Children & Families
Working with children and families is a strand of the city’s Community Learning & Development Plan 2018-2021.
The priority for this area of work is to develop early intervention approaches to combat poverty, address inequalities and improve attainment and achievement.
Outcomes:
Increased family learning opportunities are having a positive impact on attainment and parents support of their children’s schooling.
Families affected by welfare reform, in communities with the highest levels of poverty are able to cope better as a result of engagement with family learning.
Work with wider partners is ensuring that CLD is seen as an effective early intervention approach.
Further Information
Family Learning Team
Glasgow Life employs 7.6fte Family Learning Officers based with Glasgow City Council Education Services. This team are a key strand in Glasgow’s Improvement Challenge, providing strategic support to build the capacity school and nursery staff to develop and deliver a sustainable family learning offer in their establishments.
Working across Primary, Secondary and Early Years establishments, the team offer joint planning and capacity building activities that will enable schools to develop effective parental engagement strategies, improve the range and quality of family learning programmes, increase vocational and accredited learning and volunteering opportunities and develop strong partnerships that support quality and sustainability.
To find out more about their work and for details of activity in your area contact:
Christine.stewart@glasgowlife.org.uk
Early Intervention
Early intervention is about supporting people at the earliest point of need and can apply at different ages and stages of life. For children and families in CLD this means programmes that encourage parents and children to play and learn together. Our programmes help build resilience in families, improve parenting and communication skills, strengthen bonding and attachment and support early literacy and language acquisition.
For example, Glasgow Life offers Bookbug sessions in our libraries which is a national evidence based programme that supports parents and children (0-4years) with these key developmental milestones. There are a range of other early intervention programmes of offer such as Play and Share, Food and Fun and Early Words Together on offer in both schools/nurseries and community based venues.
Find out further information on Glasgow Life's early intervention programmes.
Everyone’s Children is a programme run by Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Services bringing together the network of organisations that provide family support. They have created a directory of services.
For further information on this project click here.
Glasgow Life employs 8 Universal Support Officers who are based predominantly within community libraries. These staff coach, and motivate clients to become more digitally competent – helping them to create, maintain and fully utilise their Universal Credit digital accounts. Staff are trained to be able to recognise when further support is required and are able to take the appropriate action to coach, or sign-post to additional provision to build digital skills
Clients are taken through a Personal Needs Assessment to give them the chance to think about any additional concerns they have and to discuss possible solutions. Areas covered in this assessment include benefits, housing and debt. This information is used to help staff to identify the most appropriate specialist organisation to make an onward referral. Specialist organisations include Citizens Advice Bureaus, Jobs & Business Glasgow and Revenues and Benefits. This service is further enhancing the existing co-located supported services by taking a capacity building approach to empower individuals to learn the skills to complete similar tasks in the future unaided.
To book an appointment please call 0808 169 9901.
Glasgow supports every child’s right to play. You can read the play strategy here
Practitioners are supported through the ‘Play Get Together Network’ facilitated by Glasgow Life. The network distributes information and opportunities and organises network meetings. To join the mailing list and find out about the next meeting contact: Christine.stewart@glasgowlife.org.uk