Learning Partnerships, Consultancy & Evaluations
CREC can provide tailored consultancy packages to suit your needs, whether you need support to plan and implement change, develop policy or devise a completely new strategy.
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We work in an advisory capacity with a number of government bodies and providers of early childhood services, internationally, nationally, regionally and at a local authority level.
We have a strong reputation for undertaking reviews, reports, evaluations and consultancy with a wide variety of organisations and our early years consultancy work has impacted directly on the development of numerous professional early years policies.
‘CREC have been an invaluable research partner, conducting research that has informed our new primary and Early Years curriculum for our flagship training Programme, as well as primary research with pupils as part of our evaluation of the Academic Mentoring Programme. They have brough depth of expertise, been flexible, and been adept at interpreting and best meeting our needs, and I would recommend them to others’.
— Luke Bocock, Head of Research and Learning, Teach First
Notable Consultancy Work
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Work towards expanding the Thriving Lives toolkit to support the youngest children of Armed Forces Families
CREC has been selected to work on behalf of the Naval Children’s Charity and The SCiP Alliance to expand the Thriving Lives toolkit to support the youngest children of Armed Forces Families, aged birth to 5. Between March - July 2024 CREC will be conducting research on the needs of the children, the families and the early years settings involved. Using that knowledge, we will then co-construct a toolkit of appropriate resources and support which will be field-tested by a number of early years settings through late 2024/early 2025.
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Research into Early Years Creative & Cultural Provision in the Midlands
CREC has been commissioned by The Arts Council (Midlands region) to help it quickly consolidate what it knows about the current state of creative and cultural provision for Early Years children and their families in the Midlands so that it can take an informed approach to where and how it might target development work most effectively in the future. As the first part of our mapping process we are asking all organisations and individuals (early, creative and cultural) working in the Midlands region to complete a online survey.
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Little Minds – A Joyce Morris Early Years Literacies Research Project
Little Minds focuses on investigating how mindfulness-based interventions support young children speaking and listening, with a view to support EYFS staff to improve children’s speech and language communication skills. CREC’s Chris Pascal, Tony Bertram and Helen Lyndon are acting as critical friends to the project’s research team - they are providing insights into ‘what works’ in early years settings and what are the most relevant literacy and wellbeing concerns of the sector. They are also key contributors to the Content Expert Group.
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First Words Together Programme Evaluation
Since 2021 CREC has been the evaluation partner for the First Words Together Programme delivered by the National Literacy Trust in three regions across England to support communication and language skills in children aged under two. The evaluation is a mixed-methods design and is iterative in its approach to allow for project learning to be shared and responded to in real time. A combination of surveys, interviews, and focus groups has been utilised to great effect and has allowed interim evaluation of outcomes and process.
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Moonbeams Creativity Project Evaluation
In 2022/23 CREC evaluated the ‘Moonbeams Early Arts and Creativity Project’ which was delivered in three locations across the West Midlands. This project was action based and set out to enrich the cultural, artistic and creative lives of children through collaborative partnerships (Triads) between freelance artists, local libraries and early years settings in Birmingham, Solihull and Staffordshire. CREC was commissioned to support the Moonbeams Project through: 1. Providing the Action Research training and supporting the CPD process; 2. Developing evaluation methods; 3. Collecting, collating and analysing evaluation evidence, including case studies built from on-site interviews in each area; 4. Producing an evaluation report of the Moonbeams process and impact to inform future rollout and strategic planning processes.
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Early Years Scouting Programme Rollout Evaluation
The evaluation, using a range of research methods and innovative research tools and surveys, has captured data to provide insight as to the efficacy of the programme; the efficacy of the model; its ability to support social action; its impact on volunteers and the home learning environment. Our approach has been iterative, allowing for project learning to be shared at mid-point which informed ongoing practice, influenced delivery planning, and also helped refine research tools to ensure emerging sub-questions could be explored.
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Early Years Scouting Pilot Evaluation
In 2019/20 CREC completed an independent 12 month evaluation of the Early Years Scouting Pilots, working with multiple stakeholders including the young children themselves to consider the impact, quality and feasibility of the Pilot Early Years Programme in relation to the project objectives. The evaluation was used to progress and refine the programme rollout and support the strategic decision to commit to Early Years scouting and to scale up the Scout-led model. This evaluation employed mixed methods techniques and worked iteratively with the core project team providing live insights after each tranche of data collection to help inform and refine processes in-motion.
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Healthy Movers Cornwall Evaluation
CREC is currently evaluating Healthy Movers Cornwall on behalf of Youth Sport Trust to understand barriers and enablers to implementation and effectiveness of an early years programme delivered to improve levels of physical activity in EY settings and within the Home Learning Environment.
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Family-led Early Years Scouting Pilot Evaluation
CREC has also conducted a smaller scale evaluation of a Family-led early years scouting pilot in London working with 3 identified early years scouts groups. Through a combination of demographic data collection, interviews, focus groups and practical observations, we worked to better understand the benefits and challenges of that approach.
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Rugby Football Union EY Provision Guides
CREC were involved in the England Rugby Early Years Provision Guidance Group (EYPGG) which helped the Rugby Football Union (RFU) to create Early Years Provision Guides for their Age Grade Rugby development scheme.
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Football Association Early Years Age Phase Priorities Consultation
This work was undertaken to provide early years input on the Football Association's development of age-phase appropriate priorities, approaches and resources for football coaches.
Further reading
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Chris Pascal and Tony Bertram are expert advisors on Small Matters: An Educational Community Project about Multispecies Death and Dying. They will be particularly focusing on the work with the children and their families in their homes.
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Expert Panel member for the Early Years Nutrition (EYN) Partnership, providing independent advice and guidance.
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Strategic visioning events for Birmingham City Council and Oxfordshire County Council.
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A service review of Medway Council's Early Years provision.
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A mapping exercise for Arts Connect to identify the range and distribution of Early Years arts activity across the West Midlands region.
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Business & pedagogic support to a school wishing to offer high-quality provision for two-year-olds.
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Implementation of a Pedagogic Mediation setting improvement programme in Birmingham and North Yorkshire.
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Development of Early Years system leadership in North Yorkshire.
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Tickell Review of the Early Years Foundation Stage (2011) - Chris Pascal sat on the Expert Panel for this review.
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Children, Schools and Families Committee, Fifth Report of Session 2009–10, Sure Start Children’s Centres, HC 130-I - Chris Pascal served as a Specialist advisor to the Select Committee.
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Education Committee, Seventh Report of Session 2009–10, The Early Years Single Funding Formula, HC 131 - Chris Pascal served as a Specialist advisor to the Select Committee.
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Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum Framework and Profile (See p.5 acknowledgements for Foundation Group Working Party).
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Sure Start (Research Report 258).
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The National Inclusion Strategy. CREC's work in this area includes a study for the DfES on the take up of early years services by Black and Ethnic Minority groups. (see page 125).
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The rollout of integrated services: Report 1 and Report 2 - from Early Excellence Centres through to Children's Centres and Extended Schools and the new National Professional Qualification for Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL).