We knew we had to do something, each of us talking about what we were seeing and hearing from parents, carers, and school staff and when it was all there on the table it seemed like Everest. We knew children were having a difficult time after the Covid-19 pandemic that part was obvious, but the extent of the issues we were seeing and how young the children presenting with them were, was stark. This moment was pivotal for the Change Talks Team and it was the start of an incredible journey that has impacted the lives of hundreds of children.
I was on a mission, my aim was to find out on the ground what issues teachers, parents, carers, and children were seeing within primary schools and what they needed help with. In my little car, I drove all across Lancashire and South Cumbria for months, meeting with schools each day to discuss the big issues, from the rural schools in Cumbria to the inner city schools in Lancashire, I was dreaming about the M6 in my sleep! With each school I met, irrespective of the affluence of the area, time and time again the same issues were popping up. For the younger children, social skills and emotional intelligence weren’t at the level expected of them and it was greatly impacting not only their emotional development but also their educational progression too. For the older children, we were seeing that the risk-taking behaviours typically seen in the later years of high school and college were trickling down and being observed in year 5 and year 6. These behaviours included grooming, self-harm, carrying weapons, and drug use. However, underpinning it all and what was stemming through all years was the lack of resilience these children had and that was very hard to see. A generation who have been impacted so greatly by a situation far beyond their control and were struggling to adapt to this new and complex way of life.
Prevention is fundamentally at the heart of all we do in the Change Talks Team. Prevention is the action of stopping something from happening or arising, but how soon do you start to prevent things? This is a question the three of us posed to ourselves in an early morning meeting in a coffee shop in Lancaster in April 2022. I had just joined the team a week prior and it was the first time we all had the opportunity to sit down over our much loved coffee and really explore this topic and put all of our collective experiences on the table. This meeting for me is still so ingrained in my mind today, from Dave’s cheeky comments to Sam's protest that we were meeting in a big chain coffee shop instead of an independent one, to the confusing button system to get through the main door and to the exact moment the words “Start Talks” and “Ready Talks” were spoken into existence.
This lead to many late nights, endless notepads filled with information, and putting mindmaps on any free wall in our house with ideas that would come to me in the middle of the night. At one point I had a car journal where I would pull over and write any ideas I had on long commutes from school to school that I had to jot down before I forgot. It was hard work, it still is, but the belief I have in the work that we do as a team outweighs the late nights and long commutes.
After months of research, trips up and down the M6, and conversations with hundreds of schools and parents the words, "Start Talks" and "Ready Talks" became an actual thing. They had transformed from an idea in a coffee shop in Lancaster to two comprehensive programmes. Start Talks consisting of 10 sessions, aimed at ages five to eight, focussing on developing emotional intelligence, social skills, building resilience, and educating children about coping skills - this is done through 30 minute sessions which are engaging and introduce fun characters and activities to promote and retain learning of these valuable life-changing skills. Ready Talks again consisting of 10 sessions and aimed at ages nine to 11, brings the important conversation on a variety of issues facing this age group, to them in a safe, engaging and age-appropriate way. With Ready Talks we teach about mental health, brain health, social media, anger, screen use, and gaming to name a few of the topics. These sessions are 40 minutes long and again are interactive and filled with engaging activities that build resilience and teach practical coping skills. With both of these programmes, we aim to set children up for life’s challenges by providing them with the skills to do so at a young age.
At the heart of it, Start Talks and Ready Talks has been a labour of love, a passion project that I believe so strongly in. It has positively impacted hundreds of children across Lancashire and South Cumbria, and receiving feedback from children, teachers, parents and carers has been in short, incredible. I’ve heard from children how they are using the skills learnt on these programmes to calm themselves when they feel overwhelmed and are teaching their friends these skills too. I've heard how teachers are seeing students' anger reduce due to being able to articulate their feelings and knowing how to stop the anger from escalating. Parents have reached out and told me that following these sessions they can see a weight lifted from their child, they are happy, healthier and more resilient to life’s challenges.
When beginning this work I was adamant that if I could help just one child then these programmes were a success. What has transpired is that it’s helped hundreds of children, teachers, parents, and carers and that what Start Talks and Ready Talks achieves has struck a chord with so many. This has led to the programmes being written about in newspapers, speaking on the radio, writing for the British Journal of Child Health, being filmed for BBC’s Newsround, being nominated for a HSJ award and most recently going to the Houses of Parliament to meet with ministers and discuss a national roll-out.
It’s been an incredible year and I couldn’t be more proud of what we have achieved, we always say as a team, “It’s only just begun” and if this is the beginning what a bright future children across the UK have.