Year 1, 2 & 3
Year 1 – Initial Test - Sound Primary School
In this first year, we set up processes and practices for working with families, and that ‘Anchor approach’ has been welcomed by all those involved. We have seen positive outcomes and impacts for the supported families and, while the number of families supported was relatively small (eight in total), each engagement generated a wealth of information that now supports the overall goal of shifting from crisis intervention to early intervention and prevention.
The team also worked closely with Sound Primary School staff, providing someone that they could go to for advice and information to help them better support families. They helped with training, to share knowledge, and increased the confidence of staff to support families. Anchor became part of the school community and helping us to share information about early action across the wider school community.
Please see our evaluation report (pdf) from the first year of the project for more information.
A case study of our work by Education Scotland can be found on page 9 (pdf).
A case study on the impact on Free School Meal uptake can be found here; Tackling Food Insecurity in Scottish Schools, on page 17 (pdf).
Year 2 - Early Help Team - COVID Response
Plans for Year 2, shifted, as the Project adapted to the pandemic, lockdowns, restrictions, and the impacts. The project supported the development of the Early Help Team, providing support to more families directly and indirectly. The team supported existing and new families, remotely, and were in regular contact with all schools, providing Head Teachers, with support, as required, to reach out to families that might be struggling.
The team also provided very practical help, in partnership with others, setting up and running the Food Larder, Clothing Items and providing support to apply for Free School Meals and other benefits. An Evaluation of Year 2 is available here (pdf)
The Project also supported the development of early action support, across Shetland, in order to extend the breadth and reach of early support. Click for more information on Shetland’s Early Action Programme here (pdf)
Year 3 - Scaling-Up Delivery and Testing in Different Contexts
With some degree of easing of restrictions, the Project was able to return to delivery in schools. Alongside this, Shetland was successful in obtaining funding through The Promise (pdf), to support the Universal Family Support and Workforce aspects of The Promise. This enabled us to build the team through secondments from NHS Shetland Child Health, Voluntary Action Shetland and Education.
The purpose of Year 3 was to determine whether Anchor is a methodology, requiring the whole system to change, or a new service. To answer this, we worked in three different settings: Sound Primary, the Anderson High School in Lerwick and Aith Junior High School and Primary Cluster (as a more rural setting).
This year we are also testing a new role – our Anchor Support Worker. This is being tested in the North Mainland, funded by the school’s Pupil Equity Funding allocation and the Anchor Project.
What Next?
We are clear on our family-support model, and continue to test ways of normalising family-support in order to remove any barriers to access.
We are working towards embedding the model, to continue investment in early action and systems change, from now onwards until the Project ends on 31st March 2023.
We are strengthening our brand, and communication, with investment from the Council in a communications expert, one day a week for 2022/23.