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Children and young people

Silvia Beadle

My name is Silvia Beadle and I am an Equity and Excellence Lead. I am registered with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) on the Practitioners of Day Care of Children.

I started working with children when I was 20 years old as a live in nanny, and I have worked with young children ever since. I knew I wanted to help support children who were struggling emotionally or who needed extra support.

In a typical day I currently do family work in the community as part of my week; one day is dedicated to a Peep Group with up to 14 parents and toddlers and the other day is dedicated to targeted Family Work, 1:1 or small group Peep Sessions. The other part of my week is providing support within ELC settings with early intervention work for children who are needing a little extra support to thrive or develop within their nursery group.

I always wanted to study Psychology, to qualify to support children, so while my own children were young, I studied from home while working part time. I also worked at a Family Contact Centre supporting children who had supervised contact with their parent through the court system, which helped my understanding of supporting families in challenging life situations. Of course, being a parent myself, provides a wealth of experiences of my own in relation to children’s needs and development.

I completed my BSc in Psychology out of my own interest, and then completed a BA Childhood Practice in order to progress to a deputy manager role in an ELC setting. I am a great fan of learning and find it very rewarding.

I love being able to reflect positively back to parents and children, their strengths and skills, and see their confidence and wellbeing increase. I like to help people build up, or recognise, their own capabilities or progress. I also am a fan of emotion coaching and feel there is a huge importance in promoting this to build up a culture of positive mental health in both children and adults.

Being an Equity & Excellence Lead is a very rewarding position, and a privilege. You are in a trusted position to support people, adults and children, who may be experiencing stressful periods in their lives. You can extend a compassionate hand and help people see the good and wonderful things about themselves. By helping build each other up and show care and kindness, we help build a better future for our children and happier, healthier communities. You also have to be brave – to speak up and dare to break the mould and be different, at times. Sometimes you have to be the voice of people who at that time are unable to speak up for themselves, but by you speaking up for them you can help them find their own voice in the future.

Silvia Beadle

I love being able to reflect positively back to parents and children, their strengths and skills, and see their confidence and wellbeing increase.

Silvia Beadle Equity and excellence lead

Learn more about the role of equity and excellence lead in this video by the Scottish Government

Closed Caption subtitles can be switched on by clicking on the 'cc' button on the video.

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