New creative energy at LLP      Update November 2012

Design gets serious at SMP...We have really enjoyed getting to know Jim Simpson - the graphic designer who created our new logo styles for both Dolphin Book Sellers and Books go Walkabout.

Jim is now working across our design and brand portfolio with all our partnership clients.
We are delighted.

Jim has an extensive portfolio of impressive work, both nationally and internationally. You can see a brief bio for Jim on our Partnership People Page.

Sue Martin, a Partner at SmithMartin said of Jim...'we are delighted that Jim will be helping with our design, brand and print needs in the future. As our projects develop internationally and our community web business continues to grow, we are ideally placed to serve as a platform for Jim's creative work - helping our clients develop a whole suite of connected, effective and branded communications'.

Thanks Jim!



SmithMartin News Update August 2012



Parents volunteering in Children's CentresGetting parents involved in your Children's Centre!

What better way is there for parents to get involved in their local Children’s Centre than through volunteering programmes? There is a wealth of activities and services for young children and families from Stay and Play sessions to visits to local outside spaces. Children’s Centres  are an excellent place for families and parents to make that first step in involvement. They have well defined systems for volunteering and training programmes to enable parents to know they are doing the right thing!

Many centres are now very encouraging to parents to join their team of volunteers and become active in the life of the centre. The real beauty of the system is that in all communities, whether a highly populated inner city area or rural countryside, there is a Children’s Centre for all young families.

Involvement does develop even further and all Children’s Centres are enabling a Parent’s Forum to be in place, many are extending this to parental involvement on the partnership board. It is in fact a requirement from government and empowers the parents to have a voice in the direction of their Children’s Centre.

Sure Start Children’s Centres have been in place since 2006 and although some have experienced some changes in organisation and governance, for the most part they are still a supportive presence for local communities. Their work is undoubtedly recognised and desperately needed, they have become a real zone for support in a friendly and positive role. Their work with outreach and families prevents many problems from developing to more serious issues. The partnership with health teams and Early Years teams gives children a much better chance in life.

SmithMartin Partnership LLP  is working on a pilot project with a national campaigning organisation on how volunteering can be extended and the positive role that it portrays to all parents. The Department for Education has recently published a paper , ‘Increasing Parental and Community Involvement in Sure Start Children’s Centres’.

This can be downloaded from our Archival Page here on this web site... 

It discusses ways that parents can achieve even more in the development of the Children’s Centre. It describes ways in which volunteering, parent’s forum and partnership board involvement, can be extended into parents becoming even more involved in the organisational structure of the centre.

Sue Martin - SmithMartin Partnership – Broadening horizons in communities




SmithMartin News Update July 2012


SmithMartin - members of the IoEE



We have recently been re-affirming our commitment to mentoring and the advice service we offer to social enterprises and charities. Part of our social business model is to offer professional support and
help wherever we can to community enterprises and charities, new and existing.

Tim has recently completed his accreditation as a mentor with the
Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs. This he says was  '...a valuable experience to refresh my active listening, social business planning skills and to meet other members of our sector who are also willing to volunteer their time and experience to help others'.

Tim is also an active member of two other social business mentoring and support organisations - SEEE's MicroCoach programme, where with the support of Social Enterprise East of England members can use the experiences and professional knowledge ot the coach network to resolve thier growth or startup bottlenecks.


Also an active member of SEEM's Social Business Network, Tim is happy to offer partnership support to social enterprise and charity clients across the East Midlands.

Our partnership philosophy is simple - only if we ask will we know! Get in touch with Tim via our web page here, or contact him via email for free, impartial and carefully considered support - timsmith (@) smithmartinpartnership.com





SmithMartin News Update June 2012


Books go Walkabout from SmithMartin LLPWe have been really encouraged by the response our children's book business has had to  its Books go Walkabout initiative.

This simple idea, of putting authors, based in Australia and England together with school children in the UK and Australia, has been a great success. Using easily available technology, Skype that is and our very high speed web connection, the resulting contacts have been useful for both authors and children.

We now have a monitored, secure webmail service where participants in the project can email their comments and reviews of the books that they have read directly to Books go Walkabout, with  the additional opportunity for us to publish the reviews on the project web site (...appropriate permissions in place, of course).

You can see the Books go Walkabout web site here.

