Social & Health Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee - Thursday 12 February 2026
12 Feb 2026
Fran Lister
Committee appearance update.
Meeting Overview
This post covers my appearance at Social & Health Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee - Thursday 12 February 2026.
Oxford Brain Story
The Oxford Brain Story is a project in Flintshire & across North Wales designed to help the public and professionals understand how early childhood experiences and trauma literally "build" a child's brain architecture. By using simple metaphors like "serve and return" interactions, the program trains staff in health, education, and social care to better support families and recognize the signs of adversity early. During the committee meeting, members emphasized that while this work is vital for preventing long-term crises and improving community wellbeing, its continued success depends on securing ongoing grant funding and developing new "Family Hubs" to provide integrated support.
Transcript generated by AI from meeting audio. It may contain errors, omissions, or misattributions. Please treat it as a convenience copy and refer to the original recording for the authoritative record.
| Timestamp | Transcript |
|---|---|
| 00:00:00 | move to what's back to agenda item nine which is the Oxford brain story so I'll hand over to Hayley well for this item members thank you very much for inviting me here today and receiving this report this is an update report on the Oxford brain story which some members will have had some information about in the past and I've come here today to update on the progress because the regional pilot has come to an end and you can see from the report the progress that's been made |
| 00:00:36 | in rolling this out to members of staff mainly in the health and social care sector and within children's services in Flintshire so as you can see from the report the Oxford brain story has the goal is to bridge the gap between neurodevelopmental science and practitioner knowledge so the Oxford brain story is a framework and it's a training program which brings those two things together it outlines very clearly through a series of short films short |
| 00:01:11 | conversations with really clear metaphors for how infant brain development happens and how parents and carers respond to their infants and grow infant brains so that they can be healthy what that does is it brings to the forefront of practitioners minds when they are interacting with parents and children about how they promote those connections and those early developmental opportunities now the importance of delivering this is because of the |
| 00:01:44 | impact the early brain development has on future potential for adults in our societies and as you can see from the report we talk about the trauma-informed approach and compensating for adverse childhood experiences we know that early childhood experiences shape and determine health outcomes for older people the issue we've got is that the neuroscience isn't directly translated into practice and although our practitioners within children services |
| 00:02:12 | and health services have lots of training it often doesn't directly relate back to neurodevelopment and how that can impact wider concerns as you can see from point one zero four we talk about how the brain story can mitigate the effects of adversity if practitioners are really well informed as they go about their daily lives so one point zero six offers a description of the brain story and I know some members have had and the benefit of some of their |
| 00:02:44 | activities that form part of the brain story and what it does is it translates very complex language and complex neuroscience into very practical activities so it includes a suite of tools and resources visual metaphors along a certified training program. Flintshire was involved in the development this on a regional basis and it's been since rolled out to over 200 practitioners on a regional and local basis from child care health and |
| 00:03:12 | children's services. You'll see from the appendix that following the conclusion of the pilot a number of recommendations were made by an independent evaluator and I think that at this point that we're at with Oxford brain story and I won't go into great detail on one point zero nine which is the post course evaluation findings which are unequivocally positive about how practitioners have responded to this I think at this point in time we'd like |
| 00:03:42 | to understand how this is best going to be implemented within Flintshire as well as on a regional level because the local feedback that we've got is that this could be a really useful tool in developing Flintshire's practitioners as well as the the wider goal of making sure this is continued on a regional basis. So we've got really really clear responses all the training most of the attendees rated the training nine out of ten or higher and their goal was to |
| 00:04:12 | implement it in their daily practice. It does really align well with the future Generations Act and because this again is a focus on prevention long-term outcomes and collaboration we really want to embed this within the service and just talking about resources it brings multi-agency teams together for a very very cost-effective way of delivering this. In terms of strengthening early childhood practice I'd also like to point out that this is |
| 00:04:44 | very relevant to the first thousand days and we hear a lot about that but if you go into the detail of the research and the report you'll see that this is applicable to many of children's life's transition so anytime where children are having a transition between circumstances or particularly where there are opportunities for brain development such as in sort of seven to eight year olds 14 and 15 year olds the research is just as applicable there. |
| 00:05:14 | The long-term community benefits are outlined in the research and the report that I've shared with you it's really proactive in shaping the development of long-term skills and also in potentially shaping how families in Flintshire grow up with us and with our services and we want to see really clear benefits from this and what we think is that this would be really effective rolled out on a wider scale to more practitioners not just those involved directly with very |
| 00:05:44 | young children. So Oxford Brainstory really supports and promotes the development of very strong family relationships and just sort of referencing Sarah's report I think that this is a really great addition to the suite of offers that Flintshire has at the moment and what I'd like to do is share a video with you a short two minute video which will link the two reports that I'm bringing to people today and hopefully bring this to life. |
