The Family Support Network Map
Currently, the NHS becomes involved with a patient’s pregnancy once the patient has called in to notify a GP/hospital of their pregnancy. Due to covid, the patient will then have a consultation over the phone, usually followed by scans/blood/review around 12 weeks into the pregnancy.
Lindsay
The patient’s midwife will give them information booklets and can notify the patient of any parent classes in the hospital, but there is no connection between the hospital and family services within the patients community.
Prenatal
About
The UK is currently one of the fattest countries in Europe, and obesity effects poorer people over those more affluent. If you are from a less affluent area, you are twice as likely to be obese than a person living in an affluent area. Those who are overweight as children are 5x more likely to be obese as an adult, increasing your risk of developing many obestitylinked diseases.
Parent and child groups are often a great place for parents and guardians to develop friendships. These relationships of trust do not so often extend to the organisers and people who work in in these groups, as there is often a turnaround in staff. This means that parents don’t always feel comfortable sharing their struggles within groups due to fear of being percieved as an unfit parent and facing reprecussions. This is unfortunate as these groups could be a very useful tool in understanding the experience of today’s parents.
perinatal to early years
Childcare costs in the UK or on the rise. In 2020 the average cost of sending a child under 2 to nursery is £6,800, a rise from 6,600 in 2019. Though the government provides varying support for families of different incomes, proffessional childcare in the UK is often to expensive for young families too afford, especially for single parents.
Currently in Scotland 1/3rd of babies aged 27 months are classed as overweight.
early years - teens
Lindsay is 21 years old. She works as a carer in an old peoples home in Saltcoats, North Ayrshire. Lindsay is single and has recently found out that she is pregnant. Lindsay is excited for her first child but is scared and feels unprepared. She worries about how much time she will be taking off work, maternity leave pay and supporting her baby.
Likes/dislikes Lindsay likes her job because she gets on with her co-workers and enjoys the social aspect taking care of people. However, she often feels under-appreciated in her work, and is burnt -out by long shifts and inadequate pay.
Research
Future
Good at She’s good at working quickly and efficiently and empathising with others, this is what makes her a great carer. She tries to check up on her family and friends to make sure they are doing okay.
Lindsay’s 2020 story
Worries Lindsay is bad at prioritising her mental and physical health over work. She is trying to save money for her up-coming maternity leave and baby supplies, and so is buying meals on promotion from supermarkets, which are often unhealthy. Extra shifts at the care home leave Lindsay physically and mentally exhausted, so when she gets home Lindsay is often too tired to cook, and might treat herself to a takeaway.
After missing her period, Lindsay finds out she is pregnant. She contacts her local GP, who arranges an over-thephone consultation with a midwife, who then books her appointment to come in for scans, bloods and review at around 12 weeks.
Lindsay is excited for her first child, but also anxious. Not having had a great childhood herself, Lindsay feels unprepared and ill-informed on how to support her child.
At her 12-week scan, Lindsay is told that there are no abnormalities in her results and that her baby is doing well. Her midwife tells her not to try to lose any weight while pregnant, but to try to include more healthy options in her diet. She also informs Lindsay of a family crafts group that runs within the hospital for expecting parents. Since Lindsay lives an hour and 15 away from the hospital by bus, she decides to try and find a more local group.
Support services don’t reach those who need them the most.
Financial/work pressure makes a healthy diet difficult
Lindsay Looks online to find some help and advice for expecting mothers. She also comes across an ad for an expectant mother’s group that runs in public libraries in North Ayrshire, but it costs money. Lindsay’s sees that she is entitled to a ‘free pass’ card that will let her access the group for free, but is embarrassed at the idea of people knowing she can’t afford the access fee when she presents her card.
Lindsay is working extra shifts and buying meals on promotion in the supermarket to save money for when she’s on maternity leave and for baby supplies. Long shifts leave Lindsay exhausted. Ready-meals are a welcome staple in her diet as they are quick and easy, as well as weekend takeaways for a treat.
In the future, collective intelligence will ensure that support services reach those who need them the most.
Using this information, these services will assess the patient’s personal data such as their postcode, occupation and health stats to determine their applicability for cost reducted/free services.