If you are a school, or an author, and would like to cross continents with your work and meet readers and writers nline - make contact with Sue Martin today. You can contact her via the 'Walkabout' web site here.


You do the reading...we do the technology. See you online with your book.



SmithMartin News Update November 2010

dolphinBOOKSHELF - books for Children's Centres and community buildings

In the first of a series of new product launches for the partnership this Autumn, we are really pleased to launch dolphinBOOKSHELF this month.

Designed to be a source of sustainable revenue for Children's Centres and community buildings, dolphinBOOKSHELF offers Centres, parents and carers access to the best quality children's books, helping promote literacy and the parent support agendas.

Presented in a handmade Willow basket, which has been created from sustainable English willow by our production partner in Cambridge - Winter
WIllow
. The book sale system that goes with the display makes it really easy to handle the process in your Centre and you get the great margins on each transaction which can added to reserves.

Take a look at dolphinBOOKSHELF, get reading and help a social enteprise charity supplier too.  Contact us for more details as always,




SmithMartin News Update July 2010


Thirdsectorweb - community web service from SmithMartin LLPReduce your print costs and your carbon footprint in one go.

We are preparing to launch our new web media package, BroadcastNow, to both new and existing clients in the Autumn.

This new maketing, information and publishing solution is designed to bring together our existing resources and infrastructure in web and image creation, along with our expertise in governance, funding, project development and social business creation.

BroadcastNow will offer a complete online information system to our clients in one package. Only requiring  a modest spend from your marketing budget or a small contribution from your current print allocation. The rest becomes a budget saving for you.

BroadcastNow  will provide...
  • an integrated core web site
  • secure, reliable contact from within web page facility
  • online newsletter with content links
  • weblog for subscription to news content/syndication
  • subsidiary web sites/pages for satellite buildings or Centres
...all blended in one ready to go, content supported, highly secure and regularly maintained package.

We bring our knowledge of your sector to the content and newsfeed creation, our existing technical and web security profile, trusted by over 110 client domains and blend them all into BroadcastNow...

...a one stop solution for integrated web news and information.

We can  also include secure webmail and diary/calender functions, as well as the creation of 'apps' for mobile devices, in our service quotation too. You can see our technical support specification and web security protocols on our community web pages at Thirdsectorweb.

Look our for more news on BroadcastNow or use our contact us page to let us know you would be interested in reducing your both print costs and your carbon footprint.




SmithMartin News Update March 2010

Publishing news at SmithMartin LLP
We have been developing our family of blogs just recently. We can now offer our clients and readers a choice news sources that they can use in their newsreaders or with Google Reader for example. (Or just bookmark us and visit regularly if rss is not your thing!)

Changethinking - this is our partnership blog. We will feature developments in policy and resources, funding and just plain things we are interested in as we move forward with our business and projects.

Thirdsector Tech - you can find regular updates about community business software, open source items, technology news and bits of kit or new services that we think may help your community enterprise or project.

Dolphinbooks blog - up and running for some time, we use its newsfeed to syndicate information onto other websites we create., It offers the subscriber news and information about children's books, libraries, book events and authors we like.

SmithMartin is a small, diverse and lively partnership - our weblog activity s a great way for us to focus on the things that interest us, but to let our readers subscribe to updates automatically.
 
To read more about rss and weblog subscription - check out this Wikipedia page. It'll tell you all you need to know.






SmithMartin News Update September 2009


Another new office for SmithMartinThe partnership has now established an office space in Sheffield to help serve new and existing clients in the North of England. We have updated our contact pages with our Sheffield office telephone number and mailing address.

Existing clients, and new ones too, can still continue to fax documents to our normal 'central fax' number - 020 7900 2024. New clients who wish to contact us directly in Sheffield can call the partnership on 0114 360 1025, or write to us at SmithMartin LLP, 2nd Floor, The Portegate, Eccleshall Road, Sheffield, S11 8NX.

Tim Smith of SmithMartin said '...we have been very pleased with the take-up of enquiries and new contacts from the North of England during last year. Our partnership offers a wide range of services and solutions to clients in our sector - we see it as a great boon to have a permanent presence in the thriving centre of Sheffield, from where we can support and develop our new client base successfully'.

See you in Yorkshire!



SmithMartin News Update August 2009


Thirdsectorweb.co.uk - community web and communication services in one placeCommunity web service site and resources site both overhauled this month...

