Niall McVicar Children’s Trust Unit, Service Manager City of York Council

 A little bit of history...  The age of austerity  Continuous improvement ◦ Quality ◦ Culture  Your strategic triangle ◦ Identifying and taking opportunities  Challenges

 Studied Physics at the University of York  I became manager of the Children’s Information Service in 2005 ◦ Okay service, not much continuous improvement ◦ Parkinson’s law in action ◦ Doing things we have always done ◦ Lots of potential  Chair of the National Association of Family Information Services since 2013

 National Childcare Strategy  A significant cultural shift in how government viewed and interacted with childcare  Driven by a desire to: ◦ Remove barriers to families working ◦ Reduce child poverty

 Children’s Information Services formed ◦ National CIS strategy ◦ Aim to provide families with information about local childcare  Family Information Services formed ◦ Childcare Act 2006 – Duty 12 ◦ Aim to provide  Childcare information  Any service which could help a parent in their role

Universal Emerging Complex

 The age of austerity has polarised the picture of FIS across the UK.  Magnified the differences between areas.  What factors have caused this polarisation? ◦ Those that have been most successful:  Were good quality  Already had a well established culture of continuous improvement  Had good “buy in” locally

Outcomes Quality Awareness / Collaboration

 What are we actually trying to achieve?  How will we know if we are being successful?

 Any enquirer who receives information from us gets and evaluation form two weeks after they have used us.  Open to positive and negative feedback.  I see all completed evaluations.  Longer term impact studies once every couple of years. ◦ Looking at impact six to 18 months down the line.  Measuring impact from the perspective of practitioners.

 National Association of Family Information Services – Families First Quality Award  Outcomes  User feedback ◦ Parents / carers ◦ Partners ◦ Managers ◦ Councillors

 Clients know how LA information services can help them  Clients have the information they need to make informed and realistic decisions about services available  Clients are enabled to access the service  FIS promote equality of opportunity, celebrate diversity and challenge stereotypes  Information professionals understand their individual roles and responsibilities  Staff providing IAG are appropriately trained and qualified and participate in CPD  Services are planned, monitored, reviewed and evaluated and actions taken to improve services and meet needs  Information is effectively managed and quality assured  FIS will encourage and guide those who may not otherwise access services on their own  Partnership working is effective offering seamless and effective support

 In 2005 I needed to establish a culture of continuous improvement within the team. ◦ Participative management ◦ Adaptive leadership ◦ Self reflection ◦ Sharing in our successes  Focussed on: ◦ Making processes as efficient as possible ◦ How to best deliver the outcomes we were aiming for ◦ Telling our story

 Looking across other Family Information Services. ◦ National Association of Family Information Services  Community of practice ◦ NAFIS list ◦ NAFIS Conference ◦ Regional network  Being open to working with others collaboratively.

 No better example of the polarisation of FIS than channel shift.  Principal is one everyone can agree on. ◦ Get people to use cheaper channels to access the information.  Universal versus “progressive universal”

Universal Emerging Complex

 Basic website information.  No real back up or additional support.  Fractured support from wider world of children’s services.  No clear understanding of outcomes or how these would be measured.

 YorOK website launched November 2007  Extensive engagement with range of potential users  Continuous development lead by the service.  Integration of the website as a source of information into other processes.  Backed up by information officers within the service.  Information officer role developed into projects development and specialism's.

 National project lead by the Family and Childcare Trust.  Developing models of parent champion volunteers.  Understood power of informal and formal sources of information.  Brings those together to work in partnership.  Big improvement in access to information for families.  Massive impact for volunteers.

 A number of FIS have made excellent use of social media.  Initial use as a broadcast tool.  Developed further as a channel for families to access the service. ◦ Greater uptake by dads.  Virtual champions ◦ Existing parent led groups.

 “We need a directory of...”  Strong FIS had developed robust process and infrastructure.  Potential to support wider agendas: ◦ Youth offer ◦ Local offer ◦ Community childcare hubs ◦ Care act ◦ Etc etc

 FIS sit on an incredible range of information.  Awareness amongst families still relatively low.  Many partners want to make use of this data.  Publish it under and open government license. ◦ Web service ◦ Widget  Childcare Bill 2015 – Queen’s speech

Outcomes Quality Awareness / Collaboration

Public Value Proposition Operational Capability Authorising Environment

 “Government managers secure the resources they need to operate not by selling products and services to individual customers, but by selling a story of public value creation to elected representatives of the people in legislatures and executive branch positions.” Moore, Creating public value

 Our public value proposition was principally set nationally but our authorising environment is local.  Nationally ◦ Improve access to childcare ◦ Reduce child poverty ◦ An element of early help/intervention  Locally? ◦ Doing it because they have to? ◦ Can key partners see the public value proposition? ◦ Can key partners see the possibility of creating further public value?

Public Value Proposition Operational Capability Authorising Environment

 Niall McVicar ◦ ◦