Small Steps Big Changes Newsletter No.9 July 2015

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1 Small Steps Big Changes Newsletter No.9 July 2015 Welcome to the July edition of our Small Steps Big Changes community newsletter. There have been a lot of exciting developments since our last news update in March, including a brilliant response to our job adverts for our specialist delivery team, more successful community partnership events in the four wards and a well-attended workforce engagement day for health visitors and family nurses. We have now recruited four of our new staff members and will continue with recruiting the rest of our specialist delivery team over the summer. Welcome to Katharine Since March we have been working hard to recruit the most passionate, capable people in Nottingham who really care about SSBC and the outcomes we are aiming to achieve to our specialist delivery team. A big welcome to Katharine Davies who joins our team as SSBC administrator. Katharine will play a key role in supporting programme administration for SSBC and said she is looking forward to her new challenge. We will introduce you to more new faces joining the SSBC specialist delivery team in the next newsletter. 1

2 Family Mentor Programme Aspley and Bulwell We ve been continuing our work on our family mentor invitation to tender, which saw several organisations put forward an interest in delivering the service. Some very exciting proposals have come in for the 1m contract. All of the completed tenders will all be subject to careful evaluation by a panel of procurement specialists, experts and parents to ensure we select the right organisation to deliver the best possible service to improve outcomes for children in Aspley and Bulwell. We plan to formally announce the selected organisation soon. A huge thank you goes out to all of the parents and partner colleagues for their support so far. We will use this experience to inform the next phase in the process for the Arboretum and St Ann s. Workforce Engagement Event What is a Family Mentor? A locally recruited, trained peer supporter with lived experience of bringing up children, who will focus on supporting families and improving the three key SSBC child development outcomes. On May 13 we invited family nurses and health visiting teams to a workforce engagement event at Trent Vineyard, which saw 70 attendees come together across two sessions, to learn more about SSBC and how they can work together in their communities through the programme. L to R: Jane Hassall and Jenny Brooks, both New Leaf stop smoking advisors, and family nurse Dorette Allen at the workforce engagement event. 2

3 The event gave the attendees the chance to delve a little deeper into what SSBC is all about, through structured question and answer sessions and presentations from SSBC Programme Manager Luke Murray, Head of SSBC Michelle Battlemuch and Area Coordinators for SSBC Kirsten Chapman and Stephen McLaren. Jane Hassall, a New Leaf stop smoking advisor, said she was very impressed with everything she had heard at the event. She said: I think SSBC is brilliant. We are always looking to unpick the prevalence of smoking in Nottingham and I think family mentors will help to play a key role in that process, such as encouraging smoke free homes during pregnancy and beyond. Family Nurse Dorette Allen added: SSBC will help to build on a lot of things we already do in the community and will strengthen those relationships and bonds which we are always striving to secure with families. I think it is all about empowering the community and helping families to make the right choices for themselves. SSBC is a great opportunity for Nottingham. Feedback from health visitors who attended the event included I m looking forward to the opportunities and support for families that SSBC will bring. This event was a good introduction to SSBC and evoked thought and discussion. I am very interested in working with Family Mentors. The workforce engagement event at Trent Vineyard. 3

4 Community Partnership Events Bulwell parents turned out in force for our event on May 5 at the children s centre. We received some really useful and interesting feedback from parent representatives from the SSBC board and the children s centre advisory board, with parents able to feed in their opinions and comments which will be considered in the formation of key decisions going forward. SSBC Area Coordinator for Bulwell Kirsten Chapman said: The group agreed that Claire Greene, Miriam Vickers and Stephanie Brannigan will be the parent representatives on the SSBC board for Bulwell, with discussions continuing over other roles. Activities on the day focussed on parents describing their journey as parents so far and the type of support that would be helpful from family mentors. Smoking cessation in pregnancy was also discussed. It was an energetic afternoon with some great parent ideas and feedback. Parents taking part in group activities at the Bulwell event on May 5. We also had another successful meeting in Aspley on May 18 with a group of parents. SSBC engagement and participation coordinator Cheryl Elliott said: It was great to see some new faces at our Aspley group. These meetings with parents are the start of the process of developing community partnerships in the four SSBC wards. It has been lovely to see parents actively engaged in the recent recruitment of the specialist delivery team and the workforce and learning coordinator too as well as the family mentor invitation to tender. Amy Bird, SSBC parent champion for Aspley, Bells Lane and Broxtowe Community Partnership said: It s been a really exciting opportunity to be involved in shaping SSBC. I now attend the SSBC Board and I ve recently helped the Programme Team with staff recruitment. Further dates for your diary for upcoming community partnership events are: Bulwell - Tuesday June 30 Bulwell Riverside Aspley, Bells Lane and Broxtowe - Monday July 6 The Hope Centre, Frinton Road St Ann s Monday July 13 St Ann s Valley Centre 4

5 Southend A Better Start Event We attended Southend s A Better Start event at the end of May, which was a great opportunity for all five of the A Better Start areas to come together and share progress and learning. We also used the event to identify further opportunities for collaboration with the other four areas. Upcoming Events The SSBC team will be present at two upcoming community events so why not pop along and say hello, find out more about the programme and bring your children too for some arts, crafts and fun, hopefully in the sunshine! The first event where SSBC will hold a stall is Bulwell Arts Festival, from 12 noon until 6pm on July 4 at Bulwell Academy, followed by the Aspley Summer Carnival on July 11 at Ambleside Primary School and Minver Crescent Sports Centre from 11am until 3pm. Social Media If you d like to keep up to date with SSBC on the go, or join our conversation online, please like the Small Steps Big Changes page on Facebook or follow us on 5