Application Form s25

APPLICATION FORM

Please refer to the ‘2014 Guidance for Applicants’ before completing this application form.

The application form is split over four sections. It is up to you to decide the content and length of each section, but your application must not exceed three pages in total (excluding the cover pages).

Please ensure that your application covers the key criteria that we are looking for and is effectively presented. Any questions relating to your application or the submission process should be directed to [email protected] or 0131 474 9275.

The deadline for submission of entries is 5pm on Friday 18 October 2013.

Submitting Your Application Form

We have introduced a new online application portal for the 2014 awards. You should therefore submit this application form electronically using our online form. COSLAAPPLICATON EXCELLENCE FORM AWARDS 2014 02

PLEASE PROVIDE SOME DETAILS ABOUT YOUR APPLICATION:

CATEGORY APPLIED Tackling Inequalities and Improving Health FOR

PROJECT NAME (as you wish to see it Great Starts published)

LEAD ORGANISATION West Lothian Council

DEPARTMENT/TEAM Social Policy/ Sure Start & Outreach

Karen Love Sarah Arroll, Jen Alan Whyte, Stephen Gorman, McKinnon, Paula Huddart Moira Dods

Maureen Gamble, Mary Hewit, Margaret Hendry, Toni Martin, Donna Williams, Maria Henry Ros Witcombe, Elaine Gillies

PARTICIPANT NAMES Susan Duffy, Megan McGhee, Jenn Lewis, Jacqui Elliot, OR PARTNER Denise Black, Kirsty Purvis Evelynn Fraoili ORGANISATIONS Jen McKinnon, Margaret Lorna Fox, Karen Johnston Carson

Key partners: Early Years Health visitors; NHS Lothian Centres and nurseries; Family Parenting co-ordinator. Centres; midwives;

CONTACT NAME Paula Huddart

CONTACT DETAILS [email protected] 01506 774700

CAN WE PUBLISH THIS APPLICATION FORM ON OUR WEBSITE? YES COSLAAPPLICATON EXCELLENCE FORM AWARDS 2014 03

EXECUTIVE In one short paragraph please describe this project is about, what it has achieved, SUMMARY and why it is delivering excellence. Sure Start aims to give very young children (aged 0-3) the best possible start by working closely with families, carers and partner agencies. We aim to do this in a non-stigmatising way, offering universal access in targeted communities of interest: e.g. young parents, mothers with mental illness, parents experiencing behaviour management problems, antenatal fathers. Over 13 years we have developed services in collaboration with communities and partners to provide a wide range of interventions, from drop-in play sessions in localities with poor transport links or few resources, to supportive home visiting and intensive evidence-based parenting programmes. We now reach over 1400 people a year and can demonstrate that we make a difference to children by the results of our annual outcome surveys, customer service surveys, pre- and post-intervention test measures, research findings, compliments and partner surveys. What is your project about, and why is it important? What are you aiming to PLANNING achieve, and how does this fit with the bigger picture? Does it tackle the issues that matter most to your community or your organisation? Our aim is to promote positive parenting, supporting parents and carers of babies and toddlers to meet their developmental needs. Early years work is important because we can make a real, effective difference at less cost, and with less intrusion.

The West Lothian Sure Start team was set up in 2000 and drew on a Cross Departmental Review to set up non-stigmatising services with universal access, work in partnership with health and education, and include group work due to its good evidence base in parent peer support. We offer home visiting based on repeated evidence about the effectiveness of supportive relationships (National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence; Effective Interventions).

The council’s Single Outcome Agreement supports early years interventions to help children achieve their potential, meet their milestones, be ready to learn and achieve Curriculum for Excellence outcomes. We use the National Practice Model (Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC), My World Triangle) working within the aims of the Early Years (EY) Framework and the high level outcomes (‘stretch aims’) set by the EY Collaborative of reduced maternal and infant mortality; children reaching developmental milestones by 30 mths, and by entry to Primary 1.

We continue to work in collaboration with parents and partners, adjusting our localities or programmes according to identified need: e.g. Positive Steps has been a rolling programme since 2009/10 due to demand and outreach is now offered for young mothers (under 20).