We have recently completed a significant summer overhaul to the Thirdsectorweb and Dolphinbookbox web sites. The idea has been to better integrate the sites into our partnership style, but more importantly, strive to make the information and potential of our services more readily discernible by clients, new and existing.

If you have a need for a community information web site, with a blog  or newsletter feature - which allows your community to feedback or request information from you, that can be translated into 35 languages - then we have a specialist team at your disposal to create innovative web and email solutions.

Whether you are thinking about audio visual displays in your centre or how to get started with a community library project - we can offer help from the beginning of the project management and procurement process, to the sign off for the  supply and fit programme...best value and practical attention to detail.

If any aspect of your project or setting is considered for development or change use our contact box to see if we can help?  The SmithMartin Partnership team.



SmithMartin News Update June 2009


Partnership work on Opening Day for a new children centre - Minister visits

The Minister opens Newport Children Centre in East London
SmithMartin Partnership are pleased to have worked with colleagues to have brought the Minister of Children, Schools and Families, Rt Honourable Dawn Primorolo to officially open Newport Children Centre.


On a hot summers morning in a quiet corner of Leyton, East London, the children in the nursery, the school choir on the hill and staff and guests at Newport Children Centre eagerly awaited the arrival of the Minister to visit and officially open the Centre.

It was a great day and the guests included people from the local community, the Mayor of London Borough of Waltham Forest, Councillor Anna Mbachu and lead member for Children and Young People, Councillor Liaquat Ali as well as Borough officials. The architect, John Miller was also present and Managing Director of NPS, London,Trevor Adams. The team at NPS, project managed all the building works and changes needed to make this a purpose built Sure Start Children's Centre.


This was the first SureStart Children's Centre that the Rt Honourable Dawn Primorolo had opened since coming into office. She was clearly delighted to be amongst the children, as they sang and smiled from the top of the little hill in the outside play space. They ran down the hill, when she asked them to help her to cut the ribbon and eagerly cheered and talked with the Minister.

Set in the heart of Leyton, close to the busy High Street and hustle of the city, Newport Children Centre is part of Newport Primary School and has been successfully led to fruition by the head teacher, Anne Knights.

It is a haven of peace, close to the school environmental area and a local playground. Just the right site for parents and children to feel that this centre can be there for them, to help, to give information and simply as a space to meet others.

''Newport Children Centre , working together to create a brighter future for our children.''

SmithMartin Partnership are delighted to have supported Newport Children Centre from conception to completion of the project, having been commissioned for not only project management, staff recruitment and events, but also the creation of  graphic design and logo (great lion in the photo above, Radha), as well as supporting the continued delivery of the centrre web site. Congratulations to the Newport team.



SmithMartin News Update December 2008

Another new office for SmithMartinPartnership open a regional office in Cambridge U.K.

SmithMartin have opened another office, in Cambridge, in order to provide a better service to clients and supply partners in the Eastern and Midlands regions.

The web development team for Thirdsectorweb  will be based in the Cambridge office, which we hope will enable us to speed up our turn-round times for new copy and creative input for web sites from the team.

Tim Smith, a partner at SmithMartin said '...our new facility will also allow us to access bulk storage and commercial vehicle deliveries in a way that we haven't had in the past. Library book stocks, furniture for library and nursery refits will be handled via our Cambridge site - giving us much better control of physical distribution and stock holdings, as our customer needs and our experience in this area of operation grows'.

You can find our new Cambridge office details on our contact us page here .


SmithMartin News Update November 2008

Interior Nursery Design - a service from SmithMartin

Unpacking nursery furnitureSue Martin reflects on a recent Centre refit project...

We found we had some latent skills and a new niche in installing the furniture following the design for a Children's Centre Nursery in East London.

The cardboard boxes with the new furniture had been delivered for some time. The staff had little time to start unpacking and there was so much going on at the start of this project that it was looking more like 'Cardboard City' than the beautifully designed nursery we had envisaged.

Being honest, there was a little dread that too much of the original nursery tables and 1980s kit would find its way over and the benefits of a complete new style look would be lost.

In less than 2 days our professional team transformed the space into a setting any nursery would be proud of and that any child would feel at home in and ready to have some adventures, feel free to make a mess and have fun. In Ofsted speak the children can now be successful in creating their own learning.

Nearly ready at the Centre...

