Early Years Strategy 2015 - 2018

Introduction

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Working together to give children the best start

Fife’s multi-agency Early Years Strategy Group was established in 2008 to oversee the development of Fife’s overarching Early Years Strategy and implementation of the National Early Years Framework. The group is remitted to provide strategic leadership for planning and delivery of services for children and families pre-birth to age 8 within Fife’s Children’s Services reporting framework. The Early Years Strategy is part of a golden thread which links national social policy frameworks to local strategic and local plans. It is important that this thread is detectable and that practitioners can see the contribution they make to the bigger picture.

Strategic context

This plan is nested within Fife’s Community Plan, in particular these 4 outcomes:

• improving early years development of children in Fife,

• raising educational attainment and reducing educational inequality • improving

the health of Fifers and narrowing the health inequality gap, and

• making Fife’s communities safer.

This work is fully integrated into Fife Children’s Services development of the national Getting It Right For Every Child agenda.

Why the Early Years are important

There is now a significant body of evidence to show that preventative approaches and investment in the early years can improve long term outcomes for children. In addition to improving the life chances of individuals, a focus on prevention and early intervention reduces impact on services such as social care, health care and criminal justice. (See Appendix for Key Documents)

Fife’s Journey of Improvement – The Family Nurture Approach

The Family Nurture Approach in Fife has been developed taking into account research and evidence of what works to break the cycle of disadvantage, improving the life chances of children within an early intervention and preventative model. It is widely recognised that positive attachment relationships in the early years provides a strong foundation for children building resilience and wellbeing and in developing nurturing families. Research has confirmed that Services that are developed from an asset and strength based approach are more effective in achieving positive outcomes and developing individual and community capacity. The Family Nurture Approach is built on the foundations of the Early Years Framework and the underpinning principles of the approach are consistent with the national policies of Getting It Right for Every Child and the Early Years Collaborative improvement methodology.

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A key priority of the Early Years Strategy Group is to support the planning, development and delivery of effective and sustainable services at a local level, this requires all Community Planning Partners to focus on what is working well, areas for improvement and innovation. This will be achieved through promoting;

• an agreed multi-agency approach to all early years work • a focus on improvement and what works in our engagement and empowerment of

families particularly those hardest to reach.

• the adoption of an asset based approach within local communities. To progress the transformational priorities set out in the Early Years Framework, investment in the Family Nurture Approach has supported a range of measures to improve the coordination of early years work across Fife. This has included supporting;

• the co-ordination and facilitation of multi-agency early years’ partnerships at a local level to deliver effective, outcome based parenting and family support services

• the accessibility of services through raising awareness of relevant services to all stakeholders

• the development of individual and community capacity building through a range of partnerships interventions

• connection with families who have higher levels of need who may not traditionally access universal or targeted services.

An ambitious change programme of this nature depends upon strong partnerships across the system. In Fife, the Early Years Strategy Group is embedded within Fife’s Community Planning Partnership structures.

The following diagram illustrates the governance structure for the Early Years in Fife:

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* GIR = Getting It Right groups

**EYGs = Local Early Years Groups (formerly known as Family, Parenting & Early Years Sub-groups)

The Early Years Framework

The National social policy document, the Early Years Framework, provides a clear context and structure to the strands of work necessary to effect societal change. The ten Elements of Transformational Change offer a focus for where key activity should be directed. Since 2009, Fife’s Early Years Strategy Group has used the Elements to inform the Strategy and Action Plan and the following section highlights some key areas of work since that time.

A Coherent Approach

The Early Years Strategy Group has worked hard as a partnership to improve coordination, development and delivery across Fife; to reduce duplication, address gaps and increase partnership working and communication.

We Have:

• Established Local Early Years Groups to drive development at local level

• Developed a model for an Integrated Pathway for 0-2

• Increased the number of play opportunities for children and families across Fife •

Developed a multi-agency communications plan

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Helping children, families and communities secure outcomes for themselves

Increasing the capacity of children, families and communities to address their own needs through information, advice and focused interventions will build resilience at individual, family and community level, leading to a reduced reliance on services and a greater level of community involvement.