Our main challenge is to engage and retain parents referred for support. We aim to overcome this by training staff in a range of interventions, offering local venues, making joint visits with health or social work referrers, and ensuring communications are open and honest. Parenting programmes and outreach start with families setting their own goals so they can see progress in their own terms. We shifted practice to evidence-based programmes with good track records of effectiveness: parents and referrers pass this on to other parents who feel less stigma if others recommend it.

How have you carried out your project? How did you ensure that this was done DELIVERING effectively? What are you doing to continue to improve? We use a range of methods tailored to suit a range of needs by offering a range of drop-in play sessions; antenatal and postnatal groups for young parents, older mothers and fathers; parenting courses and outreach at home. Consultation with fathers led to specific services for them delivered since 2003 and information from young mothers led to the development of a young fathers programme. In partnership with NHS Lothian we devised our universal Dads2B antenatal course, now being rolled out across Scotland. Our Young Mums2b (YM2b) group programme now includes key-working, following a pilot in 2009/10 and data from Growing Up in Scotland (GUS). COSLAAPPLICATON EXCELLENCE FORM AWARDS 2014 04

Families set their own goals and work towards them with outreach workers, reviewed with parents regularly. We contribute to social workers’ Looked After Children care plans, child protection core groups and children’s hearings through reports and specific assessments. The main referral reason for over half the families in 2012/13 was support on child development, behaviour and improving the child-parent relationship. We offer parents opportunities to play with their children, get informal advice and meet other parents in the community play sessions; coach them in play, praise and positive behaviour management on parenting courses; and provide home visiting for those as yet unable to use community supports. Open play sessions focus on child development through play, singing and reading, child-parent interactions, exploring materials including messy play. We use national initiatives like Book Bugs and Play@Home for structured sessions as parents and health visitors are familiar with them. These groups run in most localities to reduce barriers of travel. ‘New Mums’ groups explore a range of topics chosen by themselves, in partnership with health visitors. Baby Massage promotes attachment between infants and parents, in small groups and at home.

We have good relationships with a number of agencies, especially the universal services of health and education and are able to develop as need arises. For example, following concerns raised by nursery colleagues, we now provide information for parents on toilet training, soothers and healthy routines at enrolment into Early Years Centres. This included translation into Slovakian this year.

The team comprises 25 staff with a mix of skills, qualifications and working patterns which suit the needs of the community – social workers, early years staff, clerical and careers. The team includes 3 people who were parents in local groups, now gaining early years qualifications. We have 3 volunteers this year, one of whom is a parent graduate, and one a work placement who has returned to support clerical systems, including our website. Careers advice includes open advice sessions in local areas, and individual appointments. We use a variety of methods because of confidence and self-esteem issues e.g. Adult Directions laptop interactive programme.

Early years services offer value for money by intervening early where problems are identified (e.g. pre-birth parenting assessments and support), prevention of later problems (e.g. Incredible Years (IY) parenting courses which reduce future conduct disorder diagnoses), and promotion of positive play. Staff training includes main methods of delivery including Home Inventory Assessment (UK); Incredible Years (US); Baby Massage (International Accreditation).

INNOVATION & Why is your project innovative? How is it helping to prepare for the future? What LEADING PRACTICE is happening to help other organisations benefit from your approach? We work in close collaboration with health and education colleagues: midwifery refers 90% of our young parents; we meet weekly with health visitors for joint discussions on referrals (Early Years Services Group); GPs and health visitors are our main referrers to Positive Steps and our senior social worker won a UK award for the programme in 2011.

A group of young parents gained their Millennium Volunteering Awards in 2009 for devising and delivering a peer education programme for young women in school, ‘Instructions not Included’ which went on to be delivered by the Children & Young People (social work in schools) Team.

