What is a Good Children's Centre?

This toolkit is far more than a SEF and covers a much wider range of subjects designed to help your centre to develop across many other areas and effectively meet the needs of the community that you serve. It is also a self-evaluation framework that will support you in developing staff and meeting the needs of the Ofsted inspection framework, as you work towards becoming rated as an outstanding children's centre.

In total there are 29 elements within eleven sections of the toolkit. These sections (which are all colour coded for ease of use and reference) include Multi Agency Working, Pedagogy and Governance, as well as Management & Leadership, Marketing and the Early Years Curriculum. Each section covers the key areas that will support a centre in planning its journey to outstanding in all areas of children’s centre activity. It will also help your centre to meet the needs of your partners and users by helping you to fully develop your services based on the requirements of your local community. 

Now being used in well over 30 local authority areas, this framework was developed by practitioners within the London Borough of Harrow and is used as a practical self evaluation tool to help support the development of quality practice in all areas of the children’s centre core offer and beyond.

The framework also enables centres to audit their provision and develop action plans for continuous improvement through three stages of development for each of the elements within the framework and it can also act as an assessment and evidence tool in preparation for any form of audit (such as Ofsted). The toolkit can be used by all children’s centres whether they be school based, stand alone centres or run by partner agencies and we also have access to a network of consultant mentors who can offer help and advice as you embark on your use of the framework.

The framework comes inside its own specially produced purple ring binder so that it is easily recognisable and as all of the development work has been done, in terms of production and design, it offers you the chance to save on the initial costs associated with a project of this size.

For organisations, children's centre groups or authorities wishing to enquire about producing a number of copies, where the outer folder and intro pages can be 'customised' with your logo and contact details, please use the ‘email enquiry form’ button below and we will contact you to discuss your enquiry further. 

Email enquiry form for organisations

 

Should you wish to purchase a toolkit now, the price for a single copy of the toolkit is £195 plus VAT, post and packing. Prices are reduced on a sliding scale for additional copies. Click on the links below for more details or to buy a copy.

 

 

 

 

To purchase a copy of the toolkit online using a credit/debit card or by PAYPAL, click the ORANGE/BLACK 'buy it now' link below. To order your toolkit's using a purchase order system, please use the red 'ORDER FORM' link above. If ordering several different publications you can use the links to the right.

Buy it now Secure site

 

If you do not wish to make an enquiry over the internet, you can print off an ‘enquiry form’ and send this to us. We will then contact you to discuss your enquiry further.

Enquiry form