| 00:06:37 | When we're born we don't have a guide for handling all the feelings we encounter so when we're young and big feelings like fear frustration or excitement come up we don't always know how to respond that's normal but children can learn how to deal with these feelings with guidance from caring adults one way this happens is through something called co-regulation. Co-regulation means using our calm presence to help a child understand and manage their emotions |
| 00:07:05 | helping them cope and return to calm. To do this we often have to start by regulating our own feelings like putting on your oxygen mask first on a plane we have to steady ourselves to support others. Co-regulation looks different for each child and it changes as they grow. For babies it's as simple as being cuddled, sung to or rocked to help them to calm down when they're crying. For young children it could be talking through their feelings giving them space to calm |
| 00:07:33 | down or just sitting and breathing together until the storm passes. It's not about trying to squash the feelings it's okay for children to feel sad, scared or angry at times. When we co-regulate we help them to manage these feelings. People once thought co-regulation made children too dependent but now the science shows it builds their independence. When adults respond sensitively to a child's distress it builds a child's trust, security and |
| 00:08:04 | belief that the world is safe. It shows them they are deeply loved. Through co-regulation we can help children learn how to understand and manage all sorts of different emotions and that builds their wider social and emotional skills which are vital for shaping a happy healthy life. Thank you Hayley I'll open up to any questions for our members. Councillor Lister. I love this and it's very in tune I think with how I see |
| 00:08:49 | bringing up children. I was just wondering like it's brilliant isn't it and it's obviously an approach and it would be really beneficial for teachers, childcare workers, everybody. Is Flintshire's role in this to provide that training or is that done by an external agency? So I think this is the question for today because we've brought this in-house and we've adopted a train the trainer approach so our workforce development lead in early years has just completed |
| 00:09:21 | that train the trainer and is able to roll this out to a wider audience but obviously we want to make sure that it's targeted at the right people and I think that your suggestion of education and the wider community in Flintshire is really helpful. Is it something that you can offer that private providers can buy from Flintshire if that makes sense? Yes it is at the moment so it's a chargeable offer nationally but we've now got the facility to deliver this in-house but |
| 00:10:01 | yes it could be charged for. Councillor Mackay. Thank you Chair so we came and looked at it didn't we and we did it the only trouble was I think I'm the only member of the committee I think you've been to it haven't you yeah but I think I was I think I'm the only one who's still on the committee and it was oh sorry you right okay sorry it was really good it was really good it was eye opening and and you know it covered the background of it particularly which I |
| 00:10:41 | thought which you know was useful to somebody like me so yeah I think it's really good thank you. Councillor Healy. Thank you Chair. My question is would you take this into education into and and and I would say I don't know it's not my expertise but I would say take it to primary schools because I am a great believer start from very young and I remember an incident when I had my daughter and my eldest daughter and I brought my children up and I remember going to the |
| 00:11:26 | clinic and I remember a nurse saying this to me she said you're very attached to your baby and I said yeah because I just wanted to know I'm around and I do she said but you know if you get too attached it's not a very good thing this is I'm talking 40 years ago yeah and I came home and I was talking to my mother-in-law and my mother-in-law said yes she never cries as soon as she moves you're there and and I am a great believer the more love you give children |
| 00:12:05 | the the bond is so great the bond between me and my two daughters were fantastic and I totally agree with whatever you say and it would it be an advisable that you could work with Sarah and you know put the two together thank you in response to the first section of your question I think that the the goal is to understand what the need is in education and where it would be most appropriate and I think that primary school would be a really nice |
| 00:12:42 | place to start and secondly yes I agree with everything you said I think for me we've we've got the capability and skills now it's about how we roll it out schools are a great place to start but there's a lot demand on schools there's a lot that teachers have to attend in terms of training there's only a finite number of days there are no other initiatives that this fits with so what we need to do is Haley said is really work with education work with |
| 00:13:14 | social services and really understand where it fits and how we do that in a planned rolled out way so it won't be a big bang but it will be actually whether we take it and how do we make sure that it's rolled out in a way that gets impact and starts to make that difference because you know thing that I behavior and the links to actually what we can do in the early years and support parents and support family so that's that's all the work that Haley team |
| 00:13:47 | doing and we want it as a resource that's out there supporting and just on the back of that and your question around workers working closer together that's those conversations are already happening that work is already we're already bringing early health early years closer together and there's some Craig has just said of Haley so it was sort of more of a practical thing on that note my children at primary |
| 00:14:20 | school and last week we had a PSE sort of evening for the parents and there were representatives from Flintshire education services there and I think that would be because to work with the families is really I think it would be very very strong and we were just able to ask questions in the sort of dropping around and that kind of thing in in primary schools would I think be really really invaluable I mean valuable it was certainly very interesting for me to go |
