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Whilst it’s important to take stock and plan, the research also showed that taking too long to respond to changes in families’ lives can mean services end up playing ‘catch up’ when trying to meet new needs and overcome emerging challenges. It is important to be able to try new approaches and learn from them quickly and safely in order to maintain momentum, whilst not losing sight of aims and intentions.
‘Being Nimble’ means seeking out and responding to changing needs in an agile way. Listening and learning from the experiences of families and staff members to inform new approaches and starting small so that if something doesn’t work the impact isn’t too great. As a leader, think about how you can reduce the time between a noticeable change, a decision, and the resulting action. Consider as a team how you can make it safe to try new ways of working and remain open to learning from what doesn’t work, as well as what does.
What we observed:
“Every family had a unique combination of strengths, fears, needs and wants. This means their needs often shift faster than organisations can respond to. For example, as interactions with health visitors dropped in many areas during lockdowns, new mums or mums-to-be were often left with very little information about the early years support available to them.” - Service designer
Koala NW wanted to start small with its Virtual Buddy idea, investing little resource upfront to get a sense of what parents and practitioners thought of it, without expending a lot of time and money. To do this Koala NW created a storyboard, which plotted out the step-by-step journey of how a mum might find out about, engage with and benefit from their idea. This visual representation helped to bring the idea to life for parents and practitioners. They were then able to pinpoint which bits of the journey were of the biggest concern, and how they could be improved. After having grown confident in how parents would journey through the service, Koala NW moved on to trial runs of the live Virtual Buddy service, engaging directly with families to iron out any final lumps and bumps.
Our top tips for being nimble:
Start small and cheap. Remember to make it safe to fail:
Use simple, quick, and easy tools and methods, like the storyboard, to understand how a new idea might work before trying it out on a small scale.
When trying new things get feedback regularly to improve and refine your idea before investing more time and money. Don’t put pressure on yourselves to get it right first time, ‘failure’ can lead to great discoveries!
Listen and learn from staff and parents as you go
The key to being nimble is listening to others, understanding what common needs are emerging and how people are solving them already, as well as what they need more support with.
Encourage a culture of sharing ‘bad first drafts’ and put that perfectionism in the bin:
Presenting a new idea is daunting but working together to get it right leads to much more meaningful changes, don’t worry if you’ve not got all of the creases ironed out before asking for input.
Use what’s already there:
Resources such as ‘Service recipes’, best practice guidance, pre-existing and widely used software, are there to be used. Don’t feel like you have to re-invent the wheel every time you want to adapt!
Established networks or relationships between families and professionals are also a great source of knowledge, experience, and advice, so remember to reach out ‘no charity is an island!’.
Learn more:
RE-USE - Tried and tested charity digital solutions- Catalyst
WATCH - How to test ways to adapt your service-BEYOND
READ - Digital upskilling playbook- Futuredotnow
Zoom and other video conferencing tools have become the dominant way of reaching families online. But while some families like Zoom, others are tired of it, and prefer different ways of engaging remotely.
Rather than beginning with Zoom, try to start by clarifying the purpose of an activity – what is the right tool for the job? – and working backwards from there. If your families want to connect more with other parents at a time that suits them, think about social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. If it’s ease-of-use and one-to-one support their after, consider direct messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. If they’re sick of online tools altogether, think about what offline engagement might look like, via the post or around the community.
What we learned from practitioners:
“I love chatting on the parent forum in the middle of the night when I’m up feeding as I know someone else is at least awake too!” - Parent
What we learned from the experts:
“One size doesn't suit all so we’re trying all sorts now, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, the website. It’s important to ensure that content about virtual support is also given in a non-virtual way. We have been doing a newsletter for families. The first one we emailed out but then we found that people weren’t getting it or couldn’t open it on their device. So we post it now via old fashioned post. Families like getting something in the post that isn’t a bill. ” - Early years practitioner
A core part of YMCA Lincolnshire’s offer is the availability of hands-on learning experiences for parents and children. They work with parents to increase their knowledge and skills in order to support their child’s development. Recreating the physicality of these experiences online was something they had struggled with. In response YMCA Lincolnshire has developed home-learning activity packs to send directly to parents. These contain supplies like glue and scissors and ‘brain-building bits’ information sheets, which explain the developmental benefits of each activity. These packs are combined with online workshops for parents to reflect together and with the staff team, alongside a social media platform where parents can safely and confidentially share and track their families’ progress.
