Early Intervention Across the West Midlands Conference
14 July 2009

The Centre for Social Justice's report 'Early Intervention: Good Parents, Great Kids, Better Citizens' by Graham Allen MP, and Rt. Hon. Iain Duncan Smith MP, was the central theme for the Regional Early Intervention Conference held at the Staffordshire County Showground on 14 July.

This conference, jointly sponsored by Government Office West Midlands and Staffordshire County Council, was opened by Staffordshire Cabinet Member for Schools Veronica Downes and chaired by David Kidney, MP for Stafford. The conference was organised to explore issues raised in this report and included keynote speakers, presentations, workshops and examples of best practice of current early intervention supporting children, young people and families in Staffordshire and across the West Midlands.

Speakers at the conference included:

Graham Allen MP for Nottingham North
Nick Lawrence, Deputy Director, Head of Families at Risk Division, Department of Schools, Families and Children
Honor Rhodes, Director of Development, Family and Parenting Institute
Rt. Hon. Iain Duncan Smith MP for Chingford and Woodford Green

Opening entertainment by the West Hill Primary School Steel Band and stewardship by young people from King Edward VI High School in Stafford set the atmosphere for the day. The conference benefited from a marketplace display by service providers to include Relate, Parent Partnership, The Dove Service, Pre-school Learning Alliance, Family Intervention Service, HomeStart and Staffordshire's Family Information Service which all aided in embedding the early intervention theme throughout the day. There was also a display by the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) team; CAF is useful as an early identification and support process.

The conference was well received by the 240 delegates that attended with some great feedback that included comments such as:

Encouraging to be part of a 'caring force' working together
Enjoyed the day and feel inspired
Fantastic, enjoyable, glad I attended
Excellent day. Really informative and interesting and motivating
Really enjoyed the whole day - every aspect and speaker was very thought provoking
A terrific event overall - highly informative and inspirational
Great opportunities to share (information) with a wide range of professionals
Good atmosphere, plenty of participants, good mix of practitioners
Excellent, truly excellent

PDF file Early Intervention Conference Programme (PDF, 105kb)

'Early Intervention: Good Parents, Great Kids, Better Citizens' written by Graham Allen MP and Rt. Hon. Iain Duncan Smith MP (PDF, 884kb)

Presentations

Graham Allen, Early Intervention in Nottingham (PDF, 399kb)
Nick Lawrence, Early Intervention - A Priority for Government (PDF, 1.73mb)
Honor Rhodes, Early Intervention...why love really does matter. Shifting the emphasis (PDF, 1.22mb)

Workshops

Best Practice in Early Intervention was demonstrated through 5 presentations facilitated by practitioners and professionals from around the West Midlands Region.

0-7 Partnership and the Solihull Approach
Katrina Dipple & Mary Rheeston, 0-7 Partnership & the Solihull Approach (PDF, 81kb)
Antenatal Programme using the Solihull Approach
Sonya Wallbank, Developing an Antenatal Programme using the Solihull Approach (PDF, 282kb)
Early Intervention through the Integration of Children's Centres and Extended Services
Anne Cummins & Paul Woodcock, Community and Learning Partnerships - Facilitating Early Intervention (PDF, 263kb)
Staffordshire Schools (A) - Bradwell Primary School, Breakfast Club for Parents / Chesterton Primary School, Dealing with Challenging Behaviour / St Luke's CE(VC) Primary School, Nurture Provision
Staffordshire Schools (B) - Dove Bank Primary School, Turning Around Attendance / Friarswood Primary School, Vulnerable Children and the Elizabeth Trust Refuge / Maryhill Primary School, Family Support Worker

Round-table discussions were held in the afternoon based on one of four themes of the day; Children's Centres and Extended Services at the heart of Early Intervention, Parenting, Voice of the Child and Workforce Development.

Each of the tables was asked to discuss extracts from 'Early Intervention: Good Parents, Great Kids, Better Citizens' and decide which one or two of the quotes where most pertinent, controversial, or otherwise most likely to stimulate debate.

The groups where then asked to consider the following, with regards to their chosen quotes:
i) what should be done to address the issue?
ii) how might this be done?
iii) who might be involved?
iv) what are the implications for the theme you have been given to discuss.

Below are the outcomes from the group discussion sessions.