Sure Start Scotland e-Bulletin May 2006
Welcome to the Sure Start Scotland e-Bulletin. This edition focuses on Sure Start in the Highland area. A big thank you to Sam Brogan who kindly provided 2 articles on Family First and Parenting with a difference.
Our July edition will focus on support for parents with learning difficulties. We would be interested to hear of services available to support families and/or to hear from parents and families themselves on how services they access makes a difference to their lives. If you would like to provide an article to include in the July e-bulletin, please contact Joanne Ramsay, joanne.ramsay@scotland.gsi.gov.uk, tel: 0131-244 7583. Articles should be submitted to Joanne by no later than Friday 7 July 2006.
If you would like to comment on any aspect of the bulletin (future topics, style, articles etc) please contact Joanne at the above address.
Contents
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FAMILY FIRST
How parents and children (0 - 3) feel valued, respected and included is at the heart of a sure start funded project working with staff and volunteers in the Highlands.
Background/Aims/ Where we're from:
Family First, a charity working in the voluntary sector, set up in 2001 with 3 years funding initially, supports vulnerable families in specific rural areas by recruiting, training and matching volunteers with families, either to support within family homes or to invite parents to attend Family First groups. The support offered is free and is usually weekly.
The volunteers come from varied backgrounds and have included teachers, health/social work professionals, CPN's, counsellors or single parents who have 'been there' themselves and, now (5 years on), even parents who have received Family First help in the past and have moved on in life, to the extent that they wish to contribute something back to help others. This is a very powerful workforce as it taps into positive role models, breaks down barriers and it helps needy families feel they matter to someone - not as a 'client' but on a personal more peer based level.
How do we achieve this without blurring of boundaries or losing sight of professionalism?
Well, the 4 project areas (Wester Ross, East Sutherland, Skye North, Skye South and Lochalsh) deliver the home visiting service and groups via the work of local co-ordinators.
It is these hard working individuals who promote the service, accept referrals, manage and support the local volunteer team, facilitate group work and liaise locally to develop effective and accountable networks so that these families and their children can be supported and encouraged to be the best they can be. Naturally this involves a lot of work behind the scenes to: - enable all necessary policies and procedures to be in place; to screen potential volunteers with entry/exit interviews/enhanced disclosure checks/intensive example based 10 module basic training course/an agreed code of conduct; to have welcomed our recent care commission inspection; to continually identify training opportunities for staff and volunteers; to monitor and review and of course to strive to be at the centre of local networking on all matters relating to early years.
Behind the co-ordinators sits a management team that has access to wider resources and this in turn, fits within an early years collective known as "Connections", which encourages and sustains good practice.
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So, what do we do?
This is rather like the proverbial 'piece of string' answer, as over the years children, parents and volunteers have presented, encountered and overcome or learnt to manage many and varied challenges. Issues of disability, isolation, substance misuse, domestic violence, homelessness, lack of resources and debt and similar human trials are our staples. There are many examples but perhaps the following will give a flavour of the work we do:
- Offering a 'joint respite' package to a young parent so she could have time out from caring for her son with ADHD with violent tendencies. The local SW team helped to look after the son whilst the Family First volunteer looked after 2 other young siblings and this allowed the parent to have some precious time out to have a coffee with friends or call to have a massage. Over time the volunteer and parent shared many conversations about the difficult tensions and dynamics within the home and both the volunteer and family identified possible responses and resources and were able to explore these together.
- Assisting with transporting a crofter family to a Family First group. This ensured the parent would feel less isolated and could talk over her considerable lifestyle stressors with the co-ordinator in a safe environment. Knowing her young child was experiencing a happy and safe play situation meant that the mother felt 'held' and this led to a strengthening within this family and enabled them to look problems that had previously been swamping them.
- Helping within the multi disciplinary team arrangements for supporting a family with children at risk of harm. This has meant an opportunity for the family to ask the Family First volunteer to support them through hearings/reviews by supporting with transport, childcare and by just 'being by their side'. The co-ordinator also helped by attending meetings to assist with clarifying how things were going within the family home and to offer ways to support the unmet needs that were identified to support the parents with their debt and relationship difficulties. This in turn led to help from both the volunteer (with input at group and in the home, with the children) and the co-ordinator (accompanying the parents to debt advice and working on a relationship agreement).
- A young mum with 5 children (2 under 4), with no family support, links in with the Family First group where a crèche is provided and some weeks there is a more intensively supported crèche. That means the parents can all sit together without their children and look in depth at issues that are important to them. She has gained friends, is no longer so isolated and is beginning to think of employment.
How does Family First see the future?
With the increased awareness of the importance of sustained collaborative working practices, the main thrust is now and will continue to be, the mechanisms to enable us to be contributors to this process.
Recent moves towards a common assessment framework and to develop an integrated way of dealing with family referrals does mean the Family First is now seen and included at the level of Early Year's Liaison Groups. Inclusion at local Childcare Partnership meetings is also invaluable and has led to some financial support for crèche work.
Having this voice and presence is vital so that we can continue to build up the community links that inevitably come from working in the voluntary sector. Family First strengthens communities, by building up and supporting children, their families and their volunteers in part by helping to break down certain barriers that can exist towards statutory services. If a family can meet an ex- social worker or teacher as 'the friendly face' of a volunteer role, this can break down a previously held distrust of agencies in a direct and meaningful way. Family First can held to build bridges.
As Family First looks to the future, we hope to enhance funding by applications to statutory funding partners, applications to charitable trusts and similar, to expand and strengthen our valuable work.
