Focus on Children’s Centres

Integrated Working

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Children’s Centres – What? Who? Why?

‘Service hubs’

‘Seamless integrated services and information’

Children under 5 years and their families

One in every community by 2010

Improve outcomes for all children

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Task 1: Children’s Centre Services

8. Speech and language

therapist

9. Education psychologist

10. Baby Massage

11. Health visitor

12. Homestart

13. Nutritionist

14.Child protection team

Services vary from centre to centre. Here are some that you suggested could be found in your local Children's Centres?

1. Training for Early Years Professionals

2. Midwife

3. Social support

4. Portage

5. Play Therapist

6. Nurse

7. Behaviour Therapist

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Children’s Centre Services

Integrated early education and childcare

Support for parents – e.g. parenting advice

Child and family health services

Into work help – links to Jobcentre Plus/training

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Task 2: Which professionals help provide these services?

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Children’s Centres Professionals

1. Health Visitor

2. Speech and language

therapist

3. Manager

4. Social Worker

5. Nurse

6. Midwife

7. Police Community

Support Officer

8. Finance Manager

9. Play therapist

10. Behaviour Therapist

11. SENCO

12. Early Years Professional

13. Playworker

14. Childminder

Above are some of the

professionals Year 3 expect

to see in a Children’s Centre

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Task 3: Building Professional Working Relationships

For this task you will need:

A partner A voice recorder (e.g. mobile phone) A pen and paper (to note down comments about each

other’s responses)

1. Talk about your best and worst professional relationships 2. Reflect on your use of body language, tone of voice,

and vocabulary in each case.

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Reflect and Consider

In each case did you help or hinder professional working

relationship building?

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Task 4: Family Wedding Role Play

Bride-to-be: Bertha Groom-to-be: Arthur Mums and Dads (birth parents) Mums and Dads (step-parents) Mums and Dads (foster-parents) Mums and Dads (adoptive parents) Granny and Granddad Tandem Sibling Sarah Auntie Spiked-Heel Auntie Well-respected-by-almost-everyone (Flo) Uncles (birth, step, foster, adoptive)

Thank you for taking part in the role play. ‘Bertha’ stayed focussed on her goal throughout!)

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Task 5: Building inter-professional relationships

Split in to 4 large groups (Children’s Centre staff teams)

Each choose one of the professional roles we identified earlier in the session

You are meeting to discuss Mark (aged 4).

Mark is experiencing communication and behavioural difficulties

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1. How would your profession tend to tackle Mark’s case?2. What resources is your team usually short of?3. Who around the table is particularly experienced in any

aspect of Mark’s case? Is it you, or an ‘other’ professional?

4. Who is missing from around the table that could help improve outcomes for Mark?

5. How does the way you can help Mark change when everyone contributes to the plan?

6. What happens when an ‘other’ professional refuses to contribute to the plan?

7. How will you decide who takes the lead on implementing the plan for Mark?

8. What difference does it make who takes the lead?9. How will progress be monitored? Who by?10. What if things don’t go according to plan?

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Task 6: Feedback

You will have made mental notes about which people around the table you enjoyed working with, and which onesyou only just managed to endure

Feed the positive impressions back to your ‘colleagues’ Keep any negative ones to yourself we may need time to

work on those!

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Excellent Session

Well done Year 3

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Follow-up leads

http://www.surestart.gov.uk/surestartservices/settings/surestartchildrenscentres/

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/childrensplan/downloads/The_Childrens_Plan.pdf

http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/earlyyears/tenyearstrategy/

http://www.togetherforchildren.co.uk/ Simms, M. (2007) Building Professional Working

Relationships. Early Years Educator. 9 (5), 39-44. http://www.nmc-uk.org/aArticle.aspx?ArticleID=2344