January 2010

Happy New Year Everyone!!

With my new years resolution for working being to double the number of parents I aim to be in contact with it is not by chance that my update this month starts with the launch of my 'Your View Counts' leaflet.

It has been a busy January so I have lots to report on. The topics covered for January are:

Your View Counts launch
Welcome Maxine
Children's Trust Endorse Parental Engagement Strategy
National attention
CWDC Pilot
Intergenerational Thinking
Families and Relationships Green Paper

Your View Counts Launch

We now have a clear structure for talking to parents, you can view this by following this link /NR/rdonlyres/1E153393-D6ED-4451-A50A-DDD663CCEB32/132498/ImplementMonitorProgress.pdf

Last year we tested this structure and we had approximately 300 parents respond to us through it. As a result of the success we have now officially launched the 'Your View Counts' questionnaire. The simple 4 question leaflet will be released 3 times a year to collect parents views of issues related to Children's Trust business. The leaflets will be distributed at the same time as Staffordshire's People Panel so the two can be used together to seek parents views.

There will be 3 questionnaires during the course of a year:

Questionnaire 1: January - March
Questionnaire 2 :May - July
Questionnaire 3: August - November

So look out for them, they will be:

On my website
Available from staff
Available through services such as Children's Centres, Schools and Libraries

The results will be collated and 3 reports a year produced (April, August and December). The results will be fed into the Children's Trust and used to help them shape services, make decisions and commission services.

Your view does count and it does make a difference, so don't waste it - have your say!!

Welcome Maxine

Maxine Kelly has been appointed as Parenting Strategy Co-ordinator.

Maxine has joined us from Stoke-on-Trent where she was previously Family Engagement Officer.

Maxine's role is two fold:-

She will be ensuring that the Parenting Strategy is implemented the way people have said it would and she will help co-ordinate the range of services for families to help them work together, making sure that parents experiences of being involved with different services is a positive one.

Maxine's contact details are:
Direct Line: 01785 854 554
Mobile: 07792 216 363
Email: Maxine.kelly@staffordshire.gov.uk

Children's Trust Endorse Parental Engagement Strategy

As you will know (well if you regularly read my blogs you will) we have launched our Children's Trust Parenting Strategy in November 2009 and the Children's Trust pledged to make it a reality.

There were 5 key promises in the strategy and one of these was to develop Parental Engagement.

At the Children's Trust Board on 25 January 2010 members agreed ways to engage parents more in their work, designs and services. They agreed that:

We will have a structure where the voice of parents is embedded into everything we do as a Trust. You can view this structure by following this link /NR/rdonlyres/1E153393-D6ED-4451-A50A-DDD663CCEB32/132498/ImplementMonitorProgress.pdf
We will launch a 'Your view counts' questionnaire 3 times a year and put the same questions in the People's Panel.
We will hold your details on our Parent Database (with your permission of course) should you wish to be contacted to get more involved.
We will have a method whereby parents can contact the Commissioner for Parents via letter, email, phone, text messaging or group meetings and the views parents raise will be logged and monitored, with trends identified and brought to the Board.
We will have a services network in the County to plan and co-ordinate engagement activity with parents, as well as share and use findings. Services will commit to logging engagement activity on a central data base, so we know who is doing what and when. This will avoid consultation fatigue and ensure the best use of consultation findings.

To view the engagement calendar follow this link. http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/static/snap/survey/sspengagement0609.htm

We will launch a Parent and Carer Engagement Toolkit for use by services. This will include training materials for staff, a self-assessment and handy hints and techniques to improve engagement. The toolkit will help ensure all services have high quality standards of engagement.
We will undertake a large consultation with parents every two years, so that the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment - Since 1 April 2008, local authorities and primary care trusts have been under a statutory duty to produce a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act, 2007). This builds on the previous needs assessment process underpinning the development of the Staffordshire-wide Children and Young People's Plan, and the Children and Young People's Plan are informed by parent's views - The Children and Young People's Plan is the overarching, strategic document which all agencies who deliver services for children, young people and their families will agree to work to.

National Attention to Staffordshire

We have been receiving a lot of attention for what we are doing around parental engagement. Amongst other things we have done a presentation to Government Office on the Parent and Carer Engagement Toolkit, we have written articles for a national parenting magazine, we have been asked to contribute to national thinking about a new families green paper, we have been rated by National Academy of Parenting Practitioners as a leading local authority in our standards and have been picked alongside 3 other local authorities as a study, we have given practice case studies to the Department for Children, Schools and Families for their new guidance for schools on engagement, we have had meetings with national college schools leadership around the importance of engagement - AIN'T THAT GREAT!! - What a recognition of everyone's hard work in making engagement a reality in Staffordshire.

Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) - Parent & Carer Engagement Toolkit

13 agencies took part in piloting the toolkit this month. They told us that:

They valued the toolkit
It would make a difference to how they worked
It should be part of every services development process

To improve the kit further they told us:

To keep the language simple
To modify some activities
To increase the number of visuals

We will now set about to work on making these changes.

Intergenerational Thinking

There is a small group of us who have formed to champion Intergenerational work.

"Intergenerational practice" can be used to describe 'older' (over 50) and 'younger' people (under 25) interacting in mutually beneficial activities to promote greater understanding and respect between generations and to contribute to building more cohesive communities. Intergenerational practice is inclusive, building on the positive resources that the young and old have to offer each other and those around them". (Centre for Intergenerational Practice, 2006)

We have, as a group, developed a strategy which will soon be presented to a team of children and adult senior managers. We have therefore decided to theme this years' family week on Intergenerational Thinking. For more information on Family Week visit http://www.nationalfamilyweek.co.uk/?utm_source=National+Family+Week&utm_campaign=b9625ac31b-Family+Week+Digest+2010+-+Issue+4&utm_medium=email

Government Family & Relationships Green Paper

On the 20 January the Government launch a Green Paper (this is In the Commonwealth, the Republic of Ireland, and the United States^[1] a green paper is a tentative government report of a proposal without any commitment to action; the first step in changing the law. Green papers may result in the production of a white paper). http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction=productdetails&PageMode=publications&ProductId=CM+7787

There are four key themes contained in the Green Paper, these are:

1. Bringing up children and parental responsibility

2. Relationships

3. Work/life balance

4. Services

For a summary follow this link http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/00148-2010BKT-EN.pdf

The paper is out for consultation and individual or group comments need to be made by 21 April 2010. The consultation papers can be access through this link http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?action=consultationDetails&consultationId=1685&external=no&menu=1

We have themed the Your View Counts leaflet around theme one and will send Staffordshire parents responses in from this. I will also raise parents' views at a national consultation event I am attending in March.

Last Modified: 28/04/2010 13:46:49
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