Early child and family support Online Forum, May 2021 for UK and S. Ireland. Will you join in?
Topic: Early child and family support – beyond Covid
Focusing on babies and pre-school children who have conditions that significantly affect their development and learning
This Interconnections Online Forum uses e-mail (no cameras needed!), is open to anyone interested and lasts for three weeks between 3rd May and 21st May. Participants join in as much as they want from wherever they happen to be at work or at home and at times that are convenient to them. Discussions are facilitated by Peter Limbrick – the originator of the Team Around the Child approach (TAC).
The starting point for the Forum discussion is that an important part of a response to the new conditions imposed on us by Corvid is mutually supportive teamwork. This has practical and emotional elements:
- The workforce in many health and education services are even more depleted than they were before. Multidisciplinary collaboration can help cover some of the gaps in support for children and families.
- Practitioners in effective multidisciplinary teams can get valuable support from each other to counter the frustration they feel when the support they can offer children and families is reduced.
The Forum will include discussion of the mental health of children, parents and practitioners. This concern has been highlighted by the pandemic and by government's responses to it.
The Online Forum can include practitioners and managers in health, education, social care and the voluntary sector, family members and lecturers in colleges and universities. It is intended as a safe space for personal reflection, sharing experiences, reporting good practice and developing new ideas.
In this Online Forum no one is tied to specific dates or times and participants take as much time as they need before making comments or asking questions. New links made in the Forum can continue between participants after it comes to an end. When it is ended, Peter will produce an outline of key points from the discussion.
The Forum will have its own exclusive e-mail group and all e-mails from Peter and participants will go to the whole group. Participants only need to give their e-mail address and the name they wish to use. The group will be disbanded at the end.
Peter will start the discussion on May 3rd with a relevant text about early child and family support. This will be written in the light of the aspects participants have chosen from the list below. The discussion develops from there following the interests and concerns of participants.
A recent Interconnections Online Forum is reported here: How an Interconnections online Forum is helping enhance early child and family support in Croatia
Costs: Each participant is charged £25. (We will send you Interconnections bank and PayPal details.)
Two relevant books are available to participants at the reduced rate of £10.00 each:
Bringing up babies and young children who have very special needs: A 21st century guide for parents, students and new practitioners. 2019. (Normally £14.75)
Early Childhood Intervention without Tears: Improved support for infants with disabilities and their families. 2016. (Normally £22.00).
(For each book order we need your postal address and £4.00 p&p.)
To join the seminar, order books at the reduced rate, or ask questions: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
[Please let me know of if you would like an early child and family support Online Forum exclusive to your service or locality.]
Aspects (Listed here in alphabetical order). Please choose three or four or five and send them to Peter Limbrick when you join.
|
A whole-child approach |
|
Aims of early child and family support - priorities |
|
Assessment of needs |
|
Child and family quality of life |
|
Collective competence |
|
Evaluating early child and family support |
|
Family support |
|
Helping relationships |
|
Horizontal teamwork |
|
Integrating programmes |
|
Joining the work of health and education practitioners together |
|
Keyworker |
|
Merging programmes into daily living activities |
|
Multiagency integration |
|
Multidisciplinary team work – including Team Around the Child |
|
Multifaceted condition |
|
Parents and power |
|
Partnership with parents and other family members |
|
Primary interventionists |
|
Role release to reduce pressure on practitioners |
|
Stress in children |
|
Stress and fatigue in families |
|
Support at a distance |
|
Supporting bonds of attachment |
|
Transdisciplinary teamwork Other aspects – please list. |
