Introduction
Durham County Council led a project on behalf of the national team to gather good practice around improving connectivity with the voluntary and community sector. They worked with 19 Local authorities to gather good practice around working with the Voluntary and Community sector (VCS) within early help.
Early help System Guide
The Supporting Families: Early Help System guide - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) outlines a national vision and descriptors for a mature early help system that is shared by Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Department for Education. It has been widely consulted upon across other government departments and local areas and is based on what is working around the country.
The guide is intended for the local strategic partnership responsible for the early help system. It aims to provide a framework for local workshops, partnership conversations and strategic planning and to support prioritisation. The guide provides a self-assessment tool to support discussion, reflection and action planning against key areas that have been shown to influence the effectiveness of early help.
Early Help is the total support that improves a family’s resilience and outcomes or reduces the chance of a problem getting worse. The self-assessment section is structured as five sections focusing on Family voice and experience, Workforce, Communities, Leaders and Data. This project focussed on the Communities section, identifying good practice which exemplify the descriptors.
Sharing success via Supporting Families webinars
The project recognised the significant impact that the VCS can make as part of the early help system and the fundamental positive changes in the relationships between statutory services and VCS partners in recent years. Five areas agreed to share their success via webinars on how they work closely with the VCS using a variety of methods. Both webinars were positively received with over 80 attendees at each session.
Webinar Part One
EHSG descriptor 7.1. Public services partner closely with voluntary and community groups to maintain up to date information about local community assets, community groups, voluntary sector support and faith groups and have made this information accessible to local staff and residents e.g. through a website.
Wirral council and Sheffield City Council provided insight into their online platforms utilised to share information, resources and guidance that are accessible for both professionals and families and importantly ensure the support and resources available for families within the VCS are included and easily accessed.
7.4. We are improving the connectivity between voluntary and community sector activity, family networks and formal early help activity.
Thurrock Council and Durham County Council shared their experiences of how practical on the ground resource has improved connectivity with VCS partners and the evidence gathered to demonstrate the difference this has made to families.
Webinar Part Two
7.2. Our relationship with community groups and voluntary organisations embodies a culture of valuing the contribution of all, prizes creativity, collaboration, and local solutions, alongside quality and inclusivity. We are building a culture and system where our communities understand that everyone helps to deliver a whole family approach.
Isle of Wight council shared how Community Capacity grants are community led and community focussed for the whole family.
7.5 We are shifting decision making about local services and facilities towards families and communities.
Bath and North East Somerset council shared a collaborative approach to commissioning and how they involve service users and the community in the commissioning process
VLOG’s
7.4. We are improving the connectivity between voluntary and community sector activity, family networks and formal early help activity
Wirral council showcased their Family Toolbox Alliance that consists of seven VCS organisations who work as one, sharing decisions and responsibility for planning and delivering family support across Wirral. https://youtu.be/SMTLt2oX8yc
Durham County Council presented their VCS Alliance model and gained insight from a range of practitioners that work together with VCS to support families and shared examples of the difference that this makes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEYz_u-dEiU
Further Examples of Good Practice
All the areas that engaged with the project shared further examples of how they have embedded early help within the sector.
Key Findings following the project.
If you would like more information, then please email the families.team@levellingup.gov.uk
]]>Norfolk has a shared ambition to be a county where every child and young person can flourish. Through the work of the Children & Young Peoples Strategic Alliance (CYPSA) Norfolk has developed an outcomes framework and partnership approach, which aligns with the key principles of the Supporting Families programme.
The Strategic Alliance
The Strategic Alliance (CYPSA) brings together senior representatives from Social Care, Health, Education, Criminal Justice safeguarding partnerships sectors to collaborate and respond to the needs of children, young people, and families. Communities and the delivery of a shared Children and Young People Partnership Strategy was built on the https://delta.communities.gov.uk/document-repository/public/download?uri=/document-repository/Flourishing-in-Norfolk-strategy-(1).pdf
Flourish Pledge
Commitment to flourish is evolving, partnerships have developed a Flourish pledge initiative where teams and organisations achieve the outcomes of the framework through their practice.
The pledge ambition has been taken up by over 200 teams and organisations across all sectors. The first Flourish Awards were held in September 2023 and celebrated some of the amazing work taking place across the county.
