Welcome to the play@home Fife newsletter! This newsletter has been designed as a
communication gateway between the play@home team and the early years
workforce and as networking tool to allow practitioners to share ideas, information,
good practice and developments.
play@home Books
play@home aims to teach parents/carers how to handle their babies/children in safe and beneficial
ways and to encourage parents/carers to engage in physical activity regularly with their children.
Evidence from play@home research indicates that those who engage in the programme will
experience a number of outcomes: children will be more physically active, with improved motor
skills and cognitive/language development whilst parents will have a stronger bond with their child
and a greater awareness of the benefits of play and physical activity for both their children and
themselves.
play@home books continue to be distributed to families across Fife, with a high percentage of
parents/carers receiving each book. To allow this to continue and to keep our database up to date it
is vital that you complete and return the registration slip from every book. The address is on the
back page of this newsletter.
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It is also essential that parents/carers are encouraged and supported to use all three books so their
child/ren and the wider family have the opportunity to achieve all of the benefits that the
play@home programme provides.
“My Health Visitor
advised me to look
through the book to get
ideas to encourage my
son and me.”
“I think being
personally given the
book and being told a
bit about the content
encourages parents
to use it.”
The play@home Baby book is now available in Polish. For more information or to request a copy,
contact the play@home team. Alternatively, if you would like further information regarding book
distribution pathways, please visit the Health Promotion section on www.nhsfife.org
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Training
play@home Training
play@home training is a practical tool for assisting local early years workers to develop a common
understanding of evidence that underpins health improvement, education and promotion of play
and physical activity in the early years.
There have been 4 training sessions to date with 62 practitioners across Fife in attendance. A
further 3 sessions will take place towards the end of the year.
There are still spaces available for the play@home training session taking place in February through
the Health Improvement Training Programme:

Monday 15th February 2016
1pm -3.30pm
Training Centre
Cameron Hospital
To apply for a place go to www.healthyfife.net
Alternatively, play@home training can be delivered in-house for groups of 8 or more. Contact the
play@home team for further information or to organise a session.
play@home Champions
There are now 20 practitioners trained to deliver play@home training. They are known as
play@home Champions. The play@home Champions will take a multi-agency approach to
cascading play@home training to early years practitioners across Fife.
“Increased my skills and
confidence and now I feel I
could deliver the training
effectively and confidently.”
“Great 2 days, great
presentations, very
well organised, I
learned loads.”
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“Great training, well
structured and it was very
worthwhile. I really enjoyed
it. I’m raring to go!!”
Everyone worked extremely hard, were highly motivated and enthusiastic when taking part in the 2
day play@home Training for Trainers course. We also had lots of fun along the way...
Working hard during group work
Presenting a mock session
activities
plan
Celebrating getting to the end of the two day training
course and becoming a play@home Champion!
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play@home Working Group
The group was developed to support the coordination of Baby Massage and playaway groups across
communities in Fife.
The group meet every three to four months to discuss, monitor and support key developments and
has been instrumental in the implementation of playaway 1 and 2 guidance booklets and resources.
Group membership consists of a Senior Paediatric Physiotherapist, Fife Family Support Workers, an
Early Years Officer, a Practice Development Officer and a Health Improvement Practitioner.
Members who have joined the group recently are a Service Development Officer, Libraries - (Young
People) who also coordinates the Fife Bookbug programme, a Barnardos Family Support Worker,
Community Education Workers (Family Nurture) and a Speech and Language Therapist.
If you are interested in finding out more information about this group then please contact Laura
Petrie. We are particularly looking for representation from the Health Visiting team.
The next meeting will take place on Wednesday 9th December, 2pm-4pm, Haig House, Cameron
Hospital.
Resources
play@home has many key resources that practitioners can utilise to promote the programme, raise
awareness of the benefits of physical activity, encourage families to engage in physical activity and
ensure children become active from birth.
DID YOU KNOW?