We Have:

• Embarked on a campaign to provide improved information about activities, services and events as well as encourage positive parenting behaviours

• Agreed a multi-agency framework of parenting interventions

• Through the Family Nurture Approach consulted with families to inform service delivery

• Developed groups and programmes responsively where local need has been identified

• Developed a parenting pathway for parents with learning difficulties

Breaking cycles of poverty, inequality and poor outcomes in and through early years

By taking a prevention and early intervention approach we aim to narrow the outcomes gap for children and families experiencing social disadvantage as described by the Scottish Indices of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) We Have:

• Increased support and provision for 0-3 in nurseries and local communities

• Enabled access to an Early Years dataset to support prioritisation and planning

• Provided specialised support for families in need of short-term focused support through the Community Childminding programme

• Implemented Family Nurse Partnership to support young parents

A focus on engagement and empowerment of children, families and communities

Through engaging with individuals and communities, service providers gain an understanding of their particular support requirements, interests and knowledge and as such are in a stronger position to offer appropriate support, skills development and community capacity.

We Have:

• Developed the Fife Families website as portal for families offering access to information, advice, local services, activities and events

• Responded to feedback by establishing a Fife Families Facebook page to share information and events via social media

• Improved engagement of families through increased community based parent groups Using the strength of universal services to deliver prevention and early intervention

The main aim of the Early Years Strategy and the Family Nurture Approach is to build on the strength of universal services to ensure support is accessible and non-stigmatising,

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particularly to families who may have additional needs and vulnerabilities and to those who traditionally do not engage with support services.

We Have:

• Increased joint training opportunities through development of Multi-agency Training Calendar

• Strengthened universal services through training and delivery at local level

• Increased partnership working through universal agencies at local level through Local Early Years Groups

• Enhanced Health Visitor training numbers

Putting quality at the heart of service delivery

Our approach is based on what we know works from available research. This research along with the Christie Commission report, Getting it Right for Every Child, the Children and Young People’s Act, Community Empowerment Bill and the Early Years Framework have all informed the direction of travel for early years in Fife. The growing body of evidence identifies key factors for successful intervention in the early years this has led us to take a more family-centric approach; working with families to offer early support and developing services which consider the needs, and assets, of families holistically.

We Have:

• Utilised the Early Years Collaborative Improvement Methodology to embark on Tests of Change across the partnership to inform service improvement and delivery

• Undertaken work with Dundee University to develop a robust and reliable tool that will give evidence on what a child of age three entering nursery is able achieve in relation to their expected developmental milestones.

• Developed processes and support for families using information gathered from the reintroduced 27-30 month contact

Services that meet the needs of children and families

We are committed to engaging with families to inform service development. Almost 500 families have been involved in Family Nurture consultation events to ensure that any service development builds capacity of individuals and communities by responding early to what a community needs with a focus on outcomes for families.

We Have:

• Extended opportunities for children with Additional Support Needs to access early entry placements

• Undertaken a large scale consultation exercise to inform the model for delivery of the increased hours of early learning and childcare available for all three and four year olds as well as two year olds from ‘workless households’

Improving outcomes and children’s quality of life through play

Play is essential for children’s development; it enables children to experiment, explore and create. Playing together as families builds bonds and boosts attachment. Physical activity,

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creativity and relaxation all support healthy outcomes and are enshrined in Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

We Have:

• Increased opportunities for community based play across Fife

• Provided a variety of play focused training for practitioners working with children and families

• Conducted an evaluation of Play @ Home to inform future delivery

• Promoted the importance of Play through our communications campaign

Simplifying and streamlining delivery

In Fife we currently have seven local Family, Parenting and Early Years sub-groups which have multi-agency representation and are tasked with driving forward local priorities based on analysis of gaps and needs. During 2014 development work has been undertaken with the sub-groups to improve functioning and ensure there are mechanisms to feedback local issues at a strategic level.

We Have:

• Implemented the use of the SHANARRI wellbeing indicators across all services to assess wellbeing and identify interventions as appropriate.

• Improved opportunities for joint training and delivery

• Undertaken development work with the seven Local Early Years Groups to support improved service delivery at local level.

• Developed the Child Wellbeing Pathway to support the Named Person in their role and improve processes

More effective collaborations

The Early Years Strategy Group operates effectively as a Community Planning group since 2009. The national Early Years Collaborative has enabled the partnership to develop collaborations beyond strategic level as practitioners work together on local Tests of Change. There is a commitment to joint training opportunities across the partnership with the Multiagency training calendar well established, Solihull training being rolled out and a children’s services professional learning extranet being explored.

We Have:

• Established strong partnerships at strategic and operational level

• Developed a Public Social Partnership model of family support delivery in South West Fife

• Strengthened links between the Early Years Strategy Group and the Community Planning Partnership

Early Years Strategy Priority Themes 2015 -2018

The Early Years Strategy Group has identified five thematic areas for priority focus over the next three years. The themes are consistent with the key changes identified through the

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National Early Years Collaborative improvement methodology and with key activities which the EYSG has identified as being core to the multi-agency early years programme (See Driver Diagrams in Appendix).

