Client
Gateway to Education Services
‘There's a huge amount of wisdom in parents which isn't really tapped. Some have had children in the system continuously through 20 years - that's two decades of knowledge and experience which could be harnessed to mentor and advise other parents.'
Spectacular results can be achieved by service design - nurturing open discussion, listening with an open mind and being open to change. All of which is best achieved through collaboration.
Our brief from Bristol City Council, as part of the DCSF's ‘Gateway to Educational Services initiative, was to develop an innovative internet tool and several social media applications to help parents access all the information and services about their children's education online, in one place. This innovative pilot was focused on Bridge Learning Campus - a foundation ‘all through' school combining primary, secondary, special needs and college facilities on a single site in one of the city's most disadvantaged areas.
Workshops with a group of those parents threw up some startling responses. Our discussions revealed that they were frustrated about the process of information and felt ignored by the education system. They cared passionately about their children's schooling but didn't feel they were ‘in the loop' of communication, that they weren't getting answers to their questions.
Ayleen Driver, the Children and Young People's Services ICT Manager for Bristol City Council, says: "I was surprised at some of the comments - and very pleased that they felt sufficiently relaxed, valued and respected to say things from the heart."
The parents' responses completely reshaped the project, towards an unforeseen path where social media, more than simply helping parents to access information about their child's education, helped parents to talk on line, exchange information and provide support to each other.Working with Knowle West Media Centre, an educational trust based in South Bristol, Sea developed a basket of tools and technologies to help parents get involved with their children's schooling in new ways. The mix of website, chat room, mobile/email alerts and video carousels uploaded on YouTube enable the parents to share their views, access services such as free school meals and online school applications, and provide a single source of information from Bridge Campus and Bristol City Council.
The finished product was, in fact, so novel that the Bridge Campus was initially cautious about adopting it. Ayleen says: "We were able to demonstrate to the school that we could support them in engaging more fully with parents, which eased their concerns. That was very much down to Robert from Sea's interpersonal skills, and also his technical skills, in showing them how we'd go about that.
"I'm very pleased with the way things have gone; it was a well managed project and all of the players did what they said they'd do in the timescales agreed - despite the fact that it wasn't the linear process we'd anticipated at the start. Robert had a very pragmatic but positive approach; I would certainly be happy to work with Sea again."
As was the school - which promptly hired Sea to design their website, tackling similar social challenges in the uptake of digital services and parental engagement.
