| INTERCONNECTIONS
ONE-DAY SEMINAR |
IMPROVING
PRE-SCHOOL SUPPORT FOR CHILDREN WHO REQUIRE MULTIPLE
INTERVENTIONS WITHOUT OVERLOADING SERVICES AND PRACTITIONERS
A
new Seminar for 2008 co-facilitated by Peter Limbrick
and Shirley Young
|
Wednesday
30th April 2008, Handforth, South Manchester |
The Seminar will explore the dilemmas and pressures
that arise as service providers work
towards effective support for children and families within current
resources and staffing levels
10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. (Reception from 9.30 a.m.)
Menzies Pinewood Hotel, Handforth, South Manchester, SK9 3LG.
This hotel is 4 miles from Manchester Airport and 4 miles from
M60 Junction 3. There is a train service from Manchester.
Visit: http://www.menzies-hotels.co.uk/hotels/pinewood/menzies_pinewood
Are you
a frustrated manager or practitioner? Many service
providers find themselves frustrated in their high aspirations
for children and families by the prevailing conditions in their
agency or service. Too often, improved support means more stress
for practitioners – and then a failing situation.
This Seminar is an opportunity
to discuss issues and dilemmas, share good practice and explore
ways forward – sometimes with small adjustments and sometimes
with a radical re-think. It will be a mix of presentations by
Peter Limbrick and Shirley Young with plenary and small group
discussions and is designed for all practitioners (health visitors,
teachers, therapists, home support workers, nurses, paediatricians,
children centre staff, voluntary sector staff, etc.) and managers
at all levels. Parents and Chief Executives all welcome!
ISSUES
FOR DISCUSSION |
1 |
How
much joined-up working can we achieve without keyworkers?
We know families need keyworkers. But what about those
who do not get one? What about agencies and services who,
for valid reasons, find keyworking a wholly problematic
issue? What other approaches are there for multi-disciplinary
joined-up working?
|
2 |
Do increasing
numbers of complicated children mean early intervention
must come late?
Early intervention benefits children and their families.
How can service providers square that ideal with an increasing
population of these babies and children and finite human
resources which lead to waiting lists, or even unavailability
of particular interventions? |
3 |
What is assessment for?
The word ‘assessment’ can mean many different
things to different people in services and in families.
What would assessment look like if we empty our minds
of traditional approaches and focus instead on how to
learn about the actual needs of children and families
who require multiple interventions?
|
4 |
When
parents’ feedback says they have too many ‘experts’
and not enough practitioners.
Some parents ask ‘Why must I have so many experts
telling me what to do?’, while others (or perhaps
the same ones) complain ‘I haven’t seen my child’s
(particular practitioner) for 3 months now, and the waiting
list for (another practitioner) is 12 months!’. How
do we square these two types of feedback from families?
What attitudes lie behind the comments? What are the ways
forward? |
5 |
Can good pre-school support
continue over the transition into school?
In the many localities where there is effective pre-school
support for some or all of these children and families,
valued elements of it reduce or disappear when the child
is admitted to an educational placement. Why does this
happen? Is this inevitable? What are the ways forward?
|
6 |
Praise, blame
and guilt within partnerships – avoiding the traps.
‘Partnership’ means a parent (or carer) and
a practitioner working together. What do these roles have
in common and how do they differ? Who ends up feeling
guilty for not doing enough? Whose efforts get properly
recognised? Who gets blamed? Who wants a magic wand to
‘make everything better’?
|
7 |
Are
there limits to good practice? If so, how do we decide what
they are?
Such phrases as ‘family-centred’, ‘flexible
approach’, ‘individually tailored work’,
‘good practice’, ‘needs-led’ are
commonly used as ideals to aspire to. But what can they
really mean? Are they entirely open-ended or do they have
limits? If so, how do we decide what the limits are? |
The
Seminar will cover these issues as major or minor themes
depending on delegates’ needs (as expressed on their
booking forms). Peter and Shirley do not pretend to have
quick answers for every question but their wide experience
in this field enables them to offer insights, structures
and analyses which will equip practitioners and managers
to plan their own responses to the various issues in their
locality. |
Peter Limbrick, Independent
Consultant & Author
The Seminar theme has evolved over recent years
in Peter’s work with health trusts, education and social
care departments in very many localities in the UK and Ireland
in which he has promoted improved support for these children and
their families at the same time as recognising the conditions
in which practitioners function. Peter’s journey over the
past two decades has been:
- Learning in detail that many families are
made vulnerable during these first pre-school years and how
parents struggle to secure support for their child while trying
to keep some sort of ‘normal’ family life.
- ? Then as a consultant in Interconnections
learning how practitioners and service managers often struggle
to meet the needs of children and families within available
resources to achieve agreed standards.
During this time Peter has developed the Team
Around the Child (TAC) system that provides improved support for
babies, young children and their parents, and gives practitioners
more support in their work.
Shirley Young, Chair of the Family Fund
& Freelance Consultant
Shirley has spent the last two decades caring
for her two disabled sons and running SNIP – a voluntary
organisation supporting parents of disabled children and young
people and also practitioners. She lives in Scotland, is Chair
of the Family Fund (in a voluntary capacity) and is now a freelance
consultant and trainer. Shirley sits on the Board of Her Majesty’s
Inspectorate of Education and has recently been appointed to the
BIG Lottery Scotland Committee. Shirley adds:
“Like Peter, all my experiences
continue to raise questions for me about how we can balance the
needs of parents and those of their children, and the needs of
practitioners. We know that to be able to care, people need to
be cared for...how can we enable practitioners to keep well whilst
at the same time supporting parents and children effectively?
Are there ways of working that are more likely to be successful
in achieving these joint aims?”
OUTLINE
PROGRAMME |
| 9.30 |
Reception
& refreshments |
| 10.00 |
Welcome
and small-group introductions with ‘warm-up’
discussion |
| 10.30 |
Presentations and plenary discussions |
| 11.30 |
Refreshmemts |
| 12.00 |
Presentations and plenary discussions |
| 1.30 |
Lunch |
| 2.15 |
Small group discussions |
| 3.15 |
Presentation
and plenary discussion |
| 3.45 |
Seminar ends. The
room will be available until 4.30 p.m. for informal discussions. |
It is our intention to present
the programme as advertised but we retain the right to make any
necessary alterations
Costs
to include lunch with reductions for group bookings:
NUMBER IN GROUP
|
DELEGATE
PRICE |
GROUP
PRICE |
1 |
£136 |
£136
+ VAT* |
2 |
£126 |
£252
+ VAT* |
3
+ |
£116 |
n
x £116 + VAT* |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| *VAT
is charged on all bookings at 17.5% |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
It is hoped some group bookings
will include parents and carers.
The discounts for groups of two or more only apply if
there is a single booking form requiring a single invoice.
Lunch is provided and rooms are available to book at the
hotel if needed for the night before.
(Rooms are not included in
the costs.)
Venue/travel details and suggestions for pre-reading are
forwarded when bookings are confirmed.
|
|
