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Recommendations - Advance Workforce Compensation (#2)

Strategies for Children, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment Employment, Leea Cooley, Marlo Tersigni

Explore options and organize around a specific course of action to ensure early childhood professionals have access to a competitive wages and benefits.

Vision / Aim Description:

Create a roadmap for compensation increases for EEC staff in Massachusetts

Planning and Shared Vision

This effort should be lead by the EEC community, in partnership with the Department of Early Education and Care

Components should include: Shared Vision, Timeline (multi-year), Key Messages, Advocacy Strategy, Community Engagement, Collective Action, Revenue (funding sources), Investment Schedule, Cost Modeling, Data Collection, Compensation Improvement Mechanisms (Program Design and Program Implementation)

Host engagement sessions with EEC community

Identify cross-sector needs and opportunities to collaborate

Cross-Sector Collaboration

Compensation is a barrier for many professionals who work with young children.

There are currently significant barriers to collaboration across sector on compensation increases (data needs, different funding streams, different job requirements, etc.)

Gain a better understanding about the EEC workforce compensation landscape and raise awareness

Raise Awareness

Explore initiatives in other states

Complete a landscape review document of the current EEC compensation landscape in Massachusetts

Gain a better understanding of EEC workforce access to benefits and opportunities for improvement

Access to Benefits

Partner with early childhood research collaborative

Develop survey to understand provider access to benefits for center providers, FCC, FFNC

Highlighting Our Recent Work

Exploring mechanisms and components to increase salaries for the EEC workforce…

Credentialing /Career Ladder with multiple pathways
Wage Scales
Sustainable Funding
Data Collection
Cost Modeling

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Recommendations - Workgroup 5: Quality Improvement Infrastructure

Leadership Team: Binal Patel, Gloria Valentin, Vanessa Pashkoff

Create a roadmap that articulates the development of comprehensive quality improvement infrastructure. Ensure infrastructure supports adults and young adults across a variety of settings and sectors. Articulate standards of high-quality programming and plan to incentivize participation in quality improvement through state funding streams.”

Create a quick resource document for educators on infrastructure support.

The resource will focus on the existing supports along the pathway of becoming an educator
It will contain 3 parts: supports that exist along the career pathway, supports that exist regionally in MA, and a comprehensive directory of all supports.

This will be an initial start to the resource by our group, and will focus on educator infrastructure, and only that which is government funded.

Recommendations	Research Questions	Data	Focus	Action
Create a document with links to resources for educators. A fully comprehensive statewide study on all existing infrastructure Create or commission a centralized interactive website with all resources	How would access (knowledge of resources) to statewide infrastructure for educators to improve quality?� How does access impact recruitment and retention? How does the existence of a quality infrastructure impact sustainability in the field? And then children and families?	We would like to see a study on all existing infrastructure to clarify strengths and gaps in resources.	State and Local Government Philanthropy	Key Partners: Community, Organizations or Coalition Key Investment: Local, State or Philanthropic Strategy: Project Pilot, Collaboration

A fully comprehensive statewide study on all existing infrastructure.

Infrastructure is defined as a support provided by a program / organization as part of a comprehensive whole in the world of ECE
In this study, supports do not have to be govt funded, but focused on all resources that currently exist
The next phase will be to identify gaps in infrastructure/resources by region, user, and type.

A centralized interactive website with all resources

An interactive website will allow people to get the most up to date information on resources, including links to existing infrastructure to support early educators
A website will be built off of our initial creation of a resource document for educators
Website continues to be maintained with the ongoing addition of new supports for educators

Ongoing items for consideration:

We have chosen to focus on educators as a starting point in relation to infrastructure support
What barriers will be faced in creating and maintaining a functional website?
How will high-quality be defined? Who will be part of the conversation?

We define high-quality early education to be:

Supporting families
Educator well-being
Inclusive, evidence-based pedagogy

We define variety of settings as the following from ECE 101 site:

A shared definition of high-quality and metrics to assess.

At a state level, a shared definition of high-quality early education must be created
Once high-quality is defined, metrics to assess the quality of learning in programs must be shared with educators and programs
To follow, the already developed statewide infrastructure study can be used to identify where and how supports towards high-quality can be implemented.