| 00:14:47 | around as a parent and talk to all the different representatives from different agencies but yeah to have the Oxford Brainstory there represented in in schools so parents evenings would be fantastic if this capacity to do that right we'll move to the recommendations there's four of them members note the findings of the North Wales Oxford Brainstory evaluation and the positive impact on early years practice the members support continued development |
| 00:15:19 | and expansion of the pilot across Flintshire in the wider region members support the development of an approach that integrates OBS training into induction processes for new staff and the members note ongoing awareness raising and dissemination of OBS findings across North Wales services so have a mover for those Councillor Healy Councillor Lister to second all those in favour that's everybody thank you very much and we'll move on to the final |
| 00:15:46 | agenda item which is agenda item 12 and again this is with Healy it's the development impact of speech language and communication support in early years services thank you Joe so I'm moving on to reference speech language and communication services in Flintshire and they are not separate from the item that I've just discussed they're very integrated you can see from the report the definitions of speech language and communication so I won't go over those |
| 00:16:19 | but they're really important to understand that the development of speech language and communication is absolutely fundamental to a child's ongoing success in life and the point I'd really like to emphasize from the summary is that parents and immediate caregivers are the most important people in a child's life when it comes to language development it doesn't sit with childcare it doesn't sit with school it must sit with the parents and the |
| 00:16:45 | immediate caregivers around that child for it to work effectively so 1.01 there is quite a long definition of speech language and communication and what that's broken down into and I think that in Flintshire we've been very successful in understanding those three different elements of how children acquire language and how that's really important to their overall development the early identification and targeted intervention are critical to preventing |
| 00:17:13 | long-term disadvantage now when we look at the figures over 10% of children are young people in the UK have persistent speech language and communication needs that can limit their ability to learn now what that means is that 10% of children is is critical anyway but what we also need to look at is how over-represented those 10% of children are in the youth justice and prison population so it's really vital that we see speech language and communication is |
| 00:17:44 | really integral and a part of development and I think sometimes we focus on different parts of children's development the other thing I'd like to highlight 1.02 is that fly start operates in the most disadvantaged areas of Flintshire because the deprivation impacts on children's development so we know that where we're working in areas of deprivation we can have the most impact and the you know one thing that's I find people find quite surprising is |
| 00:18:15 | that vocabulary vocabulary at age 5 is the best predictor about whether children are able to escape poverty and increase their life chances so the strategic importance of speech language and communication support sits alongside other health measures it sits really well along social and emotional development health measures and diet and things like that and it needs to be seen as an element in its own right so we work from the Welsh government guidance |
| 00:18:46 | for speech language and communication in Flintshire we deliver those really comprehensively according to the guidance and we offer a range of interventions home visit based and group based interventions you can see a description of the team we're a multi-agency team with local authority teams and commissioned health service staff as well and we all work really closely together the teams really instrumental in fostering speech language and communication development |
| 00:19:11 | in child care settings as well because the flying start child care offer is really fundamental to children's development so this includes the world of child care practitioners as well we've given at 1.06 a definition of some of the interventions and practice that we have across Flintshire which due to time I won't go into huge amounts of detail and we've got such a range of measures that what we try to do is from the antenatal stage our speech and |
| 00:19:41 | language therapist comes in and speaks to parents about language acquisition in the womb and that builds on with baby groups where we're really encouraging parental interaction we're really encouraging sound making but what I want to emphasize today is that speech language and communication isn't about words it's about the relationship between the parent and the child so not only is vocabulary an indication of how well a child can progress and learn it's |
| 00:20:09 | an indication of the quality of the relationship that the parent has with the child so what we're trying to do is bring the right interventions in at the right time and this is really true for cases where children are potentially on the child protection register if they're safeguarding concerns because where that relationship with the parent between the parent and the child isn't brilliant we know that we can do work to support that so in 1.06 the final point there is the |
| 00:20:36 | Paris outcome measure and this is a measure that was introduced by Welsh government last year where we at the evaluation tool for our speech and interventions is actually a measure of the quality of the relationship between the child and their caregiver and also the home environment the environment that that child's being brought into which you know relates back to Sarah's point about the neglect framework and tools use their outcomes and impact |
| 00:21:05 | again I've presented quite a comprehensive overview of some of the progress that children make in their language development and language acquisition I think it might be no worth noting that the majority of children do progress and due to the pathway and the interventions but there is a residual of approximately ten percent of children who haven't made the necessary progress over the course of about six months to a year once |
