www.pengreen.org
Working with Children and Families
Dr Margy Whalley Thursday 6th October 2016
The Pen Green Centre ‘Project’
1983-2016
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Integrated centres for children and families – a global ‘project’
Children and family centres working collaboratively
with parents and the wider community have the
capacity to transform children’s life chances.
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Pen Green Integrated Centre for
Children and their Families
“ In every small community there should be a service for children and their f a m i l i e s . T h i s s e r v i c e should honour the needs of young children and celebrate their existence.
It should also support families, however, they are constituted within the community”
Pen Green 1983
“building on what
has gone before”
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Tracer Study: The voices of their childhoods
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Integrated centres for children and families matter. They matter to the families and children who use them, to the staff who work in them and for them, to the local authorities who are accountable for them and to those who share the ambition to reform the way in which public services are organised and delivered.
What makes these centres so distinctive is the collaboration and co-operation of different professional groups, and how they bring together services for children and their families in new and radical ways.
Children’s centres in the 21st Century Document Pen Green/Innovation Unit 201 – page 9
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Integrated centres for children and families require a different kind of community engagement;
‘How’ is more significant than ‘what’
By encouraging families to participate in the re-shaping of the shared context in which they live out their individual lives
By supporting parents and children to become effective public service users
By building the capacity of children, families and communities to secure outcomes for themselves
By harnessing the community’s energy for change and parent’s deep commitment to ensuring that their children have a better deal
With thanks to Demos, the Scottish Government, Pen Green
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Roots and Routes: a town that marches
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‘Co-production’ – 21
stCentury
‘Co-production means delivering public services in an equal and reciprocal relationship between professionals, people using services, their families and their neighbours. Where activities are co-produced in this way, both services and neighbourhoods become far more effective agents of change.’
(From Boyle and Harris: 2009 ‘The Challenge of Co-production’)
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“Finally, because timebanking and co-production grow out of my own life and work in the civil rights movement, I have to add that hell-raising is a critical part of co-production and of the labour that it entails it must value. Those with wealth, power authority and credentials hold those assets as stewards for those who came before and in trust for those yet unborn.
They must be held accountable - and sometimes that requires the creation of new vehicles that give rise to scrutiny, to questioning, to criticism, and to social protest. Timebank programmes can create those vehicles in ways that enlist the community - and that tap the knowledge that the community has about what is working and what is not working”
Professor Edgar Cahn Washington Civil Rights Lawyer No more throwaway people: the co-production imperative
Hell-raising for equality and social justice
Uppingham
Corby
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The two key concepts that underpin
the work:
▪ Advocacy - parents and early years educators speaking on behalf of, and interceding on behalf of children
▪ Agency - children, parents, staff believing they can change situations and determine the outcomes of events. Agency
reflects self esteem and self confidence. A child (or adult) high in agency will readily become involved in challenging problems and will be appropriately assertive interacting with peers
e.g. Pen Green legal advisory service for SEND children 2016
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• Poverty
• Coping with major changes
• Divorce
• Conflict over access
• Physical and emotional abuse
• Trauma
Issues for children and parents using
the centre
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• Coping with daily transitions
• Being part of complex family networks that form and reform
• Living in more than one home
• Attending more than one daycare setting
• Coping with parent’s complex shift patterns
Issues for children and parents
using the centre
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Data needs to drive services but it should never be
used to define families
1. Safeguarding in Corby
• rates of child abuse/neglect 15 times higher than national average where domestic violence is a factor
• referral and re-referral rates amongst the highest in England
2. Neighbourhood Level Challenges in Corby
• 22% of Corby children live in poverty; some neighbourhoods up to 45%
• 24.5% in low income ‘working poor’ families; some neighbourhoods up to 43%
• pockets of poverty/social challenge
3. Education and Well Being in Corby
• Some neighbourhoods have over 35% of adults with no qualifications (England average 22%)
• Corby children’s well-being low, particularly in relation to education outcomes (Corby 28.4%
national average 19.8%).
4. Health in Corby
• 50.2 % of Corby families live in health deprivation spots (England average 19.6%)
• low breastfeeding and high obesity rates
• professional concern regarding infant/adult mental health
• increase in number of children with disability/special needs
5. Population expansion in Corby
• 35% increase in 0-5s in the last 3 years (Northamptonshire 13%
in same period)
• very significant increase in ‘white other’ (largely Eastern European) families 1.9% - 10.5% in 10 years
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Integrated centres for children and families are about social justice: equality is better for everyone
• disadvantaged
• discouraged
• confidence sapped
• stigmatised
• segregated
• social anxiety
From ‘The Spirit Level’
Wilkinson and Pickett
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Children’s Centres deal with complexity
“…there is little value in having a generous and open mind if life is primarily a struggle for survival, where there are few or no trusted neighbours and where it is better not to think about other people’s states of mind… Thoughtfulness is not useful in a thoughtless culture.”
(Sebastian Kraemer, 1999)
Safeguarding Children
& building up their emotional wellbeing &
resilience Well qualified social
work and family support staff;
comprehensive home visiting services, development of
informal social networks, need for a strong outcomes focus
and effective supervision for staff
Securing children’s progress and development Well qualified teachers,
(QTS/ITT) and Early Educators. Effective assessment from 0-5 tracking progress, action learning sets
across children’s centres and into
schools, highly developed key-worker role, need for a strong
outcomes focus.
Comprehensive family support
• Focussed interventions for minoritized groups who may find it hard to access existing public services
(Requires comprehensive data sets – socio spatial mapping, staff appropriately trained and with a strong commitment to
social justice, prepared to work in a different way)
Developing the children and family centres as a learning organisation
• Involving parents in their children’s learning
• Encouraging parents to take up community education/adult learning opportunities –
• Children’s centres as the ‘University of the Workplace’ & ‘Teaching Hospitals’
• Ensuring all staff are well informed rigorous thinkers with good supervision and support
Challenges
Interve ntions
Child
Challenges
The “Primary Task” of integrated centres for children and families
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Pen Green Centre for Children and Families
A place for learning through dialogue with others
• Early years education 0-5yrs
• Extended hours, extended year provision to support families
• Inclusive, flexible, education with care for children with additional needs and children with special rights (SEND)
• Adult Community Education
• Family Support Services and Integrated Health Services
• Focus for voluntary work and community regeneration
• Training and support for early years practitioners
• Research and Development
• Leadership Professional Development
• Early Years Teaching Centre/Teaching School
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Baby Nest
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Couthie
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www.pengreen.org Pen Green Nursery
The Den
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Pen Green Nursery
The Snug
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The Studio
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Extended Provision across centre
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Extended Provision across centre
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Extended Provision across Centre
The Garden
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The Beach
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The Sandpit
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Pen Green Research, Training & Development
Base and Leadership Centre
Practitioner Research, Training, Development, Innovation
Pen Green Integrated Centre for Children and
Families
Pen Green maintained Nursery School and
Children’s Centre Pen Green Teaching School
Alliance
……two halves of one constantly evolving whole
Early Years Teaching Centre/Teaching School
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Practice based evidence: parents and
practitioners as partners in research
▪ Parents involvement in their children’s learning
▪ Children’s emotional well-being and resilience
▪ Ghosts in the Nursery: Issues of adult attachment
▪ Children’s Communication 0-3: Parents as language tutors
▪ Co-constructing differentiated pedagogical approaches
▪ Co-constructing a baby nest provision to support family life in the 21st century
▪ Children as philosophers
▪ Leadership in children’s centres
▪ Policy transfer: integrated centres for children and families (UK, Germany, New Zealand, Australia)
▪ ‘Being in relation’ – children engaging with their peers
▪ Emotional routes of learning
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Pen Green A Centre that
encourages children to be all that they can be
“…our image of the child is rich in potential, strong, powerful, competent and, most of all, connected to adults and other children.”
Loris Malaguzzi
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I’m strong;
I’m able to challenge;
I’m able to question I’m able to choose;
I feel good about being me
Communities of Oppression ‘Learning to be Strong’ - children, parents and staff
1984 ‘Learning to be strong’ A curriculum document for parents and children
Children should feel strong Children should feel in control
Children should feel able to question Children should feel able to choose
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A
centre where all children are encouraged to be
feisty children: children with a sense of agency
and resilient despite adversity
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Parents as Advocates
“Nothing gets under a parents skin more quickly and more permanently than the illumination of his or her own
children’s
behaviour. The effects of
participation can be profound.”
(Athey, 1990, p66
)
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Sharing Knowledge With Parents:
Staff as cultural brokers/mediators
“The roles of professional experience and parents’ everyday experience are seen as complementary but equally
important. The former constitutes a ‘public’ (and generalised) form of ‘theory’ about child development, whilst the latter
represents a ‘personal theory’ about the development of a particular child. An interaction between the two theories or ways of explaining a child’s actions may produce an
enriched understanding as a basis for both to act in relation to the child. Only through the combination of both types of information could a broad and accurate picture be built up of a child’s developmental progress.”