Using a thematic approach helps focus on identified areas for improvement in order to maximise our combined resources where we will see the greatest benefit.

Themes:

• Reducing Inequalities Reducing inequalities within and across our communities is a key aspiration for Fife’s Community Planning Partnership. Evidence tells us of the need to focus on closing the inequalities gap as inequality is pervasive and a key driver in individual and societal wellbeing. We will look to develop partnership approaches to reducing inequality across the key areas of child poverty, health and educational outcomes.

• Supporting Families

A key aspect of the Family Nurture Approach is in focusing on a partnership model of working with families to secure the best outcomes for their children. The Early Years Strategy Group will seek opportunities to embed this ethos through providing parents and families with improved access to information and resources through the Fife Families website and social media platforms; working together to promote and actively embody the principles of the Getting it Right in Fife Framework and offering a continuum of interventions ranging from universal to targeted.

• Strengthening Communities To build capacity and ensure new developments are sustainable there has been increasing emphasis on empowering parents, utilising their skills to connect with other parents in local communities. Using the Strategic Assessments developed for Local Community Planning we will continue to focus on building capacity within communities through identifying skills development opportunities to enable parents and community members to deliver programmes and groups within their communities. Our Local Early Years Groups and Network Groups will support the inclusion of parents, families and community members within local developments. In addition, two Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) learning sites will give insight into a specific methodological approach to working with communities.

• Supporting Learning Children’s capacity to learn is shaped by their environments and experiences in their early years. To support children to achieve their potential and expected developmental milestones the Early Years Strategy Group will seek to offer opportunities for children and families to participate in family learning, play and creative experiences. Building on the Take Time campaign we will provide access to information for parents and families on ideas for supporting their child’s learning through easy, affordable and fun activities that can be enjoyed together. We will work to ensure that Early Learning and Childcare provision as outlined in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 is of high quality and will seek the view of families to further develop flexible models which meet the needs of both children and parents.

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• Workforce Development We have developed a workforce development programme that is multi-agency and aims to improve confidence and skills of staff across the early years. Significant investment has been made to ensure a systematic delivery of the core parenting interventions and to show a more strengths based approach to working with children and families across Fife. We will continue to prioritise partnership approaches to building the capacity of our early years’ workforce and will develop an online platform for all staff to access professional development resources to enhance their work with children and families. Local Early Years Groups in each of Fife’s seven locality areas will continue to co-ordinate partnership working at a community level, encouraging information sharing, networking and joint planning. A comprehensive programme is planned to further embed the EYC Model for Improvement Methodology, raise awareness of the national Key Change areas and consolidate Fife’s intervention bundles.

• Monitoring and Evaluation Evaluation of the Family Nurture Approach to date has confirmed that we have made significant progress in increasing universal entitlement for all young children through Early Learning and Childcare and also increased access to a range of universal and targeted parenting programmes across communities in Fife. There has been a shift in spend to supporting children 0-3 and their families. There is evidence of improvements in integration and coordination of services across the community planning partnerships, with families more aware of opportunities in their area and services clearer on their individual and collective contribution.

To ensure we are achieving outcomes and impact we will ensure a robust self-evaluation approach across the work of the early years partnership.

The following outcome measures and driver diagrams show where the partnership will place collective focus across the priority themes in the coming years. Progress on all activity will be co-ordinated and monitored by the local area subgroups, the EYC Project Management Team and the Early Years Strategy Group.

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Outcome Measures Outcome Measure 2009 - 2013 2014 2018 target

Increase % of P1 children with no obvious signs of dental disease

59.7 (2010)

68.2 (*2012)

75

Reduce pregnancy rate amongst under 16 year olds per 1000

10.5 (2009)

6.7 (*2011)

6.0

Decrease % babies requiring treatment of substance misuse

8.6 (2010)

6.5 (2013/14)

6.5

Increase % of babies exclusively breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks

25 (2010)

23.9 (2013)

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Increase % of children categorised as healthy weight at 27 month check and P1 check

85.1 (2011/12)

73.8% (2013/14) 86

Increase proportion of pregnant women not smoking at booking

New target 78.3% (2014)

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Ensure women experience positive pregnancies which result in the birth of more healthy babies

Stillbirths: 4.9 per 1000 births (2010)

