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Family Links National Conference 2010

Our National Conference All Parents Matter took place on 2nd July at the Medical Sciences Teaching Centre in Oxford. Speakers included Professor Sarah Stewart-Brown, Warwick University, Susanna Abse, Tavistock Centre Couple Relationships, Kevin Lawrence, Barnardos, Laverne Antrobus, the Tavistock Clinic and a panel of Family Links practitioners. Find out more about the conference.

Midwives' Presentation

Annette Mountford spoke on Friday, 23rd April, to trainee midwives at Oxford Brookes University . Go to our Publications Page to download her powerpoint presentation.

The Nurturing Programme on Teachers TV

As part of a programme called Working With Parents - Supporting Parents Across Communities, Teachers TV filmed Family Action Slough running the Nurturing Programme with Muslim parents. View Islamic Values and Family Links on You Tube

Annette Mountford at UNICEF Annual Conference

CEO Annette Mountford spoke at UNICEF's UK Annual Conference on 26th November, 2009. The conference was aimed at parenting practitioners active in ante-natal and early years. During her talk, she said to them: "You have the most privileged and responsible of jobs – because this period of transition to parenthood, be it for the first or fifth time, is the most exciting time in family life. And with greater social isolation, lack of family support, often lone parenting, and many other stress factors from low income to very demanding jobs, parents need us to help them be more resilient. And this means we have to empower them so that they are not dependant on us professionals but that we offer them our knowledge in ways that they taken it on board for themselves."
View her presentation Why Love Is Not Enough here.

Family Room Coalition Discusses Parenting and Teens at Conference Party Conference

The Family and Parenting Institute and Family Links held a joint event under the banner of The Family Room at the Conservative Party Conference. Speakers included: David Willetts MP, Shadow Minister for University and Skills with special responsibility for the family; Sarah Darton, Director of Programme Delivery, Family Links; Dr Katherine Rake, Chief Executive, Family and Parenting Institute; Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, PPC for Chippenham. The event was chaired by Professor Tanya Byron. More

Pilot ADHD Nurturing Programme wins award.

A pilot of the Nurturing Programme tailored to parents of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has just won an award from the Humber Mental Health Trust. Nicky Hodges, Judie Bayram and Mike Falk won the Service Transformation and Improvement Category at the Staff Awards for Excellence on 23 September, 2009.

Humber Mental Health Trust recently set up an ADHD clinic. Primary Mental Health Worker Nicky Hodges said: “We felt strongly that parents needed support and guidance around parenting issues. We looked at the programmes available and thought that the Nurturing Programme’s Four Constructs best fitted the needs of parents of ADHD children.”

It builds on the original Nurturing Programme by providing additional information and resources about ADHD for parents. A second group is currently being piloted, with a third planned in spring 2010. Family Links will be looking to pilot the ADHD programme in other areas, so if you would like more information, please contact Family Links for further details.

The Family Links Bag was recently seen out in Hull during National Family Week.

To see where else the bag goes, visit Flickr

Family Links Annual Dinner Monday 15 June, 6-9pm

Dr John Coleman, senior research fellow at the Department of Education, University of Oxford & former Director of the Trust for the Study of Adolescence was our guest speaker. His topic was "War and Peace around the kitchen table: How parents and teenagers manage family life today." A copy of his speech can be found here.

Annette Mountford gave keynote speech at SEBDA's 56th National Annual Conference in March 2009

Annette Mountford gave the key note speech at SEBDA's 56th National Annual Conference on Well-being, Mental Health and SEBD on Friday 27th March 2009 in Bristol. Click here to see her presentation

The latest developments on The Nurturing Programme for Young People and their parents

The most recent trial of our new programme for teenagers and their parents in Oxford was very successful.  The pilot was evaluated by Ipsos MORI and you can read the full report here.

First training North of the Border!

The First 2-Day Parent Support Skills Training was held in Edinburgh on February 25th and 26th at Capability Scotland, Murrayfield, Edinburgh

Click here to find out more

Dragon School, Oxford, raised £467.12 from Cinderella

The Dragon School in Oxford raised £467.12 from their charity performance of Cinderella at Christmas. The two boys pictured played the ugly sisters!

First Training North of the Border!

The training was commissioned through  SPACE (Supporting Parents and Carers in Edinburgh ) by Liz Ersoy and Pat Southall who are working as project leads.Liz and Pat were inspired by a chance meeting with Annette Mountford, Chief Executive of Family Links, at a NAPP (National Academy of parenting Practitioners ) Conference in London in October 2007 and the training idea grew from that point.

Shirley Stephenson, Programme Director at Family Links, attended a Parenting Conference at The Haymarket in Edinburgh in October 2008 called Parenting across Scotland.  The Minister for Children and Early Years, Adam Ingram and Mary McLeod, Chief Executive, Family and Parenting Institute, were among the speakers.  The conference gave a great opportunity for networking and learning about the Scottish policy involving Children’s services.