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Recommendations - Local Infrastructure & Partnerships

Kim Davenport, Marisa Fear, Eve Gilmore, Wairimu Macharia & Meghan Postal

Build upon landscape analysis of local efforts and consider best practices & promising practices while developing a comprehensive plan to create local infrastructure for early childhood.

Vision / Aim Description:

Establish local entity to lead navigation, outreach and cross-sector collaboration

Family Navigation

Communities need at least one FT person to coordinate the work.

Identify brick & mortar doors & create virtual hub (regionally or in each locality)

Establish shared, cross-sector, modern data system

Ensure that local infrastructure is driven by a consortium in each locality that brings together providers, families, and others with a vested interest.

Family Voice & Lived Experience

Identify strategies, models and frameworks to authentically engage families and those with lived experience

Create document outlining Principles / Values for Family and Lived Experience Voice

Elevate bright spots and examples of this work in MA communities and other states. Create best practices summary document (in progress)

Create opportunities for training and professional development. This work needs to be done well to be effective.

Create a suite of resources to support communities in planning efforts

Support Planning Efforts

Develop a community self assessment tool that local communities could use to evaluate and strengthen current early childhood system

Infrastructure Components Overview

Community Map tool

Promising Features (inc nc examples, visuals & links)

Communication Tools/Mechanisms

Launch in-depth Coalition & Governance Survey

Learn from Community early efforts

Learn from 12-14 communities

Identify bright spots, pitfalls, and opportunities

Identify key elements of journey

Develop state-level fiscal map for children’s funding

Build an understanding of funding

Leverage TA from Children’s Funding Project to develop fiscal map

Establish cross-sector, interdisciplinary Children’s Funding Advisory Council/Panel to support project

Determine scope of fiscal map components - 0-5; 0-8/13

Identify state agency leads to support fiscal mapping work - provide data

Establish state-level Children’s Funding Coordinator position

Actively support expanded investment

Leverage public-private partnership

Explore options for “home” organization (outside of state govt) that would house position

Develop MOUs for specific roles and support

Secure funding; consider sustainability

Create statewide family-friendly name, branding and marketing campaign

Common Branding

Establish common branding and marketing strategies will increase consistency for families

Engage local communities in developing brand and outreach channels

Empower Local Communities

Develop readiness criteria and matrix of community characteristics to test variety of community demographics & geographies.

Contract with Children’s Funding Project to train MA Children’s Funding Coord. Cohort

Secure philanthropic funding to develop proof of concept

Key role: local fiscal map, cost modeling, alignment to strategic goals, blend/braid/source finding

Pilot 6-8 local/community Children’s Funding Coordinators

Supporting Roles	Consider a community map of all the obvious and less obvious supports in the community that connect with young children & their families. Consider tangential supports as well
Funding	Build an understanding of local funding today and what more is needed. What funding mechanisms can be woven together to support your thriving early childhood system? Who can be an advocate to unlock new funding at the local/state level?
Raising Awareness	Raising awareness for the importance of local infrastructure, sharing what we are learning
One Door to More	Culture of connection for families. No wrong door. Universal supports/mechanism for all children.

Convener	Who is the leading organization for this work? Is there a coalition, collaborative or individual(s) who are championing the work. Think of the tables that host early childhood conversations. Think of entities and individuals who naturally convene people.
Family Voice	Understanding family issues directly from families and those who work closely each day with families. This is about understanding family needs and ensuring that families/lived experience leaders are raising issues, designing solutions, and informing – and making - decisions.
Governance	All key leadership roles have a part to play in supporting a thriving early childhood system in their community. What does local governance looks like today and how is early childhood represented at leadership tables in your community? Are key leaders informed? Do they know the numbers, the need, and connections to overall community and economic health? It’s all connected.
Business Engagement	How are business leaders connected to early childhood and key issues in your community? Who could be champions of this work? When business leaders are engaged and vocal, elected leadership and policy makers listen with greater intent.
Making Children Visible	How are children visible in your community? Where are opportunities to showcase children’s learning? How can children “push into” adult spaces?

Raise Awareness

Infrastructure is necessary to scale and coordinate direct service effectively and efficiently.

There is not a current understanding of this problem or potential solutions

Promote Connecting the Dots: Infrastructure to Help Massachusetts Families with Young Children Connect to Services and other workgroup materials / national examples

Advocacy with state legislature and state and local government including Governor’s Task Force

Raise awareness for the importance of and investment in local infrastructure and share what we are learning along the way.