We had used excellent resources from Community Playthings and their help in the design and knowledge of how things fit together in a flexible way was invaluable. They are craftspeople down to the very last detail, even the packaging is such good quality that children could have fun for weeks just using the cardboard boxes. 

We had great difficulty in not saving every single box!

On the way in the unpacking, we made some changes, as its always best to be flexible and some of the equipment, such as the craft tables and art islands really needed some extra space to allow the best use. But as the material is so adaptable it can be changed to best meet the needs and then changed again when a new layout is called for.

Only one thing missing now – and that is the children.

We need some of that laughter, the paintings that make it feel like home, the sand on the floor and the imaginative play area that has become transformed into a pirate ship or a magical castle.

In a few weeks the children will be there and we can't wait to see how they make the place home, ready for fun, ready for adventure and ready for a whole load of learning.

We are looking forward to our next project and even hoping that we may get to stay around when the children start to come through the doors.

Some useful links:-

Dolphinbookbox – you can see the design pages for nurseries, school libraries and meeting rooms created by SmithMartin here. If we can help use our 'contact us' page, conversation without obligation.

http://www.communityplaythings.co.uk - An organisation who believe that play is essential to childhood and a natural means of discovery and exploration. Our preferred furniture partner.

http://www.newportchildrencentre.org.uk/ A very new Sure Start Children's Centre in Leyton East London – on their buildings page you can see an ocean of cardboard resolved into a new nursery.

http://www.ridgewayparkchildrencentre.org.uk/

A Sure Start Children's Centre in Chingford, East London – SmithMartin deliver and support the web and e-communication presence for this Centre. See more at www.thirdsectorweb.co.uk




SmithMartin News Update August 2008


City Sories books and literacy project - web site goes live...

City Stories logo and web page linkOur literacy and author event project City Stories now has a separate new web site.

You can find City Stories at www.citystorieshere.com.

The partnership are pleased to see our  literacy event and children's book offer emergng in this way, with the site offering details of how  we work, our cost  structure and, most importantly of all, an opportunity to feature the children's authors, artists and stoy-tellers who have supported theproject so far,

An important part of the project is to help cocmmmunities develop children's book groups. The excitement and immediacy of an event involving best-selling authors , book stalls and workshops, is followed by a slower process of helping groups to form and build upon the excitement generated to keep reading and literacy at the forefront of the local family agenda.

We offer groups a new web site too, as part of the project poackage, to help coagulate the work of new group, sustaining their emerging identity and the ensuring the promotion of  the  'books and children' message.

Tim Smith of the Partnership said of City Stories '....each of the project elements is not new, rather the bringing together of non-traditional services to literacy and author events is what we are most excited about. Our partnership has the technology and capacity to offer groups  a web and email presence to bring the local work together, for example.

Our children's book arm, Dolphinbooksellers.co.uk, helps  by making sure the best books and new titles are always available and our project management experience ensures that we can keep the project energy high and engage with some of the best authors and artists available...to help enthuse and extend the horizons of children and young people in a durable way'.


Watch out for more City Stories marketing in the near future.



SmithMartin News Update June 2008


Partnership launches space rocket...

Space Days sponsored by SmithMartin LLP
Our partnership has sponsored the delivery of seven SPACE DAYS for children from local schools in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

Continuing our support of the community project ImagineNewmarket, partners provided resources and personnel to help nearly 500 children across seven days of activity to better understand our solar system, the galaxies and how rockets work.

The children made their own rocket, launched it and did a number of activities to develop their understanding of our solar system,

Our partnership created a  number of audio visual presentations and films for the children to enjoy and as a backdrop for the days events. You can see an early event report and the material produced on the ImagineNewmarket web site at www.imaginenewmarket.org.uk


Not only did we support learning, but everyone had great fun.
Some of the comments from children and young people were energising and intriguing.  

On Venus '...it's so hot you sizzle like a sausage'. On Neptune ...'Why is it blue? - it's a mystery!'
 All our partners and the Space Day team had a great time too.

Scenes from a Space Day event...

Learning about our solar systemRefuelling the rocketsMaking rockets on a Space Day













SmithMartin News Update April 2008


Partnership plans to roll-out literacy project...
City Stories logo
Following the successful delivery of our Leyton Stories project, we are now negotiating to extend the event to other settings in the borough of Waltham Forest, Leyton Stories was delivered at The Epicentre in Leytonstone, East London. We were able to bring together over 100 children, parents, carers and teachers to enjoy a day of workshops with a variety of children's authors, artists and story-tellers.

