Supporting Eastern European migrant families through effective service delivery: A knowledge exchange programme

This programme will build on findings from previous research in relation to Eastern European children's experiences of migration in Scotland and opportunities for integration. It will focus on capacity building and provide opportunities for knowledge transfer in relation to service provision for migrant groups in Scotland, with a focus on children of newly arrived migrant workers.

The programme will examine issues to do with inclusion of migrant families and better service delivery for new migrant groups through a series of events promoting knowledge transfer, research-informed policy and practice and user engagement. It will bring together policy makers, service managers, practitioners and migrants to engage in activities such as professional workshops, seminars and a conference to come up with ideas on better delivery of services for migrant children and their families and improve policy. A guide for migrant children newly arrived in Scotland will be launched in several European languages and an exhibition entitled 'Scotland, our country: A story of migration through children's eyes' with materials produced by children will be organised as part of the programme.

The plans to ensure impact and how we will capture this are detailed in the 'Pathways to Impact' document in the attachment. In summary, through the proposed activities, a range of audiences will benefit from participation in events and opportunities to share good practice in supporting migrant groups and developing service delivery and policy targeted at inclusion of migrants, including:

- Practitioners all over Scotland working with migrant and non-migrant bilingual children and families will have the opportunity to participate in locally organised workshops, which will combine delivery of research-informed findings on migrant families' needs with opportunities for sharing of good practice;
- Policy makers and service providers from all over Scotland and further afield will be invited to contribute and attend the programme seminars and become familiar with the project findings, identifying opportunities to implement findings from the research into policy and practice; also, the events will provide further opportunities for cross-sharing of ideas between services and policy-making organisations at local and national level;
- Migrant children and young people will benefit from the distribution of a child-friendly multilingual guide to Scotland's schools and services entitled 'A young people's to Scotland's schools and services', which will include information for children on how the education system works and its requirements, as well as information on other services accessible to children (libraries, leisure, museums, medical services etc.) They will also benefit from being represented in the research findings disseminated and from their children's participation with images of their migration (art forms, posters, photos, videos) to the final exhibition;
- Non-migrant Scottish children will benefit from a better understanding of migrant children's stories and issues of diversity and equality in a democratic society;
- Academics will be directly involved in some of the project activities and will also be informed about the processes of knowledge exchange involved through the dissemination of findings at two external conferences and through emerging publications.