Recent development has enabled family support to be linked into a partner project (Forward with Families) funded by the Working for Families initiative, where the needs of families with a child up to the age of 16, are identified and supported through personal targeted development. Families have benefited from being 'passed on' to this partner organisation where needs dictate.
Lynne Bannister
Family First Manager
tel 01463 717468
email lynnefamilyfirst@tiscali.co.uk
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PARENTING WITH A DIFFERENCE - PARENTS ON THE BALL
NCH Alness and Dingwall Family Project is funded via SureStart to provide locally based services for families with young children in the Mid and Easter Ross area of Highland. The area is mainly rural with few large centres of population and many small scattered settlements which provide an additional challenge to identifying and reaching vulnerable families who may be most in need.
Parents on the Ball is an exciting new initiative between NCH Scotland, Ross County Football Club and Healthways and has been specifically developed to meet the needs of parents who may not naturally access services in their community - particularly parenting skills groups! Parents have contributed significantly to the development of the course and have helped to shape its content which takes the parents through a combination of the Webster Stratton 'Incredible Years' Parenting Programme with an adapted version of the Sports Leader Award and Health Promotion - all in 24 weekly sessions.
The idea for Parents on the Ball originated from two training events which NCH staff were able to access free via NHS Highland (the Webster Stratton 'Incredible Years' leaders' training) and via SureStart funded health based training (the PIPPIN approach). The latter emphasises the importance of working with dads as part of any work with young families and addresses difficult emotional issues. The learning from both of these training events has been gradually amalgamated and augmented to provide a more supportive and enjoyable experience for the parents whilst retaining the essential 'parenting' messages. Originally the course was targeted at dads only but referrals for the second course included mums and dads and the group voted to create Parents on the Ball. The language has been adapted to be more accessible and appropriate for parents from the Highlands and the content of each original session is presented in two sessions which each contains role play, quizzes, games - and rewards - plus more formal input. Sessions on play are also included at the beginning of the course as play is one of our basic tools for developing positive relationships between parents and children - and parents frequently have not had good play experience themselves. NCH staff lead the parenting input with Ross County FC staff attending the session to inform themselves of the 'theme' of the day so that they are then able to take it into the 'active' part of the session.
The partnership with Ross County FC is key to the success of the initiative as the staff have wholeheartedly embraced the possibilities of working with parents and openly welcomed them into the football academy. The parents have expressed surprise that the Ross County boys can be bothered with them! The sporting/healthy lifestyle input is similarly informal and builds on aspects of the parenting input such as 'turn taking', listening, setting and observing boundaries. The response from parents has been very encouraging and those who were attracted by the activity have found that they are also learning how to be a better parent and those who were keen to improve their parenting are becoming physically fitter in the process.
In order to ease and encourage attendance at the Parents on the Ball group, we supply basic sports equipment for each adult, childcare (using a range of local providers), transport and lunch. Attendance has increased over the first two courses with a possible fifteen parents currently attending the third session. The group is expensive to organise and run but the feedback from the parents who have completed the course and the professionals who have visited some sessions indicate a high level of satisfaction. NCH has made a grant from its national Innovation Fund monies and Ross and Cromarty Childcare Partnership has provided significant financial support for the current course. Healthways has supported the course financially from its inception and the initiative also recently received funding from the NHS Smoking Cessation scheme to support the group.
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The second course is being externally evaluated by a local researcher who has already indicated that he would like to present his findings with the parents who took part in the course. Anecdotally, the feedback from the parents has been very positive and NCH staff have been surprised at the positive effects of attending the group for all the parents. The growth in confidence and self esteem is marked with parents: having fun with their children; accessing other NCH services and community based activities (with their children) and being able to approach nursery staff to ask questions and advocate on behalf of their child. One parent told a Children's Hearing that any parents who found themselves in her position, should be referred to Parents on the Ball as it had given her a whole new perspective as a parent and as a person.
The second course was so successful for that group of parents that they did not wish to disband as a group and it has been possible to continue the group via Ross County as a 'Get a Goal' group which will offer further opportunities for personal and skills development. It is hoped that this will become a regular follow-up course for the Parents on the Ball parents.
Liz Taylor
Project Manager
Highland Early Years Projects
liztaylor@nch.org.uk
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EARLY YEARS EVENTS
National Childbirth Trust - Workshops
For information on workshops scheduled to take place in Scotland over the coming months, please visit our website at: http://events.nct.org.uk
CCNUK - Scotland Seminar 2006
Tuesday 30 May - Swallow Columba Hotel, Inverness
Booking forms now available from our website at www.ccnuk.org.uk or by calling 0131 229 8575
CONFERENCES
ONCE UPON A TIME - Thinking about early Childhood Development and Services
Friday 9th June 2006, Brighthelm Community Centre, Brighton
Further information available from Administration, CFED, 35 Clermont Terrace, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 6SJ or by calling 01273 709660
Email: info@emotionaldevelopment.co.uk Website www.emotionaldevelopment.co.uk
CLASS DADS - Involving men in early years, schools and their children's learning
Monday 12 June 2006, Glasgow Marriott Hotel
Further information is available from Radha Singh, Children in Scotland, Princes House, 5 Shandwick Place, Edinburgh, EH2 4RG or tel: 0131 222 2438 fax: 0131 228 8585 e-mail: rsingh@childreninscotland.org.uk
Book online at www.childreninscotland.org.uk/dad
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