In 2009 Edinburgh University Clinical Psychology offered us the opportunity to train 2 staff in Incredible Years: in 2010-11 we ran it in specific nurseries on request following new intakes with behaviour management problems. This led to running the course for staff, who became familiar with the techniques and language, offering consistency for children and parents. We are now taking up the opportunity to take part in the Scottish roll-out of the Psychology of Parenting Project, to offer evidence–based parenting programmes to parents with children in the 10% most challenging behaviour. In addition we will be supported with training on Triple P (parenting course), more training in IY, and standardising our data collection. In partnership with a range of agencies, there are now 8 IY courses with around 80 parents attending, and we continue to run a toddler IY for families referred by health visitors following identification at the 27-30 month check. We now aim to have one of the first four accredited IY practitioners in Scotland in 2014. This should make a great COSLAAPPLICATON EXCELLENCE FORM AWARDS 2014 05

impact on future success of children who might otherwise take quite a different path.

We hold regular seminars, attend research presentations and contribute to research in collaboration with clinical psychology students doing studies of Young Mums 2b factors (2009); Positive Steps results (2011) and Incredible Years uptake (2012). Our universal antenatal course for fathers is now rolling out across Scotland with a DVD produced by Children in Scotland. Our benchmarking partners, Midlothian Sure Start, now also have a fathers’ worker and we have collaborated over large events for fathers and children.

What impact are you having, or expect to have? How are you measuring this, and RESULTS & IMPACT what does this tell you? Are you delivering what you set out to achieve? We have evidence that families benefit from the range of services on offer. We fulfil the aims of Getting it Right for Every Child in offering support and advice from pregnancy to nursery school.

 We survey parents on GIRFEC’s outcomes (Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Responsible/respected, Included) as a proxy, devised with help from Dundee University’s Professor Norma Baldwin. In our 2013 sample survey, parents said they felt ‘achieving’ (100%); ‘safe’, ‘responsible’, ‘part of a supportive group’ (96%); ‘valued’, ‘cared for’ ‘part of their community’(92%) and ‘more active’ (79%). The most common specific response is that we help improve family relationships. Previous results rated ‘part of the community’ best.

 Engagement in the YM2b group has been consistently higher than the Growing Up in Scotland levels of group engagement for young women. 2009/10 engagement rates on all postnatal parenting courses and groups averaged 70%.

 IY uses Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), Parenting Daily Hassles and Rosenberg Self-esteem measures, and Positive Steps uses the Irritability Depression Anxiety (IDA) tool: both sets of results have been consistently high for 4 years.

 Positive Steps, devised with the Peri-Natal Mental Health Unit, reduces maternal depression, anxiety and irritability in 70-75% of mothers who attend.

 Parents completing IY evaluations report more sociable behaviour in children, more confidence in their parenting role, and reduction in challenging behaviours. Referrers, nursery staff and creche staff also confirm observation of these changes. This is an important finding, as children who are diagnosed with conduct disorder usually display pervasive anti-social behaviours at aged 3.

Comments include ‘I enjoy being a mother more than I did’; ‘really helped (our) household’; ‘it was amazing how quickly things changed’; ‘I now love my son’; ‘good to hear (from) other parents’; ‘(it) made me think.. and react differently’; ‘I feel more in tune with [my son] and.. listen to him more- his speech and attention span have dramatically improved and we both enjoy each other’s company again’

 The most common compliment for outreach when parents achieve their own goals is ‘I couldn’t have done it without you’.

 Our Careers Adviser supports over 55 parents a year: known destinations recently were 13 entering education or training and 8 into employment.

This work is effective, well evidenced and ground breaking. We make a real difference to the wellbeing of children in WL and contribute to their ability to be successful, confident learners. The potential for reducing conduct disorder in particular will save emotional distress, violence and crime, as well as future interventions and services based on dealing with it. COSLAAPPLICATON EXCELLENCE FORM AWARDS 2014 06

Please limit your application to 3 pages or less and use font size 11or greater COSLAAPPLICATON EXCELLENCE FORM AWARDS 2014 07

NEXT STEPS

 Have you answered the criteria set out in the guidance?

 Is your application form 3 pages or less. Anything more, including appendices, will be automatically rejected)

 Has your application form been authorised by an appropriate person?

 Have you indicated whether you wish the application form to be published?

 Have you provided details for someone we can contact about your application?

SUBMITTING YOUR APPLICATION

PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION BY 18 OCTOBER 2013 USING OUR ONLINE APPLICATIONS PORTAL:

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION FORM