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Public Education Campaign

Our Vision:

To establish community-wide understanding of how important high-quality experiences are for young children optimal growth and development.

AT OUR TABLE:

Our Current Initiatives:

SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN
OUTREACH to invite more followers INCREASE engagement- CREATE Reels DESIGN toolkits for use (educators, family members, Providers) Consider other platforms?: Tik-Tok? LinkedIn

LANGUAGE AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
We intend to use our social media campaign and future outreach to include a language awareness campaign that will elevate terms and phrases that we use to describe our work EXAMPLE: SAY: ‘Child Care’ —> NOT ‘Daycare’

INVITE ‘The FIRST 2000 DAYS’ CAMPAIGN TO MASSACHUSETTS

Please be sure to follow

on Instagram

OUR PROGRESS:

COLLECTIVE ACTION:

To develop a comprehensive public education campaign to establish community-wide recognition of the importance of high-quality experiences for young children’s optimal growth and development in early childhood.

A CAMPAIGN of DIALOGUE

(Connecting Professionals, Families, Politicians)

A CAMPAIGN of PRIORITIES

(True to Science and Data)

A CAMPAIGN of EMPOWERMENT

(Parents are part of the solution)

A CAMPAIGN OF MOVEMENT

(and Motivation)

Purchase a license and complete training to connect MA to their brochures and toolkits, that will inspire us to create our own statewide campaign

Our Campaign Messages:

Why the First 2,000 Days Are Critical
PLAYFUL LEARNING
PREPARED and RESPONSIVE CAREGIVERS
A HEALTHY START
REFLECTIVE and INCLUSIVE communities
LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

OUR CAMPAIGN NAME: #WICKEDSMARTSTART

https://www.instagram.com/stories/earlychildhoodagenda/

LONG TERM: LIVE EVENT: Family Fair Goal: Fall 2024 or Spring 2025

A culminating celebration of our work with families and educators to engage in playful high quality ece experiences. We will share our tool kits, resources, and brochures during this live Playful Learning focused experience

Meet Monthly, 3rd wk/month,

3pm and 7pm

37 survey responses/across the field
Attendance and engagement remains low
Seek engagement

with experience in

marketing to

support the efficacy

of our campaign.

Please share

your connections!

Campaign Launched in September
High Quality Content is in Development (runs through December)
Meet monthly to review progress
Outreach is our main

focus, how do we

increase

engagement:

What more can

we do to invite

others to join?

Our Commitment:

We’ve Launched! OUR FIRST ROUND: The Importance of the First 2000 Days! and Playful Learning

Participate in our Engagement Fridays

SHARE with Colleagues!

SHARE with families!
USE Hashtag:

#wickedsmartstart

Feedback please!

ON HOLD

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Workgroup #9: Strengthening Links Between Health and Early Childhood Sectors

Reach Out and Read, Northeast - Alex Chu, Executive Director & Janet Boswell, Special Projects Director�Alison LeBlanc, MS, PMP

Vision / Aim Description:

Research Questions	Data	Focus	Action
Can you think of any research questions connected to your recommendations? � To what extent are the sectors currently aware of existing systems and resources? What state/national organizations are currently working on cross-sector data sharing projects? What innovative alternative payment strategies are being considered to promote more holistic approaches?	Needed: 1. Unique statewide child identifier (Workgroup #4 Potential Recommendation) 2. Child-level demographics and program participation information 3. Child level data on development 4. Ability to link child-level data with key data systems 5. Unique program site identifier with the ability to link with children and the ECE workforce 6. Program site structural and quality information 7. Individual-level data on ECE workforce demographics, education, and professional development information 8. State governance body to manage data collection and use 9. Transparent privacy protection and security policies and practices	State Legislature State and Local Government MA Department of Early Education and Care Office of Health and Human Services of Massachusetts MA Department of Public Health MA Division of Insurance (DOI) and the Health Care Access Bureau (HCA) Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS)� Other The Early Childhood Data Collaborative Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI)	Key Partners: �State government, EEC providers, Pediatric Primary Care Practitioners, Families� Key Investment: Development of new educational resources Design and development of a data sharing system Additional public and private investment in children’s healthy development guided by new pediatric-specific outcome metrics which focus on prevention, early identification and children with complex health needs Strategy (all of the below): Policy Change, Regulation Change, Implementation Advocacy, Program Design, Budget Advocacy, Project Pilot, Collaboration

