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Childcare for the Community Providing a childcare facility with a difference 
From caterpillar to butterfly - watch them grow
Since 1998, Pennywell Neighbourhood Centre has built a reputation for delivering high quality, affordable childcare which is accessible to all.
This has been achieved by the hard work and dedication of the Childcare team, as well as the constant maintaining of very high standards. There are many reasons to chose our childcare facilities for your child:
 Throughout the growth and development of the facilities, there has always been an awareness of difficulties that families face when deciding to access childcare provision, and because of this, the cost of the provision has been kept as affordable as possible.
The cost of using the facility is currently £3.50 per hour at All Seasons and £3 per hour at Sunshine Daycare, and places need to be booked and paid for one week in advance as and when you need it. You don't have to commit to a certain number of hours every week, so if you need to book 10 hours one week and 35 hours the next, as long as we have the space - you can!
 There is also no retainer fee charged for keeping the place when a child is on holiday or sick, and payments can be accepted by cash or cheque with no direct debits being required. (This compares with one month advance booking and prepayment by direct debit required at other childcare facilities in the city). The flexibility in booking arrangements has meant that childcare can be as flexible as some working patterns. This can have real benefits for families incomes as working parents can take advantage of short notice overtime without having to change a month's childcare, or paying heavy retainer fees if childcare is not needed from month to month. The project also accepts Busy Bee, Imagine, Accor and other working childcare vouchers, and arrangements can be made to add other suppliers of childcare vouchers if a parent wishes, and accepts payments from colleges and Job Centres at short notice to accomodate students and job seekers.
All Season's Daycare In 2002, a full daycare centre - All Season's Daycare, was opened, offering full and part time daycare for children aged from birth to four, as well as a wrap around facility. It is based within the Neighbourhood Centre itself.
It is open 8.00am - 6.00pm daily, excluding bank holidays and a two week Christmas and New Year closedown.
The following information is taken from the All Season's Daycare Information for Parents and Carers booklet, which is issued when a child registers with the facility. Vision Statement
The All Season's Daycare facility will provide quality and learning opportunities within a protected, happy family environment, and will assist every child to attain their maximum potential through a broad and balanced curriculum of activities and play opportunities. Watching your child set out on a journey through life is a daunting experience for every parent so, at the All Season's Daycare facility we aim to make each child's steps into the outside world as happy, comfortable and safe as possible. Our qualified and experienced staff are committed to the care and development of each child. Their professionalism and the purpose built facility have helped us to create an environment where your child can develop to his or her full potential. We place great emphasis on working in partnership with parents to ensure that cultural backgrounds and continuity of experience from both home and the community are respected and valued. As well as having a long term programme of activities in place, individual plans are drawn up by children's key workers to meet individual needs of each child. 
Sunshine Daycare
This is a brand new facility based within the Children's Centre at the Highfield Extended School site and provides full daycare for children aged from birth to four. Our staff work alongside the teaching staff in a largely open plan environment, to provide a seamless early years services where your child can benefit from the educational element offered by the school. It is open 8.00am - 6.00pm daily, excluding bank holidays and a two week Christmas and New Year closedown. An after school service is also offered on the site for children aged five to eleven years from Highfield School. Children are also collected from St Anne's School. This service is available from 3-6.00p.m We also provide off site creches across the Children's Centre cluster.
Background to the project
In 1998, the Centre first opened a small creche provision to provide a part time daycare facility for training courses which were being run at Pennywell Neighbourhood Centre and a partner agency Pennywell Community Business.
This was called Rainbow Creche and was funded by the Single Regeneration Budget, Pennywell Community Business, and Pennywell Neighbourhood Centre. The creche provided free childcare facilities for anyone carrying out training at either Pennywell Community Business or our centre. The addition of free childcare to training courses, provided locally removed significant barriers to learning, and the take up of training offered at both centres increased.
The provision quickly grew, and led to the opening of a further part time creche facility based at Pennywell Neighbourhood Centre. This provided part time creche facilities for working parents, and also an invaluable drop in facility for parents accessing family support services. An out of school service was also piloted at both facilities, with both breakfast and after school care, and a first for the area - school drop off and pick up service. Both provisions were Social Services registered, and when registration of childcare facilities passed to Ofsted control, both provisions were Ofsted registered. They also applied for, and gained, the prestigious Aiming High quality mark for childcare, awarded through the Pre - School Learning Alliance. It was obvious by the take up of the childcare, and the growing waiting list for both day care and school services that a full day care service had to be considered. After consultation with users and careful planning, a disused nursery consisting of two semi detached houses was leased from Sunderland City Council, and with funding from The New Opportunity Fund, Single Regeneration Budget and ourselves, along with the decorating skills of the local YMCA Training Board, All Season's Daycare was opened in November 2002. It provided a full wrap around childcare service, offering breakfast, school or morning nursery drop offs, lunch pick ups and returns, afternoon nursery drop offs, school and nursery pick ups and then tea! In March 2005, the project relocated to Pennywell Neighbourhood Centre when the building it was occupying was demolished due to redevelopment of the area. In March 2004, through building a partnership with Sure Start, the Neighbourhood Centre was proud to open another community childcare facility in the area, originally based at Old Felstead School. Sunshine Daycare offers the same high quality service following the same format as All Season's Daycare. It is run by Pennywell Neighbourhood Centre staff, as the voluntary sector service provider, and is now located on the Highfield Children's Centre School site. Julie Hanly, the Centre's Chidcare Co-ordinator manages all childcare facilities at Pennywell and Ford. All our facilities are Ofsted registered. We place a strong emphasis on staff training and all our staff are either qualified or working towards a level 3 qualification. They also attend bespoke training sessions offered by Children's Services. For more information or an information booklet, contact Julie Hanly on 0191 5341477.
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