Lindsay gives birth to a baby boy, she calls him Sam. Sam weighs 9 pounds at birth, slightly above the average birth weight.
Hiding struggles for fear of being percieved as an ‘unfit’ parent
Professional childcare is inaccessible due to cost
Baby spends a lot of time in unstimulating environment
Baby’s diet and lifestyle is determined from a very young age
Lindsay tries to take Sam to a play group while she still on maternity leave, but aside from this group once or twice a week, Lindsay is mostly on her own with Sam. None of her friends have children, they still get to spend their weekends down the pub and going out. As happy as Lindsay is to have Sam, being on her own with a newborn can feel isolating. Shes scared of raising these concerns within her play group incase she comes across as unfit to take care of Sam.
Lindsay’s maternity leave has run out, and shes scared to take much more time off work. She worked late into her pregnancy so she could spend more time with Sam before going back to the care home. Since childcare is too expensive, Lindsay has to leave Sam with her auntie most working days. If auntie can’t take Sam, Lindsay has to leave him with friends.
Lindsay’s auntie works from home for a call centre, so, though Lindsay is relieved to have someone taking care of Sam while she’s working, Sam doesn’t get to spend so much time interacting with his great auntie or others.
Sam drinks formula until he reaches 6 months, when he begins on solids. Auntie tries to feed him healthy bites along with his baby food jars as he gets older, but Sam cries for his favourite snacks which are cheesy wotsits and chocolate biscuits, and auntie usually gives in.
Collective intelligence will encourage parents/ guardians to share their experiences in order to continuously inform and improve services
In the future, support services will work in collaboration with the food industry, using collective intelligence to improve user’s diet
Health and social services have very limited technology available to staff and patients. When speaking to community midwife Lesley, I was told that she’d only just recieved a work laptop from the NHS, and this was driven by necessity during COVID19. Health and social services have been pushed to become more flexible and tech savvy, and this momentum should continue to encourage flexibility and adaptablilty in the future development of services.
Dynamic system
“C0-operation is producing a great change in the condition of the working class, and in the relation which that class bears toevery other class of the community...
Businesses have lost their humanity. Benifit Corporations (B Corps) are a different way of doing business. It empowers people to use business as a force for good.
The object of this society are the social and intellectual advancement of its members; it provides them with groceries, “butcher’s meat, drapery goods, clotbing, shoes, clogs, &c”
Businesses which are becomming/have become certified B Corps are changing to meet the highest standard of verified social and environmental performance, public transparancy and with legal accountibility. They are able then to deliver profit and a higher purpose.
-W. N. Molesworth, Journal of the Statistical Society of London, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Dec., 1861), pp. 507-514
However, I want this project to be realistic in it’s accessibility too, and I think 10 years into the future services should be well advanced in how they connect and communicate to provide better care. But the actual technology will be basic.
Becomming a B Corp is currently optional for businesses, but with the success of B Corps such as The Guardian, Body Shop, Patagonia, Denon, Innocent Drinks and other smaller businesses, there is hope that in the future B Corps will be government mandated.
The Family Support network will utilise its services as research groups. Information collected from participants in programmes such as parenting groups, playgroups and childcare programmes will be used to continuously inform and improve support services.
- North Ayrshire and Arran Community Midwife
This would be financially benificial to NGO’S and social enterprises, as a continuous stream of research based evidence which showed the success of a programme would lead to increased government financial support and expansion of services.
By 2030 supermarkets/shopping centres will cater to the specific needs of the user for a quicker and easier shopping experience. Supermarkets will have followed in the footsteps of Amazon go, allowing the shopper to pay for items automatically, without wating in lines.
The importance of technology in our every-day lives in the UK is undeniable. We use it to communicate, to learn, to pay bills and apply for jobs. By 2030, it will be acknowladged and actioned on that all families need a certain level of technology to be able to operate within society. Poverty schemes will ensure that everyone has access to a smart phone.
However, by the time Sam is in high school, he want to go outside of school for lunch with his friends. Feeling pressured to not let Sam feel singled out, Lindsay gives him money for lunch. Sam and his friends go to the chippy most days for lunch, other days they’ll go to the Spar for a pot noodle.