Annette renewed her contact with Gillian Tee, Director of Children & Families, by post and informed her of our forthcoming training and asked for the opportunity for a strategic meeting following the training to give an opportunity to plan.

Both Liz and Pat joined a 2-Day Parent Support Skills training in Bradford to see if the training met their strategic needs.  During the training Liz and Pat soon realised the experience would build consistency and confidence within the developing framework – ‘Supporting Edinburgh’s Parents and Carers’ -  a framework for action from 2009 -2012, so plans to train a group in South Edinburgh were made.

The group was made up of multi-agency practitioners from a range of settings which proved really successful and we have been recently invited back for another training in June this year. Exciting times!

Jo Pitt’s retirement from NAPP as Regional development Officer

Northern Stars

At the Northern Star’s meeting on Friday 20th March 2009, Jo Pitt called in for lunch to say goodbye to all of the Northern Stars who were represented on the day by Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Gateshead, Tyneside, North East Lincolnshire, Bradford, North West Lancashire and Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire.

In recognition of all of her hard work and support for Family Links over the past 10 years, the team presented Jo with a Peace Lily, to hopefully symbolise a peaceful retirement for her spending more time with her family and friends.  We will keep in touch with Jo as friends.

The purpose of the Northern Stars meetings are to network and support the valuable work being carried out in the north of England.  Similar Family Links meetings are also taking place in other areas of England with the Southern Belles and the Midland Marvels.

Strand 3 and the Early Learning Partnership Programme

Some of the main messages from Strand 3 of the Early Learning Partnership Programme have recently been published by the National Children's Bureau.  Family Links Parent Support Skills Training was a key part of Strand 3 of the programme and the evaluation shows how much training is appreciated by practitioners who work with parents.
Read evaluation

Annette Mountford attends the launch of ‘A Good Childhood’, a report written for The Children's Society, at Central Hall Westminster, London on Wednesday 4th February 2009

It is impressive that 30,000 children, adults and professionals contributed to this inquiry, including Family Links, and it has opened up an important area of discussion.  However, the findings and recommendations of the report received mixed reactions from the audience. It was felt that the report was too reactionary in terms of the negative impact of working women on family life; and made some eyebrow-raising recommendations such as the need for a civil birth ceremony.

It seemed that the report was somewhat judgmental.  Although many of the points raised were valid, such as the focus of adults on their own needs at the expense of children, quoted as “aggressive pursuit of personal success” contributing to the high rate of family break-up; my impression at the launch was that the report would have been enhanced by a more impartial tone.

www.childrenssociety.org.uk/all_about_us/how_we_do_it/the_good_childhood_inquiry/buy_the_book/13353

Pilot of the Level 3 Award Work with Parents

During 2008, Shirley Stephenson and Nicky Hodges undertook the six months combined course in Training Parent Educators/Preparing to Teach in the Life-Long Sector (PTLLS) Level 4.

The course was run at Northern College, the beautiful Wentworth Castle site at the edge of the Peak District.  A very nurturing environment for learning.  The course was endorsed by NAPP and was designed to reflect the National Occupational Standards (NOS), Work with Parents.

Shirley has used this learning experience to support the development of Level 3 units accreditation alongside Family Links trainings within her role as Director for Quality Assurance.

Both Nicky and Shirley have achieved a Level 4 qualification of their presentation of certificates from Principal  Jill  Westerman  at Northern College on January 12th 2009.

The courses run currently twice a year at Northern College, please contact Louise Mycroft for further information, lmycroft@northern.ac.uk

Northern Ireland Connection

Whilst training a group of Parent Group Leaders (PGL) in Belfast last week, Shirley Stephenson, Director of Quality and Vicky Elbourne , Freelance PGL Trainer, met up with Alison Loughlin from the Northern Ireland Parent Advice Centre. Alison works closely alongside Parenting UK in England.

There are 4 strands to Alison’s work –

1. the Parent Helpline – they receive 75,000 calls per year which involves support and singposting.
2. the Men’s Project- Colin Fowler leads the Kickstart training for working with Dads
3. the Parent Education Project – including handling anger, handling teens.
4. the Parenting Forum which is a membership organisation. The Forum supports group development and sustainability. The local forums feed into strategic and ministerial groups through consultation and lobbying. Workforce development alongside the National Occupational Standards for Work with parents is a big part of Alison’s work.

A Strategic Advisory Group supports the development and Alison works really hard to keep all the strands active along with an assistant and sessional workers. Well done Alison!

We may well use Alison’s centre for Top Up training in the future.
Visit the website for more information. www.pachelp.org
Do have a look at the downloadable fact sheets for parents.

