Louise Leach, Jennie Christie, Jo Wood (ABUHB) and Charlotte Peck, Emma Dyer and Verity Sowden (MOVE Europe)
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and MOVE Europe
The Project:
A Mini MOVE Programme will be developed and adopted as the children’s physiotherapy typical targeted offer for early years children with complex physical needs. The MOVE Programme is an activity-based, 6 step framework delivered traditionally within education (hence the acronym Movement Opportunities Via Education) that enables disabled young people to gain independent movement, focusing on the gross motor skills of sitting, standing, walking and transitioning between.
The MOVE Programme is already used effectively in 140 special education settings across the UK. 4 special schools in Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB) have already embedded the programme within their provision, with over 200 practitioners from education and therapy trained and over 70 students currently on the MOVE Programme within these settings.
Project Objectives:
- Deliver an earlier and immediate response for children facing delays as a result of the Covid-19 backlog.
- Develop an adapted MOVE assessment framework and delivery model and pilot this on patients from 18 months – 5 years old across the ABUHB geography.
- Provide families with a proactive model to engage with education and health.
Project Outcome:
A Mini MOVE framework was developed for use in Early Years settings across the ABUHB geography to support children with Physical Disability to gain lifelong functional skills and improve their health outcomes.
Project Impact:
14 children aged 18 months – 5 years accessing Mainstream Early Years provision in the ABUHB geography were assessed using the Mini MOVE framework and began following programmes.
100% of the children either met or made progress towards their goal (Figure 1), with 28% making significantly more goal attainment than expected (Figure 2).
Figure 1
Figure 2
Over the short 3-month pilot period, 100% of the pilot group gained 3 or more skills, with 2 children making significant progress, gaining 18 and 21 skills respectively (Figure 3).
Figure 3
Thematic analysis of family and education staff feedback showed that families and mainstream and early years provisions responded positively to Mini MOVE’s “accessible” framework.
“I was a bit nervous with him starting nursery because they never had experience with children like him, but they are a lot more confident after using Mini MOVE!” – Parent
