The Platforms Strategy, City of Moonee Valley, Victoria
Stronger Families Learning Exchange Bulletin No.5 Autumn 2004 p.47-48
A Second Look - the project provides an update on progress
What has the project been doing since the last report?
The latter half of 2003 has been an exciting time in the life of the project with the City of Moonee Valley and the Centre for Community Child Health continuing to work in partnership to implement the Platforms Project. Examples of some of the activities that have been occurring are detailed below.
Many early childhood professionals across Moonee Valley have been trained in the use of the Parent' s Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS) tool. The training covered issues associated with children' s development, the importance and credibility of parental concerns, the development and validation of PEDS and how it is administered, scored and interpreted in real life settings.
With the assistance of project staff, maternal and child health nurses, childcare and family day care staff have been trialing PEDS in the course of the normal practice since November 2003 as a tool for eliciting parental concerns. Many preschools and two local primary schools (Avondale Heights and Debney Meadows) commenced trailing the tool in February this year. Initial feedback indicates that, in general, trained professionals are finding the tool to be user friendly and valuable in providing opportunities for parents to raise concerns in a focused way, with professionals' confidence in the tool increasing as they become more familiar with it.
Project staff have attended a number of meetings and forums where they have presented an overview of the Platforms project and the implementation of the PEDS tool in the local community. These forums have included parent information nights, annual general meetings and local government seminar presentations. Each has provided an opportunity to increase the community' s awareness of the project and to promote the importance of working professionals and parents working partnership.
Recent Advisory Group meetings have included presentations by professional involved in the health and wellbeing of children, providing members with a broader understanding of what is happening in Children' s Services. Guests have included the Child Nutrition Officer who spoke about the ' H2O for Kids' project where children are encouraged to drink tap water as a drink of choice, while the Playgroup Project Officer highlighted her role in mapping playgroups across the municipality to assist with future planning of and access to these services.
A Tip Sheet Resource Box has also been developed and distributed to each early childhood service in Moonee Valley to assist professionals to provide up to date, consistent information to parents when engaged in discussing children' s development. The information contained in the Tip Sheet resource Box draws on recent, available material, providing information on topics that parents commonly raise with Early Childhood Professionals.
Moonee Valley City Council has continued to work with the Melbourne PCP to map Children' s Services and include them on the 'connecting care' website (www.connectingcare. com). This website has been in operation for some time offering a time efficient, seamless referral service for Aged and Disability. With the addition of local children and family services, Moonee Valley Children' s Services will benefit greatly from being included in this Statewide resource.
Advisory Group members have provided inspiration for the development of concepts for community messages. A concept designer and graphic artist have been engaged to bring these community messages to life. A series of posters are currently being developed to promote messages around the importance of parents and professionals sharing concerns and knowledge of children' s development. It is anticipated that these posters will encourage the sustainability of the platforms messages once formal project activities come to a close.
What has been learned since the last report that may be of interest or value to other developing projects?
A great deal has been learned in implementation phase of the project that will be of value to those who wish to implement elements of the platforms philosophy in their own area.
For example, we have learnt that it is vital that open communications channels and regular meetings are held between key players to ensure that learning are shared, barriers can be worked through effectively and everyone understands their roles and responsibilities for the successful implementation of various project activities.
We have learnt that time is precious in the local community and therefore there is a need to think about what is practical and how activities can be implemented cleverly. We have also learnt it is important to provide clear direction and continual support to local services who are asked to be involved in project activities. For example, the provision of a manual of material (including relevant forms, translations, handy hints, community messages, workshopping ideas and brainstorming messages) was helpful for those asked to implement PEDS in their service. This, together with ongoing project staff support via telephone and face to face visits to service has been beneficial.
Finally, due to staff changes at various levels, we have learnt that the role of the Risk Management Strategy is crucial as a means of keeping momentum going and ensuring that project staff share a common knowledge base.
How has the community responded to the project so far?
We are currently embarking on the evaluation phase of the project and are confident that this phase will provide a clearer picture of the community' s responses to the project and provide valuable direction for the future application of platforms philosophy across other municipalities.
