Call for Flying Start to be extended in Blaenau Gwent
The first Flying Start areas in Blaenau Gwent were set up in 2006 and around a third of the county borough comes under its wing.
The pre-school service was brought up at a meeting of the council's Children 's Young People and Families scrutiny committee on Tuesday, July 1, due to fears children who are not receiving Flying Start support, start attending schools with behavioural problems and lacking in social skills.
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The county borough hit the headlines last Christmas when it was revealed that parents had received a letter from the director of education, Dr Luisa Munro-Morris saying that parents would be contacted and expected to come to school to change their child if they had soiled themselves.
Cllr Haydn Trollope (Labour) said: 'I'm aware there's a two-tier system, children that have gone through Flying Start and those who haven't due to where they live.
'It's a post code lottery.'
He hoped that the council could research the issue and take their data findings and lobby the Welsh Government to fund rolling out Flying Start right across Blaenau Gwent.
Cllr Trollope said that he had been told by head teachers that children who had been supported by Flying Start are 'easily identified' compared to those who had not.
Cllr Sonia Behr (Labour) backed his call and said the issue had been brought up as part of councillors visits to schools.
Cllr Behr said: 'A teacher took me to one side and said that the biggest problem is that children are coming to school unable to articulate themselves, hardly able to speak and he wondered if it was something to do with early usage for screens.
'I don't think it would be an enormous piece of work to make a comparison.'
School's inclusion manager Julie Sambrook said that there was lots of information available as work tracking the comparison between Flying Start and non-Flying Start children had been taking place on the issue of toilet training.
Ms Sambrook said: 'Health visitors have now established toilet training workshops in response.
'The impact of that is our teachers are actually able to teach because they are not out of class changing nappies all day.'
She added that the council was already in touch with the Welsh Government about increasing Flying Start provision in Blaenau Gwent
'It's ongoing work,' said Ms Sambrook.
Cllr Trollope added that being toilet trained was just one element, and that his concerns included children's social interaction with each other as well as learning to: 'use a knife and fork to feed themselves.'
'We need Flying Start all over the borough,' he stressed.
Head of children's services, Loredana Moruz added that Flying Start also has an 'outreach programme' which can look at children who have been referred to it in areas not covered.
The committee agreed that the research needs to be done.
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