We were able to give the children nearly £2,500 of books to take home with them as a record of the event.

You can see more on the Leyton Stories web site....www.leytonstories.org.uk African games at Leyton Stories

The partnership plans to develop the delivery of this concept in a number of further urban areas outside London. Targets at the moment inlcude settings in East Anglia, the North West and Galway in Ireland. Our City Stories banner will see the delivery of further literacy, reading and book events .

The project  fits well with supporting the literacy aims of communities and our follow up activity includes working with communities to create Children's Book Groups, where none had existed before. Helping to make durable the legacy of the Year of Reading.

Watch this space for more details of the City Stories web site and project bookings.

(...and thanks to Radha Clelland for another great logo to enhance the project concept).








SmithMartin News Update January 2008


An exciting new venture into reading and literacy support for children...

Leyton Stories logo image and web link

We have been commissioned by EduAction of the London Borough of Waltham Forest to develop the Leyton Stories concept. This is planned as a series of book events for children, where the project will introduce them to authors and illustrators - stimulate imaginations and help children, often from the least consulted families in a borough, to develop a love of books that will last them a lifetime.

Sue Martin says '...we hope to move away from 'the text' and return to the whole story idea, using the project as a way to not only give books to children to help start their own library, but to offer excitement and engagement with writers and illustrators to bring the ideas of children to life'.


Our brief as a partnership is to create everything from the project logo - as above - to engaging writers and artists, recruiting schools and community groups and delivering the events.

Partners are supporting the work by offering the project team web design, web hosting, email and a collaborative workspace from Thirdsectorweb.
 The books for the children, the author signing and displays, as well as the workshops at events will be managed and supplied by Dolphinbooksellers, the children's book arm of our partnership.

The planned legacy of the Leyton Stories activity is to have created children's book groups, managed by parents and carers, that will continue to engage children and young people with books in the future.

Leyton Stories logo by Radha Clelland


Read more...



SmithMartin News Update December 2007


Partnership welcomes Radha Clelland to the team...

Graphic design skills at SMPWe are delighted to
announce that the partnership has further extended its skills by bringing Radha Clelland into our team. Radha is a graphic designer with a wealth of  experience, who will offer existing and new clients access to a range of design services that can compliment their projects.

Radha is expert in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Quark Xpress, with an extensive and diverse professional history, including design agency work with blue-chip clients, producing leading scientific and financial publications for large and small publishing houses, and cartography for a variety of clients such as the BBC.

With a B.A., M.A. and postgraduate diploma in printing and publishing, Radha can offer partnership clients cutting edge design support, utilising our partnership infrastructure to deliver creative input to projects. Whether developing a consistent corporate identity, creating new logotypes or branding a project across a range of media Radha can help compliment and deliver your vision.

Tim Smith of SmithMartin said '...we are profoundly happy that Radha has found a professional home with our partnership. As a family friendly, ethical practice delivering consultancy, web design and hosting through Thirdsectorweb our community web service, resources for schools thorough Dolphinbookbox or children's books to young people, families and carers with Dolphinbooksellers - we are confident that Radha will be a busy member of the partnership team - improving both client projects and our own house style'.

Welcome Radha, from all of us here at SMP.
 (You can contact Radha here...off...@smithmartinpartnership.com )




SmithMartin News Update November 2007


Partnership delivers Community Engagement Model in Bracknell Forest...

Extended schools in Bracknell Forest - a conference
We were delighted to be invited to attend the Extended Schools Conference in the
Borough of Bracknell Forest during November 2007. The event was held at the Kerith Centre, adjacent to the borough offices.

This well attended conference of professionals in the borough - from education, community development, children's services and health amongst many others - saw lively debate about engagement and the development of extended schools in the area.

We were able to deliver a workshop which launched the model, a copy of which can be found on our archive page. Partners also attended a range of workshops themselves, including presentations on demographic change in the borough,  planning extended services and the role of the voluntary sector in the process.





SmithMartin News Update September 2007


SmithMartin supports ImagineNewmarket

Partners supporting the work of ImagineNewmarket...

