 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
New creative
energy at LLP Update November 2012
 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
 Getting 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
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
 We 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
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
 Reduce
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
 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
 The
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
Community 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
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
Partnership
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
 Sue 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.
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...
 Our
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...
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...
  
SmithMartin News Update April 2008
Partnership plans
to roll-out literacy project...
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.
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...
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...
 We 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...
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
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
 Partners 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, 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 very 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.
 A 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...
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