| 00:21:32 | those speech language and communication needs are identified which really ties in with the national statistics of ten percent of people having a residual speech and language need what we're doing in flinch was we're identifying that ten percent before they get to the age of four so what happens is they go into core speech and language services earlier they are identified before they go to school and the right support put in place so we can't deal with persistent |
| 00:21:59 | speech and language needs and sometimes the relationship between the parent and the child is not great so weak and we can't solve that but what we would like highlight is the early intervention further to this report and I've mentioned what our team might do in terms of suggestions we go in with ideas it's really simple stuff I know we're really late but yesterday I joined a group of parents where we made these so the gap the idea is that parents come |
| 00:22:29 | into the group instead of you know anything that is overwhelming we don't show lots of word we're very aware of parental literacy levels in flincher so we're focusing on conversation starters between parents and children and this is a it's making this is a brilliant way of caregivers being able to communicate with their children and toddlers but also instead of looking at a TV you know the amount of fun that you could have with this the noises the way that you |
| 00:22:58 | can start conversations is really effective there is since I wrote this report there's been a development in that the UK government have issued a call for evidence in the use of screams in infancy and early childhood and I think this is one of the things that our team are going to be really effective in supporting they're already having conversations with parents about appropriate screen use with toddlers which is very very very little and how |
| 00:23:27 | we take that forward and bring that into our practice the speech language and communication model that is developed by flying start developed by Welsh government what we're doing what we're doing in Flintshire is and part of that model but what I'd like to highlight is that the cohesion of the pathway that children follow from the antenatal period through to age four the strands that we follow making sure that every child under the flying start program |
| 00:23:57 | has a screening at 20 months and then has that ongoing support we're making a lot more effective use of our resource within the service by we don't offer this out necessarily as a universal pathway but for those families that need it they're able to draw on the support as and when they need it. Thank you very much thank you for the report it's something that's very important this is my education file on the 23rd of October this came up in |
| 00:24:38 | education and I just want to give you some facts you've given us some numbers these are some numbers that were reported to the education scrutiny committee and I'm going to start with this one this one this is reports on ALN and SEN in maintained schools by type of need 2024 the top one the top one is speech language and communication difficulties you know so there you can see it that is 18,000 so of that cohort 18,000 the biggest the biggest issue by |
| 00:25:23 | mile that's right this this is a table produced by youth justice you mentioned youth justice and here you've got all the various issues that their clients exhibit 38% of children and young people presented with language speech language and communication needs so I mean this is supporting what you said but the really interesting thing was this comment within the report it said to embed speech and language therapy into every youth justice state team and as |
| 00:26:13 | the provision of such services within youth justice is not statutory health in Wales do not currently have dedicated staffing or funding to revolt resource to provide it which I thought when you look at the other things I've shown you was absolutely terrible because clearly it's a vital situation a vital matter something that we've got to get to terms with and obviously the authorities decided that it's going to do it itself but so the question I'm coming to I'll |
| 00:26:57 | get there in the end is that it's not is it just you said it's just flying start and you I'm not quite sure what you said about universal provision of this so that's my question thank you councillor it's it's a very pertinent question the the speech language and communication offer in Flintshire is based around flying start which as you are aware is postcode targeted and if I just draw your attention to I'm really sorry I've lost which point I need to refer to |
| 00:27:38 | but any child in Flintshire can be referred in for speech language for the support that I've described either by a parental self-referral or by a health visitor or by a child care setting and what I've tried to highlight you'll see a table in 1.09 is the increase in referrals for speech language and communication that are coming in from our own areas but also from our outreach as well I think that is so important because these sorts of problems don't |
| 00:28:18 | occur it well so then they're not governed by postcodes and I've always felt that about flying start that you can have somebody living there who's just outside still has the problem but no sorry you're not you're not somebody sorry it's just a personal comment that may I come in on that so our groups that we run are open to the community so the stay and play groups that we run are open access and from those groups you might be able to progress into one of our dedicated |
| 00:28:53 | speech and language groups and that's what we want to do with speech language and communication make it very open across Flintshire Councillor Lister thank you they're very connected aren't they the reports that we've had today and with Sarah's report as well and I do feel really strongly that this is an investment isn't it it's something that the local authority has to prioritise we want to lift people out of poverty we need to improve their language we need to support our most vulnerable children and I just think we all |
| 00:29:24 | need to bear that in mind when we make the decisions that we have that responsibility for I did just have one question and it was when I had my children before covid they were an abundance of toddler and parent groups to go to singing and all the things that bring on on language and there was obviously a huge hiatus which has probably had a massive impact now on children that are five six seven isn't it and their language are you seeing that and have we been able to recover those groups and because I think people's sort of mindsets on how you entertain your |
