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Newsletter
December 2014
Ambition: To make Scotland the best place in the world to grow up.
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New
Spotlight on Tests of Change
Natalie Potts is a Specialist midwife for vulnerable families. She has been involved in EYC from the start and has embedded tests of change and theory of methodology into her daily work. Natalie has lots of ideas for change and contacts an improvement coach whenever she wishes to dis-cuss how to measure her Improvement Journey. Natalie has had several run charts set up for her and all she has to do is add a few numbers into a spread sheet and the chart draws itself!! One of her tests of change has been to implement safety huddles at the start of the multiagency clinic for women who misuse substances. The safety huddle aims to share information with Professionals for women who attend the clinic. Due to other small tests of change within this clinic waiting times were reduced and the ‘Did not attend’ rate of the women has reduced significantly. Natalie has used her data to add to a report for the Joint Inspection of Children's Services locally as it demonstrates progress and improvements in her daily work with vulnerable families. In Natalie's words “start collecting data as it demonstrates your improvement journey”
For more information you can contact Natalie at [email protected]
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Play Talk Read
The Scottish Government’ Play Talk Read Campaign was launched in 2009. It helps empower mums and dads, grandparents and carers, to interact more often with their wee ones and improve their awareness of the benefits of involving tots through regular contact every day – having a splish-splash with babies at bathtime or playing ‘spot the red car’ with tweenies during a bus journey. The campaign provides easy, fun ways to help your child be happier, learn more and enjoy a better start in life. The focus is on children under 3, but the ideas can be easily transferred to older children. A few years ago buses became a part of this campaign, taking it into the hearts of communities. This year we worked with ‘Working on Wheels’ to bring the double decker bus to Dumfries and Galloway, ‘Benji’ rolled in between 17th –21st November. To add to the activities on the bus, it was agreed that as so many parents were drawn in we should expand to an indoor space alongside the bus. The expansion allowed us: - To offer additional activities for parents and children to help promote activities to try at home - To engage parents with a range of additional agencies who could offer relevant support and advice on child health, development, as well as engaging parents in conversations about local services and what they found useful and supportive in their local areas. The bus was with us for 5 days on this occasion so we visited Sanqhuar, Dumfries, Annan, Newton Stewart and Stranraer. The numbers of parents and children surpassed our expectations and feedback was great. There was lots of enthusiasm for the activities both on the bus and indoors (and outdoors on occasions). It was a great way of engaging parents.
A big thank you to all the following agencies who supported the event: the Health Improvement Advisors for ‘Go for It’ and Lets Cook; Community Services Family Learning; library Bookbug services; Scottish Childminding Association; Health I& Wellbeing Unit; D&G Countryside Ranger; ACE Playgroup; Scottish Preschool Play Association; Dickshill Creche .
And of course thank you to all the parents who brought their little ones and got so involved.
For further information on Play Talk Read campaign visit their website: www.playtalkread.org
For further information on the Play Talk Read event in Dumfries & Galloway: contact Angela McNay
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Dumfries & Galloway EYC ‘Home & Away’ EYC Leadership have identified an ‘away team’ to attend the national sessions. This consists of the Programme Manager, Chair of the Leadership Group, Workstream Leads, and Improvement Coaches. This takes up the bulk of our 20 places and we were able to fill the additional places with EYC members proposed by the workstream leads. The ‘away team’ will be involved in testing locally and will support the sharing of information to our home team, i.e. Workstream members. This method will be monitored to ensure it is the most effective. However, If you are interested in attending one of the national events please contact your workstream lead or the Programme Manager as we may have last minute cancellations. Following the last National Event the ‘away team’ met to agree next steps. These included: ♦ Local Improvement coaches to be assigned to individual tests of change to support staff more
effectively and improve rapid cycles of testing and data collection ♦ To spread the word of EYC to home teams by ensuring EYC is on all meeting agendas ♦ Showcase and share our work both regionionally and nationally ♦ Newsletters 4 times as year, including spotlights on specific test of change ♦ Progress a clear local work plan focussing on local and national priorities