SmithMartin were delighted to be able to offer help and support to ImagineNewmarket, working with children from six local schools, for the delivery of the projects's Sustainable Buildings Day on the 27th September. 

ImagineNewmarket is a regional project to build an Imagination Centre in the East of England. The children were able to work with the project team on the day - thinking about renewable energy resources and different building materials and techniques. The high point of the day was the group activity -  where nearly sixty children attending were given the opportunity to build their own shelters in the workspace, using their ideas from the days activities.

Materials being used ranged from shopping baskets donated by a local supermarket, to hazel withies and copious amounts of string. All used by the children to good effect.  You can see the ImagineNewmarket project at www.imaginenewmarket.org.uk

SmithMartin partners and associates donate time and resources to ImagineNewmarket. Our web arm, www.thirdsectorweb.co.uk, is proud to provide the project with a donated web presence and email facilities.



SmithMartin News Update July 2007


Adding to our strengths as practitionersPartners and associates welcome Parveen to our network...

SmithMartin are delighted that Parveen Hussain, a children's services practitioner of great experience is joining our partnership network.  Partners and associates recognise that Parveen's knowledge and understanding of settings and the policy context of our work will be an invaluable resource in developing the work of all our partners.

We hope that Parveen will benefit from our partnership resources and networks in order to develop her practice and that our future partnership meetings and information days are useful.

Tim Smith of SmithMartin said today '...Parveen has a great knowledge of the children's sector and we hope that her work will find a perfect compliment in the other strands of  activity that we undertake around sustainable community business, governance development and operational funding.  We hope that, as independent practitioners, our partnership support mechanisms both formal and informal can help everyone not only win new contracts, but deliver them more effectively'.



SmithMartin News Update June 2007


Project managing the development of a Children's Centre in Waltham Forest

Sue Martin at Wellington and College GardensSue Martin, second from the left, is seen at the new Wellington and College Gardens Children's Centre.  Sue is working on project management of the new site, which will offer a 60 place nursery, as well as meeting rooms, toddler and parent groups, daycare and ICT provision as part of the service mix.

Funding for this project is provided by the London Borough of Waltham Forest.

Sue says '...we are delighted to be involved in the development of the Children's Centre at Wellington and College Gardens. The project fits with our other recent strategic work for clients in the borough and builds upon our mix of expertise in both capital provision and operational delivery in the children's services arena'.

Photograph courtesy of the Waltham Forest Independent.



SmithMartin News Update March 2007

SmithMartin/Dolphin Booksellers at International Women's Day Event

We were delighted to attend as Dolphin Booksellers at the Epicentre in Leyton on March 6th 2007. We were able to offer all the mums and children visiting during the day a wide range of veryThe Dolphin at Leyton high quality children's books at great prices.

We distributed a wealth of literacy promotional material and a lot of Dolphin Book Bags. We sold some books too! Our lifesize Dolphin logo board was very popular with the children attending the event.
You can order individual children's books directly from our website - www.dolphinbooksellers.co.uk

We also distributed to the children's service providers present details of our Dolphin Book Box bulk sales service for schools and childcare settings.

You can see details of this business to business service at Dolphinbookbox.co.uk

If you would like a literacy or book event at your next event, do let us know - we would be happy to arrange author or book events tailored to suit your organisation.

Partners continue their development work in Western Ireland

We have been pleased to continue to develop our interests in Ireland.  Working with a client we have been developing business models and plans for the opening of childcare settings in Western Ireland.  

Partners are currently working on the development of a number of settings, involving the purchase of properties, the fitting out of the settings and the recruitment and training of staff. These complex projects call for a range of business and consultancy skills and provide an interesting contrast to the delivery of childcare in the UK market.

Our partners would be very happy to talk to any Irish based childcare provider who would like help with business development, professional practice, staff recruitment, quality assurance or service user relations.


If you think our expertise could help - use our contact us page - we are happy to talk without obligation.




SmithMartin News Update November 2006

SmithMartin at the Daycare Trust Annual Conference 2006

Following a busy year partners took time out to attend the latest annual conference of the Daycare Trust. Campaigning for universally accessible childcare, this organisation has been at the forefront of change and improvement in the UK childcare sector for over twenty five years.

SmithMartin are proud to be members of the Daycare Trust.

