Formerly School for parents

It Needn’t Be Your Plan B. Our experience of delivering an in-house Conductor’s Assistant training programme. Kirsten Bairstow-Robb Jo Garwood Karen Whitehall Talking today about how we came to the decion to deliver the CA course It needn’t be your Plan B as you might decide that you actively want to do the course and that it is not a compromise.

Our Journey Established as part of the Nursery at Rutland House School Went independent 17 years ago when the funding which had previously been from scope was pulled and parents got together to save the service When part of RHS conductors would come over from Hungary to help out ( not UK trained Conductors then ) When Scope had trained first cohort of conductors, 5 conductors ( including myself) went to teach in RHS, only one conductor in the nursery initially. Following this, at one point in time there were 5 conductors working in the SFP , although some were only part time. At this time the School for parents network was well established and there were 40+ centres run mainly by scope across the Uk. Pull of funding – centres closed. SFP managed to keep going- had been a training hub for many sfp centres along with Ingfield manor. Big bank of knowledge. Don’t want to loose this knowledge Various conductors working over the years alongside staff who had trained in the SFP network ( therefore skilled) Trying to maintain a good level of conductor input over the last few years has been a challenge. How did we go from 5 conductors to 1.5 ?

This is where we operate from This is where we operate from. We are small and our building may appear insignificant but from here great things happen It has however been akin to finding hens teeth in trying to recruit a new conductor We have a wealth of knowledge that we would like to share

For whatever reason…Brexit For whatever reason…Brexit?? There seem to be fewer Hungarians coming from the Peto institute now to work in the Uk Are there fewer conductors training in Hungary? Not that I know seems that more conductors are setting up on their own to work. Working in isolation NICE is still training a small cohort 5/10 a year, but that doesn’t seem to keep up with demand

Why not Nottingham? Location salary Package Having a key member of staff leave, tried to replace – had a few applications- not many. then recruited a conductor ,but sadly she then had to go home due to illness. re advertised but no joy……what do we do ?? Offering competitive rates………etc

What do we do? We needed to think outside of the box if we can’t find conductors, what is the next best think we can do? Managed to recruit a conductor to work Saturdays- working collaboratively with Steps in Leicestershire ( helped us keep our gym club running) Could take a trainee Conductor from the NICE Birmingham city course?? Can train our own but that would take too long and would have large financial implications

We decided to speak to NICE National institute for CE, training centre and good resource centre for expertise…they must have the answer

Told us about a course that was run in link with the Open colleges Network in the west-midlands a course to run for anyone with an interest in CE. Training people to be assistants and not conductors Could it be a solution to our problem ? Maybe for a short time? Doesn’t get us conductors but does train people to be hands on and learn the fudamentals of CE Could this be a solution to our problems?? Not necessarily a long term solution but it was enough for us to make some progress in the right direction wouldn’t bring conductors but would train someone to be a conductors Assistant…..think like a conductor Not expected to lead programmes but would have the framework of CE and understanding of CE Info about the course . * modules etc Decided to go ahead with the course. what was the worst that could happen ? Just about to deliver module 6 out of 8. Going well

Conductor’s Assistant course Started in June 2017 Trustees Friends Colleagues Planned to finish Oct 2018 Pre-prepared course with all of the materials you need Bit of a ginnea pig course Obviously not finished the course yet but ? Whether we would run it again ? Not going to give details of the finer points of the course but get in touch with Marie at NICE if interested. Probably yes- open out to a wider audience- know a bit more of what we are delivering

Challenges Finding time to do the training Resourcing the training from a staffing point of view Time taken to mark assignments /write assignments etc Inset days taken over Need conductor suppervision

Benefits All staff have the same level of training as a minimum Level 3 qualification Extra help from trainees in group Good refresher for all staff Generates revenue A means of broadening the audience for CE ( putting on workshops for trustees etc) Deliver at a pace that suits yourself/organisation Help at hand through NICE staff. CPD Benefits outweigh the challenges…..still searching for conductors …if you have any spare send them our way !

Feedback from course participants Karen as a senior member of staff with many years experience of CE Jo as a new member of staff with no previous knowledge of CE Questions at the end