Early years children who are not yet walking should be active from birth
through floor based activities and water based activities in a safe environment.
Children who are capable of walking should be physically active daily for at least
180 minutes (3 hours) spread throughout the day.
All under 5s should reduce the amount of time spent sedentary when awake
(being strapped in a buggy etc or sitting in front of the television).
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Leaflets
The ‘Being Active for under 5s leaflet‘ has information on early years physical activity guidelines.
There are also two play@home leaflets; one for professionals and one for parents/carers. Both
leaflets have background information plus aims and objectives of the programme. It also provides
information on how and when the books are distributed.
Professionals leaflet
Parent/carer leaflet
Being Active for under 5s leaflet
To access these leaflets you must be registered with the Health Promotion Information and
Resources Centre (HPIRC). HPIRC provides a free health information and resource service to anyone
living, working or studying if Fife. For more information or to register contact [email protected]
Red play@home Playbags
All Local Authority Nurseries and Partner Provider Nurseries/Playgroups have red play@home
playbags. The idea is that bags are loaned to families using a rota system. Parents/carers and
children can then play with the bag and all the resources at home in conjunction with activities from
the play@home Pre-School book.
Each red playbag contains a hockey stick, 4 cones, bat,
quoit, disc bean bag, plastic ball, foam ball and bean bag.
Children are encourage to use their imagination to play
with the equipment, sing songs, set up obstacle courses
to go on a journey all of which will encourage them to
learn skills such as jumping, running, walking, skipping,
throwing, catching etc...
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“We thought it was fantastic, even
my eight year old boy thought it
was great. My younger boy would
play with all the things in it. He
didn’t need any encouragement.
He’s had it home twice now.”
Even the adults can
have lots of fun!
Playbag workshop
All nurseries/playgroups are encouraged to invite parents/carers along to a workshop to explore
the playbag and find out all of the different ways the resources can be utilised so the whole
family can have fun.
A booklet is available with a step by step guide on how to deliver
a workshop and how activities can be linked to outcomes and
experiences of CfE.
Work is underway to develop a training programme to support all
Partner Provider Nurseries/Playgroups and Local Authority
Nurseries. This will take place in partnership with the Early Years
Support Worker and the Practice Development Officer who have
both recently attended the play@home Training for Trainers
course.
Other play@home resources
Resources available through the play@home team on request are:
Resource:
For:
Posters & pens
Practitioners
DVDs with activities from each book
Practitioners
Parent/carer bags
Parents/carers attending Baby Massage & playaway groups
Tumblers for children
Children attending playaway 1 & 2 groups
playaway 1 & 2 resource bag
Facilitators delivering playaway 1 & 2 groups
Songbooks
Parents/carers attending Baby Massage & playaway groups
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Engaging with Fathers
In 2013, research was carried out on play@home Fife to explore to what degree parents/carers and
the early years workforce are utilising the play@home books.
Although the number of males interviewed was small it is
interesting to note that a higher proportion of those who
stated they had received the books had used them.
Respondents were more likely to fall into two camps:
those who had no awareness of play@home or the books
at all and left “this sort of thing” to their partner; and those
who were more engaged with their child’s development
and took an active interest in resources like play@home.
As a result of the findings from the report, a recommendation was identified to:
‘Promote the programme more effectively to fathers and gain further knowledge of how they
use the books. Consider offering opportunities for fathers to engage in group settings.’
The steps taken place to develop work around this recommendation are:
Improving Fathers Engagement Partnership
The partnership invites and challenges participants to adopt a more critical reflective approach to
how we, as individuals, organisations and in partnership, consider, engage with and describe family,
parenthood and the role of the father.
A training workshop called ‘Where’s dad?’ and toolkit has been developed to enable participants to
consider the implications of their practice on the role of fatherhood. play@home is used as an
example of good practice.