| 00:30:00 | children have changed since covid I mean I've noticed through my experience primary school children speaking with American accents because a lot of the language they've learned has come from youtube and and and it's it's a bit of a concern I think so I was just wondering if there was any kind of anything we can do really to bring bring back that that parent toddler socialising really thank you for your question yes our goal well my goal in bringing this here today really is to raise that awareness and to let you know that we've got those informal groups running |
| 00:30:33 | throughout flincher where parents can come on a weekly basis and what we're trying to do is promote that right from the baby groups that we run and they are all open access if you follow our social media pages through family information service you'll see where these groups are running and I think that we need the whole community to promote it not just have an awareness within our own service and what you're sort of talking about needs to needs to be wider than just when parents are in receipt of services it needs to be a community-led message do any other members or |
| 00:31:16 | would any other members like to ask any questions or councillor healy I just would like to say this what I've heard here it was it's fantastic we have to let this go and then and I must say we cannot cut education and social care anymore this is me we can't we can't cut this anymore this is the young people of tomorrow and next thing I just wanted to say is I forgot is do you do you go to how can I say play groups and do not forget the rural areas rural areas is very isolated and like it's only like very small play groups like in in my area |
| 00:32:11 | hope it's a play group in the hall there in the church hall and it must have only about 10 children and that but please don't forget the rural area as well thank you we the outreach service that I mentioned earlier what we are seeing is like you say we're not able to set up large groups in the rural areas so we're doing more one-to-one in the family home and but we are looking for opportunities to run groups in hope and fly and also in we've got the other side of the county as well and grunt and panna forth where we're finding that families |
| 00:32:52 | are wanting this support thank you councillor jones deal um just to say I mean flying start we've always been the front runner only haven't we it was developed in flincher car sergeant our first one was brenda in connor's key that's going back a long time now isn't it and it's just grown and grown and grown gone from strength to strength the team are absolutely fantastic always have been and it started small but it's grown so much in the services that it now provides it's also grown in areas as well whereas it was a small area to begin with I think |
| 00:33:36 | a couple just dotted around in a few other towns now it's virtually everywhere across flincher and we've also got a lot of capital that we've provided for flying start we've added on to schools we've done extensions we've done haven't we we've we've built on we've done all sorts to our already existing schools for for the flying start projects so that again rift funding has provided for that as well hasn't it capital funding from welsh government again they're really good actually with early years aren't they you know providing funding providing grants |
| 00:34:17 | and our early years team really know how to spend that money you're so good at getting grant funding and spending it appropriately so every child and and families get the best the best service best provision because you and gail and the team just know exactly what is needed for those children and it's always spent wisely isn't it and then this this and with sarah's team with the early help hub again we were a front runner with the early help hub weren't we you know it was tried by us developed and it's just gone again from strength to strength and our early years provision |
| 00:35:04 | in flincher second to none is it is our children and our young children babies toddlers school age are so well looked after and well cared for and this is a brilliant report and i've really enjoyed listening to you again hailey as always you're so professional and you really know your stuff don't you you're absolutely amazing and i've really enjoyed this afternoon so thank you and the oxford brain story i think that's that's just something we've got to run with isn't it we really have the flying star we've always supported it and we will continue to won't we because it's |
| 00:35:45 | our baby isn't it and i just wanted to thank elect members it's been a long session for me we started with budget and started with pressures and i think what i particularly have heard especially as we've ended is about services that i think the public don't know that the council provide and they don't appreciate the work that where we're taking finite budget and invest in it in services that we know have an evidence about impact and will make a difference and so i think it's quite fitting that we've almost done that full circle to demonstrate this |
| 00:36:31 | isn't just about overspends and budget pressures it's about using money wisely and about investment and about getting the best for our residents even if they don't know what we're doing behind the scenes because i think it is really important and i just thank you for your support this afternoon in working through these reports thank you craig that just leaves us with the recommendations so we're being asked to support three things one is the promotion of awareness of flying start flinches comprehensive offer supporting the champion slc support as a priority |
| 00:37:05 | for early years investment and supporting the integration of slc strategies across wider early years and education services councillor mackey to move councillor thieu to second all in favour that's unanimous thank you very much that concludes the meeting d off everybody thank you all for your time and engagement and see you all |
- Developing professional understanding of the impact of early experiences on neurodevelopment in the .pdf: An operational report for the Social and Health Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee detailing the initiative's progress and impact in Flintshire.
- Enc 3.pdf: A comprehensive independent evaluation report by Dr. Ceryl Teleri Davies on the North Wales Oxford Brain Story training pilot.
- Enc 2.pdf: A statistical summary of survey evaluations from 2024 and 2025 detailing attendance numbers and participant knowledge growth.
- Enc 1.pdf: A high-level evaluation summary infographic outlining project aims, key findings, and final recommendations.
