Improving the gifting of the play@home toddler book to parents and carer’s
Margaret Clark Senior Health Promotion Officer (Early Years) NHS Lanarkshire
“Investing in children’s play is one of the most important things we can do to improve children’s health and wellbeing in Scotland” Play Strategy 2013.
Inequalities in Lanarkshire exist, some families are not getting Health Scotland's play@home resources they are entitled to. The strapline for the play@home
programme is, start early and stay active for life. If we are giving children the best start in life, this requires early intervention. Following conversations with
all health visiting teams across Lanarkshire, we became aware that there was an opportunity to improve the process of gifting play@home to our families.
My Aim - 95% of parents in 2 health visiting caseloads , receive and are using the play@home toddler book, and have been gifted the resources with the
key gifting messages by June 2016.
Method
Results
I met with one health visiting team lead to share ideas , 2 health visitors
Health Visitor home visits where key prompts were used
were interested to test ways of encouraging staff to both gift the resources,
5
4
visits per month
and to gift them with key messages. so that all parents/ carer’s receive the
resources with additional information and use them.
Median line
3
100 % families due a
visit received their
books using the keys
2
1
peak holiday time
0
Dec-15
Process Change - our tests
Jan-16
Feb-16
Mar-16
Apr-16
May-16
Jun-16
“I see the keys being very
useful to get too ! I’d give
them to xxx to play with while
talking to the health visitor
about other issues about my
new baby . I don’t always look
at the books initially but when
kids in bed I would go to for
good ideas !”
Plan- To develop a visual
tool that helps health
visitors to share the key
gifting messages of
play@home with
parents/carers.
Plan- Test the visual tool
with education staff
when gifting the
play@home preschool
book .
Sep-16
“It’s good to have it to
go back to and read
and find play ideas , I
would like the keys to
pin on the fridge or
better still make them
magnetic ! It would be
good to have the
Bookbug messages on
the back”
Qualitative
feedback
from families
generated
new tests of
change
All parents are being
gifted the toddler book
with a gifting message
and the health visitors
are using the keys which
they feel also gives them
“Professional
Credibility”
The importance of a good team at the very start to look at the
process of how all 3 resources were gifted helped initiate change
ideas – putting knowledge into action !
•
Aug-16
Conclusions
Plan- Test out ways to
receive parents feedback
on having used the
resource .
Achievements
•
Jul-16
Taking a partnership approach – I learned through my QI experience
Key Learning Points
the true meaning of a good leader makes the status quo feel
uncomfortable ( push ) and the future look attractive ( pull )
•
Sharing with others nationally our innovation and the development
•
of the keys
J.P.Kotter 2012 – The 8 point process “ communicating the change
process”
Key Reference Materials
•
The team having “ownership” of the project
•
Empowering/ short term wins/ producing more change
•
Anchoring change in the culture
•
Small is good !
•
Be careful with the QI language/ jargon
•
Early Years improvement connecting in reality
Play@home baby book NHS Health Scotland
Play@home toddler book NHS Health Scotland
Play@home pre school book NHS Health Scotland www.healthscotland.com
www.scottishbooktrust.com
Play Strategy for Scotland: Our Vision . The Scottish Government 2013
Next steps
•
A new health visiting team
to Raising Attainment for all
testing the keys in North Lanarkshire.
•
Working with Scottish Book Trust
key messages
•
S.C.I.L = Sharing Curiosity
Improves Lives
Continuing coaching
and mentoring in Lanarkshire.
Further information contact: [email protected]
Example of Partnership working with Health
Visitors and Early years staff leading to
innovation in play experiences for families
and children