Our top tips for being clear on purpose, and flexible on form:
Ask yourself whether your traditional delivery methods are still right for your families:
Be open to re-thinking and adapting your current methods if they’re not supporting families or staff to achieve their purpose and aims.
Think ‘remote delivery’ rather than ‘digital delivery’:
Remember to use your whole toolbox! There are lots of ways to reach people remotely that don’t involve technology, and which may serve your purpose better.
Think beyond video conferencing and avoid creating unnecessary zoom fatigue:
It can be tempting to organise a Zoom call to connect with families and colleagues, but remember to question if this is what you need in that moment.
Zoom fatigue is real and it’s worth saving people’s energy for when they can use it most valuably.
Consider whether synchronous delivery (live and all together) or asynchronous delivery (can engage at leisure, separately) is best:
Having a combination of these options gives you the greatest reach.
Combine online with offline activities:
Posting physical elements, such as craft materials and printed guidance, can work really well in tandem with a session hosted online.
Learn more:
RE-USE - At home craft packs- Daniel's Den
RE-USE - Shop-front displays – Children 1st
COVID-19 has isolated parents, making those who need support harder to reach. Early years organisations vary widely in how connected they are to others in the sector, including midwifery, health visiting and libraries, as well as other community organisations. Those with better connections are better placed to share information, which helps them to identify both new families to work with and new ways of working with them. Our research pointed strongly towards the value of building on existing organisational relationships and reaching out to establish new ones so that remote services can have maximum reach and impact.
It’s important to overcome traditional siloes and understand how you can support, and be supported by, others. They may be in the same sector, or area, as you. Or maybe people undertaking interesting new approaches that you’d like to try in your work. Nurture these relationships so that everyone is working together to achieve positive change.
What we learned from the experts:
“Every Housing Association knows all the tenants. A lot of them have really good data on who has digital access and who doesn't have any access in their homes. You can build a good partnership with a housing association and you've got twenty-five thousand homes. That's much better than trying to create two hundred new partnerships because you've got a captive audience. Nobody needs to be doing any of that from scratch because someone has done that hard work already.” - Expert
Before the pandemic, most of the parents that signed up to Light Peer Support had referred themselves. When the pandemic began they found that self-referrals dropped sharply, as new parents were less likely to find out about services from other parents. In response, Light Peer Support worked hard to strengthen its relationships with local health visiting services. These new relationships meant they were able to share their paper-based promotional materials directly with health visitors and midwives, for them to give out to expecting mums. By collaborating in this way they were able to increase the number of parents hearing about their offer and improve their own connections.
Our top tips for connecting and sharing with peers:
Carve out time to participate in early years networks and events:
Many events are now hosted online, which means you can drop in for an hour without disrupting your day with travel.
Partner with other organisations to share your remote offers far and wide":
Identify those in your network who you could share information with, as well as any organisations it would be beneficial to reach out to.
Be inspired by others facing similar challenges:
Taking on social challenges is hard and can leave you feeling de-motivated, look out for examples from elsewhere to inspire and boost you, remember you’re not alone!
Share your successes and learning with peers:
As well as being able to learn from others you’ll have lots of valuable knowledge and experience to share, develop a mindset of reciprocity with your peers.
It’s never too late to ask for help:
Even if you’ve been going it alone so far don’t shy away from asking for thoughts and input, this is valuable at any stage of service design, development and delivery.
Learn more:
READ - Being a generous leader
RE-USE - Creating a digital communities partnership- Wigan Council
RE-USE - Creating a digital inclusion movement- Digital Stockport