The Development and Impact of Speech, Language and Communication Support in Early Years Services
During the Social and Health Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on February 12, 2026, members discussed the development and impact of Speech, Language, and Communication (SLC) support within Flintshire's Early Years services. The discussion emphasized that early SLC skills are fundamental to a child's long-term success, with vocabulary at age five serving as a key predictor for escaping poverty. The committee highlighted the success of Flintshire's integrated, multi-agency team—comprising local authority staff, health professionals, and commissioned providers—in delivering a range of universal and targeted interventions from the antenatal period through preschool. A central theme was the vital role of parents and caregivers as the primary drivers of language development, supported by programs like "May I Join You" and the Elklan evidence-informed groups. The session also introduced the new PaRRiS outcome measure used to evaluate improvements in home learning environments and adult-child relationships. Ultimately, the committee underscored the strategic importance of continued investment in these services to improve school readiness, reduce the long-term need for specialist support, and break cycles of disadvantage in vulnerable communities.
Transcript generated by AI from meeting audio. It may contain errors, omissions, or misattributions. Please treat it as a convenience copy and refer to the original recording for the authoritative record.
| Timestamp | Transcript |
|---|---|
| 00:00:00 | item which is agenda item 12 and again this is with Ali and it's the development impact of speech language and communication support in early years services. Thank you Joe. So I'm moving on to reference speech language and communication services in Flintshire and they are not separate from the item that I've just discussed they're very integrated. You can see from the report the definitions of speech language and communication so I won't go over those but they're really important to understand that the development of speech language and communication is absolutely |
| 00:00:39 | fundamental to a child's ongoing success in life and the point I'd really like to emphasise from the summary is that parents and immediate caregivers are the most important people in a child's life when it comes to language development. It doesn't sit with childcare it doesn't sit with it must sit with the parents and the immediate caregivers around that child for it to work effectively. So 1.01 there is quite a long definition of speech language and communication and what that's broken down into and I think that in Flintshire we've been very successful |
| 00:01:13 | in understanding those three different elements of how children acquire language and how that's really important to their overall development. The early identification and targeted intervention critical to preventing long-term disadvantage. Now when we look at the figures over 10% of children and young people in the UK have persistent speech language and communication needs that can limit their ability to learn. Now what that means is that 10% of children is is critical anyway but what we also need to look at is how overrepresented those 10% of children are |
| 00:01:50 | the youth justice and prison population. So it's really vital that we see speech language and communication as really integral and a part of development and I think sometimes we focus on different parts of children's development. The other thing I'd like to highlight 1.02 is that Flystar operates in the most disadvantaged areas of Flintshire because the deprivation impacts on so we know that where we're working in areas of deprivation we can have the most impact and the you know one thing that's I find people find quite surprising is that vocabulary |
| 00:02:30 | vocabulary at age five is the best predictor about whether children are able to escape poverty and increase their life chances. So the strategic importance of speech language and communication sits alongside other health measures. It sits really well along social and emotional development, health measures, diet and things like that and it needs to be seen as an element in its own right. So we work from the Welsh government guidance for speech language and communication. In Flintshire we deliver those really comprehensively according to the guidance |
| 00:03:05 | and we offer a range of interventions home visit based and group based interventions. You can see a description of the team we're a multi-agency team with local authority teams and commissioned health service staff as well and we all work really closely together. The team's really instrumental in fostering speech language and communication development in child care settings as well because the Flyingstar child care offer is really fundamental to children's development so this includes the world of child care practitioners as well. |
| 00:03:36 | We've given at 1.06 a definition of some of the interventions and practice that we have across Flintshire which due to time I won't go into huge amounts of detail and we've got such a range of measures that what we try to do is from the antenatal stage our speech and language therapist comes in and speaks to parents about language acquisition in the womb and that builds on with baby groups where we're really encouraging parental interaction we're really encouraging sound making but what I want to emphasise today is that speech language and communication isn't |
| 00:04:13 | about words it's about the relationship between the parent and the child so not only is vocabulary an indication of how well a child can progress and learn it's an indication of the quality of the relationship that the parent has with the child so what we're trying to do is bring the interventions in at the right time and this is really true for cases where children are potentially on the child protection register if there are safeguarding concerns because where that relationship with the parent between the parent and the child isn't brilliant we know that we |
| 00:04:43 | can do work to support that so in 1.06 the final point there is the Paris outcome measure and this is a measure that was introduced by Welsh Government last year where we the evaluation tool for our speech and language interventions is actually a measure of the quality of the relationship between the child and their caregiver and also the home environment the environment that that child's being brought into which you know relates back to Sarah's point about the neglect framework and tools use their outcomes and impact again I've presented quite a comprehensive |
