Before Completing This Application Form

COSLA EXCELLENCE AWARDS2014

01

APPLICATION FORM

Please refer to the ‘2014 Guidance for Applicants’

before completing this application form.

The application form is split over four sections. It is up to you to decide the content and length of each section, but your application must not exceed three pages in total (excluding the cover pages).

Please ensure that your application covers the key criteria that we are looking for and is effectively presented. Any questions relating to your application or the submission process should be directed to or 0131 474 9275.

The deadline for submission of entries is 5pm on Friday 18 October 2013.

Submitting Your Application Form

We have introduced a new online application portal for the 2014 awards. You should therefore submit this application form electronically using our online form.

PLEASE PROVIDE SOME DETAILS ABOUT YOUR APPLICATION:

CATEGORY APPLIED FOR / Local Matters
PROJECT NAME
(as you wish to see it published) / Big ShoutER
LEAD ORGANISATION / East Renfrewshire Community Health and Care Partnership
DEPARTMENT/TEAM / Health Improvement Team
PARTICIPANT NAMES OR PARTNER ORGANISATIONS / East Renfrewshire Young Person’s Services
East RenfrewshireYoung People
IsobelMairSchool
Other topic specialists
CONTACT NAME / Carole Whitelaw
CONTACT DETAILS / East Renfrewshire Health Improvement Team / 0141 577 8682
CAN WE PUBLISH THIS APPLICATION FORM ON OUR WEBSITE? / YES
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / In one short paragraph please describe this project is about, what it has achieved, and why it is delivering excellence.
The Big ShoutER was formed by 5 young volunteers who had a desire to make a real difference within their communities. The young people, now known as the Big ShoutERs, have, in most cases, overcome self esteem and confidence issues to be part of this project, With support from staff from East Renfrewshire Community Health and Care Partnership’s Health Improvement Team and staff from East Renfrewshire Council’s Young Person’s Services Team the young people have used an assets based approach to work with young people in East Renfrewshire (ER) to help them to understand their own health needs and to further consult with the local population of young people to find out what their ‘identified’ health needs were. They used the information gained from this process to inform future planning of youth health services in ER through ER’s Integrated Children’s Services Planning Groups. They further developed peer education resources based on the findings from the consultation to enhance the knowledge of the local young people on topics they identified, and to support them to make informed choices about their health. All five of the initial Big ShoutERs have secured either full time work or training and have been replaced by another 4 young people who are equally as enthusiastic about young people’s health issues.
This project is seen as an example of good practice particularly within the youth health arena due to it demonstrating an effective model of youth involvement in the design and delivery of youth services in East Renfrewshire with the long term aim of improving young people’s health and wellbeing and tackling health inequalities.
PLANNING / What is your project about, and why is it important? What are you aiming to achieve, and how does this fit with the bigger picture? Does it tackle the issues that matter most to your community or your organisation?
The key aim of the project is to support young people, using an assets based approach, to develop a mechanism to co-produce change in youth health services based on their own health needs. By ensuring that young people are fully involved in developing and redesigning youth health services it is hoped that it will help them to develop a ‘sense of coherence’ which is described as ‘theskills and confidence to manage the demands of life’. Thishas been shown to have a positive impact on long term health outcomes and in reducing health inequalities.
The project was initiated in September 2009 by a group of 5 young people who expressed a desire to influence positive change in health and community settings by ensuring that the ‘expressed’ health needs of young people in East Renfrewshire (ER) were being considered by service providers. The young people’s vision clearly reflected the council’s transformation theme of listening to and involving service users in the planning and delivery of services.
The young people, who became known as the Big Shouters, were thus recruited and trained to enable them, with support from staff from ER Community Health and Care Partnership’s Health Improvement Team (ER HIT) and ER Council’s Young Person’s Services Team (ER YPST), to:

• Increase their own confidence to work as part of a team
• Develop skills to facilitate their own personal growth and that of other young people (minimum 30) through peer support
• Develop a range of media, information technology and consultation skills to further research and identify the health needs of local young people
• Improve their knowledge of health issues affecting young people and the community and develop young person friendly resources to deliver peer education on a range of health topics. We did not specify the topics as this was dependent on the results from the consultation
• Increase their skills and confidence to engage with and present their findings to local health service providers and at local and national events

