Category Archives: Health & Early Years Network

Equality in Early Years

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Equality in Early Years - Training Opportunities

Introduction to Equality   Adam Conference Room, John Muir House, Haddington, EH41 3HA 14th of May, 4-6pm

An introduction to the principles of equal opportunities and its important in early year’s services. Find out about the Equality Act and how you can show that you are meeting the needs of all those who need to access your services.

 Including Children with Disabilities   Saltire Rooms, John Muir House, Haddington 9th of May 10am-12noon

An opportunity to think more about inclusion and gain practical advice about how you can include children with additional support needs in early years settings. This course is delivered by the East Lothian Council Children’s Services Disability Team.

 Working with LGBT Families ‘Different Families: Same Love’ Saltire Rooms, John Muir House, Haddington, EH41 3HA 20th of May 2-4pm

 Stonewall’s 2010 research on children with same-sex parents called ‘Different Families: The experiences of children with lesbian and gay parents’, shows that they too can be subjected to homophobic bullying. This session will look at how we can talk about different families, so that all children can be themselves, feel proud to talk about where they come from, and enjoy learning free from fear of bullying. It will support participants to tackle homophobia in early year’s settings and find out about legislation and support available for LGBT families.

All Courses are FREE of charge and are open to all those working in early years services in East Lothian.

How to Book

To book your place on any of the above courses, please contact Pauline McLaren on 01620 82 9947 or email pmclaren@eastlothian.gov.uk

Please let us know if you have any special requirements that will allow you to fully participate in each session e.g. access requirements.

For more information about any of these courses, please contact Rebecca Spillane, Equalities Officer on 01620 827134 or email equalities@eastlothian.gov.uk . If there is any training on specific equality issues that you are interested in taking part in, please email equalities@eastlothian.gov.uk

United Nations stands up for Children’s Right to play

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The International Association of Play has released a press statement on a United Nations committee decison

UN STANDS UP FOR CHILDREN’S RIGHT TO PLAY, ARTS AND LEISURE IN  A LANDMARK MOMENT FOR CHILDREN

 United Nations adopts in-depth interpretation of ‘forgotten’ children’s rights artticle.

 Article 31 has long been considered “the forgotten article” of the Convention. The General Comment adopted today, however, will right that wrong by clearly defining the responsibilities of governments that are implicit in the article.

The stated objectives of the General Comment are:

a) To enhance understanding of the importance of Article 31 for children’s well-being and development, and for the realisation of other rights in the Convention.

b) To provide interpretation to States parties with regard to the provisions, and consequent obligations, associated with Article 31.

c) To provide guidance on the legislative, judicial, administrative, social and educational measures necessary to ensure its implementation for all children without discrimination and on the basis of equality of opportunity.

For full press release 2013 1 Feb-IPA Press Release-UN Article 31 (2)

Early Year & Physical Activity

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A new resource just came out from the British Heart Foundation.  The document has lots of web links to useful resources and programme materials that can be downloaded.

It can be downloaded directly from the site, or it can be ordered in hard copy (for a small donation) from the BHF site as below.

 http://www.bhf.org.uk/publications/view-publication.aspx?ps=1002163

The guide is for:

 Early years settings who provide care to children from birth up to the age of five. It can be used by all regulated providers, irrespective of the time that children spend in their care, including:

– local authority maintained nursery schools

– private, voluntary and independent nurseries

– nursery classes within primary schools

– pre-schools

– children’s centres

– registered childminders and nannies

– other early years providers such as playgroups and baby and toddler groups.

 

Breast feeding – new DVD resource

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The Bump to Breastfeeding DVD is free to all pregnant women in Scotland. Simply ask your midwife if you haven’t already been given a copy.

Th following are all clips are taken from the DVD. They follow real mothers, the common challenges they faced when breastfeeding and how they dealt with them. Many new mothers have found the Bump to Breastfeeding clips helpful and informative about the realities of breastfeeding, putting them at ease about any challenges they may face.

The DVD includes subtitled English, British Sign Language, Urdu, Bengali, Somali and Polish options. The clips are now also available on the Ready Steady Baby! website in Polish, Urdu and Bengali as well as English.