Prison orientation day

Family Links has run its first one day training for Parent Group Leaders (PGLs) who want to take the Nurturing Programme behind bars. The day was held at HMP Drake Hall with the help of Sue Arthur, a PGL working inside the prison. 

Comments received include:

“Really interesting – lots of insights into delivering the Nurturing Programme in prison"
"Awareness-raising, extra sensitivity required" 
"Loads of good practical ideas for resources and games as well”

This day was funded by the Lankelly Chase Foundation.

Parenting Commissioner, Will Abe presenting Sue Smith, a North East Lincs Parent Group Leader, with her Open College Network Certificate.

Parents from Wolverhampton are the first in the city to gain accreditation for
completing the Nurturing Programme

Lisa Coxon Cartwright, Lisa Robinson and Emma Dacre all gained 6 credits at Level 2 with the Open College Network.  They took part in the Nurturing Programme at the Children’s Village Centre in Wednesfield and shared in a celebration of their achievements with the Centre Manager and a Director from Family Links..”It’s a proud day for the Children’s Village to share in the success of our parents, who have done some amazing pieces of work for this.” said Centre Manager, Rosie Hatton.

Sharon Newton's Award Cermony in December 2008

"When I returned to school after the half term break I was surprised and not a little puzzled to find a letter inviting me to an awards ceremony in Hull. It had been arranged by The Humber Learning Consortium. It was to celebrate the diverse range and delivery of learning opportunities offered by the third sector (Voluntary, Charity and Community Organisations). My new company is a Community Interest Company so my work now falls into this third sector category, but initially I had no idea  why I had been invited.

On arrival at the event it became pleasantly clear that I had been nominated for an award in the category- Outstanding Contribution to Learning.

The nomination had come  via Carlton Education, a local adult education provider that  I have forged close links with, but it had been submitted by a past domestic abuse client who has now turned her life around. The work I had done with her was:

• Supporting her and her family through her initial escape period from the abuse.

• On-going and continued involvement to support her as she worked to rebuild their lives (to ensure that she did not feel the need to return).
• Her subsequent inclusion on the Family Links programme
• I was then able to support her back into education

This lady when I first met her was victimised and abused. She had become isolated from friends and family both as a result of her  partners influence as well as by her subsequent flight from the place she had lived, as her desperation had driven her  to get away.  

The Family Links programme gave me the tool as a practitioner to extend my involvement after my time with her as her counsellor, an appropriate way.

As a counsellor I am always aware of dependency issues and work hard to ensure that ethical boundaries are maintained. However for some clients an absolute ending after the requisite 6-8 sessions for me, feels too harsh and not a little cruel, particularly if it was a crisis intervention in the first place.

Being able to put such clients into a group and deliver the programme serves two valuable purposes for me.  I am able to continue to support them to take those crucial next steps, whilst simultaneously encouraging them to disengage from me and form their own support network of peers. Others may disagree but this feels to me, much more person-centered and fits better with my own personal ethos and approach, than just dropping them flat.

This lady was one such client. My aim was to help her learn to start to trust and enjoy her liberty in whole different culture and form a new circle of friends.

As the weeks went by I saw her blossom and grow as the magic unfolded and the group took her under their wing. She started to believe in herself and recognise just how disempowered she had been. At the end of 10 weeks she was desperate for more, it was as if she wanted to catch up on all of the years she had been locked away.
I introduced her to Carlton Education and they helped her continue her personal development journey.

This lady whizzed through basic Math/English Computing courses at a rate of knots and with each achievement her confidence grew even more.  She went from strength to strength and went on to do further education.  I am pleased to report that she is now in full-time employment in a caring profession and she has achieved economic independence for herself and her family. The security that this brings, is something that I know means the world to her. Her children are extremely proud of what a fantastic, inspirational role model she has been.

As part of the early therapeutic work I had undertaken I had encouraged her to write ‘her story’. In her work she cited the past two years as ‘life-changing’ for her and her family and mentioned Family Links as “the best thing she has ever done”. She had submitting this ‘story’ to The Learning Consortium to nominate me, as a way of showing her appreciation for the part that I had played in her remarkable success.

I know it is anecdotal not evidential but for me this client proves just how versatile the programme is. This lady is a parent but that wasn’t why she was on the programme. Nor were the parenting strategies that she learned the main things that she took from it. The nurturing aspects of the programme were for her, I believe, the key experience that helped to move her on and the pivotal thing that she gained was increased self esteem.

I feel honoured and touched that I was nominated.  I did not win the award I just gained a certificate. The lady who did win in my category works for Forsight which is a Grimsby based charity that works with the partially sighted, blind and other disabilities; she was a very worthy winner.  So I am not too disappointed that I didn’t win. It was themed like an OSCAR ceremony and we were treated like VIP’s so it was a lovely day out."