Our initial target was to recruit and train a group of Big ShoutERs (a minimum of4) to deliver the above objectives over an initial 2 year project period. However, the Big ShoutER has been so successful, demonstrated by the number of awards won in recognition of its success, that the project has been extended. The Big ShoutERs themselves have been in high demand and new work has been developed that was not part of the initial plan, e.g. the development ofpeer education resources for children with additional support needs.
This project contributes to East Renfrewshire’s Single Outcome Agreement which has cross cutting themes of: tackling and reducing inequalities among and between communities, prioritising prevention and early intervention, building the capacity of individuals and assets of communities to enable the realisation of outcomes, and in particular outcome 1: All children in East Renfrewshire experience a stable and secure start to their lives and are supported to succeed. This in turn links to the Scottish Government outcomes aimed atmaking ourcommunities: Healthier
DELIVERING / How have you carried out your project? How did you ensure that this was done effectively? What are you doing to continue to improve?
Year 1: The 5 original members of The Big ShoutER were supported to design and carry out a peer youth health and wellbeing consultation over 12 months. The Big ShoutERs further augmented this with focus groupsto ensure that the voice of ‘difficult to engage with’ young people was also considered, e.g. young people leaving care, young carers and young people with additional support needs. The findings and recommendations from the consultation were disseminated to ER’s young people via a youth health event called the ER Youth Health Fest, which was also attended by staff with expertise in relation to the main themes that young people identified in the consultation as being a health issues: tobacco, sexual health, healthy eating and alcohol/drugs. A formal report of the findings and recommendations was further disseminated to senior managers in East Renfrewshire Community Health and Care Partnership (CHCP) via Integrated Children’s Services Planning Groups to inform future youth health service planning and design. This information was also used to direct the next stages of the project.
Year 2: To address the health issues emerging from the consultation with young people, and to fulfil the peer education element of the project, the Big ShoutERs were supported by health staff to develop peer education packs on the 4 main health themes: tobacco, healthy eating, alcohol/drugs and sexual health, identified by the young people. Using these resources the Big ShoutERs have delivered peer education sessions both within the school and in community setting.
Year 3: A further mental health and wellbeing pack is currently being developed in recognition of the significant impact that mental health can have on health outcomes. The pack will incorporate a tool to map existing community support/assets for young people. The Big ShoutERs are also involved in the development of a board wide project which is testing out the use of social media within mental health, and are in the process of developing a tobacco peer education pack in partnership with IsobelMairSchool which is suitable for young people with additional support needs who have communication issues.
Throughout this process the direction of the project was led by the young people. Staff from East Renfrewshire’s Health Improvement Team and Young Person’s Services worked alongside to support them in a responsive and adaptable manner and to ensure the project remained manageable through weekly meetings and 6 monthly planning sessions.
Challenges: The Big ShoutER strap line is: ‘Not just lip service’ as the Big ShoutERs wanted to highlight the importance they placed on actually following through on any engagement activity with actions. All of their work has been fed back to young people and via ER Integrated Children’s Services Planning Groups. The Big ShoutERs used creative youth friendly methods to encourage all young people to be part of the consultationand effectively targeted groups of young people who they considered less likely to engage with the process, to ensure that they represented the voice of young people in ER.
INNOVATION & LEADING PRACTICE / Why is your project innovative? How is it helping to prepare for the future? What is happening to help other organisations benefit from your approach?
Peer education is not a new concept, however, this model is unique due to the different aspects of the model namely: it being young person led and the use of an assets based approach. The Big ShoutER project has received a number of awards in recognition of its achievements:

• East Renfrewshire Council, Young achievers – 2011
• Crofton 2012 – Recognising the achievement of young people in reducing tobacco and smoking related harm in Scotland
• STAND – 2013 – Young Scots tackling alcohol and drugs
• COSLA Bronze 2013 – Improving Health and Reducing Inequalities

