Briefing on Family Intervention Project: background and
current stage of development of DfE funded project.
Introduction
Nationally, the Department for Education (DfE) is driving
the development and delivery of 'Think Family'. The aim is to
ensure that there is wraparound provision for challenging and
vulnerable families with a focus on enhancing parenting skills for
parents of children and young people at risk of negative
outcomes.
Think Family' expects Local Authorities to evidence integrated
working between adult and children's services for the family
(rather than a focus on an individual to the potential exclusion of
the whole family context). Funding is being rolled out
nationally to support development of Think Family programmes.
The Family Intervention Project has been funded from April 2009
- March 2011 to deliver wrap-around provision for challenging and
troubled families through intensive support and boundary
setting. The FIP funding (£88,254 for 09/10 and £111,254 for
10/11) provides a limited supplementary resource to pilot a
holistic response to the whole family - utilising the input of
existing Children and Adult services as well as the FIP
workers. Key to the success of FIP (given the limited
additional resources) is to build on existing partnership
provision.
Some of the intended outcomes of FIP include reduced anti-social
behaviour/offending, improved school attendance, enhanced parenting
skills and reduced family breakdown. This has a potentially
positive impact on the number of young people needing to be
accommodated by the Local Authority.
Governance
North Somerset FIP is an area-wide provision based within the
Youth Offending Team (YOT) and it is therefore able to draw upon
the existing YOT services in addition to other
agencies/organisations.
The Youth Offending Team Management Board (which includes
representatives of Children's Trust Management Board and CDRP) have
strategic responsibility for the FIP. YOT Management Board
members include: Children's and Young People's Services,
Connexions, Community Safety and Drug Action Team, Probation
Service, Housing Options Team, Magistrates Court, Police and
Primary Care Trust.
FIP is also on the agendas for various strategic and operational
groups e.g. Be Health Strategy/Commissioning Group, Parenting
Strategy Group, YOT Management Board, Safer and Stronger
Partnership, CYPS Integrated Service Leaders Group (which reports
into the Partnership Executive Group).
FIP Team
The FIP currently consists of:
- Parenting Co-coordinator (funded by an additional 'Parenting
Expert' funding stream), who manages the team;
- Social Worker
- Preventative Caseworker
- Administrative support (integrated within Youth Offending
Service structure)
In December 2009, a bid for £32,100 of new funding was
successfully submitted to the DCSF Housing Challenge Fund
(including £32,100 of match funding which consisted of : NS Housing
- £10,000 in cash; C&YPS Social Care - £2,500 in cash;
C&YPS - £6,000 in kind contribution relating to 1/6 of Social
Worker's time appointed to work with families with 16-18 year olds,
to prevent homelessness and a redirection of existing Youth Justice
Board funding allocation to North Somerset Youth Offending Service
for 2 days per week of a Family Therapist - £13,600).
This new funding will be used to provide the following post for
1 year initially from 1 April 2010:
- Full-time Housing Officer from North Somerset Housing to be
seconded to FIP to work as a Preventative Caseworker with 5-6
families facing eviction as a result of antisocial behaviour.
- Administrative/management resources in relation to the
additional post.
In addition, funding was provided for a FIP Health Worker post
part-time and it is anticipated that this post will be operational
from 1 June 2010. The postholder will work in conjunction
with the existing young people's mental health provision, based
within the Youth Offending Team, to Provide a comprehensive service
to FIP families experiencing a range of mental health issues.
FIP Criteria:
Families will be considered for intervention by the FIP where
one or more of the following criteria apply:
Essential:
- Where there are sanctions, such as a threat of eviction, FIP
can accept the hardest to engage families.
- Where there are no clear sanctions and/or the young people in
the family are aged 16-18 years, FIP can accept those families who
accept that they need to do something differently and are willing
to engage.
- The family must have a young person aged 5-18 living within the
household.