Away Team Members
Kirsty Andrews, Head teacher, Nursery Charlene Cruickshank, Social Work assistant
Amelia Hamilton, Pre school Officer Anne-Marie Humes, Pre school Officer
Alison Lang, EYC Coordinator Christine Leadbeater, Service Coordinator, Voluntary Sector
Anne Macfarlane, Early Years Services Coordinator Daniel McKeever, Social Work Manager
Pamela McQuaker, Nurse Manager, Women & Children's Services Carieanne McRoberts, Family Support Officer, Action for Children
Sheena Paterson, Principal Teacher, Early Years John Pegg, Child care Partnership Natalie Potts, Specialist Midwife
Joyce Reekie, Manager, midwifery Services Hew Smith, integrated Children's Services Manager
Maureen Stevenson, Programme Manager Emma Visca , Health Visitor
Christine Whipp, Education Officer Joanna Wright, Parenting Services Coordinator
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NATIONAL LEARNING SESSION 6, Glasgow, 28th & 29th October
The focus of the learning session this time was ‘Mind the Gap, Bridge the Gap’ The materials from this Learning Session are now available on the Scottish Government website. They can be accessed by Clicking: EYC Website Videos and photographs are available by clicking: Vimeo
Some key learning points were: ♦ “Make steady, consistent progress ♦ Don't let measurement become the focus ♦ Don't be afraid of data—use it as a learning tool ♦ Know the full scale of your project at the start ♦ Rapid testing—learn faster ♦ The small steps are key to achieving the aim ♦ Act for the individual to learn for the population ♦ “never forget your capacity to inspire” Sir Peter Housden, Permanent Secretary
A big thank you to Christine Leadbeater, Manager at Dumfries Toy Library for our story board which was well received. She is running a stay and play session just for Dads/male carers. She has been receiving regular support from Alison Lang to reflect on the learning from each weekly session and what changes can be made to increase the number of Dads attending and how to support their interaction with their child. The full story board is available on the extranet. For further information you can contact Christine at [email protected] .
Story Board
Future National Learning Sessions Learning Session 7: 4th & 5th March 2015 Learning Session 8—10th & 11th November 2015
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Staff changes We have to say goodbye to: Anne Macfarlane who is leaving us at the end of January 2015. David Morton, Project Officer, who has been covering Lesley Slater’s maternity leave, is moving to a permanent post at the end of this month. Alison Lang, EYC Coordinator, who is returning to clinical work at the end of this month.
Messages from the national team: CHIEF SOCIAL WORK ADVISER, SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT Alan Baird, our Chief Social Work Adviser at the Scottish Government has started his own Blog to give a bit more insight into his role and the good work being done by social service providers across the country. Attached is a link to the Blog should you wish to find out more about what he gets up to….. HOLYROOD AWARDS We are delighted that the Early Years Collaborative has been shortlisted for not one, but two of the Holyrood Public Service Awards – the Policy Award and the Campbell Christie Award. http://scottishpublicserviceawards.holyrood.com/
Useful resource:
Knowledge hub—this is a national resource but it has a D&G Practitioners section which contains local information on welfare and benefits and current issues regarding this topic. There is an extremely useful and regularly updated searchable dataset of support agencies in Dumfries & Galloway, organised by category and region. You may already be receiving newsletters but you can register to receive alerts and read more articles click here to do so
We are looking to train up more staff in Improvement Methodology. The next EYC Bootcamp is 19th & 20th January 2015 in Glasgow, so if you are interested in developing your knowledge and skills to use in your daily work contact Maureen Stevenson, Programme Manager.
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If you have any queries about EYC in general; please see the ‘Contacts’ lists.
CONTACTS
Programme Manager EYC Coordinator Maureen Stevenson Alison Lang [email protected] [email protected] 01387 244220 01387 272795 Project Officer David Morton [email protected] 01387 244057
WORKSTREAM LEADS
Workstream 1: Joyce Reekie
[email protected] 01387 241238
Workstream 2: Pamela McQuaker [email protected] 01387 244571
Workstream 3: Hew Smith
[email protected] 01387 260456
Workstream 4: Christine Whipp [email protected] 01387 260427
Alison Lang: Early Years
Collaborative Coordinator
John Pegg:
Chairperson,
Childcare Partnership
Sheena Paterson:
Pre School Officer ,
Early Years Team - West/Stewartry
Joanna Wright:
Parenting
Services Coordinator
Louise Cumbley: Consultant
Clinical Psychologist
Local Improvement Coaches
Anne Macfarlane: Early Years
Services Coordinator
Anne-Marie Humes :
Pre School Officer ,
Early Years Team - Annandale & Eskdale
