Learning & Leisure Services Early Years and Childcare Promoting Attachment through the Solihull Approach

Context  North Lanarkshire Council Early Years and Childcare are committed to investing in staff to improve the quality, provision and outcomes for children and families.  National and local policies and procedures are key drivers to embedding the Solihull Approach as part of a universal approach to supporting children and families.  The Solihull Approach is a practical way of working with families and has a robust theoretical structure, based on evidence from well documented research.  Solihull Approach provides an integrated approach for a range of professionals and provides a sound baseline of knowledge and understanding of attachment for staff from all sectors and ensures that staff share a common approach for family support.

Changes/Improvements What are we currently testing?  The relevance of the Solihull Approach to the practitioners work.  The quality of the training, including delivery by the trainers.  Practitioners knowledge pre and post training  The method of collating evaluative information  What practitioners notice/pay attention to when working with a family.  The impact the training has on how practitioners support parents/families who are anxious or under stress. What have we learned so far?  All professionals involved in the training think that the Solihull Approach is relevant to their role  All professionals comment that they are now more confident in supporting vulnerable families.  The multi-agency approach provides opportunities for networking between local practitioners, resulting in a greater understanding of colleagues roles.  Preferred method of delivery is in a multi-agency format.  The need to offer “refresher” training sessions for previously trained practitioners.  Practitioners “think” differently about heir practice and seek ways to empower parents to develop resilience.

Who is involved?  1 seconded Head of Centre – from Shawhead Family Learning Centre  Several colleagues from various services now trained as “Trainers” to deliver the Foundation training (Early Learning Development Officers, Head/Depute Head of Centres, Health Visitors, Speech & Language Therapist)  Training is delivered to multi-agency groups in a cluster – first cluster is Craigneuk/Wishaw area

Data! Data! Data! As a result of testing, we reverted to using paper copies to collate evaluations.

Data! Data! Data! Data shows that the multi-agency practitioners think that the Solihull Approach is a “highly relevant” approach to their work.

Data! Data! Data! Data shows that the multi-agency practitioners think that the Solihull Approach has increased their confidence in supporting anxious parents.

The Human Factor Home Visit to the Smith Family on the 17 th October The Smith family composition is Mum – 22 years, Dad – 19 years, Jim – 2 years (not the biological child of Dad) and Jake – 7 months. Mum has had social work intervention all through her childhood; Dad was unknown to social work. Since the birth of Jim there has been social work intervention with Mum due to poor mental health and anxiety issues which impacted on her parenting capacity. Writer was involved in the Solihull Training and on this home visit observed the opportunity to put this training into practice. Writer spoke to both parents with regard to brain development, how a baby is born with ‘half a brain’ and the relevance of babies learning from their environment. Dad became very interested in this information and writer took the opportunity to elaborate on further information and materials from the Solihuill Approach. Writer spoke to parents with regard to the connections within babies brain being made and what impacts on connections within the brain being impaired or connections being lost and therefore this impacting on the development of the baby. This gave the writer the opportunity to relate to some of the behaviours of both children and how this relates to the issues of both Mum and Dad in relation to domestic abuse, substance misuse and poor mental health. It was in the writer opinion that Dad appeared to understand the impact of his behaviours on the future of his children’s development and wellbeing. Child and Family Support Worker Wishaw Locality

The Human Factor “Really enjoyed the training and feel this will influence my practice working within the nurseries an schools I work within” “Very insightful and made me consider my current approach and practice” Comments from practitioners on training January 2015 “There is a need for all staff to be trained in this approach”

Next Steps As this is a highly researched approach with lots of evidence to demonstrate its effectiveness, there is no need to further test this. Next steps…  Respond to demand for more training by increasing the capacity to deliver more courses  Embed Solihull Approach in practice by offering Practice Support sessions  Extend the Solihull Approach by training practitioners to deliver the “Understanding Your Child” parenting course  Pilot the “Whole School Approach” in NLC schools  Promote “Attachment” across services, led by knowledgeable staff trained in Solihull Approach; launch at Attachment conference in March 2015

“So What?” The Solihull Approach is firmly based on encouraging parents and families; supporting them to process strong feelings and emotions, so that they are more manageable and tolerable and this process can help restore the capacity to think in an individual. The multi-agency “Solihull Approach” ensures:  consistency for families where all support staff use consistent language and have the same knowledge and skills  involves parents/families, encouraging them to develop their capacity and seek their own solutions; creates resilient families

Investment of Resources Current Investment:  Secondment of Head of Centre  Training costs; accommodation, catering, resources Proposed Investment: 2 year training programme  Year 1:  Establish a team of trainers, led by a co-ordinator, to offer training in 3 localities  Offer ongoing Practice Support  Develop the “Understanding Your Child” parenting course, delivered by multi-agency practitioners  Year 2:  Continue with the above programme  Extend to 3 new localities  This plan should result in all practitioners being trained in Solihull Approach and each locality having local trainers who can deliver training internally. The above model will become self-sufficient as each locality will have Solihull Trainers located in each service. They will then be able to deliver the training/Refresher training/Practice Support to local practitioners.

For More Information  Cheryl Valentine  