Other relevant criteria:
- Child/Children in the family may be at risk of being
accommodated by the Local Authority
- One or more adult members of the household is a Prolific and
Other Priority Offender
- the family has a complex set of needs across several settings
(i.e. involvement with Housing, Education, Police, Social Care,
CAMHS, etc)
- The young person/people in the family has/have a high CAF, Core
Assessment, Onset (12-18) or ASSET (21+) score (This will
incorporate the Deter Young Offenders scheme)
- There are significant risk factors for the young person/people
or parents in relation to substance misuse
- One or more family members may be in prison
FIP Programme
- Each member of the FIP core team has a small caseload of 5-6
families so can provide intensive intervention, visiting the
families up to 3 times per week for approximately 1 year.
- Referrals are monitored by the multi-agency FIP Panel,
consisting of representatives of the following services: YOT,
CAMHS, North Somerset Housing Needs team, North Somerset
Anti-Social Behaviour Housing team, Police, C&YPS, Drug
Intervention Programme/Prolific and Other Priority Offenders,
Education Other Than at School, Connexions, BiP.
- FIP Workers coordinate the day-to-day needs, assessment and
support provision for priority families. Cases are regularly
and systematically reviewed with the involvement of all relevant
agencies.
- Monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of the FIP is
via a range of evaluation tools, including monthly returns to
DCSF.
Rachel Austin, FIP Manager/Parenting
Coordinator
Parenting Services at the Youth Offending
Service:
Introduction
Apart from providing Family Intervention Programmes, which
provides for intensive support, YOS provides Parenting/Carers
Support. This is a less intensive, but equally supportive,
service. It can provide parents/carers with individual
support based on their current circumstances as voluntary support
and access to Parenting Groups.
How does it work?
It has less criteria to meet than FIP, which means easier access
for parents/carers. It is less formal, it is linked to your
individual needs as a family and, most importantly, the
intervention is designed around the current issues that affect your
young people.
How do you access this support?
If your son/daughter is already working with YOS, then you can
access this siupport in a number of ways:
- Asking your son/daughter's caseworker to refer you;
- Ring 01275 888360 and ask to speak to a parenting worker;
- Youth Court - if the young person has to go to court for an
offence there is a form for you to fill in about support for
parenting.
If your son/daughter is not already working with YOS then you
can make a Youth Inclusion Support Project (YISP) panel application
which, if accepted, would provide access to parenting services.
How do I decide if support would benefit my
family?
If you are not sure whether support would benefit you in your
circumstances, the the following may help:
If you have children aged 5-18 (your own or looked
after) and you answer YES to 2 or more of the statements below, YOS
could offer some parenting/carer support:
- Do they have attendance issues or are they at risk of exclusion
from school?
- Are they at risk of offending or are they offending at the
moment?
- Do they have an ABC or ASBO?
- Is the young person already working with the Youth Offending
Service?
- Bringing up children to be responsible adults is a challenging
job. Each young person is an individual in their own
right. Some issues such as not sticking nto
boundaries/arguing are normal. Other actions that could lead
them to being unsafe or put them at risk of offending may need
managing in the right way.
What can Parenting/Carer support help to
change?
Parenting/carer support can provide help and guidance with the
following:
- Offending behaviour
- Anti-social behaviour
- School attendance
- School exclusions
- Peer pressure
- Social skills
- Managing behaviour
- Relationship issues
- Personal safety
How is support provided?
We provide support through:
- Meeting with parents/carers to identify the areas they would
like support with.
- Designing an intervention programme which we devise to suit
parents/carers' particular needs.
- Making appointments either at YOT or arranging home
visits.
- Providing support for up to 6 months (initially), although this
can continue for longer.
- Working with the caseholder of the young person at YOS so that
all involved are working on the same areas.
How do I contact YOS for support?
For more information of parent/carer support, please ring YOS on
01275 888360 and ask to speak to one of the parenting
workers. These are currently Wendy Hughes and Graham
Pascoe.