ALTER THE PAYER ENVIRONMENT TO ENCOURAGE DELIVERY OF HOLISTIC SERVICES

Leverage and align existing payment approaches, federal law and practice innovations to establish an enhanced well-child care services model to promote healthy development that is guideline-based, personalized and systems-oriented

Advocate for payment strategies that integrate ACEs, healthy parenting and positive health development topics into federal and state standards, policies and initiatives in alignment with Bright Futures guidelines and EPSDT – across clinical settings.�
Promote alternative payment models (APMs) with quality metrics focused on early detection and prevention, primary care, and special considerations for children with complex healthcare needs.��BRIGHT SPOTS/EXAMPLES:
Integrated Care for Kids (InCK) Model (although this only covers kids on Medicaid)

Advocate for creation of an early childhood data governance committee with representatives from Early Education, Healthcare, relevant state agencies, and the community to develop data goals, action steps, and timelines. Task it with:

Conducting a landscape analysis of existing communication portals
Identifying successful strategies being used elsewhere for example:

sharing developmental screening results conducted in the EEC setting with pediatric practitioners
integrating data from child care attendance records with health records to identify potential health risks
utilizing telehealth consultations between early childhood providers and healthcare professionals, and
developing community-wide data dashboards to track child health trends across different sectors
Identify legal barriers to greater sharing and develop recommended policy/legal changes to overcome those barriers
Develop a recommended standardized patient informed consent processes to allow data sharing between sectors�

In collaboration with the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS), build and launch a secure healthcare/early childhood information sharing portal�

BRIGHT SPOTS/EXAMPLES:

�The Early Childhood Data Collaborative (ECDC) provides tools and resources to encourage data-driven state policy changes and provide a national forum to support the development and use of coordinated state ECE data systems. They have identified the fundamentals of a coordinated early childhood data system.

FACILITATE DATA SHARING BETWEEN SECTORS

INCREASE AWARENESS ABOUT HOW EACH SECTOR WORKS AND WHY THEY NEED TO BE CONNECTED

Create a AAP CME-accredited training for healthcare practitioners on existing early childhood systems and resources - particularly those related to developmental concerns
Advocate for inclusion of education about early childhood systems and resources in pediatric and family medicine residency curricula - particularly those related to developmental screening and monitoring
Make completion of training on the basics of healthcare systems and the sector’s role in developmental screening and monitoring a requirement of the EEC grant award process
Expand state databases of early childhood resources and promote them among caregivers and professionals in both sectors
Encourage the state to develop and promote educational resources for families about what to expect when they interact with each sector and how to effectively advocate for culturally competent, holistic care

BRIGHT SPOTS/EXAMPLES:�

MA EEC has a good platform for sharing this type of information – the MA 211 system but it is not well promoted
The state’s “ Resources & services related to positive childhood experiences (PCEs)” is another resource.
Promotion of CDC’s Learn The Signs. Act Early which has modules for medical practitioners, early education professionals, and families.

Early childhood and health services are inequitably distributed and poorly coordinated across sectors. Access, quality, and coordination of care are largely dependent on the setting in which the services are delivered and how they are funded. In order to provide young children and families with holistic services that support improved health and safety, the sectors must collaborate more closely.

SUPPORT POSITIONS/MODELS/COALITIONS THAT CREATE LINKAGES

Consider advancing an All-Payer Health Equity Approaches and Development (AHEAD) Model
Promote wider adoption of existing coordinated care models
In conjunction with ongoing DPH initiatives, optimize the use of Childcare Health Consultants by standardizing their roles and responsibilities and creating sustainable state funding for these positions
Support other positions that promote sector linkages such as community health workers, doulas, and family advocates

BRIGHT SPOTS/EXAMPLES: �

TEAMUP For Children - model for providing holistic pediatric behavioral health in the community health center environment.
MA Project LAUNCH - integrates early childhood mental health into pediatric primary care practices. Designed to make use of family partners' shared experiences and cultural backgrounds to support families and improve pediatric practices' engagement with families.
MA Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Project's goal is to improve early childhood developmental health & family well-being through better integrating and strengthening the systems of care that support young children and their families at both the state and community level.

Policy Reform

Continuous Quality Improvement

System Communication

Educational Awareness

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