EXIT

Background to this review  
Norfolk County Council are consulting on proposed changes to Children’s Centres across the county.  
As part of this Community Action Norfolk has been asked to undertake a community impact assessment for each Children’s Centre area. A community impact assessment focuses on the impact of the proposals on the wider community as opposed to those who directly use the service. The community impact assessment process runs in parallel to the main consultation.  
You can find more information about the proposals and respond to the main consultation here   
https://norfolk.citizenspace.com/consultation/childrenscentres-2/ 
Community Impact Assessment Survey 
This survey focuses on the impact on the community of the proposed changes to Children’s Centres in Norfolk.   
Impacts can be positive or negative. They could be things like the opportunity created by a former Children’s Centre building becoming available for other uses or a reduction in the sense of community as a result of people no-longer meeting at the Children’s Centre. We are also interested in finding out how both the end of the current service and how the new services that are proposed may impact your community.  

Community Action Norfolk is undertaking this research on behalf of Norfolk County Council. Community Action Norfolk’s role is to gather information about the potential positive and negative impacts on communities and report these back. Community Action Norfolk is not part of the of the decision-making process around the proposals.  

Precis of Children's Centre Proposals 

  • There will be four types of service; Community support, Digital offer, Group-based support, One to one support. 
  • The service will offer less of the universal support (The stuff that everyone can access, like Rhyme Time, Baby Babble etc), but will encourage these activities to take place in the local community.   
  • There will be a single point of contact for the Early Childhood and Families Service, which will make it easier for people to access advice, information and support.  
  • Families who need support will be offered group-based support in venues local to them (such as libraries, and village halls etc), at times that suit them, including evenings and weekends.  This could be parenting skills, and child development and behaviour courses, for example 
  • Families needing the most support will be provided with one-to-one support in their homes, working closely with services such as social services etc. 
  • There will be one Early Childhood and Families Service base in each district, operating out of an existing Children’s Centre. This will me the change in use of 46 of the 53 current Children’s Centre bases.   
  • Investment will be made in community development and will involve working with a range of partners including local councils and voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations.  This will help communities develop groups that offer activities tailored to their community.  
  • There will be a range of interactive internet platforms giving reliable, high quality advice and information.  These would link up to other service and initiatives, such as Public Health’s Healthy Child Programme. 
  • Group support and one-to-one support services will be tendered for at a later date. 
  • Changes will come into effect from 2019.

Question Title

* 1. Which Children's Centre do your comments relate to?

Question Title

* 2. Which of the following best describes you (tick all that apply)

Question Title

* 3. Do you currently use the Children's Centre

Question Title

* 4. If you use the children centre how do you use it (tick all that apply)

Question Title

* 5. Will you or your organisation be affected by the Children's Centre proposals?

Question Title

* 6. Please use this space to describe how you feel you or your organisation will be affected by the proposals

Question Title

* 7. Thinking about the following areas will the proposals impact positively or negatively on you or your organisation?

  Strong Negative Impact Negative Impact Neutral Impact  Positive Impact  Strong Positive Impact
Income/Funding
Availability of community venue or other facility
Sense of community
Opportunity for people to interact and get to know each other locally
The physical environment within the community
Access to services and support
Employment opportunities
Level of positivity and aspiration
Local people have a say in local issues

Question Title

* 8. Please use this space to describe  how you feel the community in general will be impacted by the proposals

Question Title

* 9. Thinking about the following areas do you think the proposals will impact positively or negatively on your community in general?

  Strong Negative Impact Negative Impact Neutral Impact  Positive Impact  Strong Positive Impact
Income/Funding
Availability of community venue or other facility
Sense of community
Opportunity for people to interact and get to know each other locally
The physical environment within the community
Access to services and support
Employment opportunities
Level of positivity and aspiration
Local people have a say in local issues

Question Title

* 10. Does your organisation provide space that could be used to deliver services to children and families?

Question Title

* 11. Please include the postcode of your venue, if you have one

Question Title

* 12. When does your venue currently have availability?

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday  Thursday  Friday Saturday Sunday 
AM
PM
Evening 

Question Title

* 13. Does your facility have/be described as having the following (tick all that apply)

Question Title

* 14. How would you describe the availability of other community venues in your area?

Question Title

* 15. Does your organisation currently provide services for Children and Families?

Question Title

* 16. If the Children's Centre proposals go ahead will your organisation be able to support an increase in demand for your services 

Question Title

* 17. The Children Centre proposals anticipate the community and local organisations providing more services and activities to support children and families. These could be things like coffee mornings, parent and toddler groups or activity sessions (rhyme time, craft activities). Thinking about your community how likely do you think the following things are?

  Very Unlikely  Unlikely Likely  Very Likely
Existing groups expand their services to support more children and families
New groups form to support more children and families
More people volunteer to help out at groups for children and families

Question Title

* 18. The proposal suggests having one Children's Centre per district.  If this was not in your local community, how easy would it be to get to?

Question Title

* 19. Are there any other comments you would like to make?

Question Title

* 20. You don't have to provide your contact details but if you do we will use them to follow up with you regarding the information you have provided and send you information we think will be of interest to you  (you can opt out at any time.) You will not be identified as part of our report. You can read more about Community Action Norfolk's approach to privacy here Privacy

T