Smart Start (0 to 5s) needs assessment (2016) - Publications

Social care and health

Health and Wellbeing Board

Aims

The purpose of this needs assessment is to:

Describe the economic case for investing in school readiness
Describe the importance of school readiness
Provide a descriptive analysis of school readiness in Warwickshire
Identify the needs of Warwickshire’s families and gaps in the provision of services and support available for 0 to 5s and their families
Summarise the evidence of what works to improve school readiness in order to facilitate improvements in service planning and delivery
Inform service development and commissioning of services to help improve the lives of Warwickshire’s 0 to 5s
Provide recommendations on how school readiness can be improved in Warwickshire

School readiness as measured by the ‘Good Level of Development’ is a comprehensive measure of a child’s cognitive and socio-emotional skills at Reception age.
Warwickshire is home to 37,974 children aged five and under. The boroughs of Rugby and Nuneaton and Bedworth have the highest numbers of 0 to 5-year-olds in the county.
In Warwickshire, approximately one in three children were not school ready in 2015.
There were also evident inequalities in the attainment of certain groups, including children with special educational needs and those from poorer backgrounds.
Although the goal of the Smart Start programme is to improve school readiness for all of Warwickshire’s 0 to 5-year-olds, more targeted early intervention and support is needed for groups with a higher level of need, where inequalities in school readiness exist.
The findings of this Needs Assessment and various pieces of engagement work undertaken (the Foundation Project) have identified a number of groups in Warwickshire with an ‘unmet need’.

To try and mitigate the effects of child poverty by investing more heavily into services that have been shown to reduce the attainment gap between affluent and poor children (for example, high-quality early education).
To ensure that services engage with expectant parents from deprived areas during the antenatal period to identify issues as and when they arise as well as to positively influence parents’ behaviours and lifestyles.
To take into account those geographically isolated from 0 to 5 services and activities in future service planning.
To work towards identifying cases of child abuse and neglect as early as possible, to prevent neglect from escalating into different forms of abuse and to reduce the length of time that these children are exposed to harm.
To improve access to mental health services and support for two key groups in particular: those suffering low-level mental issues and children below age five.
To increase the provision of antenatal services in Warwickshire including a greater information and advice offer for expectant parents.