Re-use and repair: Small but mighty steps for practitioners to reach families remotely
Consultant Service Designer | @rebeccabirch
Communications and Design Manager | @tweetssavepaper
We’re proud to be supporting services and practitioners struggling to reach and engage with digitally excluded people by introducing our practical ‘9 Steps for Reaching Families Remotely’ guide. You can go straight to the ‘9 Steps’ here or read more about how we created it – and its purpose – below.
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But these ideas aren't new…. aren’t people doing this already in other parts of the country?’ One critic of our work said early on the process of understanding how to reach families remotely.
‘Exactly!’ We said.
We know that practitioners in family services are second-to-none at building relationships based on trust, providing practical advice, and just ‘getting’ what families need in the moment. However, without opportunities for face-to-face interactions, the last 18 months have been a rollercoaster, demanding headspace and creativity of services, while making the conditions for this harder than ever before. Services for families have had to develop their own superpowers for reaching people remotely and we wanted to bring these approaches together to identify the learning that can endure and should be widely shared.
‘As early years practitioners we’re used to cups of tea, eye contact, a hand on the shoulder, or a walk in the park. Very often we are side-by-side rather than face-on and that’s important for building trust. It's been enormously challenging to recreate that nurturing environment outside of seeing parents in our setting... but we are slowly learning.” Family services CEO
In January 2021, we were funded by Catalyst and The National Lottery Community Fund COVID-19 Digital Reponse to run a 12-week research and design project focused on reaching families remotely, in partnership with five charity partners from across the country (you can read more about those five here).
Early on in the process, our research with experts across family services told us that services who have embraced sharing, repairing, and re-using techniques throughout the pandemic are the ones that have found themselves with more in the tank to deliver excellent remote services for families. The approaches our partners chose to re-use in our project were nothing particularly new, or innovative. By and large, they were small but mighty tweaks that responded directly to what families and service providers told us they needed, and what we learnt about what really works from other services facing similar challenges.
Some brilliant examples that we re-used included:
Creating the 9 steps for Reaching Families Remotely
The whole research and design process culminated in the ‘9 steps for Reaching Families Remotely’ and the subsequent website to support services.
The ‘9 steps’ guide is aimed at practitioners first, but we think it’s important for it to be a participatory exercise for the whole team, including key decision-makers. This can allow for insights from multiple perspectives, but also for consideration of, and support for, adaptation and testing. Funders and commissioners can also be brought in or consulted to build buy-in at all levels.
Most importantly, however: There are no bells or whistles or expensive app subscriptions. It’s all about taking time to step back and simplify, invest smartly, and refresh your ways of working. There is no one-size-fits-all and each service will have a different journey, and end result.
Here is what Bushy Leaze Nursery is up to after working through the 9 steps:
As the summer approaches and in-person delivery resumes, Bushy Leaze has been listening to its families to make sure services are tailored to their needs and preferences. They’ve found that some families can’t wait to get back to in-person delivery, but others prefer online or would like a mix. So, Bushy Leaze is taking stock: what tools, policies and training does it need to make sure it’s able to move as seamlessly as possible between the two? Inspired by Deepr’s Human connection methods, they have decided that their first step in their hybrid model is to introduce ‘nurturing remotely’ training to their staff induction processes. It will draw on best practice resources and lessons learned from this past year to ensure that parents and families can benefit from all the rich human connection of the family support service via remote and online services.
And here is what YMCA Lincolnshire developed:
Hands-on learning experiences for parents and children is core to YMCA’s offer, so recreating the physicality of these experiences online was a clear struggle. Inspired by Daniel's Den Craft packs, they have developed home-learning activities packs that are sent directly to parents, along with supplies like glue and scissors, and a section called ‘brain-building bits’, explaining the developmental benefits of the activities. These packs are then combined with online workshops for reflecting and gaining expert input, as well as a widely available social media platform for safely and confidentially sharing and tracking progress.
How can my service use the 9 steps?
The 9 Steps busts the myth that digital/remote delivery has to be about expensive, shiny technology and that service development ought to be new or novel.
What our research really highlighted to us is that great digital/remote service delivery is mainly about investing in people. At Dartington, we actively encourage this, ensuring that we push services to integrate evidence-based practice with the expertise of practitioners and parents to build more successful and impactful services, across service design, development and delivery.
These 9 steps will help you to lead important changes with confidence, build on your strengths, and those of the families you work with, whilst boosting what makes your service unique and ensuring services are safe, accessible and inclusive.
‘Know that just because you are remote or online, it doesn't mean that you can’t be your brilliant, experienced self. Find what works for you, and run with it!’ - Expert