Welcome to the second edition of Bradford's Early Help Connection Newsletter. With the aim of supporting and connecting the partnership, we want to inform you of how the continued hard work by everyone involved in the Early Help way of working is transforming families within our District.

This month's success story comes from a Father's perspective and how he has faced challenges within his parental role.

The child in this situation doesn't live with Dad on a permanent basis and was finding it hard to build a healthy parent-child relationship when spending time with him.

The plan of action was to help Dad with understanding boundaries, discipline and building on his relationship with his child. It was arranged that he would attended the Time Out For Dads course. The Parenting worker recognised that he would also benefit from attending the Family Links Nurturing Programme to learn about boundaries as his parenting style is permissive. Dad admits to spoiling his children and treats his son like a friend, he can be very lenient with him and his daughter when setting routines.

Along with the information about the courses, The Parenting Worker sent Anonymous Online Mental Health contacts via email to help him get through the process as Dad had became upset during one session. The Parenting Worker thought this would be a good resource for him to have someone to offload to.

As a result Dad attended the whole Time Out For Dad's Programme, has shown self-awareness of his parenting past actions and has consistently moved up the scale to achieve his personal goals.

Feedback

The course has been very positive and taught me how to deal with things around children and the impact and consequences some situations have on children. The was very helpful and I now have a better understanding of how to deal with things like discipline and routines etc.  It has been nice having someone to talk to who is impartial. It was nice to be able to vent and chat. I got a lot out of the course that I wanted e.g. the understanding of the impact on a child, parenting styles, dealing with discipline and understanding why it can be unrealistic and confusing to a child if it’s not consistent. I have learnt not to be a walk over and that sometimes its ok to be cruel to be kind. We have looked at routines and started a new bedtime method to help my daughter get to sleep. I have also learnt to leave my work mouth (language) at work and not repeat swear words at home or in front of the children.

Thank you for the course I appreciate your time greatly and also for been an ear to talk to through this difficult time. It has been and still is a stressful and emotionally difficult past 5 months or so but it's helped me having something to focus on and been able to chat away along with gaining some positive things from the course itself and giving me a different perspective on situations I come across with my lifestyle and the upbringing of my two wonderful children.

Yorkshire Prestige Awards - Family Support Service of the Year!

The Parenting Service, part of Prevention and Early Help were recently nominated by their practice lead for a service award and WON!

The award has been given by Yorkshire Prestige Awards who state:

‘Judges consider whether the individual or business is providing the best product/ service in their particular sector or industry, this is primarily determined by the quality, efficiency and delivery of the product/service provided. Decisions are made based on service excellence, industry recognition, employee satisfaction, marketing & branding, ethical practice and of course customer feedback.’

The detail of the nomination was about their parenting offer to families in the District, which is currently virtual, and was previously fully face to face, and in future will be a blended approach. The impact of how the staff deliver the programmes and make an impact on the lives of families has remained evident from the feedback from the parents/carers who attend them. We are very proud of all the hard work that has gone in to the parenting offer and delivery, and it is great for the staff to be nominated and recognised for that.

The Cygnet Course - February 2021

Danielle Cripps & Nicola Rothwell

“I have learnt lots. I am more mindful of what is happening and why. I particularly enjoyed the sensory week. I now understand why Joseph drinks so much, especially at night. It also helped me understand why I find it so difficult to meet his needs in relation to food. Sometimes he needs that crunch and bite sound/feeling to tell his body he has eaten. I really enjoyed listening to other parents in the same situation. Particularly at the moment with the pandemic. Another parents’ child sounded so much like Joseph which was really comforting. I understand more about his demand avoidance and how I can communicate with him better.

The sensory week and information helped so much.

I thought the sessions were good and wouldn’t have made any changes over all. The sensory week could have been longer.  It would have been good to do this over two weeks as there are so many elements to it.

The sleep workshop was good, but again I felt it could be longer-maybe 2 weeks. It was really informative and comforted me in knowing why sleep could be an issue and why the first few hours are so important.

I would say to other parents don’t wait and just get on the cygnet programme as soon as you have the diagnosis so you understand why your child’s world is the way it is and hear from the other parents. I don’t have a support network who understands things the way I experience them.  So I really valued hearing from other parents.”

Lead Practitioner Feedback

Our Early Help Coordinators across the Bradford district continue to work hard behind the scenes to build relationships and supporting our partners with learning around the Lead Practitioner role. 

Here is some inspiring feedback received from a Lead Practitioner supported by a Bradford West Early Help Coordinator with a strong message behind the words.

“I just wanted to say thank you for all your help and guidance this year!

Since beginning your role as Early Help Coordinator and from our first meeting when you came into school, you have been so incredibly helpful, approachable, and friendly.

You have ALWAYS been available via phone or email, ready and willing to answer any questions I may have big or small and it has helped tremendously in thoroughly understanding the process and correct procedures of Early Help.

In this role you can often feel a bit lost and unsure about whether you are doing things correctly and if you really want to help a family it's so important to get things done right! You were there to guide me through all my referrals at some point and attended my first Team Around the Family meeting making sure I completed the process correctly...I don't know what I would have done without you!

Massive thanks to you, I am very grateful and look forward to working with you again in September."

Stay in the loop!

Are you aware of the ways to stay in the loop of everything that is happening within Early Help and the four Family Hubs serving Bradford District?

Social Media

Each Family Hub has its own Facebook Page

Bradford East Family Hub

Bradford South Family Hub

Bradford West Family Hub

Keighley and Shipley Family Hub

Online

Take a look at the Family Hub web pages

In your inbox

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