Prevention & Early Help offer.
A key element of the strategy is focused upon prevention and early help, which reflects ambitions and priorities from the Department of levelling up housing and communities (DLUHC) and Department for Education (DfE) Early Help System Guide Supporting Families: Early Help System guide - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and are focused upon:
Priority 1: Building Resilient Communities
Priority 2: Improving Early Identification
Priority 3: Strengthening Whole Family & Whole System working.
Priority 4: Building Collaboration & Capacity
Communities and Partnerships support partners to identify children, young people, families, and communities that would benefit from early help. In addition, Family Support Teams focus on providing targeted early help to families with more multiple and complex needs.
A collective offer of services supports everyone and delivered through, Digital self-help, Online communities, Integrated Commissioned Services, Voluntary, Community & Social Enterprise Sector, District Help Hubs, Community and Partnership support and the Family Support Team.
Whole council approach
The multi-agency prevention & early help board, alongside a supporting families sub-group has oversight of the evaluation and development of the early help offer. The council has continued to build strong foundations of providing Early Help and develop an ever-evolving offer to respond to needs of children, young people, and families earlier.
Supporting Families Programme
The links made between Norfolk’s ‘Flourish’ approach and the national Supporting Families Outcomes Framework has helped the council ensure that there is unity between both, therefore eradicating the need for the workforce to favour one over the other.
Practitioners considering Flourish outcomes will by doing so have also considered the relevant outcome from the Supporting Families Outcomes framework.
The Norfolk Flourish infographic shows specific links and key building blocks between Flourish and Supporting Families frameworks. https://delta.communities.gov.uk/document-repository/public/download?uri=/document-repository/Norfork-Florish-and-Supporting-Families-programme.pdf
The guidance for the programme can be accessed: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-families-programme-guidance-2022-to-2025/chapter-3-the-national-supporting-families-outcome-framework
Flourish Outcomes
The Flourish Outcomes Framework was developed with young people and stakeholders and reflects the aspects of children and young people’s lives that they have told us are important to them:
Success
“You have always been there, just to help out constantly, if I needed you, you always supported my family and me.” [parent]
"I finally got back into school because of you, without you I wouldn’t have been able to enter the school at all.” [young person]
Conclusion
Norfolk’s partnership approach aims to understand vulnerabilities in families and communities and respond effectively by strengthening whole system approaches to prevention and streamlining pathways to support. The supporting families dashboard will provide the workforce with information to inform their analysis and approaches to practice when working with families.
They will continue to drive data governance and transformation at a strategic level across the partnership and provide direction on how data should be used to ensure services are effective.
By building capacity through the development of a family hub approach, they will continue to support community resilience.
They are establishing 15 new School and Community Zones, with each zone having a new team with an initial focus on supporting children, young people and families with inclusion and early help needs.
They continue to develop the maturity of prevention & early help approach, moving resource upstream to achieve the priorities of the Prevention & Early Help Strategy 2021-2025.
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Mum, Emily, lives with her 3 Children, Jo aged (13), Cathy (11) and Ruth (9)
What happened and What services were involved?
The family was open to a child protection plan and social care were involved following concerns from Education Welfare officer. This was regarding Jo and Cathy’s lack of attendance at school.
Dad was initially referred to the Perpetrator Programme with concerns of domestic abuse and children being home schooled with minimum engagement with professionals.
Dad disengaged with the programme and focused support work began with mum Emily.
What support and actions were put in place?
For mum, Emily, to feel safe and build a trusting relationship she was allocated a Lead Professional: Sarah, who was part of the Domestic abuse team.
Sarah engaged with the allocated social worker, Family Support Worker and the Educational Welfare officer. Due to the sensitive nature, the case was referred to the Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) to discuss a coordinated community response to the domestic abuse. Sarah spoke to Emily’s before the meeting and shared her views on her behalf.
The next stage was to work in partnership with the police to safely remove mum and her children from the family home. Sarah was able to work with the Housing Officer to secure property for Emily and the children to move into (despite being in significant rent arrears).