Collective intelligence will empower parents and guardians to independantly and confidently make healthy choices for their child
Dietary support
“I’ve got a caseload of 50 patient’s, since Covid the majority of my appointments with patients are over the phone. I can imagine this might continue even after Covid, yeno, becomes manageable”
A child’s diet and weight often predetermines their diet and weight in adulthood and in turn their risk of developing certain diseases and cancers
In the future, with the patient’s permission, information from their first consultation will automatically inform stores/services in the patients community that they are now part of the system.
Accessibility
In 2030 at her first consultation Lindsay downloads the app onto her phone, and the midwife is there to help with any questions she may have. The midwife gives lindsay her unique login information, and the app shows Lindsay what services are in her area. Based on Lindsay’s circumstances, she sees that she has cost reducted/free access to these services.
Collective intelligence will create proactive, cost efficient childcare services that improve child physical and mental wellbeing.
When Sam reaches 2 years old, Lindsay enrolls him in nursery school. While he’s in nursery, Lindsay doesn’t have to worry about what he’s eating, she knows the nursery will give him nutritional meals. The same goes for when he is in primary, recieving free school meals.
Services should encourage open communication, and make sure that their group programmes are a safe space for parents and guardians to share their experience. The information gathered from participants should be anonymous, but the actual person sitting in the group needs to feel able to seek help without the fear of reprecussions.
The challenge is, parents often feel scared to talk about the struggles their facing, such as poor mental health and money issues, incase they are percieved as ‘unfit’ to take care of their child. The system needs to collect research ethically and anonymously, without making participant’s feel like they are being used in a ‘box ticking’ exercise.
Transparency
This future shopping experience will render physical store clubcards obsolete, stores will now compete for customer loyalty online. People will have access to their store credits on their phones, along with information on which promotions are on offer in competing stores.
From speaking to the experts, I understand that participant’s in research don’t mind having their information taken when they know why and what it is being used for.
Users can choose to let stores access their personal data, such as what items they frequently buy, their tendency to buy promoted deals etc etc...
Since the system is continuously using data from participants to improve itself, participant’s being informed on and giving information for the improvement of services can’t be a one-time thing, but a frequent occurrence that keeps them up to date without overwhelming them.
The Family Support system will work in collaboration with these stores. Recognising the financial value of the young family market, stores will provide targeted deals on family products, such as quick,healthy meal plans and ingrediants, vitamins, baby supplies etc... Stores will communicate their family product promotional offers through the family support system For example, Lindsay is currently pregnant. Her Family Support app tells her which stores close to here have promotions on prenatal products. Once she’s in the store, her app tells her where she can find these reduced items.
A major selling point of this system is that it is self-developing through the feedback of its participants it continuously improves itself.
Family Crafts in Crosshouse
For this to work, user’s need to feel that theyre in a safe space within services. Through research I found that having different group organisers at sessions means that users don’t tend to develop bonds with people who work in family services. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. User’s typically develop bonds/friendships with outher users within programmes.
This idea of participant data being used to continuously improve the system is only useful if the participnt feels comfortable sharing personal issues within their group. For this we need to rely on the informal bonds that occur within parent groups between regular attendees. People feel comfortable sharing personal struggles and obstacles with people they know have their best interests at heart. From research, I’ve gathered that those attending parent groups gain a lot of support from other attendees and many maintain friendships outwith their group.
The system will detect when users may be having issues or struggling through changes in shopping habbits, or the user not attending their family support programmes etc.
Research has shown that ‘free pass’ schemes where a form of identification is shown to allow qualifying families access to programmes are often a barrier to the families that services are trying to draw in.
Breast feeding groups in Cavanis cafe
These schemes can make more vulnerable families feel exposed and othered. Sometimes the desire to avoid this stigma outweighs the familes need for the service.
An important insight from an expert during a feedback session was that a persons diet is largely influenced by their ethnicity and preferred cuisine.
