The Scottish Government

Case study: Hailesland Child and Family Centre, City of Edinburgh-

Shona Taylor and Hilary Long

Early Years and Early Intervention Framework

Key Themes

· Creating communities that provide a supportive environment for children and families.

· Building parenting and family capacity pre and post birth.

Background and context

Hailesland Child and Family Centre is situated in the South West of the City of Edinburgh in the housing estate of Westerhailes that has a population of 25,000. The centre opened in 1989.

The centre is contained within a single-storey purpose built building with garden areas. The centre has four playrooms, two meeting rooms, manager's office, staff room, kitchen and laundry room. It is registered for 50 children attending at any one time and supports approximately 80 children and their families.

The centre is staffed by a manager, depute, senior nursery officers and nursery officers. Four staff members provide an outreach service within the local community. The centre employs a part-time teacher.

The work of the centre

Centre mission statement

"Hailesland Child and Family Centre is a community based resource committed to promoting the welfare and early learning of vulnerable children and families by providing an inclusive, flexible service, maximising individual potential".

The centre has a strong interagency approach to working with families through the development of positive partnerships and working practices with a range of professionals. Services are tailored to meet the individual needs of children and families. Families are invariably "hard to reach" and may not have had positive experiences when interfacing with services. Many are affected by drugs and alcohol addiction, mental health issues, family breakdown and isolation and extreme poverty. Parental involvement and engagement has improved assessment and early intervention to improve outcomes for children. Referrals to the centre are made through other agencies, identification of vulnerable children through partnership arrangements with the local nursery school and through the centre's work with families in the community. Admission of children to the centre is through the admissions panel.

The centre has developed a range of creative ways to address the needs of children and families in a holistic and integrated way. Services are delivered flexibly and through careful case planning. Senior staff identify and use effectively individual staff member's skills and expertise to maximise impact of the centre's work. Staff development and training is integral to this. At points of transition within and out with the centre reviews are conducted and information handed over to for example the nursery school. The head teacher then makes decisions about resources and level of support needed for children and families.

Impact and outcomes for parents and families

· Parents approach their parenting and child care responsibilities with increased confidence and enjoyment.

· Reduces family breakdown and reception of children into care.

· Parents recognise children's developmental needs. Children develop social skills and emotional resilience and increase their learning.

· Open access nature of service helps families to feel included, to build relationships in local community and to access range of services/agencies through centre.

· Child protection core groups and care planning groups involve parents.

Being responsive

The centre provides a wide range of group and individual opportunities for parents/carers including:

Baby massage

Cooking group

Supported toddler groups

Hailesland under 3's group providing advice on parenting, children's development and learning through play

Dad's group

Parenting programmes

Summer holiday service for children aged 5-8 years

Sleep Scotland programmes

You Make the Difference early intervention programme for children with language delay

Speech and language information sessions

VIG- Video Interactive Guidance Scottish project in viewing interaction positively

Well on the Inside- building self-esteem

Supervised contact for non-custodial parents

Moving On Up course

Getting Through the Day

Characteristics

· High value placed by parents/carers on the work of the centre.

· Impact on parenting, relationships and on themselves as adults.

· Multi-agency, integrated working to support children and families.

· Strong culture of joint working.

· Ethos of team working.

· Engagement of service users.

· Staff working towards shared goals.

New Initiatives

• Emotional Literacy programme.
• Health Promoting Schools.
• Additional Support for Learning.
• Links with Community Education.
• Art Therapy group.