Total Craigroyston is the latest ‘early intervention’ strategy to support families with children in North Edinburgh. Total Craigroyston Manager CHRISTINE MACKAY explains what it’s all about …
Total Craigroyston has been set up to encourage all the various organisation which work with Children and Families to work together to improve outcomes for children and families in the neighbourhood around Craigroyston Community High School.
Our initial focus will be on children who are looked after by the Council to ensure that they have all the support they need to give them the best opportunity to succeed in their lives. We will also be working to reduce the need for children to go into care, and that means finding ways to support families at an earlier stage and in a variety of ways.
The idea is to take a holistic approach – ensuring that all of the local resources in both the statutory and the voluntary sectors are on the same page, facing the same direction and contributing to the agreed outcomes. It may be that we need to change how some of our services are delivered so that we can offer support at an earlier stage and we want to involve local people as well as local staff in helping us think what changes might be necessary.
We held a meeting in mid-March, bringing together the local Neighbourhood Partnership, the Edinburgh Partnership and the Total Craigroyston steering group (pictured below) to start the discussion and what everyone agreed on was the need to ensure that local residents, service users and local staff are completely involved in shaping the direction of Total Craigroyston.
To help us do this we have been working with an organisation called SNOOK, and over the month of June we will be running a series of events and workshops aimed at local residents, service users and local staff so that we can come up with a set of ideas and proposals, based on local knowledge and expertise, that we can take forward.
A Design Workshop will be held on Monday 28 May from 9.30 – 12.30 in Craigroyston Community High School. Come along and give your ideas for changing the way we do things. A crèche is available but places must be booked. Please contact Stephen Straiton on 469 3375 or email Stephen.straiton@edinburgh.gov.uk
On Saturday 2 June, the SNOOK team will be out and about at Muirhouse Shopping Centre, North Edinburgh Arts and Muirhouse Library speaking to local people and hearing views.
A Young People Speak Out session will be held in Pilton Youth and Children’s Project on Wed 6 June from 7 – 9pm to help us gather young people’s views.
A Prototyping Lab (don’t be put off by the title!!) will be held on Monday 18 June from 10 – 4pm in West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre. This will give the SNOOK team an opportunity to present the ideas that have been gathered and to have a think about the ones we want to take forward. A crèche is available but places must be booked. Please contact Stephen Straiton on 469 3375 or email Stephen.straiton@edinburgh.gov.uk
If you are interested in being involved in any way or you have ideas or a story to tell about your involvement with local services please get in touch. We are based at the Local Neighbourhood Office in West Pilton Gardens. Tel no 529 5050. email Christine.mackay@edinburgh.gov.uk. Please contact us if you’d like more information.
Christine Mackay
Manager, Total Craigroyston