The forward thinking nature of the project and effective partnership working between different ER CHCP and council teams and the young people has been a factor in the success of the project. Furthermore, the use of innovative and creative consultation tools, i.e. the patchwork quilt, was identified by the Big ShoutERs and young people as an effective method to break down barriers and encourage the involvement of young people, particularly those who are more difficult to engage with. The peer education sessions were evaluated using participatory appraisal techniques, e.g. a graffiti wall, and have been rated highly in participant feedback
Health outcomes are influenced by the social, economic and environmental circumstances of individuals and communities and are more likely to be improved by addressing the underlying ‘determinants of health’. The Big ShoutER uses an assets based approach which focuses on the strengths and resources within communities with the aim of enabling individuals to become more aware of their health needs and to make informed choices through increased self esteem, sense of control and a sense of cohesion. This method is more effective at improving long term health outcomes and tackling health inequalities and in the long run could lead to a reduction in dependency on public services.
East Renfrewshire has a successful model of good practice which could easily be replicated across other areas. This approach has already been tested out in East Renfrewshire where, despite the transient nature of young people’s participation in projects, another 4 young people have been trained and mentored by the original 5 Big ShoutERs, who have now progressed on to either further education or work opportunities. This demonstrates the sustainability and desirability of young people to continue the project. The ER HIT are also looking at further testing this model out using PDSA methodology to engage better with minority ethnic young females who have historically been under represented in youth health services.
Funding: The small but adequate amount of funding provided by both the ER Health Improvement Team and ER Young Person’s Service is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. The ER Health Improvement Team and ER Council’s Young Person’s Services Team have provided £1 360 each per year (Total £2 720 per year) to fund the project, and part time (1day per week) staff to support the young people.
RESULTS & IMPACT / What impact are you having, or expect to have? How are you measuring this, and what does this tell you? Are you delivering what you set out to achieve?

• Information visits by from other areas : Renfrewshire CHP
• The Big ShoutER have consulted with 286 young people to identify their health needs from January – December 2011
• The Big ShoutER have carried out 21 peer education sessions with a total of 202 participants since September 2012 – current
• The Big ShoutERs presented at the following conferences:

-‘Today’s young people – Tomorrow’s future’ conference 2013
-‘Using a Health Assets Approach Across the Life course’ International Conference 2011
-‘National Association for Young People’s Health’ Conference 2010
-‘Scottish Youth Tobacco’ Conference- 2009
-‘Young People and Sexual Health Conference’ Glasgow University 2009

• Early outcomes achieved:

-Young people linked to the Public Partnership Forum and are influencing the agenda
-Increased knowledge of health issues affecting young people (amongst the Big Shouters and those attending the peer education sessions)
Young People: “Big ShoutER has helped me to know more about health issues and acts a fantastic place for other young people to come and find things out - we even learned things we didn't know about some issues!”
Big ShoutERs: “I'd say through Big ShoutER we are almost pro on knowledge of health issues, with the thorough training and delivering peer ed I believe we could have everyone just as knowledgeable too.”
- Increased confidence and self worth amongst The Big Shouters
“The confidence we have all gained whether it be talking in front of people or delivering the peer ed sessions, big shoutER has done it all for us.”

• Medium term outcomes achieved

- The Big ShoutERs and participants from peer education sessions report changing their behaviour towards more healthy behaviour
Participant: “Enjoyed healthy weight, stopped smoking after the tobacco one last week!”
Big ShoutERs: “Since I've joined the Big ShoutER and had all my training I am more aware of my own health, I've stopped smoking and try and eat more fruit.”
- Big Shouters move to positive destinations
“Being part of the Big ShoutER has helped me gain training in health issues and helped me get into college/employment.”
- Big Shouters are confident to represent themselves in the media and at conferences
“Once you’ve presented at a conference you feel you can take on the world. I wasn’t able to do anything like this last year and now my confidence has increased so much I can talk to anyone.”
- Big ShoutER influence youth health services
Changes made: The youth health service goes on the road to rural settings as a result of Big ShoutER recommendations
A free condom service was developed which incorporated the young people’s feedback to make condoms more accessible to all, particularly young people
- Young people are involved in the re-design of the youth health service
Survey monkey questionnaire to all S1-S6 pupils in ER with 204 responses. Focus groups with 61 young people and staff to take forward main themes. Big ShoutERs will be involved in the relaunch of the youth health drop in November 2013 and in making of a DVD to promote the service.

NEXT STEPS

Have you answered the criteria set out in the guidance?

Is your application form 3 pages or less. Anything more, including appendices, will be automatically rejected)

Has your application form been authorised by an appropriate person?

Have you indicated whether you wish the application form to be published?

 Have you provided details for someone we can contact about your application?

SUBMITTING YOUR APPLICATION

PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION BY 18 OCTOBER 2013 USING OUR ONLINE APPLICATIONS PORTAL: