“You Could Sit and Think, I’m Not Alone with This”: A Multi-Agency Early Years Creative Arts Parent Project

Abstract

Challenges relating to children and families are often complex; however, solutions can be creative. An arts organisation consulted with a multi-professional group on introducing the arts and culture to families from birth. This action research details and evaluates an innovative multi-professional creative project designed to support families in the North of England. Multi-professional stakeholder planning meetings decided the outcome of the project should be to create parental workshops. Evaluative data were collected from six parent semi-structured interviews to discuss their experience. Stakeholders also reflected on the parents’ data and evaluated the research project. Both datasets were analysed using inductive content analysis. Categories from the parents’ data described positive perceived effects on themselves and their families, emphasising the importance of community. Findings highlight the potential of the arts and parent groups for early intervention. Facilitators of and barriers to multi-agency working were also identified from the stakeholder data. The unique experience created using the arts as well as access to professionals contributed to the parental buy-in of the families. Parental commitment and a sense of community are essential for continued engagement in any parent project. Governments should invest in the early years population using parents and multi-agency working groups as an early intervention and proactive response.

Keywords

• arts and culture
• multi-agency working
• early years
• creative approaches
• parents and infants