(Easen et al, 1992)
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Co-education
Parents are involved in supporting their own child’s learning and development 24/7 - this needs to be recognised and home learning
and nursery learning needs to be shared
Parents engage in adult
community education Parents get involved in devising or delivering services for other parents
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In Children’s Centres Parents and Staff
Share Observations
• Film the children at home
• Keep a diary
• Film the children at the centre
• Apply theory to the observations
• Make portfolios about children’s interests
and critical concerns
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Outcomes
▪ Support for children and parents is offered during all critical transitions
▪ Staff, parents and children have meaningful conversations that support the children’s development
▪ Parents and workers become more aspirational
▪ Workers and parents develop their advocacy skills
▪ Involvement on the relationships parents have with their child’s educator at nursery and subsequently at school
▪ Study groups are embedded in early childhood settings and local schools
▪ Parents undertake adult education, professional development
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Community Education Opportunities at Pen Green
• GCSE English or equivalent
•GCSE Maths or equivalent
•Introduction to Computing
•Computer Literacy and IT (CLAIT)
•Sign Language City and Guilds Stage 1
•Creative Connections – overcome the barrier to writing
•Family Literacy/Numeracy
•Communication Skills
•Creche Workers Course (NOCN)
•Homestart (NOCN)
•NVQ in Early Years and Education L2 and L3/NVQ Playworkers (now CACHE Diploma)
•Counselling Skills Course
•Between Ourselves
•Confident Parents/Confident Children (NOCN)
•Introducing Childminding Practice
•Making Choices
•Sewing/Crafts Group
•Protective Behaviours
•Stress and Relaxation
•Skills for Work/Confidence Building Course
•Baby Massage (IAIM Certificate)
•Involving Parents in their Children’s Learning NOCN
•Parents as Researchers NOCN
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EYITT Training University of Bedfordshire Initial Teacher Training
University of Hertfordshire (2015)
PhD Early Years Leadership
Leicester University
MA In Integrated Provision for Children and Families
Leicester University/University of Hertfordshire
Early Development and Learning Research Methods
Practitioner Research
Working With Parents and their Infants and Young Children Working With Families and Complexity
Leadership Learning within Teams
University of Hertfordshire (2015)
Advanced Module in Groupwork
Homestart Training
Group Work Training (introductory) Emotional Roots of
learning – Northern School of Psychotherapy
‘University of the Workplace’
PEN GREEN AS A LEARNING ORGANISATION -
developing the early years workforce An Early Years Teaching School
Teaching School Alliance
BA (Hons)
Top-up In Integrated Working with Children and their Families in the Early Years University of Hertfordshire
Foundation Degree in Integrated Working with Children and their Families in the Early Years
Hertfordshire University
On site and on location in Devon, Kegworth and
Bradford
Adult Community Education Courses
Functional Skills Get Creative
Transactional Analysis Counselling Skills Mood Mapping
Family Learning Programmes Maths
English ESOL Parents Involved in their
Children’s Learning groups
Parents’ Support Groups / Discussion Groups
Aim Awards credit for courses at levels 1 & 2 e.g., Crèche Work Training, Confident Parents/Confident Children
Parents as Researchers New Start Volunteer course CACHE Level 3 Diploma for the
Early Years Workforce (EYE)
Level 3 Award in Preparing to Work in Home-Based Childcare
The Climbing Frame of Opportunity
System Leadership Training for children’s centre leaders
NPQICL*
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Integrated centres for Children and
families create opportunities for building powerful connections:
• Between practitioners across disciplines and across sectors
• Between professionals and children
• Between parents and professionals
• Between parents and children
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An integrated approach requires;
• A shared philosophy (shared vision and values and a principled approach to practice)
• A multi- disciplinary team with all or most disciplines represented
• Shared leadership and management and consistent ways of working
• Proximity, the co-existence of all services on one campus, developing seamless services
• Co-production (community engagement, participation)
Adult Community Education Team
Education and Learning 0-‐3’s Team
Education and Learning 2-‐5’s Team
Research, Training & Development Team Leadership Access: Poverty, Diversity, Equality Pedagogy User Voice Co-‐Production
After School &
Practitioner Research and Evaluation
Playscheme 4-‐11’s Team
Involving Parents in their Children’s Learning
Professional Development
Family Support Team (including Sure Start home visiting, Homestart and the Group Work Programme) & Community Health Team
Safeguarding Children & Building Self Esteem
Strands of Activity (across the centre)
Domains (teams with a specific focus)
Head of Centre, Director of Research, All SMT & Governing Body All SMT & Governing Body Led by Deputy Head of Centre Led by Director of Research & Assistant Director
User Voice Led by Deputy Head of Centre Led by SMT Led by Assistant Director of Research & Head of Nursery
Led by Teacher/
Head of Centre
Led by Early Education &
Childcare Specialist
Led by Teacher/Head of Nursery
Led by ASC Co-‐ordinator
Led by Social Worker &
Deputy Head of Centre
Led by Director of Research
Adult Community Education Team
Family Support Team (including Sure Start home visiting, Homestart and the Group Work Programme) & Community Health Team
Research, Training & Development Team Education and Learning 0-3’s Team
Education and Learning 2-5’s Team
After School & Playscheme 4-11’s Team
Guardianship – Domains
(Teams with a Specific Focus)
Leadership Access: Poverty, Diversity, Equity Pedagogy User Voice Co-Production Practitioner Research and Evaluation Safeguarding Children and Building Self Esteem Professional Development Involving Parents in their Children’s Learning Guardianship Strands
(Strands of Activity/Responsibility across every Domain)
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Pen Green is all about Co-Production
Encouraging parents and children to be effective public service users: creating social and cultural capital
• Parents have the right to expect high quality, flexible services that respond to the changing needs of their families. Services need to be flexible and responsive to 21st century challenges to family life
• Staff need to believe in parent’s deep commitment to supporting their children’s learning. They need to encourage parents to increase their competence
• Parents and staff both need to have high expectations of the children.