| 00:05:20 | overview of some of the progress that children make in their language development and language acquisition I think it might be no worth noting that the majority of children do progress and due to the pathway and the interventions but there is a residual of approximately 10% of children who haven't made the necessary progress over the course of about six months to a year once those speech language and communication needs are identified which really ties in with the national statistics of 10% of people having a residual speech and language need what we're doing in |
| 00:05:56 | is we're identifying that 10% before they get to the age of four so what happens is they go into core speech and language services earlier they are identified before they go to school and the right support put in place so we can't deal with persistent speech and language needs and sometimes the relationship between the parent and the child is not great so we and we can't solve that but what we would like to highlight is the early intervention work that's going on in do in terms of suggestions we go in with ideas it's really simple stuff I know we're really |
| 00:06:34 | really late but yesterday I joined a group of parents where we made these so the gap the idea is that parents come into the groups and instead of you know anything that is overwhelming we don't show lots of um word we're very aware of parental literacy levels in Inflinture so we're focusing on conversation starters between parents and children and this is a it's making this is a brilliant way of caregivers being able to communicate with their children and their toddlers but also instead of looking at a tv you know the amount of fun |
| 00:07:08 | that you could have with this the noises the way that you can start conversations is really effective there is um since I wrote this report there's been a development in that the UK government have issued a call for evidence in the use of screams in um infancy and early childhood and I think this is one of the things that our team are going to be really effective in supporting they're already having conversations with parents about appropriate screen use with toddlers which is very very very little and how we take that forward and bring that into our practice |
| 00:07:45 | um the speech language and communication model that is um developed by flying start developed by welsh government what we're doing what we're doing in flint sure is um part of that um model but what i'd like to highlight is that the cohesion of the pathway that children follow from the antenatal period through to age four the strands that we follow making sure that every child under the flying start program has a screening at 20 months and that's what we're trying to do and then has that ongoing support we're making a lot more effective use of our resource within the |
| 00:08:18 | service by we don't offer this out necessarily as a universal pathway but for those families that need it they're able to draw on the support as and when they need it thank you thank you very much thank you for the report it's something that's um very important this is my education on the 23rd of october this came up in education and i just want to give you some facts you've given us some numbers these are some numbers that were reported to the education scrutiny committee um and i'm going to start with this one this one this is um reports on aln and sen |
| 00:09:11 | in maintained schools by type of need 2024 the top one the top one is speech language and communication difficulties you know so there you can see it that is 18 000 so of that cohort 18 000 the biggest the biggest issue by a mile that's right this this is a table produced by youth justice you mentioned youth justice and here you've got all the various issues that their clients exhibit 38 percent of children and young people presented with language speech language and communication needs so i mean this is supporting what you said |
| 00:10:06 | but the really interesting thing was um this comment within the report it said to embed speech and language therapy into every youth justice team and as the provision of such services within youth justice is not statutory health boards in wales do not currently have dedicated staffing or funding to revolt resource to provide it which i thought when you look at the other things i've shown you was absolutely terrible because clearly it's a vital situation a vital matter something that we've got to get to terms with and and obviously the |
| 00:11:01 | the authorities decided that it's going to do it itself but so the question i'm coming to i'll get there in the end is that it's not is it you said it's just playing start and you i'm not quite sure what you said about universal provision of this so that's my question thank you councillor it's um it's a very pertinent question the the speech language and communication offer in flincher is based around flying start which as you are aware is postcode targeted um if i just draw your attention to i'm really sorry i've lost which point i need to refer to |
| 00:11:51 | but any child in flincher can be referred in for speech language for the support that i've described either by a parental self-referral or by a health visitor or by a child care setting and what i've tried to highlight you'll see a table in 1.09 is the increase in referrals for speech language and communication that are coming in from our own areas but also from our outreach service as well i think that is so important because these sorts of problems don't occur well sorry they're not governed by postcodes and i've always felt that about flying start that you can have somebody |
| 00:12:40 | living there who's just outside still has the problem but no sorry you're not you're not somebody there sorry it's just a personal comment that may i come in on that so our groups that we run are open to the community so the stay and play groups that we run are open access and from those groups you might be able to progress into one of our dedicated speech and language groups and that's what we want to do with speech language and communication make it very open across flincher thank you they're all very connected aren't they the reports that we've had today and with sarah's |
| 00:13:22 | report as well and i do feel really strongly that this is an investment isn't it it's something that the local authority has to prioritize we want to lift people out of poverty we need to improve their language we need to support our most vulnerable children and i i just think we all need to bear that in mind when we make the decisions that we have that responsibility for i did just have one question and it was when i had my children before covid they were an abundance of toddler and parent groups to go to singing and all the things that bring on on language |
