Pen Green Centre for Children and Families is at the heart of community life in Corby. Under threat of closure earlier this year, extensive public outcry resulted in the council making a last-minute decision to keep it open. Pen Green is central to improving the aspirations and quality of life for many in this former Northamptonshire steel town.

Tess McQuade is just one of many locals whose life has been transformed by Pen Green. She testifies, “Without Pen Green I would not be where I am today. I can honestly say that the wonderful advocates who work at Pen Green gave me strength and support when I needed it most.” Tess turned up at Pen Green aged 17 with twins born 11 weeks prematurely. The support she was given not only enabled her to deal with an abusive relationship but return to her studies. Tess is now the headteacher of a local primary school.  Pen Green changes lives.

The ethos and approach of Pen Green

The philosophy at the heart of Pen Green’s work is that each of us has a unique potential. Their work is based on the premise that all individuals are able to succeed in their own particular way. This empowers everyone to feel they have a valuable place in society, irrespective of any mitigating circumstances.  How does this translate into practice?  

Integrated care at Pen Green

Corby is an area facing considerable economic and social challenges. These include child poverty, poor health, limited adult skills and high levels of unemployment. The pandemic has exacerbated these making Pen Green’s work even more critical. 

Tracy Gallagher, Joint Head of Pen Green, comments, “The breadth of expertise on our team of 120 staff enables us to provide both universal and targeted services for families. This is especially important for those living in vulnerable circumstances.” Tracy continues, “We have a multi-disciplinary team. This includes teachers, early years educators, social workers, group workers and others from related disciplines.”

The Centre is open from 8 am to 6pm for 48 weeks of the year. The families also have the option of wrap around care before, between and after the two daily sessions. Tracy explains, “Demand for flexible opening is high. We always try to work with the needs of the families and support them as best we can. We want our services to be even more responsive in the coming year as we support our community through these more challenging times.”

As well as nursery provision, the centre offers additional spaces for the early years. These include:

●       The Nest: a space offering education and care for children 0-3 years

●       The Couthie: another 0-3 years space 

●       The Nook: a creche provision used by parents taking part in groups or accessing services at Pen Green

●       The Kingswood Community Nursery: an off-site satellite provision. It is specifically for children who are eligible for 2 year funding

Partnership with parents

Partnership with parents is essential to the whole enterprise. Angela Prodger, the Joint Head, says, “Parents have a key role as their child’s first educators, so we work closely with them to build on their knowledge of their child’s interests. This helps us to offer the children a rich learning experience.” She continues, “We make strong links with each family through our home visits. By doing this we can improve our understanding of the child and support them accordingly.”

Angela explains, too, how integral the parents are to the running of the centre. “The parents are involved in making decisions about the day to day matters as well as the more extensive developments. This has been the case since we opened in 1983. When recruiting, parents are involved in short-listing and interviewing. They are also represented on the governing body and give lots of feedback and evaluation of our services. We rely on this for our ongoing progress.” 

Family Support

Every child has a Family Support Worker who advocates for them. They try to make sure that each child’s emotional and developmental needs are consistently met. The family workers keep records of children’s achievements and monitor their progress against the Early Years Foundation Stage framework.

The Family Support Team offer a wide range of services to families. These include:

●       1:1 work with the families, including working in the family home

●       Universal groups such as Messy Play and Baby Massage  

●       Targeted groups for specific needs, including Domestic Violence support, Music therapy and support groups for young parents

●       Workshops such as employment skills, photography, arts and crafts, healthy eating

●       Health services including a Health Visitor clinic, peri-natal team visits and a premature babies group

Elaine Young is one of the family support workers. She explains, “We work in close collaboration with colleagues across the Centre and external partners to offer responsive and timely support to children and families.”

Adult and community education, training and development

Pen Green offers a comprehensive programme of courses for the local community and Early Years practitioners.

Adult community education courses and groups include:

·         Functional skills, Maths, English and ESOL

·         Parental involvement in their children’s learning

·         Parent support

·         Parent discussion groups

·         Family learning programmes

·         HomeStart training

·         New start Volunteer courses

·         Group work training

Professional qualifications range from NFCE CACHE Level 1 to PhD. Details of these can be found here.

Voices from the community

“I have used Pen Green with all my children. It’s provided fun, support, routine, advice and laughter. I always recommend it to new mums as a helping hand. Going to Pen Green can make some of the hardest days as a mother into some of the best ones.”

“I first visited the centre for a breast-feeding support group and since then my three daughters have all been to Pen Green. We’ve used many groups as a family, and I have also accessed some of the groups for parents whilst my daughters used The Nook. I am now a volunteer co-leader in some of the SEND groups and sit on the Governing Body."

“Pen Green is a safe place of no judgement. A place for sound advice and support, to nurture parents and their children equally. It has been a great support for us as a family, providing support groups during pregnancy, breastfeeding and postnatal groups. The drop-in sessions are great and the crèche is currently supporting me to help with my youngest's separation anxiety due to the lockdowns we've had to endure.”

“My son is 6 now. When he was around 6 months old I attended a mums’ and tots’ group at Pen Green, I was suffering with PND at the time and it was a big step for me. I had tried to attend many times and didn’t feel strong enough. I remember feeling very anxious on the day, but I was met with warmth by the staff and the other parents.”

“Pen Green has been a lifeline of guidance and support for me from pregnancy to nursery school. Me and my husband attended parenting classes at the Centre which was so helpful to us and many other families. We also did baby massage and messy play which enabled my daughter to meet other babies and was great for her development. These services are so important to our community and help so many families.”

“Pen Green has done so much for my family right from when I was a little girl to now as a mum myself. They have done amazing things for my little boy who started nursery delayed in his development. He is now thriving and almost ready for school. It is such an amazing environment to be surrounded by. When I've needed guidance and support the staff have been there. They don't just check on my son, but they also check up on me as a parent. If ever I’ve needed anything they are the first to pull together to help me. We get so much care and love; the centre really is like one big family.”

Pen Green Centre for Children and Families is a fine example of Asset Based Community Development. They recognise that every community has strengths as well as needs. The primary intention of their work is about building on these strengths, not focussing on the deficits. This is invaluable to the community of Corby.

The testimonies speak for themselves: Pen Green is a life-changing community hub.