ANNEX 2: FOCUS GROUP TOPIC GUIDE
Early years framework - parent and carer focus groups
Background:
The 4 emerging themes of the Framework are:
- Building parenting and family capacity, pre and post birth;
- Building communities that support the positive development of young children;
- Delivering integrated services that meet all the needs of children and families; and
- The development of a suitable workforce to meet the needs of the framework.
Service area themes for the focus groups to cover are:
- Pre and post natal health;
- Childcare and early education;
- Social Work;
- Health behaviours;
- Play and leisure;
- Parenting and family support; and
- Adult services that have a major impact on outcomes for children e.g. housing, drug and alcohol rehabilitation.
Facilitator guidance
Cover the range of topics. When one thread finishes, prompt another with an open question again - 'what do you think of the play facilities available?', 'do you find it easy enough to get advice on health?' for instance
Concentrate on the discussion. Always be ready to - gently - prompt people to explain something they have said; ask them why they felt that way. This will expand the discussion and the value of what we get from the group, on each service theme
Make sure that besides experiences, we are capturing what changes and improvements people wish to see. These should go hand in hand - when someone tells of a negative experience, ask them what they would wish to be done differently.
Throughout, the facilitator must:
- make sure everyone who wants to is able to participate - it's perfectly acceptable to ask an individual to contribute if they clearly wish to but are hesitating, perhaps owing to one or 2 dominating the discussion
- keep an eye on the clock - groups should not be allowed to run on and on
- bring the discussion back to the topic if it strays
- capture outputs (take notes and audio record where you can)
- ensure that the whole range of topics is covered, even if only for people to indicate they have nothing to say on the matter
The facilitator is not there to be an expert on the subjects at hand. If a participant asks questions about an aspect of education, for instance, try to elicit further responses from them by turning the question around - 'well, what do you think about that? - or, if they are really asking for practical advice, make sure you are able to signpost them to the appropriate service after the session.
People will not necessarily immediately have anything to say - silence is ok! It is vital that the facilitator does not dominate the exercise.
Equalities
Ask everyone to complete and equal opportunities monitoring form while you are waiting for people to arrive and follow up at the end top make sure you have all the completed forms.
Introduction
Hello - my name is……………………..
I work for a company called GEN. We have been asked by the Scottish Government to talk to parents and carers of children aged up to 8 years old about the services that they need, what gaps there are in services and their experience of using services, thinking back to your ante-natal care and then as your child or children have grown older.
We are speaking to between 40 and 50 groups of parents around the country and 20 groups of children.
The report of the findings will be submitted to the Scottish Government in July and we are aiming that everyone who has taken part will have a chance to look at the findings.
In the next hour or so we will be covering the following topic areas:
- Pre and post natal health;
- Childcare and early education;
- Health behaviours;
- Play and leisure; and
- Parenting and family support.
Note - if you are planning to record the session - check that no-one minds.
Can we start by going round the table, if you could tell me your name and the number and ages of your children.
Round table introduction
Set the groundrules
In a discussion like this there are some groundrules that we always stick to -
- Everyone should have a chance to speak and to be heard;
- Whatever anyone says will be kept confidential in the group;
- Everyone's thoughts, views and opinions are equally valid; and
- If anyone wants to leave the discussion at any point, then they are free to do that, to return later or to speak to me after the group.
Pairs exercise: 10 minutes
Give the group one of the scenarios, focussing on a specific situation related to early years Talk through it and give them copies.
Work in pairs.
Please read it and discuss:
- what support and services does this person or family need
- where would they get these supports and services
- could they get the supports and services they really need (if not what could they not get and why)
- what would make them want to use a service
- what would make them not want to use a service
- what do you think their experience would be if they did use the service.
Ask each pair to record key comments and points on a sheet (provided) and write the date at the top.
Note - Consultant must keep these together and record which scenario the sheets refer to.
Feedback and discussion - 5 mins
Ask one pair to give a short minute feedback and facilitate a 5 minute discussion around it ie:
Is there anything that anyone disagrees with here or has a different experience of?
Please explain…
Facilitated plenary discussion - 40 to 60 minutes
Theme 1 - pre and post natal health
In this section, I want us to talk about the services that people need when they are planning a family, so before they are pregnant, then think about what they need during the pregnancy then in the first stages after a child is born.
Pre-conception
What information and advice do people need to help them plan a family?