This was a big step for Emily as she had tried to leave the family home in the past but as the family was in debt, she could not cope financially and felt she had no option but to return home. This time was different as she had shared all her financial circumstances with Sarah. Emily’s bank account was frozen as her partner had access to all her bank accounts. Sarah managed to help Emily access a Household Support Fund which was used to support with food and essential items and apply for funding to support with other items (freezer, beds, extra curriculum activities for children and laptops to support children during their education).
Sarah liaised with all the debt services and advocated on behalf of Emily and managed to support in clearing previous rent arrears and council tax arrears that resulted from financial abuse. She has continued to provide support with financial assistance and help Emily become financially independent.
What progress has been made?
Quote from mum
This is just to say a big thank you to the team who were amazingly supportive during our dramatic and emotional move. It all started from my very first contact with Sarah, after completing the spotlight programme ,their support has been an all-rounder from dealing with my accommodation issues, debt solutions, financial support and our welfare in general.
We are on our way to settling down and the adjustments have been a challenge but manageable with the support of the professionals involved. We were made to feel comfortable, welcome, appreciated and never the sense of being judged, which is always everyone's fear, and we have since built a good rapport between the team and my kids and this has made it easier to work together.
The kids would like to specifically thank Sarah for remembering their birthdays, the presents and other little things and just how they felt cared for.
Above all l would like to say a big thank you the original team and manager we worked with, it's sad l never saw her again but nevertheless l have had the best support from Sarah who has worked tirelessly with me in putting all the pieces together for us, driving back and forth once every week. I could have never done half by myself and projects like these are doing wonders without even knowing that's why l think testimonies and reviews play such a big role in helping to improve the cause.
]]>Reach Out is Redbridge Council’s in-house support service for any adult or child aged 16 or over who is experiencing domestic abuse. The service provides practical help and emotional support to victims/survivors, including children and young people who have been affected by domestic abuse. There is also help available for those who are worried about their own behaviour and wish to address it.
The new service offer was launched in September 2023, and has three key principles.
Reach Out is:
One front door
Reach Out acts as the front door for domestic abuse in Redbridge. A lead professional carries out a full assessment of the risks and needs, completes safety planning, and acts as a single point of contact to co-ordinate the family’s needs (housing, physical and mental health, substance misuse, financial issues, immigration etc.) Their work focuses on improving the safety, wellbeing and freedom of survivors and children.
Reach Out also connects survivors and children to specialist services in the borough who offer tailored support for those with protected characteristics.
Spotlight
The service will also contact perpetrators of domestic abuse to connect them to Spotlight, Redbridge’s in-house Respect-accredited perpetrator programme. The programme aims to reduce domestic abuse by working with perpetrators who wish to address their abusive behaviours. The name ‘Spotlight’ was chosen for the programme because individuals are supported, first and foremost, to shine a light on their behaviours and take accountability for their abuse. The Spotlight Programme then works with individuals to help them identify and address the underlying belief systems that drive such behaviours and equips them with the tools to create change.
Family Feedback
“I thank the Reach Out DV Hub of London Borough of Redbridge for the exceptional support and guidance provided to move forward during the most difficult times of life. Initially I was sceptical about taking a major decision as I was completely clueless about how to move forward in a new country. With the prompt and professional support provided by the DV Hub, I was all set to come out of the unhealthy relationship. Me and my daughter are extremely thankful for the commendable service provided. This is exactly the kind of support that every woman who is a victim of DV needs to be offered for them to be able to move forward in confidence.”
Innovation
As a new service Reach Out is a showcase for how investing and empowering professionals within your workforce can benefit the community they serve. They can go on to make a direct impact to families, often acting as a lead professional who is able to access housing/financial services and other partners to make the right connections within a short timeframe.
They can advocate on behalf of the family to enable them to meet essential needs while working in the longer term to empower the family to take control of their financial/ emotional wellbeing. This can include training sessions as well as one to one bespoke support.
Summary
This is a new service that has been rolled out and the offer extends beyond early help. By working with the whole family, they ensure support is offered at the right time for all family members to take their next step with confidence.
]]>Mum and Dad live with their daughter Jayne aged 12 and son John aged 14.
What happened and what support was put in place?
Jayne attends a Secondary school for pupils that caters specifically for children with learning difficulties and disabilities. The school described her as selectively mute. (Experts regard selective mutism as a fear (phobia) of talking to certain people. The cause is not always clear, but it’s known to be associated with anxiety).
