Working with Family Hubs and schools in Bradford

Early Help Coordinators in Bradford deliver three different information sessions to be used with schools:

• For practitioners working directly with families: Relationships Matter toolkit training for practitioners who can complete direct work with families. The toolkit is a ‘pick n mix’ of resources and can be used as one-off pieces of work. Those who attend this training are also given the 6 structured sessions resource booklet (if required) for more intense interventions with families.
• For professionals: Relationships Matter awareness and signposting training, for practitioners who may not be able to complete direct work with families, but would be able to signpost for support.
• For parents: An information session, ‘Planting the Seed’, to share information about Relationships Matter and the resources and support available to parents.

When considering their work to integrate RPC into schools, Bradford offered the following reflections on how this has aligned with the three pillars of Family Hubs (access, connection and relationships):

Access:

• ‘Planting the Seed’ coffee mornings are relatively new and are just beginning to be rolled out. Around one-third of schools in Bradford’s South locality have shown interest in hosting sessions. Attendance has been variable but overall, parents have warmly received the information provided.
• To support the online offer of the OnePlusOne self-guided courses for parents, a pilot group course: ‘How to Argue Better’ will be delivered in schools after the Easter break. Early Help Coordinators identify schools who are interested in running the group with a view of delivering the groups in-house.
• Language diversity poses a challenge in supporting parents in Bradford. Early help Coordinators are now working with schools to train bilingual staff in Relationships Matter to ensure parents can have those conversations in their preferred language.

Connection:

• Engagement from schools has varied. While many are willing to host and deliver, there is wide diversity of contexts and local needs between schools.
• Bradford’s Early Help Coordinators collaborate with Lead Practitioners to explore available resources, such as the OnePlusOne materials and sign-up information.
• Regular locality meetings are held, facilitating updates across Family Hubs which are then shared with senior staff. Early Help Coordinators liaise with social prescribers, Family Navigators, and community organisations as well as holding quarterly meetings with Bradford’s Relationships Matter Practice Lead who disseminates updates to service managers. Plans are underway to engage wardens in the locality to support Relationships Matter initiatives across various community sectors.

Relationships:

• Bradford’s Early Help Coordinators are pursuing a whole-school approach. For example, in one school, a coordinator delivered three Relationships Matter awareness sessions as CPD to staff in different roles including: teachers, lunchtime supervisors and administrative/support staff.
• Feedback from Early Help Coordinators suggests that the approach has worked best when the Lead Practitioner has used their knowledge of families to invite specific parents. This resulted in numerous sign-ups for the ‘How to Argue Better’ pilot group sessions.
• The See it Differently videos have been a useful resource to engage parents in conversation, providing options to discuss relationships without feeling too intrusive.