Positive Relationships: Working with parents - Getting engaged

Boscombe Children's Centre is an outstanding setting situated in a significantly deprived area in Bournemouth, Dorset. When the local authority set us challenging targets to increase the number of families engaging and registering with their services, we knew we needed to establish a creative and innovative approach for reaching them.

Through the initiatives we devised, the centre dramatically increased its engagement with families, from 362 families at the end of 2011 to 850 by the end of 2012, an 86 per cent increase. The number of families registered with the centre during the same period increased from 581 to 1084, an increase of 74 per cent. We have continued to build on this success and have just become the first children's centre to receive the Families First Quality Award.

The ideas for the projects stemmed from a 'Turning the Curve' exercise that we arranged in partnership with stakeholders. This enabled the team to think more creatively as to how they could address the targets by making best use of local knowledge and resources.

The leadership team challenged the staff to develop the ideas generated at the stakeholder meetings to turn them into simple, effective and low-cost projects that would increase engagement with the community, prioritising the most deprived areas.

It was established that data reporting from eStart would be used to monitor the increase in registrations and engagement by families from each 'super output area' within reach.

The three projects were established by staff working in pairs and each of the three teams presented their initial ideas to the leadership team before launching the projects within the local community.

GP CONNECT PROJECT

Establishing closer links with local surgeries was identified as an ideal opportunity to reach more families as well as increasing GPs' knowledge of children's centre services and encouraging signposting and referrals.

Staff attended practice meetings with doctors and presented how the children's centre supports parents and children. Information boards were set up in surgeries so that parents could access information from the waiting rooms. Welcome packs and referral forms were put together and distributed to GPs so they could be handed out directly to parents in appointments.

Feedback from surgeries showed how beneficial this project was for families and GPs. One said: 'It was a great opportunity for the centre to introduce themselves and to promote a number of new services that were now available in the locality. Now that communication channels have been established, the centre has been able to advise us of additional services that have become available and also how GPs may refer patients to specific schemes.'

SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP PROJECT

Another team worked with one of our local schools, establishing weekly play-and-stay sessions at the school, in partnership with a parent support worker. The sessions offered a rich play environment as well as advice on issues affecting families, such as money, housing, parenting and behaviour management.

Parents with younger children not yet at school were targeted so they could become more aware of support and services on offer at the children's centre. Parents enjoyed the social interaction within the groups, increasing their confidence to access other services in the local area. The children benefited from a structured and rich weekly offer, developing their social, emotional and communication skills.

Feedback from the Early Years lead at the school demonstrates the value of the work so far: 'The last year has been an exciting time for us in our quest to engage further with families in our community. Much of the success and enjoyment has been thanks to the support we have received from Boscombe Children's Centre throughout the process.

'The content of the sessions has varied from week to week and this has helped keep the parents' enthusiasm throughout the year. These sessions have become increasingly popular and the feedback we have received from parents and staff has been excellent.

'The sessions have become part of what we offer to families and benefits them in many ways - engaging in play, financial support and dealing with troublesome behaviour. This is a fantastic two-way relationship that we hope will continue going forward.'

MOVING MONDAYS

The third project was set up every Monday over the summer period to increase the visibility of the children's centre in the local area.

Located in one of the main parks in the area, the sessions encouraged families with young children to participate in outdoor games and activities. Through this, parents became aware of local support available to them.

One mother became aware of the services available at Boscombe Children's Centre while joining in these activities with her 20-month-old daughter. The mother was able to talk with staff about her concerns about her child's speech and physical development.

These initial conversations built an important relationship with the children's centre and gave her the confidence to benefit from one-to-one family support.

Following this, she has been supported by a family support worker, completed courses in cooking on a budget, baby first aid and parenting skills, made use of a free home safety check offered by the children's centre, attended messy play activities and is now receiving Two's Too funding to support her daughter to access good-quality childcare in a local setting.

Unfortunately, the weather was against us in developing this project and a number of the Moving Monday sessions were poorly attended. In response, we have established a regular centre-based service.

This service, called Mixed Up Mondays, offers a rolling programme of activities for families including interactive storytelling, Wriggle and Rhyme, Yoga, and Dance. It engages high numbers of local families and gives the centre an opportunity to signpost them to more specific services in order to meet their needs.

PHASE TWO

In order to continue the work within the local community and develop the ideas further to impact more widely, we have undertaken a full review of the projects and established Phase Two. The successful areas of work have been maintained and less effective areas have been remodelled.

We are excited about the forthcoming months as we see the continuation of GP Connect Project, this time extending to more surgeries in the local area. The School Partnership Project has become self-sustaining as a parent volunteer at the school is now running the sessions. This phase sees the project being rolled out to a second school in the reach area.

A new project has been established, called Family Links. This involves the children's centre making closer links with local childminders, nurseries and pre-schools in order to offer family support to parents.

Local settings have welcomed the proposed project as they recognise it offers an opportunity to tap into the children's centre expertise and offer more holistic support to their families. Our aim is to see an increase in parents being referred or signposted to the children's centre for one-to-one family support, the impact of which will be measured through our case management systems.

FAMILIES FIRST QUALITY AWARD

Boscombe Children's Centre has just become the first centre in the country to be awarded the Families First Quality Award. Developed by NAFIS (National Association of Family Information Services), the award assesses children's centres against 11 standards, which reflect their role in providing high-quality information services to parents in line with the Duty to Provide Information (Childcare Act 2006).

Boscombe Children's Centre family support staff were interviewed about their work with families, presented case studies and provided evidence of the quality of information given to parents to meet their needs. A range of services were also observed and parents were invited to give their feedback to the NAFIS assessor on the quality of support they received from the children's centre staff.

The award builds on the centre's earlier successes. Ofsted judged the centre as Outstanding in July 2011, and in January this year it was successful in being re-accredited with the Matrix Standard, a quality mark for organisations that provide information, advice and guidance services.

MORE INFORMATION