Jayne hadn’t attended school for around 6 months. Her parents were supportive but struggling to cope with her aggressive behaviour in the home and when trying to get her into the school transport to attend school.
The family was referred to the Children and wellbeing services and an Early help assessment was completed. A multi-agency approach was undertaken and, in this case, the right lead professional to support this family was the school. This is when Jayne met Sam, the Community Senior Family support worker.
Sam undertook home visits and built trust by adopting a whole family approach to support Jayne and her parents. She attended with the school support worker and games were played to reassess academic ability and build the relationship. John’s views were captured, and he engaged in the Team around the family meetings and shared his experiences. Dad reduced his working hours and worked from home to support Jayne and Mum. Mum was struggling to cope with Jayne's behaviours independently and she put this down in part, to her anxiety.
During one of the home visits, parents shared how a previous meeting with school had caused their daughter inadvertent distress. After the meeting they came home, and thought Jayne was returning home with them, but instead stayed on at school. This miscommunication had a negative impact on Jayne’s health and anxiety. This was a trigger for Jayne, and she displayed high level of aggression, thus not wanting to get into school transport. Intervention included:
Team around the family meetings were held in the family home alongside Sam the Community Family worker; school support; health visitors and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service. These sessions gathered family views before, during and at the end to assess the distance travelled.
By adopting a Flexible individualised approach and building trust and relationships with the school, the parents felt empowered, and Jayne felt her views were considered. John shared his views and support was given to him to channel his thoughts and he was being kept updated of progress and next steps.
What progress was made/what changed?
A successful outcome using a whole team around the family approach.
Quote from Jayne’s parents.
"We have found the EBSA (Emotional based school avoidance) toolkit really supportive especially when supporting Jayne to communicate her feelings about school and leaving our home, which she really struggles with. It met her level of understanding & made support fun."
]]>The Start Well team structure as part of Stockport Family
The Start Well team is part of a Stockport-wide local system of help for families with a spectrum of needs. Unique to Stockport is the leadership, management structure and delivery of the Start Well model. Start Well operates under joint governance arrangements between Stockport Council and Stockport NHS Foundation Trust with an overarching twin ambition of improving child development outcomes and school readiness outcomes at reception age.
Of particular concern locally is the health inequality in Stockport that means children in the most disadvantaged areas have much poorer outcomes than those from affluent communities. The model provides support to families and undertakes early identification of babies and children’s developmental needs. Alongside the Start Well approach is a Family Help service delivery model in Stockport which is a 0-19 early help model of Family Help coordinators who support early help. They support the coordination required at an early help level through early help assessment for the increasing complexity in need for many babies and their families on Health Visitors’ named caseloads. We work closely with our Children’s Social Care colleagues, and a dedicated vulnerable children’s safeguarding team managed by the Stockport Foundation Trust supports health visitors, school nurses and FNP nurses in their safeguarding supervision.
In this Start Well integrated structure, Band 7 health and early years team leaders manage Start Well teams, overseen in a neighbourhood model by Locality Leads who are either health or council staff. Stockport’s children’s centre (Start Well) offer is coordinated through these Band 7 health leads. Families in Stockport are supported by one of 44 Band 6 named Health Visitors rather than cases being held centrally in a corporate system. These Health Visitors are supported by a small group of Band 5 nurses – many of whom are gaining experience and skills on their journey to applying for Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (SCPHN) qualifications.
A group of Band 4 Early Years workers (traditionally nursery nurses) support this skills mix. Band 3 Administration Assistants keep the team’s daily business, diary and office management requirements running smoothly.
The integration of coordinating, nursing and early years roles allows Health Visitors to lead universal and targeted work. It also provides career progression opportunities for early years workers (council and health) into Family Help coordinator roles, for nurses into SCPHN qualification and Health Visitors into team leader or specialist roles and onwards. Stockport are also currently looking at options to develop apprenticeships for Family Help Coordinators.
This structure is overseen by three Band 8A Locality Leads and one 8A Governance lead. Locality leads come from different background disciplines in council early years and health visiting. They work jointly under agreed Start Well managerial arrangements which sit across both NHS and local authority services. Start Well has a suite of bespoke job descriptions that draw on both health and early years skills to reflect the integrated work being undertaken, however the team’s staff remain under separate accountability arrangements according to their discipline.
