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Healthier, happier families – universal practice within an asset- based model ABCD Early Years Project
Healthier, happier families – universal practice within an asset-based model
ABCD Early Years Project
Brief overview
Background• Funding came to NHS Ayrshire & Arran to
agree model– Health and Wellbeing in Schools project– Asset based approach– Early Years– Early intervention and prevention
• Two localities agreed• Didn’t happen in a vacuum
Project aims
• Adopting an asset-based approach, identify community assets, issues and community-led solutions
• Improve the health and wellbeing of 0-8 year old children by increasing capacity of parents/families
• Recognise opportunities for and encourage further partnership working in early years
• Increase community capacity to influence services• Increase services’ readiness to meet the needs of families
and communities• As part of an iterative process, share learning on a
continual basis• Provision of evidence base to support service change
or development
Brief overview
How it started • Project Team recruited October 2011• Desk based asset mapping exercise• Community rapid appraisal• During feedback priorities identified by communities• Community volunteers recruited• Work streams developed
– Community-led, supported by services– Service-led, informed by communities
Deficits V Assets
Deficits• We focus on problems, needs and
deficiencies• We design services to fill gaps and fix
problems• We make people passive recipients of
services• We do things to people rather than
with them
Deficits V Assets
Assets• Begins by building a trusting relationship,
regardless of how long it might take• Helps individuals rediscover the skills and
strengths they may have forgotten they have• Supports them in putting them into practice• Builds networks and trusting
communities in which people help others
Engagement with communities
• Initial meetings• Rapid community appraisal
– Community groups– Parent and toddler groups– Parents/carers– Nursery-aged children– Primary school-aged children– Partners
• Family fun Easter event in each area• Eight week programme of taster sessions with
local parent and toddler groups• Two day summer programme in each area
Taster Sessions
• To further engage with Parent and Toddler/Childminding/Young Parents groups
• To investigate groups’ particular areas of interest that could be explored further or training accessed
• Raise people’s awareness of services/support available
Sing & SignBaby Talk and Baby
Brain
Services’ priority – supporting children’s language and communication
Community issue(s) Activity Anticipated outcome(s)Lack of information and support for new mums
Lack of parenting skills
Pilot ‘From the beginning…’ resource in partnership with community midwives
Improved knowledge and understanding of children’s communication
Lack of transport/unable to access facilities/services
Pilot community-based delivery of HANEN parents programme
Reduction in non-attendance at sessions
Improve parents’/carers’ capacity to support children’s use of language and communication
Parents/carers need support from early years staff regarding child development
Train early years workforce in Learning Language and Loving It
Improve the responsiveness of public services
From the Beginning
• Tells the story of the unborn child's preparation, in the womb, for forming relationships and developing communication after birth
• Supports the parents to develop a relationship with their unborn baby
• Parents are supported to communicate with their unborn baby from the very beginning
• Supports the importance of early intervention, and is in line with the growing emphasis on the importance of positive support during pregnancy
Partnership with Midwifer
y
Positive evaluatio
n
Recommendation
made for resource
to be used
universally within NHSAA
It Takes Two to Talk
• Identified that communities would like to work more closely with services/professionals
• This reflects recommendations within the recent Shifting the Focus report and the Shifting the Balance of Care work stream
• Proposed that Hanen ‘It Takes Two to Talk’ is piloted in partnership with the service within a local setting in North Ayrshire to increase accessibility for parents and in response to rapid appraisal findings
Referrals were firstly open to parents from three areas Insufficient referrals to warrant running a programmeFurther discussion taking place as to how to take this forward
Learning Language and Loving It
• Pilot under way with Early Years Practitioners from Ardrossan, Castlepark and Early Years Centres in North Ayrshire
• Partnership with Speech and Language and Education
• Positive evaluation of 1st module
Intervention
Enrichment
Prevention
Teacher Talk
Three one-day trainings developed by Hanen
• Training A – Encouraging Language Development in Early Childhood Settings
Most useful points“To think about questions and comments that I make to children to encourage interaction” “The usefulness of OWLING” “Being face to face with children” “Conversational styles & strategies for each”
Taking learning forward“Observing, definitely waiting for the children's response and actively listening and offering rich language in response” “Interactions which encourage reluctant and own agenda children to take part in conversations”“Making sure I am at eye level with children e.g. reading a story on the floor with a children on cushions”
‘Talk to Your Baby’
• Research in partnership with Health Promotion (Resources) has shown that some NHS boards and trusts across the UK stock literature and multimedia regarding language and communication development
• Available for staff working with families can use to share language and communication development messages with parents and communities
• This includes leaflets, pamphlets, posters and DVDs.
• Ready Steady Baby! and Play@Home Baby are stocked by NHS Ayrshire and Arran and provided to expectant and new parents
• Identified that NHS Ayrshire and Arran do not stock any specific literature and multimedia regarding language and communication development in babies and young children, which would be accessible for parents and community members, or utilised by practitioners to support new parents
‘Talk to Your Baby’Consultation with Communities
89%
95% 95%
95%
‘Talk to Your Baby’Consultation with Professionals
Discussed with Health Visiting Clinical Team Leads• Would welcome the leaflet as a tool to discuss communication with new parents• ‘Talk to Your Baby’ could be given out at the Day 11-14 health visitor visits after the baby is born• Comments:
• Draft copy of ‘Talk to Your Baby’ distributed to the health visiting teams for further comment
“Powerful”
“Easy to
read”
“Effective”
“Simple”
Speech and Language Therapist role in project
Facilitating communities to
give children the best start
Unique opportunity for
SLT to work using an asset
based approach in
multi-disciplinary
team
What’s worked well
• Multi-disciplinary team – enthusiasm for a different way of working
• Key supporters• Effective partnerships• Working relationships with early years centres
and primary schools• Working at the communities’ pace• Train the Trainer model• Sharing learning as we go
Challenges
• Funding structure• Expectations of some partners Vs
pace of communities• Engagement with some professionals• Working towards sustainability in a
short period of time• Uncertainty of accommodation• Negativity
Learning so far…
• This approach takes time• Important to engage with
existing groups• Open and honest about
boundaries• Feedback is essential• Quick wins• Continuous reflection
Next steps
Short-term• Produce project baseline report December 2012• Interim report produced March 2013• Health models incorporated into Child Health Strategy and presented to
NHS Ayrshire & Arran Board in March 2013• Continue to consider sustainability within communities
Long-term• Prepare evidence base to support service change• Evaluation plans developed for each work stream and commitment • sought from services to implement
Working with communities and services for healthier, happier families
Email: [email protected]: 01294 323319