Homestart – A Volunteers Story

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                                                   Homestart is a national charity with the aim of supporting families and children by training volunteers as befrienders. Befriending can have a huge impact on a family which has hit a difficult patch in their lives for whatever reason, but can also be a very positive and rewarding experience for the volunteer.  East Lothian has a very successful Homestart organisation and the following volunteer story is reproduced from the Homestart annual report with their permission.

 Dad of five and grandad of five, Paddi O’Brien, 54, from Dunbar, used to describe himself as a ‘burly builder’ who owned his own construction business until a heart condition stopped him working.  Twelve years on, his life is unrecognisable from the builder he once was.  Instead, his days are now split between being a ‘houseparent’ for his own family and a volunteer for Home-Start East Lothian.

 After a prolonged period of ill health and undergoing his second heart operation, Paddi, then aged 40, was forced to retire from his construction business and re-evaluate his life.  His three eldest children were nearly all grown up but his youngest, twins, then aged eight years, gave him the opportunity to become a full-time houseparent, taking the lead role in managing the home and bringing up the young kids whilst his wife went out to work as the wage earner.

 It was this change in direction that inspired Paddi to start volunteering to support other families.  He says:  ‘I really enjoyed being a houseparent and taking on the main caring responsibility for the twins.  I’d missed so much of our older kids growing up – I always left early for work when they’d still be in bed and returned late so I missed a lot of their upbringing.’

 But with high school looming on the horizon for the twins, Paddi decided he wanted to do more.  He saw an advert about Home-Start East Lothian and decided to get in touch.

 Paddi’s now been volunteering with Home Start East Lothian for over five years.  He says: ‘Male volunteers are a bit of a rare breed when it comes to family focused charities.   People tend to do a bit of a double take when they hear I’m supporting a family but men actually have a lot to offer, particularly acting as a positive male role model.’

 Since volunteering for Home-Start, Paddi’s supported three different families.  He says that it’s as much about the children as it is the parent.  Paddi explains: ‘Home-Start is very well structured, they employ professional staff who in turn give us volunteers fantastic support. 

 ‘I’m basically parachuted into a family and my role with them evolves from there.  I might give support to a dad who feels like he doesn’t know what he should be doing or I might be supporting the mum and helping look after the kids whilst she takes some time out.  Sometimes it’s a combination of many things. The most important role I play in a family’s life though is being someone they can depend on.’

If you are interested in being a befriender contact Homestart East Lothian on

Tel: 01875 616066
Email: admin@homestarteastlothian.co.uk

Food & health for the under 5′s training

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NHS Lothian / East Lothian Council are jointly offering a training course on Food and Health for the under 5’s on 12th June 9am – 1pm at Port Seaton Community Centre Closing date for applications – 25th May

To book www.nhslothianhpstraining.com

Learning Outcomes

Participants will have the opportunity to:

  • Gain an overview of the policy context relating to early years nutrition
  •  Develop an understanding of the current eating patterns of the under 5’s in Scotland and the impact on future health
  •  Explore some of the challenges faced by parents and carers when making healthy food choices for the under 5’s
  •  Increase awareness of what constitutes a healthy balanced diet for the under 5’s

 For more information poster linked here flyer-Healthy Eating under ’5s May 2012

A Collective Responsibility

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The following is the conclusion of a comprehensive review of research about breastfeeding and why there is such a difference between socio economic groups in Scotland conducted by the Glasgow centre for population health

There is considerable evidence and policy support for breastfeeding as the best source of nutrition in the first six months of life. However, the socio-cultural and demographic contexts of the mother are more important determinants of breastfeeding practice than theoretical knowledge of the benefits of breastfeeding.

In a breastfeeding culture, all strands of society would consider breastfeeding as a human right and make it the ‘norm’ rather than the exception. The mother plays a central role and should be supported in her ‘duty’ to make the child’s ‘right’ possible but it is not her responsibility solely, as the choice of infant feeding is located within multiple contexts and influenced by inter-related factors. Maternal health in particular is pivotal since the ‘issues with the mother’ become the ‘issues with the child’. Protecting maternal health invariably protects child health and by extension, the future.

