Pen Green

From its inception in 1983, the Pen Green Centre for Under Fives and their Families defied a host of odds stemming from both the political climate and the economic straits of the region.

Childcare was four years into the Conservative Government’s 18-year funding drought when the Centre popped up in the former steelworks town of Corby, Northamptonshire. Public monies for early years education had been on a roller coaster—mostly downhill—since the end of the Second World War, as women were encouraged to quit the workforce and return to domesticity. The economic climate of the ’70s tightened the purse strings on state nursery provision further, leaving the private and voluntary sector to bridge the gap.

Luckily for the parents of Corby--thousands of them on the dole since British Steel closed the steel mills in 1980--the local authority showed unusual farsightedness in the matter of educational provision. Along with grassroots support of local businesses, charities, and statutory agencies, the necessary finances were assembled to develop a neighbourhood centre in the buildings of a disused secondary school.

The initial response of the area residents to the Pen Green project was not enthusiastic. Existing social service provision in town was perceived as directed at ‘problem families.’ Parents didn’t want outsiders dictating what their needs were. Before the new centre could begin to liase effectively with families, these hurdles had to be surmounted. Thus came about the family-centred approach that pervades the wide variety of services spawned in the twenty-odd years of Pen Green’s existence.

Hence the hallmark of the centre from day one has been its firm advocacy for children and their families. Staff—termed ‘family workers’--recognize that parents are their child’s first educators and that their contribution is vital to create relevant services. Each staff member is assigned 8-10 families and conducts regular home visits to round out the picture of the children in their care. Also, the nursery has a required two-week ‘sitting in’ period for new parents, who must accompany their child in day care all day long for the first two weeks. But there are options to enrolling for full daycare. Pen Green tries to offer every parent something appropriate to their needs and to the degree they wish to become involved.

The success of this approach has been encouraging. Corby is in one of the twenty most disadvantaged wards in the UK, and fifty percent of Pen Green’s children are referred from Social Services. Despite the effects of poverty with which many families cope—lack of higher education, working multiple shifts, and low incomes--the response of parents has been tremendous. For example, today over eighty percent of parents are involved in the Parents’ Involvement in their Children’s Learning Programme (PICL). Their dedication to their children’s futures has translated into cooperation with staff to give children the best learning opportunities possible. Many parents have obtained further education at the centre and become centre workers themselves, or gone on to further careers. Staff, too, invest in the excellent training opportunities available. Taking a team approach, they go the extra mile to engage parents, both at the beginning and end of the nursery day, and through many sessions available after-hours and weekends.

Since Labour came into power in 1997, the UK has seen a sea change in government investment in the early years, and a major shift toward interagency cooperation. Pen Green is one of many initiatives to have benefited directly. After being designated an Early Excellence Centre in 1997 and a Sure Start partner in 1999, a major facelift to the centre was completed in 2002. Today it is one-stop shopping with Pen Green:

• Nursery & Creche provision
• Extended hours
• Inclusion
• Adult education including NVQ assessment centre
• Family support services
• Research, development and training base

But funding in itself has not defined the centre’s success. Its real strength derives from building on the time-proven wisdom that parents hold the key to their child’s development. Pen Green today stands as a model of good practice, along with many other centres that have followed. With the goal of at least one children’s centre in every ward by 2010, there is hope that early years settings similarly integrated with a wide variety of services will be replicated across the country. While each will maintain a character unique to its environment, all will have the same goal: supporting parents with young children to give them a sure start in life.