4.3 per 1000 births in 2015

Reduce by 15%

Infant mortality: 3.7 per 1000 live births (2010)

3.1 per live births in 2015

Ensure all children reach their developmental milestones at the time of 2730 month health review

81% (2013/14)

85% in 2016

Take up of 27-30 month child health review

89% 90%

Ensure all children reach their developmental milestones at end of primary one

Literacy 89.9% (2013)

Numeracy 91%

(2013)

Literacy 92.7%

Numeracy 93.9%

90% in 2017

Ensure all children reach their developmental milestones and learning outcomes by end P4

Literacy 81.7% (2013)

Numeracy 84.4% (2013)

Literacy 85.8%

Numeracy 88%

90% in 2021

Decrease children under 5 who are re-registered on the Child Protection Register

4% or 9 children 6% or 13 children* 5%

Increase % of children under 5 who are Looked After at home or in Kinship Care

44.08% 43.55% 50%

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Increase % children whose parent-reported behaviours move out of high risk range of the Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire following participation in Incredible Years

New Target 60% 66%

New Outcome Measures to be established

• Increase Access to Family Information:

o % increase hits to the local information section of Fife Families website o % increase ‘likes’ to Fife Families Facebook page

• Ensure all children reach their developmental milestones at end of primary one o Three year old Social Linguistic measure to be added – currently under development

• Increased participation in universal early years activities by families from SIMD areas 1 & 2 o Baseline and targets and tracking tool to be identified

• Wellbeing outcome measure to be developed

• Workforce Development outcome measure to be developed • *There are complex issues in terms of setting a target as we would always want risk

assessments to be dynamic and responsive to need. Additionally we are aware that the overall numbers of registered children has decreased by over 30% during the course of 2015 which would mean that any period of second registration will result in the statistic being a greater % of the whole.

APPENDIX: Key Documents

Early Years Framework

The Early Years Framework (2008) is Scotland’s Key Social Policy Framework guiding work with young children and families. http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/257007/0076309.pdf

Getting it Right for Every Child

Scotland’s approach to improving outcomes and wellbeing for all our children

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young-People/gettingitright

Early Years Collaborative

The Early Years Collaborative (EYC) is the world's first multi-agency, bottom up quality improvement programme to support the transformation of early years.

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young-People/early-years/early-years-collaborative

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Children & Young People (Scotland) Act 2014

The Children and Young People Bill was introduced to Parliament on 17 April 2013. The Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 19 February 2014, and it received Royal Assent on 27 March 2014, making the Bill an Act of the Scottish Parliament.

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young-People/legislation Scotland’s

Commissioner for Children & Young People http://www.sccyp.org.uk/

Christie Commission Report

The Commission was established by the Scottish Government in November 2010 to develop recommendations for the future delivery of public services. The Commission, which was chaired by Dr Campbell Christie CBE, operated independently of government.

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2011/06/27154527/0

Education Scotland

Education Scotland is the national body in Scotland for supporting quality and improvement in learning and teaching.

Early Learning & Childcare - http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteaching/earlylearningandchildcare/index.a sp

Nurture Development

Nurture Development are the only strategic partners of the ABCD Institute in Europe & widely acknowledged as leaders in the thinking & implementation of the ABCD approach http://www.nurturedevelopment.org/

Fife’s Early Years Strategy Group members

• Carrie Lindsay, Head of Education & Children’s Services

• Mairi Ferris, Team Manager (Early Years & Partnership Support)

• Dougie Dunlop, Head of Service (Children & Families/Criminal Justice)

• Elly Alexander, Area Depute Principal Psychologist

• Lynn Gillies, Early Years Change Officer

• Jane Mason, Early Years Learning Officer

• Belinda Morgan, Head of Health Improvement, NHS Fife

• Janice Laird, Service Manager, CLD

• Cllr Willie Campbell, Early Years Ambassador

• Cath Cummings, Head of Midwifery, NHS Fife

• Laura Falconer, Assistant Director, Barnardos

• Rhona Cunningham, Fife Gingerbread

• Marie Renaud, Clinical Psychology

• Enid Lowe, Scottish Childminding Association

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• Joyce Waddell, Early Years Scotland

• Craig Morris, EYC Project Manager

• Jackie Young, Service Manager of Community Child Health, NHS Fife

• Christine Moir, Senior Manager, Social Work

• Lorna Watson, Consultant in Public Health Medicine, NHS Fife

• Susan Fraser, General Manager, Planned Care, NHS Fife

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Early Years Driver Diagram

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