At what stage do they need this?
What organisations should provide this?
In your experience, is the right support and advice available at this stage - what are the gaps in what is available and how it is provided.
Ante-natal Care
What information, support and services do you think parents need during pregnancy?
Health during pregnancy (healthy eating, exercise, health care)
Support to plan and prepare for the birth and having a new child to care for.
In your experience, are the right services support and advice available at this stage in terms of:
- Health during pregnancy (healthy eating, exercise, health care); and
- Support to plan and prepare for the birth and having a new child to care for.
What are the gaps in what is available and how it is provided.
Who should provide these services
Post natal care
What information, support and services do you think parents need in the period after a baby is born
- Health (breast feeding, healthy eating, exercise, health care for parent, health care for child)
- Support in having a new child to care for. Developing their parenting skills?
At what stage do they need this and for how long?
What organisations/practitioners should provide this?
What is the role of wider family and the community?
In your experience, is the right support and advice available at this stage - what are the gaps in what is available and how it is provided.
Theme 2 childcare and early education
Childcare is where a child is looked at, usually out of their own home but sometimes in it (eg a nanny). Early education is the education a child receives from the age of 3 either in a partnership provider (a private or voluntary sector provider for example a private nursery) or in a local authority nursery class or school.
Thinking first about childcare -
What are the challenges that face families looking to use childcare? (possible prompts - costs, not enough supply, hours of operation, location, juggling different arrangements for children of different ages and so forth)
What could be done to address these challenges.
Can you tell me a bit about your experience of using childcare? Good and bad. What contributes to a "family friendly" quality service and what hinders it.
Early education
Now, going on to think about early education.
What is your understanding of early education?
What early education does a child need?
At what age?
What are the benefits?
Do families face difficulties in using the early education opportunities available - what are they?
In your experience, is early education - of good quality, consistent, do you get feedback on progress, do you need more feedback
What are the gaps?
Ideally, how should it be provided, where, at what times and by which organisation or organisations?
Theme 3 - health behaviours
Health behaviours is about things that are good for your health for example healthy eating and exercise and addressing problems for example smoking or drug and alcohol misuse.
Thinking about families, what do you think needs to be in place to encourage healthy living? What do families need to help them make good choices and improve their health lifestyle?
Do you think there are the services and source of advice available for this?
What are the gaps and what needs to be provided to address the gaps.
Who/where do you think would be a good source/route to provide this?
And now, thinking about support to avoid or stop unhealthy behaviours like smoking, problem drinking or misusing drugs - what services and information do families need? (This is about parents rather than the children)
What are the other services that support adults that have an important impact on children in the family? What do you think about how they address the whole family's needs?
Do you think there are the services and source of advice available for this?
What are the gaps and what needs to be provided to address the gaps.
Who/where do you think would be a good source/route to provide this?
Theme 4 - play and leisure
Play and leisure is about playgrounds, supported play activities, leisure facilities, sports, museums, libraries and so forth. There is also the issue of access to unsupervised, free play and open spaces. Participants may not discuss all of these in detail which is alright.
Thinking about the different ages of children, what sort of play facilities and leisure activities do they need?
What barriers and challenges are there to families accessing the play and leisure that they need?
What gaps or issues are there in what is available at the moment (Note - this might be access to free play, quality of play parks, lack of green spaces, location of facilities etc)
Theme 5 - parenting and family support
Parenting and family support refers to advice, information, support and other services provided to a family to help them tackle issues, avoid issues from arising and to benefit parents, carers and children.
Thinking about you, your friends and people in your community, what sort of parenting and family issues might families face that they will need help to address.
What support do you think should be available to support them address the range of issues?
In your experience, is there enough support available at the moment? If not - what gaps are there in what is available.
Explore with the group - Is it available in the right location/ where should it be available (i.e. in communities ?)
Who is best placed to provide it? ( GP surgeries/health clinics, schools, voluntary organisations etc)
What would make people want to use it.
What would put them off using it.
Do you think it is provided in the right way just now?
Sum up
At this point, the facilitator should:
- reiterate the invitation for anyone who wishes to speak on a one to one basis to do so afterwards and
- thank everyone for their participation
- repeat that the research will be feeding into in terms of the importance of the national early years framework.
TAKE NAMES, PHONE NUMBERS AND ADDRESSES OF THOSE HAPPY TO BE INVOLVED IN FOLLOW UP WORK.