CDI: Quality Services,
Better Outcomes Conference
Lynda Wilson
Director, Barnardo’s Northern Ireland
Julie Healy
Programme Manager
Workshop Plan
•Context (Barnardo’s & External
Environment)
•Outline of Ready to Learn After
School Programme
•Systems to ensure & monitor
quality implementation
•Lessons learned and future
challenges
HISTORY
1867 Founded by Thomas John Barnardo –
Ragged school in the East End.
1870 Opened First Boys Home in Stepney
Causeway
Barnardo’s NI established in 1899 a soup
kitchen in Great Victoria Street, Belfast
Thomas John Barnardo
1845 - 1905
KEY FACTS BARNARDO’S N.I.
44 Services
Practice development activity
Research and dissemination
Policy influence and lobbying
Almost 600 staff
£12.1.m annual budget
£2.1m voluntary funds investment
“We are doing good work but
we need to do more to evidence
and ensure that our work is
doing good”
External
Environment
•Tough economic conditions
•Cuts to public expenditure likely to
impact on services for children
•Commissioners increasingly
seeking evidence based / proven
programmes
•Early intervention firmly on ‘agenda’
but strategy for moving forward?
Internal
Environment
•Organisational readiness and
history of promoting evidence based
practice
•Move from ‘standards’ towards
outcomes and effectiveness but …..
•Strong background in social work
•Traditional structure & hierarchy
•Culture of management &
compliance
Ready to Learn
A school based programme working
in partnership with schools and
families to raise children’s
achievement
Focus on improving children’s
literacy skills and facilitating parental
involvement in child’s education
Two
components
•After School programme to
promote the skills and
development needed to achieve
in school
•Range of information &
activities for parents to help
them support their child’s
learning
Why literacy?
•NI has a much praised education system
•NI GCSE results at Grade C or above were
9% higher than England or Wales, NI also
does significantly better at A Level
•32% of children in working class areas in NI
go to University, higher than children from
similar areas in England
•Pockets of severe underachievement
which is linked to a range of negative
outcomes as children and in adulthood
•One-fifth of children leave Primary School
without reaching the expected level in
literacy
•NI Audit Office - £40 million on improving
literacy with little impact
Service Design
No existing programme to
replicate to achieve our outcome
•Ready to Learn seeks to
reinforce and consolidate the
work in school by working
directly with parents and
children
•Specific link to the NI
Curriculum
After School
Programme
Ready to Learn aims to increase
educational achievement by
providing a literacy rich after
school programme to all children
who are eligible.
•The After School Club runs on
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
afternoons from 2pm-3pm when the
school is open.
•All Primary 2 children in
participating schools are eligible to
attend (300 +).
2 core elements
1. An academic programme
aimed at enhancing literacy
achievement (explicit
outcome)
2. A social programme
incorporating social,
emotional and behavioural
regulation skills (implicit
outcome)
Literacy rich
activities
Strand 1 -Attention and
Listening
Strand 2 -Phonological
awareness
Strand 3 -Oral language
Strand 4 -Vocabulary
Strand 5-Concepts of print
Quality Drivers
Within Ready to Learn
•Context of a randomised
controlled trial
•High expectations from
schools, funders and policy
makers
•Conscious of potential for
future ‘product’ development
(not just service delivery)
Quality
measures
Within Ready to Learn
•Service Design
•Specific Job
Descriptions
•Rigorous
recruitment &
selection
•Induction &
ongoing training
•Regular
supervision
•Manualised
programme
•Observation
•Weekly recording
by Leaders
•Feedback from
Schools & IAC
•Team meetings
•Process review
Implementation Goal
Performance Assessment
Systems
Intervention
Coaching
Facilitative
Administration
Training
Core
Implementation
Components
Selection
Decision Support
Data System
Leadership
Technical
Adaptive
34
Source: Slides presented at Implementation Masterclass, Dublin, May 2011, Karen Blasé and Dean Fixsen
Lessons Learned &
Future Challenges
•Need for a ‘facilitative’ environment
•Move from ‘supervision model’ to
coaching and implementation fidelity
•Performance assessment – different
management style
•Do we have an effective
implementation infrastructure?