There is a rolling programme of shared e-learning for NHS and local authority staff from a ‘learning pool’ offer, while different tiers of specialist training are on offer through a Stockport’s competency framework. This framework sets out both core and specialist skills elements that relate to perinatal mental health, public health nursing and more, in a modular approach. Stockport aims to ‘reclaim universalism’ for all staff, training a varied workforce that is confident and competent to deliver for families.
Wider partnerships and principles of practice
The Start Well offer links closely to the Stockport’s borough-wide services. Specialist children’s therapy services, SEND, midwifery and education services are close collaborators with Start Well. Services like Children’s Social Care, those delivering evidence-based parenting courses, and local community organisations are all trusted partners. Stockport has a system-wide model of restorative practice which is recognised by all, which helps to bind different professional principles and priorities together under a common understanding. Stockport have also recently established a Start Well and Family Hub workforce development manager to support the integration of the models locally.
‘Continuity of care’ is central to Stockport’s offer. Family Help Coordinators works alongside the Health Visitor to offer and complete early help assessment where family needs require more coordination of care. They provide a plan of care with the family to ensure the right support is given at the right time, through the delivery of evidence-based interventions in a group and family home setting. Health Visitors are the overall accountable practitioner to oversee this work and provide assessment and care.
Conversations with other parts of the local system for babies routinely take place with partners like Children’s Social Care or within the wider Greater Manchester perinatal mental pathway. These conversations are to identify whether intervention can continue to be supported at the local level or whether a family requires an additional specialist (for example in safeguarding or psychotherapeutic support) to join their plan.
This approach is underpinned by the Greater Manchester early years delivery model which is an eight-stage pathway designed to increase the number of children who are ready for school. By making the best use of resources, Greater Manchester Combined Authority aims to improve outcomes for all children in their early years and close the gap in performance for the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile between all children and the bottom 20%. Start Well is an integral part of this overarching ambition in Stockport.
]]>Baby and Me
Redbridge Borough Council have identified that initiating early, preventative and family-centred work for the most vulnerable families is very challenging. The council are responding proactively to fill in gaps in areas where traditionally children’s social care may not have worked closely with more universal services spanning health and early years education.
The Council leadership have taken a bespoke approach to supporting vulnerable babies and their families through dedicated Baby and Me social work teams that work with mothers in the later pregnancy. The Baby and Me approach sees social workers, backed by family support and universal health, development and early years education services, working together with community and specialist services from across the local partnership. The Baby and Me team around the family are working intensively with vulnerable expectant parents in the earliest part of the pregnancy, including with families where babies have previously been taken into care.
The approach blends statutory social work oversight with family support and a focus on promoting strong parent-infant relationships as early on as possible. The aim of Baby and Me is to change the trajectory of escalation towards young babies being placed into care and adopted. The upskilling and specialising of social work teams in this way is partly with the aim to break down traditional professional silos and thresholds to counter gaps in services that families experience, such as limited access to services due to having moved out of borough or not fitting the criteria for specialist services such as the dedicated Family Nurse Partnership who work with the youngest expectant and new parents in Redbridge.
Due to high levels of complexity and safeguarding needs for babies in Redbridge, the approach began by working with families already undergoing statutory child protection intervention. It is now on offer to many families who are not subject to social care involvement but are working with Early Help targeted services. Here babies’ circumstances remain complex although families engage with this intensive support in a voluntary and consent-based arrangement.
Supporting babies, supporting whole families through early help
A wider range of new and expectant parents who require a spectrum of targeted and intensive support in Redbridge can access support from a whole family-oriented offer available through early help. The local employment and skills approach, ‘Think Work’ is delivered through DWP and the Local Authority, to overcome barriers in families’ access to benefit entitlements, to build new employment skills, confidence and to access sustainable employment opportunities in the long term. Specialist family support workers also work across local services and networks to assist families facing problematic debt and at risk of homelessness.
