Welcome to the Forward Steps

Page 1: Temporary Accommodation Page 4: Language Through Play Page 2: IDVA Update Page 5: Family Fund & #Toys4Brum Newsletter February 2021 Page 3: Successful Language Bid Page 6: Useful Links & Videos Health Visitors Help Families in Temporary Accommodation In late 2020, Specialist Health Visitors Genine Williams, Nikola Demetrius & Rukia Miah helped families and children in temporary housing in Ladywood. They have provided an account of the good work they have done for families in need: ‘As specialist health visitors for homeless families we work alongside our local district health visiting teams supporting families in different temporary accommodation settings such as hotels, bed and breakfast’s, hostels and refuges.

We provide the link for partnership working between BFS and external partnership providers such as the local authority, Early Help localities and voluntary organisations. Within our specialist role, we will provide advisory support and training across the 10 district localities. With the sudden influx of homeless families residing at a hotel in Ladywood, the specialist health visitors were involved in assessing families and targeting early help support for families in need. This involved liaising with families and strategic planning which incorporated collective working with the Ladywood Children’s Centre. Families received Christmas presents and food vouchers over the Christmas period and were linked to local services via a production of a temporary housing leaflet included help and support lines for families. Families were encouraged to access local services for support and guidance. Each family received contact from a specialist health Visitor via telephone or face to face contact to discuss their needs and lived experiences. Parents were able to discuss any health concerns they had for their child or as a family. Some families had no recourse to public funds and were unable to meet the basic needs and essentials for their family.

Families being provided with presents and food vouchers, helped families to feel settled and welcomed into the local community empowering them to access services.’ Family “Thank you for arranging ”Thank you for the support the voucher will ”Christmas came Quotes: the Christmas gifts.’’ help towards fruit and vegetables.’’ around twice.’’ 1 Website: https://bhamforwardsteps.co.uk/ Email: [email protected] BFS Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVA) Update Domestic abuse is a major issue for the women and children supported by Birmingham Forward Steps and it was the main identified need of referrals coming into the service through CASS. The introduction of Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVA) within BFS is a timely intervention. The IDVAs are employed by Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid (BSWA) and based within Birmingham Forward Steps Children’s Centres, working alongside BFS partners to improve practice and responses to women and children affected by domestic abuse.

Since the project started in September 2020, the Early Years IDVA service have received 42 referrals from family support workers and health visitors. Most of the women accessing the service have engaged with the full 12 weeks service and have been supported with safety plans, housing, civil injunctions, family law and domestic violence awareness sessions. Some women have been supported into refuge and a couple of women have been assessed as high risk and referred into Birmingham MARAC. Over the Christmas period all children and women were given Christmas presents and food donations. COVID-19 has had a significant impact on service users accessing IDVA service.

Face-to-face contact has been limited due to national and local lockdowns and this has been particularly challenging for those living with the perpetrator. The IDVAs offer flexibility to ensure accessibility; for example many women are home schooling and find it very difficult to engage in conversations while the children are present and so the IDVAS can offer telephone support or virtual sessions early in the morning or later in the evening. The IDVAS have supported women to access laptops for children and some have secured a significant amount of money from the Family Action Survival Fund to cover the additional heating, electric and food costs due to lockdown restrictions. Many families have also been supported with food donations.

As well as supporting women and children the IDVAS have been working very closely with family support workers and health visitors and are regularly contacted for advice and guidance. The IDVAS have delivered a 3 hour virtual training session developed to cover identification and response to domestic abuse, safety planning and introduction to IDVA role and referral pathway. The training session has been offered to all BFS staff. To date a total of 7 sessions have been delivered with a total of 108 staff in attendance. Excellent feedback has been received which has been shared with BFS. Below is some great feedback received from women who have accessed IDVA service: Woman during DV awareness session: Woman supported into refuge: “Thank you Woman supported with Family Law: “You have given me the strength to believe so much, I am relieved, I am safe, I can now “I won the case, I am so happy right I can do something and make positive sleep and my son has the space to run now I have my baby back. Thank you changes in my life. For the first time around” for all your support” someone has validated my experiences.”

2 BSWA Website: https://bswaid.org/ Email: [email protected] Contact Number: 0808 800 0028

Successful Bid: Language Programme for One Year Olds BFS has successfully bid to support a language programme for one year olds. The National Literacy Trust (NLT) approached BFS in October 2020 to partner in a bid from the VCSE (Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise) and the Health and Wellbeing (HW) fund. The bid would deliver a language programme for one year olds and their parents. The NLT will lead the programme with BFS and Birmingham Community Healthcare supporting.

The programme will provide additional capacity to Language Through Play Workers based in Children Centres to deliver five programmes a year; each programme would be five weeks and work with four families with a one year old child. This would aim to provide an early intervention to 200 one year olds, reducing demand on therapies at a later point. The funding would include clinical oversight and support from the Speech and Language Therapy team (SLT).

The Health and Wellbeing Fund aims to improve health outcomes for children from preconception to two and a half years old the from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities as well as children in areas of high deprivation (including urban, rural and coastal areas)

The contract is worth 356k over 3 years. It was awarded in December 2020 and is due to go live in April 2021. The funding includes a lot of external training, plus funding additional SLT capacity to provide support, quality assurance and share expertise with language through play workers, all supporting the long term sustainability of the programme. The programme can be delivered virtually so should not be impacted by COVID-19.

Speech & Language Therapy Videos

Birmingham Community Healthcare Trust’s Speech and Language Therapy team have produced a series of videos designed to communicate general information about speech, language, and communication needs to families.

