Carlisle

Getting Started Children’s Centre Staff identified potential volunteers Coffee mornings held to plan the project Applied to Daycare Trust for funding and training DBS and volunteer training held

Our Uniforms What do you think? They were designed in consultation with staff and volunteers and caused quite some discussions

Carlisle Northern city with a population of 105,000 Large land area with many rural villages and farms 4.5% Black Minority and Ethnic population

Ways of Working  Carlisle South – Botcherby & Petteril Bank  Carlisle West – Morton & Newtown Wendy, Fiona, Jo, Sarah and Kirsty Suzanne, Leeanne, Vicky, Kate, Katrina, Marie

Our roles Leaflet drops Door knocking Visiting Schools and Nurseries Community Centres Coffee mornings Follow up phone calls Liaising with staff Knowing the community Recognising new opportunities Planning strategies to engage new people

Using the data Using local information systems to identify areas of high deprivation and low reach (estart, observatory ) Working with the local service coordinators to identify targeted groups not attending Signposting and referrals to funded twos Local knowledge of the area invaluable

What’s on Now? we always had an event on for people to come to People were encouraged to bring the “monitoring cards” in to these sessions

Monitoring Cards  Each Parent champion gave out different coloured “calling cards” to the people they met, if these cards came back to the centre it would indicate who had given the card out and where and let us know if the scheme was working  As an incentive to bring in the cards people were entered into a monthly draw for a £10 Asda voucher

Town Centre Launch Project Launch Getting the word out

The launch The Press:- “The Parent Champions are a friendly, caring and enthusiastic group who want to do the best for their communities” News and Star Freebies!

What Our Parents Think “Everyone is so friendly and approachable” “I didn’t know about the Children's Centres” “Very persuasive!” “It can be very lonely in rural areas-it is good to get out” “They listen to you!” “My boys love the crèche “ “They offer so much” “I was scared to go out on my own”

Caren-a success story We met Caren when door to door knocking in a rural village and gave her information on the courses running This led her to attend “Time 4 Me” course and put her two boys in crèche She is now on the Parent Forum making decisions about her local Children’s Centre

Further Training Breastfeeding, referral to childcare, safeguarding communication skills, and outcomes, Opportunity to do the Children and Young People Workforce L3 diploma Training will be ongoing as needed

Success in Numbers Number of parents reached November 115 December 125 January 458 February 338 March 93

Success in Quotes “Been a parent champion has given me a lot more confidence, I am enjoying meeting new people, and have made a lot of new friends” “Been a parent champion has given me other opportunities, confidence of speaking, talking to others.” “It has built confidence and now helped towards getting my job.” “They have proved to be excellent volunteers, very knowledgeable about their community and committed to getting results. They have undoubtedly connected new families to our services groups and activities are busier as a result. “ “I have been able to do my L3 with excellent support from staff” “I have got to know the BME community in Carlisle and begin to understand their barriers”

Kim: Morton Local Service Coordinator Wendy, Jo and Fiona have been a great help to me, supporting with the mammoth task of promoting upcoming activities, especially out in the rural wards of Morton. This has been effective with re affirming some links within the Burgh ward, and recently the girls delivered a ‘what’s on event’ on a Saturday alongside Burgh’s library book drop. This has now led onto plans to deliver an Easter holiday activity in Burgh village hall to support engagement from the rural families, helping to break down some of the barriers to access such as lack of transport and social isolation. Kim

And from management:- “We were very keen to introduce the Programme into Carlisle as we could really see the benefits of local parents accessing our Children’s Centres sharing the benefits to other parents within their community. The parents recruited have really exceeded our expectations and have introduced families into the Centre that we would have otherwise struggled to engage. The project fits well within Barnardo’s volunteer programme, with the volunteer training providing the firm foundations and support to become competent volunteers alongside additional training and sessions relevant to their role to enhance their learning and skills. It can be seen how the Parent Champions have grown in confidence and creativity in their ways of supporting others and have become valued volunteers within the Carlisle team. I’m now not sure how we managed without them!”

Tweaking  Keep the volunteers together as a team  Allow time to meet together and discuss  Business cards didn’t work but nice to have-other monitoring approaches needed  Recruiting volunteers  Keeping volunteers  Getting staff on board across the city  Use the individual monitoring sheets rather then the group one to gather better data Challenges

So what? The monitoring reports have shown an increase of 17% reach for 0-4s Q3 in Newtown and 14% increase in Morton compared to this time last year. We can’t say its fully due to PCs however are sure they have been a big influence. The Local Authority have asked for this method of engagement to be shared as an area of good practice