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‘Where’s Dad’? training workshop dates:
Early Years Training Programme (to apply visit www.fifedirect.org.uk )
Date
Friday 20 November
Friday 4th December
Friday 11th December
Friday 22nd January
Friday 29th January
Friday 12th February
Friday 11th March
Venue
Kirkland High School, Levenmouth
Lomond Centre, Glenrothes
Templehall Community Centre, Kirkcaldy
Benarty Centre, Ballingry
James Allan Community Centre, Dunfermline
Westfield Nursery, Cupar
Parkgate Community Centre, Rosyth
th
Time
9.30am – 12.30pm
9.30am – 12.30pm
9.30am – 12.30pm
9.30am – 12.30pm
9.30am – 12.30pm
9.30am – 12.30pm
9.30am – 12.30pm
Health Improvement Training Programme (to apply visit www.healthyfife.net)
Date
Friday 24th November
Friday 24th March
Venue
Clued Up, Kirkcaldy
Playfield Institute, Stratheden Hospital, Cupar
Time
9.30am – 12.30pm
9.30am – 12.30pm
Fathers play@home leaflet
Work is taking place in partnership with a Student Specialist Community Public Health Nurse to
design a leaflet for fathers to highlight the play@home books and the crucial role they play in their
child/rens health, wellbeing and development. To coincide with this piece of work, discussions have
taken place with the Service Development Officer Libraries (Young people) to ensure all libraries
across Fife have copies of the play@home books.
Scotland’s Year of the Dad
All of this work will link with the joint campaign between Fathers Network and the Scottish
Government... 2016, Scotland’s Year of the Dad... a year of celebration, insight and collaboration to
support
dads
to
be
the
best
father
they
can
be.
www.fathersnetworkscotland.org.uk or www.yearofthedad.org
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For
more
information
visit
Baby Massage and playaway Groups
Baby Massage and playaway programmes support parents/carers to maximise their child’s
development potential through a structured massage/play programme that promotes positive
interactions, bonding, communication, physical activity and healthy eating.
Baby Massage and playaway groups are delivered
as a community based programme usually lasting
6 weeks. Each session is based on activities within
the play@home books. Baby Massage is a more
specialised programme while playaway 1 and 2
are universal programmes.
playaway 1 (Baby book) is for children 6 months
to 12 months and playaway 2 (Toddler book) is for
children 14 months to 30 months.
There are step by step guidance booklets for
anyone looking to facilitate a group. For copies
contact the play@home team. Work is underway
to produce a playaway 3 (Pre-School book)
guidance booklet and 6 week programme.
“Children learn through experience of movement. Every movement can help to
develop balance, coordination and movement awareness. Baby Massage and
playaway groups/activities help to develop good patterns of movement and
control and muscle strength needed to develop co-ordination, balance, strength
and flexibility required for later stage movement skills”
Paediatric Physiotherapist/play@home Working Group member
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Between January 2015 and July 2015 there have been 51 Baby Massage, playaway 1 and playaway 2
groups delivered in communities across Fife with 340 parents/carers and children in attendance:
Number of groups
Number of parents/carers & children
Baby Massage
24
169
playaway 1
11
77
playaway 2
16
94
“I really loved the baby massage. I
think I bonded more with my son,
and he definitely benefited as he
had bad colic and reflux and it
really soothed him and calmed
him down.”
Please note: to deliver a play@home Baby Massage group all facilitators must have attended an
NHS training course. There are no plans to organise a Baby Massage training course at the moment.
However, if this is something you are interested in then please get in touch with the play@home
team and your name will be added to a waiting list. We will then contact you if a course was to
become available.
If you have facilitated any groups and have yet to inform the play@home team, please can you do
so as soon as possible as this allows us to monitor the number of groups taking place across Fife and
what support we can offer.
“I went to playaway1 and
playaway2. They were really
good, very supportive and it was
nice to be able to figure things
out with support.”
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playaway in Fife Child Development Centres (CDCs)
playaway groups are being used in all CDCs across Fife in a standardised programme as part of
triage assessment.