A breastfeeding culture makes it a collective responsibility – addressed in multifaceted approaches – to create an environment where the ‘best for the infant becomes the best for the rest of us’.

I really like the sentiment of the above because it puts responsibility with the community supporting a women rather than the individual. I think this responibility becomes clearer when you understand that the majority of women from all background do initiate breast feeding – over 70%.

Based on the Infant Feeding Survey conducted in 2010, the estimated breastfeeding initiation rate in Scotland was 74%. This was a significant increase from rates reported in 2000 (55%) and compared favourably with initiation rates in England (82%), Wales (71%), and Northern Ireland (64%). However, this rate was still less than the rates reported in other European countries.

However, only 36% were still breast fed by 10 days. So its everybody responsibility to make sure that its as easy as possible to maintain that decision, and for communities where initiation rates are low – its everyone’s responsibility to turn that around. This supports needs to be evident from all sectors of society – if it is just health professionals then there is a danger women feel badgered to breast feed rather than supported.

What can we do :-

  • make sure your local shops, cafes, schools, hospitals, health centres and public building are welcoming of women who are breastfeeding by getting them to sign up to a breast feeding friendly award
  • if you are teacher look at how you can use the new breast feeding in the curriculum resource like that recently piloted by Whitecraig Primary school
  • make sure your workplace has a policy in place to support women who are breast feeding
  • if you have positive experience of breast feeding talk about it and offer advice and support to new mums
  • become a peer supporter or develop a peer support system for women who have made the decision to breast feed
  • if you work in primary care or a a midwife make sure you are up-to-date on how to offer practical support to women with breastfeeding and know where to direct women who are experiencing problems
  • If you are a person with responsibility in public service make sure that your organisation understands that breast feeding is a community responsibility and not just an individual choice.
  • Since its election time – ask the people you intend to vote for what they will do to make sure the community is taking responsibility for supporting breast feeding mums

Any other suggestions welcome

Finally breast feeding is not just a nice thing to do it makes a difference for children and reduces costs

Results from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) of 15,890 infants found a 53% decrease in the rate of hospital admissions for diarrhoea and 27% for respiratory tract infections in infants exclusively breastfed for six months.

Longitudinal studies of breastfeeding and intelligence in later life (in Denmark and the Philippines) suggest a strong association between breastfeeding and performance in intelligence tests in adulthood. Findings from these studies, comparing breastfed and non breastfed infants, showed that longer breastfeeding duration of up to nine months influenced intelligence even after adjustment for socioeconomic and possible family effect

Changing the odds

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Cancer is something that will touch most people’s  lives – either directly or through somone we know and care for. Less than half of all the cancers suffered by people in the UK are caused by factors that we can have some influence over – so as individuals we can’t avoid all the risk by following healthy living advice. You can do  everything right and still be unlucky enough to develop a cancer. By following the healthy living advice you are just changing the odds in your favour. By the same logic ignoring the healthy living advice  – to maintain a healthy weight, eat plenty of fruit and veg, not to drink to excess, get plenty of moderate exercise and above all not to smoke -  doesn’t mean you will definitely develop illnesses like cancer – you are simply changing the odds .

The key thing for this blog is that many of the lifestyle factors are set in early life, and as parents, teachers, community members we can have a big influence on whether children will grow up to avoid these risks.

We can also organise society to reduce the risk of cancer. For example, by making it easier for people to access fruit and veg, take exercise, avoid cigarette smoke and access to help to give up. We can also make sure that workplaces are safe and do expose workers to occupational hazards – we can make alcohol more expensive so that we don’t drink quite as much etc etc. None of that is easy but nor is developing and organising treatment for cancer and least of all undergoing treatment for cancer

Cancer risk

Cancer risk

Playing Out

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I love this video – communities taking action to make the streets safe and welcoming for kids to play in

The video is one of he resources on a new website for community activists that would like to make it possible for kids to ‘play out ’

‘Playing out: Activate Street Play in your neighbourhood’

http://playingout.net/

The website promotes the use of local resources and people to encourage safe on street play for local children.  There are a range of
resources to access, including tips for communities to support safe street play.