During my interview with early-years dietician Elaine, I was also made aware that a key component in a healthy diet is whether a person is willing to try cooking and eating new things. This comes down to confidence, next to having the resources neccesary to cook.
To have an impact on a person’s health, the system needs to know what that persons preffered cuisine is and encourage them to try new healthy meals that are based on that cuisine.
To build the users’ confidence, the system will provide healthy recipes based on the user’s preffered cuisine, with recipes catagorised into confidence levels 1, 2 and 3. This will empower the user to try something new.
What if the future system understood these friendships not just as an bonus outcome to group sessions, but as a safe and confidential method of data gathering?
Noting that the user may be in need of help, the system will send out a noninvasive enquiry, asking how the user is, and are they in need of any help?
System enquiry
Prenatal education group in the Saltcoats library
Help from a friend
However, for the system to get real, honest feedback from participants, they need to feel comfortable sharing within their group and with everyone involved, including the organisers. What if the people who worked in support services had direct experience of the system, having been a participant in it themselves? This could have a positive effect on the relationships workers have with participants, knowing that they have, to an extent, a shared experience. This network of exparticipants becoming kew workers and contact points within services would lead to more honest and open feedback from participants.
Routine meetings within parenting groups, playgroups, breastfeeding classes etc etc, where participants feel safe among fellow users to share their experiences, knowing that this information is helping to better the services for young families to come.
“Paying it forward”
Group feedback sessions
Playgroup in the Three Towns community Centre
The app will show the user every program available to them at each stage of their pregnancy, whether they be classes within their hospital, government run initiatives, social enterprises or community-based services. Now that Lindsay is part of the system, services can reach out to her and introduce themselves directly on her phone, instead of trying to reach her through leaflets and word of mouth.
Lindsay’s 2030 story
In 2020 the stigma of presenting items like ‘free pass’ cards at the beginning of sessions acts as a barrier to accessing services for those who need them the most. 2030’s Family Support Network will have a membership system for services within the area. Those entitled to access programmes for free will be able to do so discreetly, without feeling singled out.
Lindsay’s attendance in these family support programmes will allow her to develop friendships with other young families and, over time, community support on on a peer-to-peer basis.
Stores have used collected data from Lindsays previous shops to continuously update and improve their understanding of what Lindsay likes to eat. The system uses this information to update the ‘Recipe Ideas’ section of Lindsays app, that is located within her shopping list notes.
Next time Lindsay is making her shopping list on the app, she decides to check out the Recipe Ideas icon that appears at the bottom of the screen.
The system has three confidence levels for Lindsay to choose from. This is so that parents and guardians within the system who want to eat healthier, but are new to cooking, can build their confidence and feel empowered to learn new skills, without being thrown in the deep end.
For example, stores have noticed that Lindsay often buys frozen pizzas, jars of tomato sauce high in sugar, pasta and cheese. This indicates to the system that Lindsay enjoys Italian food, and so it tailors it’s recipe ideas to suit her taste.
Lindsay is new to cooking, so chooses confidence level 1. The app shows her meals that she is likely to be familiar with/enjoy, based on her shopping habbits. Since Lindsay buys a lot of Italian-style frozen meals etc, the app shows her healthy italian meals with easy quick prep and cook times, like bruschetta; pesto pasta with veg and “pizza” ciabatta.
Lindsay decides to try making the “pizza” ciabatta. It’s rated high by other parents and guardians in the network who have tried it. The recipe ingredients are automatically added to her shopping list.
When Lindsay gets home from the shops, she tries cooking for herself for the first time. She follows the recipe with a tutorial filmed by the user who uploaded the recipe.
Some of the recipes are provided by supermarkets, and some are recipes uploaded by other parents and guardians in the network. Recipes are rated by other other users who have tried them so Lindsay feels confident that what she tries should taste good.
While shes still on maternity leave, Lindsay find’s a playgroup in her area and takes Sam to it. She meet’s other young mums like her and learns a lot from the more experienced mums in the group. As Lindsay continues to go to the playgroup, she builds friendships with the other mums and the people who run the group.
