Small Steps Big Changes (SSBC), a Nottingham-based programme funded by the National Lottery Community Fund’s A Better Start initiative, has been named the 2024 Bespoke Accreditation Centre/Employer of the Year by AIM. This recognition underscores the value of AIM’s Bespoke Accreditation in enabling organisations like SSBC to deliver impactful, tailored training that addresses specific community needs while adhering to national standards.
AIM’s Bespoke Accreditation is designed to empower organisations to develop unique training programmes that reflect their mission and goals while ensuring rigour and quality. At SSBC, AIM’s bespoke Level 2 Accreditation: Family Peer Support in the Early Years has been a valuable aspect of its Family Mentor Service since 2023.
The accreditation provides Family Mentors with recognised training that builds confidence and standardises skills across SSBC’s delivery partners. This framework enables mentors to deliver tailored support to families in Nottingham’s Aspley, Bulwell, Hyson Green and Arboretum, and St Ann’s wards, focusing on three key developmental areas:
The Bespoke Accreditation offered through AIM has had a transformative impact at SSBC:
Nottingham Trent University’s evaluation found that families engaging with the Family Mentor Service experienced:
Participation also bridged the gender gap in school readiness for boys: 60.6% of boys with 24+ Small Steps at Home visits achieved a good level of development, compared to 42% of those who did not participate.
Since its launch, the Family Mentor Service has employed 116 mentors, many of whom returned to work after long gaps or entered their first paid employment. A 2023 Family Mentor workforce survey revealed:
The accreditation adds weight and value to the role of paid peer support workers strengthening their role in the community as role models. The following is a reflection of one Family Mentor’s personal and professional transformation:
“When I started, as a mum of four children, I thought that there was nothing anyone could tell me about parenting… On reflection, I was so very wrong and now appreciate that I was doing the best I could at that time, with limited knowledge of child development, just the same as very many parents… They say children don’t come with handbooks until Small Steps Big Changes arrived.
“I was able to then link this learning into how to manage people through a trauma informed lens, understanding their backgrounds and how their development impacted them through to adult life and this helped me to secure further roles within the same organisation. Supervisor to Assistant Manager to then overall Service Manager, leading a team of around 50 people delivering the Family Mentor service.
“When I think about my own past, I left school at an early age with no qualifications, so I applied for and took meaningless jobs that just paid a wage that never fulfilled my own potential or purpose, but when looking to the future, I have experience of being a leader and a qualification to sit alongside that, but I had nothing to show that I had worked in the children and family sector, so if I wanted to go further or continue in that field it would have been difficult as many places require qualifications.
“Being able to have all my Family Mentor learning put into an accreditation has been the icing on the cake really.”
As SSBC reaches its planned end in 2025, the Family Mentor Service and its accreditation programme will continue through additional funding secured as part of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board’s (ICB) Health Inequality and Innovation Funding.  Future opportunities to share the learning from and raise the profile of the Family Mentor Service and its accreditation experience are being identified, with the hope that these will, in time, garner national interest.
Learn more about AIM’s Bespoke Accreditation services and how we can support your organisation in delivering tailored, impactful training programmes here.
For additional information on Small Steps Big Changes and its award-winning Family Mentor Service, visit www.smallstepsbigchanges.org.ukÂ