Between January 2015 and July 2015 there have been 13 groups with 54 parents/carers and children
attending:
Number of groups
Number of parents/carers & children
playaway 1
1
6
playaway 2
12
48
“Over the last few years, the CDCs in Fife have been using the playaway model as our initial
input with families referred through the Pre School community teams. We use both playaway 1
for the young babies who are referred and playaway 2 for the older children.
As well as facilitating activities from the playaway programmes, we incorporate opportunity for
therapeutic involvement, therapy assessment and intervention into play. We have adapted the
programme so that it is conducive to us observing the children and completing the ‘schedule of
growing skills’ development assessment which we feed back to the parents as a team around
the child meeting at the end of the block of sessions. At this meeting a child’s plan is drawn up
and next steps identified.
Throughout the sessions, we offer a range of Health Promotion materials and arrange for the
Speech Therapist to do a ‘tips for communication talk’ to parents. Also if appropriate we will
arrange for the Occupational Therapist to do a sensory workshop. Physiotherapists are usually
involved in the parent and baby group (playaway 1) and will input to the playaway 2 sessions if
appropriate. We have built a coffee break into the sessions as parents find the informal support
they give each other invaluable. We will also, if felt appropriate, invite other services to come
and speak to parents i.e. kindred, enable young families’ money advice service.”
Nurse Team Manager CDCs
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Early Years Collaborative
The Early Years Collaborative has now identified ‘Play’ as a Key Change area. Play will be one of the
high impact interventions across all Workstreams.
play@home will be used in a couple of Tests of Change (TOC) to achieve positive outcomes in
parenting support and child development.
1. TOC in partnership with Service Development Officer, Libraries (Young People) around the
distribution of the play@home Baby book and Bookbug Baby bag to parents/carers
2. TOC in partnership with Tobacco Prevention Officer, Health Promotion to raise awareness
of the Fife ‘Smoke Free Homes’ programme and encourage participation by including a
‘Smoke Free Homes’ leaflet in play@home Toddler book.
Further Support
Health Promotion Fife
For further information on play@home and the distribution of the books, visit www.nhsfife.org
type ‘Health Promotion’ in the search box and then click on the top link which will take you to the
Health Promotion information page. play@home is included in the list of topic areas located in the
box to the left of the page.
Fife Physical Activity Consortium
Physical activity has never been so important to our health. Here in Fife we are keen to involve
everyone in the promotion of physical activity, find out their views, keep them up to date with
current work and projects and support work that they might be doing. To help with this we have
formed our own Fife Physical Activity Consortium where we can keep members up to date with
good practice, share ideas and invite you to local seminars, events and training. If you would like
any further information please do not hesitate to get in touch.
To join is easy; simply visit www.fifedirect.org.uk/activefife and complete the online form.
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NHS Health Scotland Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)
NHS Health Scotland has a play@home section on their VLE. To access it visit
www.healthscotland.com. Click on - Learning – VLE – Courses (navigation box) – Early Years –
play@home
Take Time Campaign
The Take Time Campaign is a joint initiative between Fife Council, NHS Fife and Voluntary Sector
partners to inspire parents to make positive changes. It’s a campaign to encourage parents to take
more time to interact with their children through activities such as cuddling, playing, chatting and
reading and supports the key pillars of a child’s development: attachment, literacy, physical
wellbeing and healthy eating. The campaign has six themes, Take Time to... cuddle, play, explore,
story, eat well and for you. For more information visit www.fifedirect.gov.uk/families
play@home Team
Laura Petrie
Carol Izatt
Physical Activity Coordinator: Early Years & Childhood
play@home Administrator
Health Promotion
Health Promotion
Haig House
Haig House
Cameron Hospital
Cameron Hospital
Leven
Leven
Fife
Fife
KY8 5RA
KY8 5RA
Tel: 01592 226404/226486
Tel: 01592 226511/226486
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
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