Lindsay is feeling isolated and depressed. Sam’s dad was back in the picture, and had been living with her and helping with bills, but has left again. Lindsay is overwhelmed by the loss and by mounting bills, and her maternity leave pay is coming to an end. She is scared and doesn’t know where to turn. Lindsay end’s up missing playgroup sessions, and buying comfort food at the shop as well as ordering in. She knows she need’s help, but is scared of the legal reprecussion’s she might face for claiming single parent benifits while Sam’s dad was in the picture.
The system notices that Lindsay hasn’t been interacting with the Family Support System’s services and reaches out to beth in a non-invasive way, asking if she is okay, and does she require any help or links to services? Lindsay relays to the device that she needs some help, and it asks her to talk about what the issue is, so that it can direct her to the appropriate services. The conversation is recorded, with Lindsay’s permission and under the knowledge that the recording is anonymous.
Michelle, Lindsay’s close friend in the group also notices Lindsay’s absense from the group. She reaches out to Lindsay to see if she’s okay and they meet in a cafe to talk. Lindsay confides in Michelle about her ex boyfriend, the mounting bills and her fear of leaving Sam when she goes back to work.
Michelle wants to help Lindsay, but when trying to comfort her, Michelle realises that she doesn’t have the knowledge to help Lindsay in any real way, aside from listening to her. She looks to her Family support system for advice on how she can help her friend. The interface provides Michelle with a list of links she can access aswell as contact information for system operators.
When Lindsay’s son Sam finishes nursery, she is no longer a participant in the Family Support system. She understands the value of the system’s support better than most, and is grateful for the friends she made within it.
Before her next meeting, Lindsay recieves a notification that her playgroup will be hosting its tri-monthly feedback session for an hour after their next playgroup. she attends the feedback session for her first time, where the organiser informs them, as she does every session, that their feedback is completely anonymous, and will be used to inform and improve the services that the participants are part of.
Participants need to be able to see what is happening with their feedback and how it is contributing to the development of the system. They need to feel empowered that their feedback is important and treated with respect.
This idea of empowering the user should filter through the systemuser relationtionship to the user’s relationship with other participants within the network. Users will be able to share recipes that they think may be helpful within confidence level catagories. They can also upload cooking tutorials, to help users following their recipe learn visually. Users can upload feedback and pictures of recipes they tried, maybe with tips on how they adapted it.
Empowered and involved
Lindsay has access to the systems infograph on their website, which shows her what goals services are working todards, based on anonymous research stats and collective participant feedback. She see’s that, like her, many families are struggling to afford proffesional childcare for their children. 47% have reported trying to find family/ friends to babysit as a source of frequent anxiety and work problems. Even knowing that her struggle is so common helps Lindsay to feel better.
Lindsay is proud of how her meal turned out, she uploads a picture of her dinner along with a short review. She tells users that she added chillies and peppers to give the pizza more of a kick.
The site tells Lindsay that the networks request for government funding to expand and improve childcare services has been accepted. This along with funds directed from network profits means that a subsidised childcare service will be opening in Lindsay’s area within the next few months.
Changes in the buying habits of Support Network participants such as Lindsay will be recorded by supermarkets, and used to continuously inform the Network of how effectively it impacting the eating habits of young families.
Lindsay tells the group about her returning to work and her inability to afford proper childcare for Sam. The group organiser tells Lindsay that this has been brought up a lot at playgroup feedback sessions. Profits from the family support systems yearly intake plus government funding is being used to create a costreduced childcare scheme for working parents/guardians.
Lindsay applies to become apart of the networks “pay it forward” scheme, where former participants in the programme can train to become key workers within the system, funded by the system. Lindsay’s experience as a single mother, as well as her background in health care and working with people, make her an exemplary candidate for the Family Support Network. After Lindsay finishes her training, she is accepted for a breastfeeding expert in a community centre in Stevenston.
In her first class as an expert, Lindsay introduces herself to the group and shares her experiences with breast feeding and the issues she faced with it. She lets the group know that she is here to talk about any challenges they may be facing, and that she has their best interest at heart. Lindsay explains that group meeting are used as research to help improve and expand services within the network, and tells them of how the programme’s improvement’s helped her while she was in the system.