One highlight of the conference was the publication of Childcare Today - A Progress Report on the Government's Ten-year Childcare Strategy. Thi s important stage review looked again at the progress of the strategy and delivered a series of recommendations for policy makers and practicioners to reflect upon.
  • The extension of free early years places
  • Subsidy for out of school clubs
  • Subsidy for places for disabled children
  • Continuation of the Transformation Fund
  • Reform of childcare tax credits
  • Extension of parental leave
Ever forward thinking, the document maps a  way ahead in a telling manner...read more


Harker Report on Child Poverty published:

Another key document published to coincide with the conference was the Harker Report on Child Poverty - Delivering on Child Poverty: What would it take?  

This report for the Department of Work and Pensions by Lisa Harker focuses on the government's commendable progress towards the target set to reduce child poverty, but concludes the target has been missed to date.

You can download a full copy the report on our filestore page or ...read more.



Partners undertake project in Ireland

One recent development for partners was their engagement with a UK childcare provider to work in partnership to undertake an assessment of developing settings within the Irish market.

Childcare provision in Ireland is undergoing rapid change, with both legislation under way, quality assurance processes and demand for services all growing. SmithMartin have the right mix of skills to help develop a service in the country - delivering project management, business planning and professional childcare development consultancy to ensure that the contracts are sucessfully bid for and that the resulting service is to the highest standards.

Read more about developments in Ireland ....here.  

Read more about our UK partner ...here.




News Update October 2006

SmithMartin Partnership website revisions complete

Following our news item in May 2006, we have completed our website re-formats.

The designs are intended to help create a distinct and branded business footprint for the three elements to our partnership activity.

Have a look and see. We'd be happy to hear from you if we get something wrong or if you can see improvements.

SmithMartin Partnership - the site you are currently viewing.

This has been redesigned into a single column frame layout, with a news and update sidebar. It will load more quickly and the image sizes have been reduced to help this. Page layout and content is always a work in progress, but we hope that our message is now clearer.

Dolphinbooksellers - our literacy and book sales arm.

This site has undergone substantial revision. Although the basic page layout has stayed the same the format has changed to allow additional news and information columns to be added. Our 'quick-books' feature has been retained.

We now have regular rotating news for our visitors, with feature pages by publisher and theme.  Barefoot Books are a particular favourite of ours this autumn. Have a look and see - buying individual titles from Amazon as usual, we have introduced our 'Book Box' service to deliver themed collections direct to schools and childcare settings.

Thirdsectorweb - our community ICT arm.

We can design and install a site on our secure servers, whilst using our sector knowledge and experience to make sure that the site offers everything a professional childcare setting needs to tell it's users, parents and carers.

Thirdsector also has a new on line shop. A great source of laptops, accessories and even a range of books on web design. Check out our dark blue sales pages.

News Update June 2006


Daycare Childcare Champion Awards at No 11 Downing St

No. 11 provided a great venue for the presentation of the Daycare Trust Childcare Champion Awards. Not only did it show the value that the government gives to childcare but  the climbing frame in the garden gave a clue that children and families really are 'at the heart' of those who live at Downing St.

From a huge number of entries the four people chosen showed a real sense of commitment, professionalism and enjoyment of working with children. 

The 2006 winners were:-

Carol Fairburn, a local childminder

Debbie Irving, leader of Kool Kidz parent and toddler group

Karina Choat, founder of Special Kids in the UK

Special Matters, a group of parents of children with special needs

Ed Balls, Treasury minister presented the awards and congratulated Daycare Trust on the success of the organisation and the campaigning work which continues to put children and families at the fore front of the governments agenda.

Rita Stringfellow, Chair of Daycare Trust, announced some of the latest work to be commissioned, RAMPS: a framework for listening to children. Real value given to listening to children and being able to react to their needs  is shown to be highly effective in delivering successful services.

The newly appointed Chief Executives, Emma Knights and Alison Garnham were introduced, a joint appointment for a top position, showing that Daycare Trust believes in flexible working and can make it happen.

Daycare Trust is now set for the future, with key staff a brilliant team behind them and a programme of work to make sure that the campaigning goes on to deliver best provision for children, young people and families.




Architecture Week 2006 saw partners at SmithMartin volunteering time, audio-visual equipment and displays to support the ImagineNewmarket community project.

We had a real community development hands on day.  Tired at the end, but elated by the ideas of the young people.

