DELIVERING OUR AMBITIONS
Ambition 1 – Our children
Our children experience loving and safe homes with consistent and positive parenting which nurtures them and helps them flourish.
What we will do
Maternal and early years health services
Why this is important
Evidence shows that place-based services that offer families a single point of access to different types of support are a cost-efficient way of ensuring the healthy development of babies and young children, breaking the link between family background and life chances.
Our top 3 priorities
- Evaluate our system improvements for Health Visiting and Early Years Settings Integrated 2/2.5-Year Reviews we implemented following learning from a 2024 deep dive into one hundred cases of pre-school children to improve identification of developmental delays.
- Ensuring our Children and Family Centres continue to act as a single point of access to a range of different sources of support for families with new babies.
- Improve uptake of routine childhood vaccines through partnership working, targeted outreach where uptake is lowest, and clear, trusted messaging to counter vaccine hesitancy and misinformation.
Measures of progress
- Annual footfall in the Children and Family Centres
- Vaccination rates
- Audit of ASQ pathways and outcomes
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Home learning environment and parenting programmes
Why this is important
Evidence shows that home learning environment and parenting programmes can lead to meaningful changes in parent behaviours, and subsequent positive impacts on child outcomes. This means they are a core mechanism we can use to help achieve our Ambitions.
Our teams will work with practitioners to cascade information and knowledge so that parents and carers have the skills to support children’s early language in the home learning environment.
Our top 3 priorities
- Implement the HLE Peeps programme across Bromley’s workforce.
- Ensure our parenting programme delivery is offered at all our Children and Family Centres across the borough.
- Monthly review of our Best Start in Life website pages to ensure relevance, current best practice and easy access to resources for families.
Measures of progress
- Parenting programme enrolments and completion rates
- Best Start in Life website analytics
- Family feedback
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Early childhood education and care access and quality
Why this is important
Early childhood education and care (ECEC) can have an impact on children’s language, physical and social-emotional development, and its impact is greatest for children from more deprived backgrounds. Since nearly all children access ECEC before age four, providing and supporting high-quality ECEC provision is a key lever for delivering strong child outcomes.
Our top 3 priorities
- Promote educational inclusion for all by continuing to provide high quality and timely information through a range of sources to support families and children.
- Work with local early years settings and childminders to increase the number of Early Years places provided for vulnerable children and those with SEN.
- Strengthen the universal and targeted elements of the SLCN Graduated Approach to support for families, with a focus on upskilling Early Years providers, including childminders.
Measures of progress
- Take-up of childcare entitlements
- Reduction in the number of clinical referrals to SALT
- Number of ECEC spaces in areas of highest need
- Early years practitioner training courses
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Transition to school and reception year
Why this is important
While we recognise that much of the beneficial practice that enables a smooth transition to school sits with settings and schools, we recognise the importance of the wider system providing support for these practices through things like information sharing via the Early Years Transition Event for providers and receiving schools, and training for the wider workforce.
Our top 3 priorities
- Develop School Readiness Transition Events for parents hosted through the Children and Family Centres.
- Offer training targeted at early years providers, that contribute to the promotion of school readiness in preschool children.
- Increase the percentage of children receiving their first choice of placement at primary school through clear and open information in the school Admissions process.
Measures of progress
- Child, parent, setting and school feedback
- Percentage of families receiving first choice of primary school
- Reduction in the percentage of admissions appeals at primary age
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SEND support
Why this is important
Evidence consistently shows that children with SEND are less likely to attain a GLD. There are many opportunities to improve their experiences, and many of the practices that support children with SEND are beneficial for all children.
Our top 3 priorities
- Make sure that our early years settings and reception classes are effective in ensuring children who have SEND make good progress in their learning and in their personal and social development.
- Further embed our graduated approach across Education, Health, and Social Care for all children focusing on early intervention, assessment, planning, and support through partnership with families, agencies and the voluntary sector.
- Improve services for children with social communication difficulties including autism by transforming the Bromley Children and Young People Integrated Therapies (Physiotherapy, Speech & Language, and Occupational Therapy) commissioning and provision through co-production.
Measures of progress
- Family feedback on ability to access quality SEND advice from all services/partners
- Feedback gathered through the annual SEND Local Offer survey
- Increase in the number of children with SEN Support in mainstream Reception
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