Helping Local Communities Change Children’s Services

Training parents and carers in Newcastle with the skills to be able to participate fully in the design, development and delivery of services is key to successful engagement. Delivering services that really meet the needs of children and families requires that parents and carers are equipped with the skills to participate fully. Once that core group are trained the opportunities for them to cascade their learned skills and development is endless.

HealthWORKS Newcastle teamed up with Newcastle’s Children’s Services to develop the first tailor – made training for parents and carers participation. The Neighbourhood Learning in Deprived Communities Fund, alongside Newcastle City Council’s Workforce Development Funding, provided the resource to develop this unique opportunity.

The training involved looking at how community development approaches could be used to involve people in shaping Children’s Services. It enabled parents and carers, some of whom had been out of formal education for a number of years to develop community development skills, to apply those skills to changing Children’s Services and to achieve an accredited qualification all at the same time!

The training was delivered by Pam Rudram from HealthWORKS Newcastle in June 2009 to a group of 23 people at 2 venues, the Lemington Centre and Riverside Community Health Project. During the course learners:

• Looked at the key purpose and values of community development

• Studied an overview of Children’s Services and its policy background

• Looked at the parent and carer participation strategy.

• Discussed how the strategy works in practice and asked to reflect on the barriers and facilitators to parent and carer participation.

• Reflected on the skills needed to participate effectively in decision making processes, and specifically in the development of Children’s Services

• Looked at power and powerlessness and how to tackle these issues

• Agreed on recommendations of good practice for parents, carers, and workforce development.

• Worked in groups to research and deliver a presentation on local projects and services

• Reflected on their own learning and where they wanted to go to next

All 23 learners qualified for Level 2 Open College Network ‘Introduction to Community Development Work’ certificate. And all have indicated that they want to continue engaging with key services in their neighbourhoods.
In the four months since the training some of the areas the parents and carers have already been involved with are:

• Interview panels for the selection of Children’s Services staff

• Drugs and Alcohol annual assessment consultation

• Dialogue with Family Information Service to develop a Good Practice Guide for Parents and Carers

• Volunteering with Nacro

• Engagement with Newcastle Futures

• Parent governor service

• Inter – generational work at local Children’s centre

• Further training on Mental Health First Aid

• Enrolling on a full-time College Courses

• Engaging with Children’s Services Executive member

Parents and carers who have completed the training will for the first time in Newcastle form the reflective focus group for the parents and carers contribution to the Newcastle Plan for Children & Young People 2010-2013.

And this is just the beginning! Building on the success of this course, there are plans to extend further training courses to parents and carers across the city.

The partnership between HealthWORKS Newcastle and Newcastle’s Parent and carer participation coordinator, Val Chadwick, Children’s Services, is going from strength to strength. Many other core cities across the country are looking to Newcastle as a great example of participation and change for its citizens.

If you need any further information contact either Rob Errington, Healthworks Newcastle, rob.errington@hwn.org.uk or Val Chadwick, Parent and Carer Participation coordinator on 0191 2606512, or by email val.chadwick@newcastle.gov.uk.

The course was fantastic! It was a great way to meet with people from all backgrounds to learn about the community we live in. I totally recommend this course to other parents and carers who want to find out about services on their doorstep that they might not have known about and to get involved with organizations. The course also opened my eyes to new career opportunities

- Michelle Smith course participant