About our service
The Scottish Government describe their early years Collaborative work as outlined below.
The objective of our joint early years change programme and our emerging work on the Early Years Collaborative is to accelerate the conversion of the high level principles set out in the Early Years Framework into practical action. This must:
Deliver tangible improvement in outcomes and reduce inequalities for Scotland’s vulnerable children.
- Put Scotland squarely on course to shifting the balance of public services towards early intervention and prevention by 2016.
- Sustain this change to 2018 and beyond.’
The early years collaborative currently has three stretch aims:
- To ensure that women experience positive pregnancies which result in the birth of more healthy babies as evidenced by a reduction of 15% in the rates of stillbirths (from 4.9 per 1,000 births in 2010 to 4.3 per 1,000 births in 2015) and infant mortality (from 3.7 per 1,000 live births in 2010 to 3.1 per 1,000 live births in 2015).
- To ensure that 85% of all children within each Community Planning Partnership have reached all of the expected developmental milestones at the time of the child’s 27-30 month child health review, by end-2016.
- To ensure that 90% of all children within each Community Planning Partnership have reached all of the expected developmental milestones at the time the child starts primary school, by end-2017.
The early years collaborative structure within Scottish Borders consists of an ‘away’ team and ‘home’ team.
The ‘away’ team is built up of multi agency representatives. This group will provide support and direction to the ‘home team’ and liaise and apprise the CPP and senior managers of the progress made.
Away Team
The Early Years Collaborative consists of three work stream each of which have an identified work stream lead:
The work stream leads are responsible for pulling the groups together and coordinating the work on a monthly basis and attending appropriate meetings to raise the profile of the Collaborative.
The ‘away’ team will then go back to the ‘home’ team to work with them to help them undertake small test of change.
It is proposed that the ‘home’ team will consist of the five early years locality networks these are already established and will allow for practitioner based activity. Practitioners will be working towards aims that have been identified in the Scottish Borders Early Years Strategy.
There is also a leadership group and agency specific groups which can identify small test of change projects.
Staff List:
The following staff are able to offer further information and support around any improvement activity:
Mandy Brotherstone
Allyson McCollam
Dawn Moss
Margot Black
Roger Barrow
Executive Lead (Child Health Commissioner)
Joint Head of Improvement
Nurse Consultant Vulnerable Children
Early Years Strategy Officer, SBC
Principal Educational Psychologist