These videos also contain information about the usual therapy processes. Due to Covid-19, the information about therapy will not reflect what SLT are currently able to offer. They have also set up an advice line for further information and support: 0121 466 6231 To see the videos, click here

3 Speech & Language: https://www.bhamcommunity.nhs.uk/patients-public/children-and-young-people/services-parent-portal/birmingham-slt/slt-videos/ About the Language Through Play ’Little Talkers’ Program Worker Pathway

The ‘Little Talkers’ program is run across BFS in Children ’s Language Through Play Worker, Suzanne Hough, Centres (virtual offer) and is tailored to parents and carer’s has established good links with Health Visitors, KIDS and individual needs to support a child’s speech and language local nurseries. These are the agencies where most of development. It empowers parents with information and referrals to Language Through Play come from (as well as skills about how to develop their child’s speech and from children’s centres). Prior to the first lockdown it was language skills and also motivates parents to take noted that a good proportion of referrals for language through ownership for their children’s future. paly were for children with other development concerns.

Referrals can come from allocations, social workers, family Suzanne had to adapt by using Whatsapp and other support, health visitors and self referrals. Parents are technology as the centres were unable to continue with contacted within first two weeks of receiving referrals to having groups during Covid-19. During lockdown, the number offer support with speech delay. of referrals increased significantly. The trend of referrals

continued that many children needed more than only speech Information that’s shared with parents to help development and language support. includes; Wellcomm Assessment, Bookstart, Home

Learning Elklan Language Builder and the Talking Tips. A step was then added to the pathway if appropriate support Since Covid-19, ’s Language wasn’t a ‘Little Talkers’ group (as both the children and Through Play Worker, Talat Mustafa, has parents needed more help). If it was felt that problems could been providing support virtually via be more than speech issues, they were referred into Early Zoom or WhatsApp video call. Years to do an all-round developmental assessment. Following this, the children are discussed with their health Face-to-face sessions are offered on visitors and appropriate referrals are made for specialist compelling need and follow government assessments and to KIDS Family Group as required. guidelines and safety policies. Parents comments following 1 to 1 support: For more information about ‘Little “My child is now following instructions – ‘sit down’, ‘come Talkers’, please contact to contact your here’. He will make noises when he sees his dinosaur. He is local Language Through Play worker in saying two new words ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.” your local children centre. Talat Mustafa 4 Special thanks to Talat Mustafa and Lucy Carter for providing this information. #Toys4Birmingham - Birmingham Toy Appeal Thrive Together Birmingham joined forces with the Foundation and the Birmingham PlayCare Network to launch a toy appeal during December 2020 that resulted in over 16,500 gifts and £ 2,000 for families struggling to buy gifts for their children at Christmas. Fred Rattley, CEO of Thrive Birmingham, said: “We were overwhelmed by the huge level of support we received from individuals, schools, organisations and businesses from across Birmingham for our #toys4birmingham appeal. As cars, vans and even lorries began delivering hundreds of donations we just couldn't believe what we were seeing. We had 2-3000 requests for toys from across the City but by mid December we were able to help so many more thousands of families in and around the city. My thanks to everyone who got involved.“

Emma Payne from Birmingham PlayCare Network said: “Our connections with grass roots organisations who support the most vulnerable families meant that the gifts donated were received by children who really need them and are often missed out by other appeals. Play should be an essential part of every child’s Christmas and this appeal went a long way towards achieving that.”

Connections were made with Early Help leads and Children Centre managers and over 16,500 toys were donated at Edgbaston Cricket Ground. Presents were then distributed to 53 groups across Birmingham and across BFS.

Family Fund supports families across the UK who are who are raising a disabled or seriously ill child or young person up to the age of 17. Their support is focused on those on low incomes with a child/children who have a high level of additional support needs. They support this by providing grants for a range of essential items such as fridges, freezers, cookers, clothing, bedding, games, books and music, as well as laptops and tablets, family breaks and sensory toys.

Who can apply? If you live , Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales, and you are the parent or carer of a disabled or seriously ill child or young person aged 0-17, you may be able to apply.

You can read the Family Eligibility Criteria and Child and Young Person Eligibility Criteria on the website, here: Family Fund website Tel: 01904 550055 Email: [email protected]

5 Useful Links & Videos

Spurgeons YouTube Channel: Following discussions around Startwell are offering a wide inclusive practice for families selection of training courses for (especially during Covid-19), practitioners. Please click on the Spurgeon’s staff have created a YouTube channel for videos link below for current training sessions available at that the team have composed around healthy eating, various location across Birmingham: physical and creative activities. Staff wanted to ensure that https://startwellbirmingham.co.uk/training-dates/ these activities are accessible for all families via a YouTube channel to access without having the need to create a Simply email to book your place and to obtain exact Facebook account. location details: [email protected]

The YouTube channel can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH6JB63aaW3x- VpzcczwJSA The Birmingham Children’s Partnership wants to ensure that any family in Birmingham which needs help is aware Pro Vaccine Videos for Sharing as Appropriate: of how to find it quickly and easily. Help includes BBC Videos by medical staff, in several different South Asian Languages: Coronavirus vaccine Q&A in five South Asian • Emergency Food Assistance languages - BBC News • Mental Health Support • Financial Assistance Video made by BAME celebrities. Easily shared/retweeted via • Domestic Abuse your Twitter channels. Adil Ray OBE Twitter: "We all have to • Early Help do something to help one another during these difficult times. Here's a message we have recorded for members of our £100 emergency food & fuel payments available to Ethnic Minority communities.” Birmingham families who meet the criteria.

YouTube video by This Morning. For further information please visit: 'The Vaccine Will Save Lives' Famous Faces Encourage the https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/50224/birmingham_ch BAME Community to Get the Vaccine | GMB - YouTube ildren_s_partnership/2156/birmingham_children_s_partner ship_-_resources 6 Queries? Feedback? Would you like a story to be featured in the BFS newsletter? Please contact: [email protected]