The West Walton Family Centre/ Family Worker project, seeks to improve the life chances of children. It is an ongoing piece of action research that involves children as well as families in all phases of this cyclical research model. In this project, cultural diversity is overtly valued, resulting in a strong philosophy of equity.

The purpose of the project is to:
1. develop the school as a first point of trust
2. ameliorate the serious disadvantage arising from rural deprivation, poverty and isolation
3. develop access and support pathways for children and families
Date service started January 2003
Number of Staff One full time Family Worker,
What does the project do
Promoting school attendance through ensuring that children feel safe to self-refer, and through picking up on concerns raised by school staff about children in their class. Parents or families in crisis are referred to the family worker for support. In this way, children who have problems are helped to find strategies to cope. OFSTED noted that attendance at this school is above national levels A full and vibrant after school programme brings about an enriched curriculum.
A highly successful chess club that involves children from seven different schools has been known to assist attendance. Amongst children whose attendance has been poor we have found that wanting to be there for chess club has helped to encourage their attendance. Comments such as ‘I really look forward to Thursdays because that’s when it’s chess club is on’ are quite frequent and often most notably from those who have had a difficult relationship with school.
Last term the best players from the Marshland area went to Norwich to compete in a national tournament. It was a pleasure to see many of our champions, who were otherwise not regarded as academically successful, even in some cases on the special needs register, thrive in an intellectually challenging pursuit representing their schools so well.

This very much creates conditions for improved educational performance.
Reducing child crime has become a focus of our work since the child research team revealed that lack of amenities and activities over holiday periods meant that children were ‘getting into trouble.’ The Family Worker worked with police to look at ways forward. This resulted in a Summer School for at risk children
Reducing child health inequalities, Counselling is available as a drop in or referral service. The school nurse does drop in surgeries, A sports factory has been developed by the family worker, responding to child research team recommendations.
The summer holiday of 2006 saw the first residential gymnastics summer school which was held at Loughborough University. It was a hugely successful event with 25 children between the ages of 6 and 16. Evident benefits have been: Promotion of healthy and active lifestyles, development of skills, the understanding and development of a strong work ethic by through promoting effort and commitment; promotion of inclusion by involving children who rarely get the opportunity for such self development due to financial or cultural circumstances.
The very promising results from the children involved have encouraged the gym coach to undertake a research degree in the relationship between tackling obesity and the potential role of gymnastics.
Access and pathways to services which meet a diverse range of needs has been developed; many services will be routinely available from the Family Centre. Services include health, education, leisure, and children’s activities. The Family Worker is currently developing a range of services and activities in partnership with the High School Involving families in sustaining the project is a natural consequence of partnership working. We have a volunteer programme, use peer mentors and past pupils, identify and develop skills in the community to ‘grow our own’ brand of service provision. However, the very sensitive skills of our family worker in counselling and his vision for ensuring the very best provision for children is a powerful driving force which would be impossible to replace.
Children’s Fund sub objectives All of them
Every Child Matters Outcomes All 5
Current geographical area covered
West Walton, Walton Highway and some families from North Cambridgeshire involved in the programme.
Schools working with; West Walton Community Primary and Marshland High School. At both schools parents and pupils are invited to come to a wide range of activities.
How we work
We believe one of the strengths of our project is the diversity of the way we work and the many purposes the work has. There is a lot of informal learning. It might be Samba, Spanish or netball. We encourage an atmosphere where positive participation is the most valued quality. We offer one to one working and small group work such as families. This latter type of work tends to focus on specific areas as identified by client. We also offered a Summer School over the last holiday meeting the often stated demand for some thing for the children to do over the summer.

We believe very strongly that in order to effect positive change within a child then involving the family with at least part of the process is of great benefit. Therefore in cases such as divorce or separation rather than just talk to the child(ren) of the parents we also encourage the parents to be involved as well. Through doing this we are able to persuade all to see the likely effects of their intended actions and steer the direction of thought back to how can we best help the child(ren) through the particular difficulty. Such is the commitment to this philosophy that other than the most superficial interventions, we are very likely to involve other family members in addition to the one who initially was referred or was referred.

Where we get referrals from
Referrals come from children and parents themselves, from teachers, LSA’s or Head teacher at Marshland High School or West Walton CP. Teenagers self refer or might be brought by a friend.

Key partners are as follows and are all involved in delivering services for vulnerable families; Study Support Team, Norfolk County Council, Cambridge University, KES sports outreach, Borough Council Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, Learning Skills Council, NYCS, Campaign for Learning, New opportunities Fund, EYPDC, Lifelong Learning Partnership & Extended Schools Project NCC, Surestart, Pupil Parent Partnership of West Walton CP, Friends of the School Association, Marshland High School, West Walton CP School, Trinity Surgery, Millennium Volunteers, Norfolk Music Works

Multi agency working
Multi agency working is used to provide both an holistic, community specific service as well as to ensure linear provision and indeed intergenerational provision. Academic links for example with Cambridge University ensure our research and evaluation procedures are robust, and provide training opportunities for children and adults in the community to become critically aware researchers themselves. By referring to the child centered map it can be seen how this project draws together all the strands of the partnership to benefit the child.

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