| 00:13:55 | and there was obviously a huge hiatus which has probably had a massive impact now on children that are five six seven isn't it and their language are you seeing that and have we been able to recover those groups and and because i think people's sort of mindsets on how you entertain your children have changed since covid i mean i've noticed through my experience primary school children speaking with american accents because a lot of the language they've learned has come from youtube and and and it's it's a bit of a concern i think so i was just wondering if there |
| 00:14:26 | was any kind of anything we can do really to bring bring back that that parent toddler socializing really thank you for your question yes our goal well my goal in bringing this here today really is to raise that awareness and to let you know that we've got those informal groups running throughout flincher where parents can come on a weekly basis and what we're trying to do is promote that right from the baby groups that we run and they are all open access if you follow our social media pages through family information service you'll see where these groups are running |
| 00:15:03 | i think that we need the whole community to promote it not just have an awareness within our own service and what you're sort of talking about needs to needs to be wider than just when parents are in receipt of services it needs to be a community-led message do any other members or would any other members like to ask any questions or councillor heli um i just would like to say this is what i've heard here it was it's fantastic we have to let this go and then and i must say we cannot cut education and social care anymore |
| 00:15:47 | this is me we can't we can't cut this anymore this is the young people of tomorrow um next thing i just wanted to say is um i forgot not great um is uh do you do you go to how can i say play groups and do not forget the rural areas rural areas is very isolated and like it's only like very small play groups like in in my area hope it's a play group in the hall there in the church hall and uh it must have only about 10 children and that but please don't forget the rural area as well thank you we the outreach service that i mentioned |
| 00:16:46 | earlier what we are seeing is like you say we're not able to set up large groups in the rural areas so we're doing more one-to-one in the family home and but we are looking for opportunities to run groups in hope and fly and also in um we've got the other side of the county as well and grand aunt and panna forth where we're finding that families are wanting this support thank you councillor jones deal um just to say i mean flying start we've always been the front runner on it haven't we it was developed in flincher carl sergeant brought it here our first one was |
| 00:17:23 | brin dever in connors key that's going back a long time now isn't it and it's just grown and grown and grown gone from strength to strength the team are absolutely fantastic always have been and it started small but it's grown so much in the services that it now provides it's also grown in areas as well whereas it was a small area to begin with i think we had a couple just dotted around in a few other towns now it's virtually everywhere across flincher and we've also got a lot of capital that we've provided for flying start we've added on to |
| 00:18:04 | we've done extensions we've done haven't we we've we've built on we've done all sorts to our already existing schools for for the flying start projects so that again refunding has provided for that as well as the capital funding from welsh government again they're really good actually with early years aren't they you know providing funding providing grants and our early years team really know how to spend that money you're so good at getting grant funding and spending it appropriately so every child and and families get the best the best service |
| 00:18:47 | best provision because you and gail and the team just know exactly what is needed for those children and it's always spent wisely isn't it and then this this and with sarah's team with the early help hub again we were a front runner with the early help hub where we you know it was tried by us developed and it's just gone again from strength to strength and our early years provision in flincher second to none it is it is our children and our young children babies toddlers school age are so well looked after and well cared for |
| 00:19:30 | and this is a brand new report and i've really enjoyed listening to you again hailey as always you're so professional and you really know your stuff don't you you're absolutely amazing and i've really enjoyed this afternoon so thank you and the oxford brain story i think that's that's something we've got to run with isn't it we really have the flying star we've always supported it and we will continue to won't we because it's been our baby isn't it and i just wanted to thank elected members it's been a long session for me we started with budget and started with pressures |
| 00:20:15 | and i think what i particularly have heard especially as we've ended is about services that i think the public don't know that the council provide and they don't appreciate the work that where we're taking finite budget and invest in it in services that we know have an evidence about impact and we'll make a difference and so i think it's quite fitting that we've almost done that full circle to demonstrate this isn't just about overspends and budget pressures it's about using money wisely and about investment and about getting |
| 00:20:53 | the best for our residents even if they don't know what we're doing behind the scenes because i think it is really important and i just thank you for your support this afternoon in working through these reports thank you craig that just leaves us with the recommendations so we're being asked to support three things one is the promotion of awareness of flying start flinch's comprehensive offer and supporting the champion slc support as a priority for early years investment and supporting the integration of slc strategies across wider early years and education services |
| 00:21:25 | councillor mackey to move councillor few to second all those in favor that's unanimous uh thank you very much that concludes the meeting deal everybody thank you all for your time and engagement and see you all |
- The Development and Impact of Speech Language and Communication Support in Early Years Services.pdf: An operational report detailing Flintshire's SLC strategy, intervention pathways, and impact data for the Flying Start programme.
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