Continuing our series of reflections on last week’s NCB Summit, "A shared vision from conception to reception", Dr Nia Thomas, Director of A Better Start Southend, offers her own takeaways from the event.
A Better Start Southend was one of five partnerships in England supported by The National Lottery Community Fund to focus on improving the life chances of babies and very young children by changing the way services are commissioned and delivered and involving parents as equal partners.
Find out more about A Better Start
Bringing together thinkers, doers, movers and shapers from the world of early years at the NCB Summit was a stroke of genius, and I'm grateful to NCB for their foresight and their invite.
Why do I say foresight? Well, the government's spending review is impending, the Best Start in Life policy is in progress and the departure of many A Better Start experts is imminent. It's now or never!
I've worked in early years for nearly 20 years and been to lots of events. I can say this is one of the ones I've enjoyed the most. It asked us the right questions and didn't shy away from the difficult ones. We were encouraged to share the thorny issues, debate the challenges and suggest improvements for the future.
I was delighted to be sitting at the table next to Jenny Boler, from the Start for Life Unit at the Department for Health and Social Care, Sally Hogg from the Royal Foundation, Lauren Seager-Smith from For Baby's Sake and other passionate, experienced and knowledgeable professionals from across a multitude of sectors.
I came away sure in the knowledge that we were aligned on the following three things:
- We must listen to parents - always. Whether we work with our parents in co-producing services and making joint decisions, or put the voice of parents at the centre of care and support planning - we have to make sure we create mechanisms to listen and have the capacity to hear. It isn't just about governance meetings and formal structures. We need to get better at responding to what we hear, adapting to changing needs and bolstering parental and community strengths.
- Partnership working is critical. Organisations have to work together to create a system that wraps around parents and children, maximising our funding and capitalising on our collective knowledge, skills and practice. And we have to have open conversations about organisational power and individual ego. If we want to do partnership working well, we have to leave our egos at the door.
- We have to agree on the core needs of babies, children and parents. If we don't agree on the fundamental things that babies, parents and families need to create safe, caring, supportive and healthy starts in life, then we can't hold each other to account for delivering them. Let's start with safety, love, warmth, food, and shelter. Babies, children and their parent have to have these building blocks in place before they can achieve a good level of development.
We also talked about communication - the age-old challenge of speaking the same language and understanding what each other means. In my time, we haven't cracked it, but I think we're getting better.
When we think of communicating with partners, stakeholders and parents, we have to understand them and be understood. If we want to listen to parents, work in partnership and establish core needs, we have to communicate openly, be curious in our exploration and be respectful in our disagreements.
Excellent leaders build excellent organisations which deliver excellent services and support for babies, children and families.
And then, of course, there's leadership. I've alluded to power and ego above. We often don't talk about leadership. I can't remember an instance where I've been to a conference, a summit or a workshop where the behaviour of leaders has been raised as a fundamental factor of success.
My view is that self-aware leaders nurture the best teams, and the best teams work well in partnership with others. If our leaders focus on care, humility, authenticity, reflection, trust, adaptability, behaviour modelling, listening and experiential learning, they can create organisational cultures that nurture innovation, learn from failure and include everyone.
Excellent leaders build excellent organisations which deliver excellent services and support for babies, children and families.
We're excited by the opportunity we have through the Best Start in Life pillar of the Opportunities Mission. We have the chance to move services on, taking a strategic and operational leap from what we've learned from A Better Start, Start for Life, Sure Start, research findings and studies.
We can use policy to put in place higher expectations on delivery bodies, fund them appropriately and hold them to account.
As I reflected on the morning of the event, over my Paddington Station lunch, I saw a large number of people walking through in suits, beautiful dresses and grand hats.
I had a hunch and asked the internet. Yes, indeed, a garden party was happening that very afternoon. An Education and Skills Garden Party, no less, was being held in Buckingham Palace! Around 7,000 guests from various educational fields were invited to attend.
I beamed at the thought that, in amongst those guests, would be early years educators, early intervention ambassadors and child development champions (and indeed some of my fellow participants at the NCB Summit!)
What a fitting way to end a day about giving our babies, children and families the very best start in life!