They need to work together to help children be all that they can be
• Parents have a commitment to being involved in designing, developing, delivering and evaluating local services. We have to release the great untapped energy within the community
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Community Participation Driving Service Delivery
1981-82 Campaign against the local Borough Council to re-roof local housing stock
1982-83 LAG – Local Advisory Group against the Pen Green Centre
1983-85 Parents conceptualising services Parents appointing staff
Parents as volunteers Parents sharing power
1985-87 Parents as service providers
Parents engaged in their own learning 1987-90 Parents as group leaders
Parents as community activists
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1990-97 Parents as co-educators involved in their children’s learning
Parents as paid workers 1997-07 Parents as trouble shooters Parents as policy makers
Parents as co-researchers and evaluators Parents as governors
2007 – 2012 Parents developing innovative projects – Total Place Corby
Parents developing websites, Facebook, Twitter Parents running local, regional and National
Campaigns
2013 Parents and children as committed, critical and vigilant public service users
2016 Parents develop their own civic charitable bodies (CIO) Legal Advice Centre for SEND
Community Participation Driving Service Delivery
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Volunteer Engagement in co-production
Informal Social Networking inside and outside centres NewStart Volunteers (within children’s centres)
Group Leaders/ Parent researchers/evaluators Home-‐Start Volunteers
Parent School Governors (across the school system)
Single Issue activists for example;
•Parents with children with special rights
•Fathers not living in the family home
•Parents from minoritized groups
Parent community activists (Breast feeding support, Out of hours services)
Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) Trustees
Parent champions linked to political representatives (Borough Council/ County Council),
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The future: Integrated Centres for
Children and Families
A future model could be different. The starting point could be that of local people co-constructing the design for their own children’s centre. There would still be a need for qualified staff, and for professional services. The shift would be that in every centre local people would be supported to do more for themselves and would become far more discerning consumers of public services over which they have far greater control.
The key will be to redesign services to enable more reciprocity;
people want to identify their own solutions. Children’s centres could become firmly rooted in their communities and one of their purposes would be to create and sustain strong, supportive relationships for people to draw on.
Children’s centres in the 21st Century Document Pen Green/Innovation Unit 201 – page 9
www.pengreen.org
All staff parents and children
are Practitioner Researchers
• Where the ethics of the encounter with co workers, parents and children are paramount
• Where all ECE workers are encouraged to see themselves as researchers of their own practice
• Where there is a commitment to developing new research methodologies that support Research from the Underside,
• ‘The values I hold are such that I long for the end of poverty and the promotion of equality. My interest in research is thus just this, how can research help the poor?’ (Holman, 1987, p.669)
• Where people’s answers are believed and acted upon
• Where research both informs and leads to improvement in practice
• Where participation in the research process can be emancipatory for participants
• Where the critical questions are generated by users and providers of the service
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Integrated centres for children and families engage effectively with children, parents and
the wider community:
• When staff are well qualified, opportunities for reflection and dialogue have a strong theoretical base
• When staff are well supported, in provision that is well resourced and securely funded
• When staff adopt an ‘equal and active’ approach
• When staff have cultural humility
• When staff are capable or cultural brokerage and mediation
• When staff think systemically
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Reflexive Professionalism
• Exploring dissensus
• Valuing the ‘other’
• Co-constructing knowledge with children, parents and colleagues
• Always acting with a focus on change
With thanks to; Jan Peeters 2008
Michael Vandebroek 2009