Architect Week 2006A one day event at Tattersalls of Newmarket, the world's leading bloodstock auctioneers, was delivered in partnership with
ImagineNewmarket
, the Johns Practice - Chartered Architects and Little Angels Day Nursery.

SmithMartin were able to supply a  revolving slide show of images and designs for the young people to use for inspiration throughout the day.

Sue Martin delivered a storytelling workshop to a variety of young people, teachers and carers - eliciting a very wide range of ideas and enthusiasm for the model building that was undertaken in the afternoon session.

Partners were happy to donate their time to deliver real consultation and ideas generation with lively, interested and sympathetic young people.

ImagineNewmarket aims to build an Imagination Centre in West Suffolk.  

The project web and email presence is among a number of aspects of the project sponsored by SmithMartin.

For details of the day and partner contributions see the ImagineNewmarket web site.



News Update May 2006

Web Site revisions

Smithmartin are currently undertaking a broad range of stylistic and content changes to our websites.

We are updating this website, www.smithmartinpartnership.com, with new page design and typography.

We are doing our best to keep our content pages and updates going for clients and other visitors during the changes.

Our book sales pages at www.dolphinbooksellers.co.uk are also being revised. We are planning to move to direct web based sales for community groups and school bulk purchases, but to keep our Amazon based service integrated into the site for individual purchases.

If you are a Dolphin user and find something isn't working properly, do let us know on bookservices@dolphinbooksellers.co.uk

Our web service pages are also being revised. We are developing a new style for the pages, but also revising the number of packages for web page creation and storage. Our web email services are also undergoing change, with a new, more accessible and clear pricing structure.

if you need a simple, clear web solution that is fully secure and developed by a partnership in sympathy with the culture and aims of your organisation see us at www.thirdsectorweb.co.uk

Check back often for updates.


News update April 2006

Management in a Childcare Setting

Aims:

To create a positive vision for the future

To empower staff to deliver effective management of their childcare setting

Our Partnership recently delivered training to a variety of setting staff in West London.

If you attended our programme the narrative below is a reflection of the events which we hope you find useful.

If you didn't we hope that it gives you an insight into both our philosophy and mix of activities.

What people said...

'Working with children is my passion, It's what I do. I love my job'.

'Every day is different and you just know that you are going to have fun'.

'Watching then grow and develop, just the things they say, makes it worthwhile'.


In delivering our recent training to a mix of childcare setting managers the emphasis was on helping to raise self esteem, build confidence and empower managers in their changing roles.

The comments above were just a few which demonstrated a genuine joy of working with children and families and a commitment to meeting the needs of the community.

We focused on...

SmithMartin working with managers for change.
What it is that makes working with children special.

Impact of recent changes.

Creating the right team.

Administration and finance.

Working in a multi-agency partnership.

The future.


Although many of the managers had received some management training the complexities of managing in a childcare environment adds an extra layer to the demands of a manager. A balancing act to ensure that staff to child ratios are always correct and that the children's needs are at the forefront of all activity.

Working in a changing and evolving childcare setting is also demanding and it means that the managers and leaders need to feel positive about their role and are enabled to deliver successful and well managed organisations.

The programme delivered was a first step in that process. Networks were re-established and new contacts made. It's always good to know that you are not on your own.

Really positive feedback means that we can work together to make things better for the future, by developing programmes specific to the needs for business and organisation skills and at the same time keep the child at the centre of our work.

To everyone who attended thank you for your energy and contribution. If you would like us to support your organisation contact me at the SmithMartin Partnership...Sue Martin

We are happy to help you change your community landscape.




Partnership visits Federation of Children's Book Groups 2006 Conference


At the end of February 2006 we attended the FCBG Conference in Birmingham.

As well as being able to review with publishers some of the forthcoming titles for this year, ranging from early years to young adulthood, there were a number of workshops and seminars with a wide variety of authors.


From the Children's Laureate Jacqueline Wilson to Valerie Mendes the contrasting styles and influences of the authors gave us much to think about.

One particularly exciting seminar was delivered by the academic and author John Singleton. Writing for teenagers and discussing his influences and background the session was an exemplar of how good writing, good storytelling can affect expectations and change attitudes and visions for young people.


Expect John Singleton's books to be available at
Dolphin Booksellers soon.

Although the weekend was about authors and publishers, for us, learning for the regeneration and development agenda was always present.