To enable all pupils and children to develop as healthy, confident individuals, ready to live fulfilling lives as valued members of society.
Phases and key stages in place prior to 2022 are replaced with one continuum of learning to ensure a smoother learning journey. The Early Years coincides with progression step 1 (age 3-5 years) and progression step 2 (age 5-8 years).
