BUSHkids 2017-18 Annual Report

CPSS

240

Sessions in Agnes Water

BUSHkids Children and Parenting Support Services (CPSS), funded by the Department of Social Services (DSS), provide early intervention to improve children’s development and support parents and carers by strengthening parenting skills — and by helping build their capacity to better support the children in their care.

302

Kids supported in Kingaroy

704

We achieve this by conducting supported playgroups in the community, by providing school readiness and education programs, and through home visits to support families in particular need of help. The parenting program is currently provided in the: • Agnes Water and Miriam Vale • Kingaroy, Kingaroy North and Nanango • Stanthorpe and Stanthorpe region Work Team Leader supported by Early Intervention Facilitators (EIFs) and an administration officer. Across all these regions, BUSHkids provides early intervention programs, including: • Playing and Learning to Socialise (PALS) — an evidence-based program that gives younger children the skills they need to build friendships and get along with other children development program that provides younger kids with the essential motor skills — such as how to hold a pencil correctly or cut with scissors — they will need when they enter school. • Read and Grow — emergent literacy program to promote the development of early literacy and language skills, helping give children a good start to their learning. • Fun FRIENDS — helps children learn the social and emotional skills that will enable them to make and keep friends, build their self-esteem and confidence, and help them maintain their mental wellbeing throughout life • Mother Goose playgroup — an evidenced-based early learning approach • Supported playgroups — these are play-based activities designed to help prepare children for starting school. local government areas under the management of BUSHkids’ Social • Fingergym ™ — fine motor skill

In addition, BUSHkids provides parent education such as our own A Steady Start to School (ASS2S) school readiness workshop, the Triple P ® Positive Parenting Program , Strong not Tough FRIENDS Resilience program — that helps build personal strength, confidence and resilience — and the 1-2-3 Magic ® parenting education program, which gives parents and carers practical ways to manage children’s behaviour and provides easy-to- follow steps to help raise confident, loving, competent kids. In 2017–2018, our DSS-funded teams also provided training for other professionals in the communities in which we work, targeting emergent literacy, play and behavioural management. Key areas for capacity-building included ongoing Read and Grow training for early childcare workers, and we also trained a group of Certificate III Early Childhood students at Kingaroy TAFE. Stanthorpe and Kingaroy also joined with Nature Play QLD for a series of workshops to encourage outdoor play for families.

Sessions for kids & parents in Stanthorpe

During the year, BUSHkids also partnered with Parentshop , a leading educational specialist in bringing about lifelong behaviour change, to conduct workshops for primary school and early childhood workers.

These focused on enhancing their understanding of and skills in 1-2-3 Magic ® principles, which can be applied in their schools, kindies and child care centres; complementing the parenting programs we are operating in Stanthorpe.

16

Service developments The CPSS teams have continued to focus on productivity and currently experienced staff are working towards a 70:30 ratio of clinical verses non-clinical service provision. This process has resulted in good levels of ongoing service delivery across all sites. Due to the travel required to support families and children across the three regions we have been exploring more efficient service delivery methods. This has included spending whole days in a single location: for example, in the Agnes Water region our EIF has targeted towns such as Lowmead, facilitating a playgroup and then conducting FRIENDS Resilience programs there. All Children and Parenting staff have now completed training in the FRIENDS Resilience programs and during the year we have provided 79 children across the three sites with the opportunity to complete Fun FRIENDS and Friends for Life group programs. During 2018–2019, we plan to focus on providing the Strong Not Tough parenting program, which will promote resilience in the parents we work with in the local communities.