The Families Together Hub Early Help service takes a ‘Think Couple’ approach. Parenting workers within the Families Together Hub support parents to develop better relationships with their babies through a range of targeted programmes including
Widening community reach for better public health
Redbridge Council employ public health connector roles to prioritise the principle that families navigating services should not tell their stories more than once. The council are currently building up a wider workforce that can roll out ‘making every contact count,’ the approach of helping families and people navigate and connect to services at every given opportunity- whether universal or targeted. Community connectors undertake listening exercises to understand how different communities may want to access or experience public health, community, and universal services. Developing plans for the rollout of a Community Hub in Redbridge is seeing the council further harness the local voluntary sector’s capacity to identify problems and find solutions within the community, and to reach families from all walks of life.
]]>By working alongside families in this way, the service has been helping families to understand both the communication and sensory needs of their autistic child more clearly. Through being supported with accessible information and good practice guidance around autism, families are given the knowledge and the skills they need to help foster a more inclusive and empathic environment for their children. The service is quite unique in that they are supporting families while they are waiting for their diagnosis as they identified this as a gap in service and often the process can be quite lengthy.
One parent who attended the Cygnet programme (a parenting support programme for parents and carers of autistic children and young people aged 5-18) found it beneficial in terms of awareness and understanding her son’s needs. As a result, she has shared “I have been able to implement strategies that have consequently improved my son’s behaviour, attitude and happiness, resulting in less anxiety, frustration and meltdowns”. Also added that “Jessica’s (the early help autism worker) delivery was exceptional”, and she really appreciated the worker’s time in answering questions, supporting with queries and just generally being highly supportive.
The parent had been experiencing issues with the process of moving her son into specialist provision and even though it was outside of her remit; but she said that “Jessica has been invaluable and offered me some good advice as well as tools and approaches that have assisted in me being able to move the process forward”.
Another parent fed back: ‘It has really opened my eyes and helped me realise my son isn’t doing things on purpose. Julie (early help autism worker) helped my daughter understand her brother’s behaviours. Julie was so kind, compassionate, understanding, patient and professional I can’t thank her enough for her support’.
Set out below are the objectives, performance, and targets of the service.
Birmingham Children’s Trust Early Help Autism Service Objectives:
1.Work Collaboratively Together with Early Help workers, deliver on the actions of the family’s Early Help plan, with a specific focus on autism.
2 Prevention Support families with an autistic child at an early intervention and preventative level; ensuring their development and wellbeing are supported.
3 Group Work To offer group work programmes to parents with autistic children. Direct face to face work with children/young people, siblings and their parent/carers is completed within the family home, schools, or community settings. Workers provide weekly sessions for a maximum of 12 weeks, unless agreed through the EHA.
4 Knowledge & Skills Support the development of knowledge and skills in the workforce on issues related to autistic children and their families.
5 Guidance Support the Early Help service with engaging families in early intervention and preventative work, offering good practice guidance related to autism.
6 Advice Attend EH meetings to support with advice and guidance on cases that are coming into the localities and provide specialist advice where autism is a need.
Early Help Service Performance (Nov 2021- Sept 2022)
Future Targets:
Conclusion:
By working alongside the families of children with autism, the Early Help Autism Service is aiming to empower parents, by giving them the access they need to specialist knowledge and skills around autism. As they become more able to understand and meet the needs of their autistic child, this in turn improves the mental and emotional wellbeing of the family.
]]>Hertfordshire County Council is proud of the Supporting Families programme’s successes over the last 10 years.
Our infographic highlights some of the key achievements made in supporting families, programme milestones and feedback received throughout the programme.
In Hertfordshire all early help services work together in partnership under the name "Families First" and our Families First Assessment (FFA) is the term used for early help support plans. Here are some of our key statistics:
Parent - “We are very grateful for all the help and support we have received to turn things around for us.”
We have a shared vision that strong partnership working is a key component to our early help system. One of the ways we help to foster this shared sense of vision across the partnership is through a pledge that we and all partners sign up to.
Our pledge explains Families First and the commitment of the council and our partners to families and how we will work with them.
To support partnership working and workforce development across the county, Families First co-ordinate and organise:
Mum Jo (21) and Dad Mike (22) have a daughter Leah (10 months) and a son Stuart, who was born several months after the work started.
There is a large extended maternal family who supported the parents and children and were involved in the multi-agency plan.
What happened? Why were services involved?
Jo disclosed during a maternity appointment that she had been physically abused by her partner Mike. The midwife referred Jo to children’s social care as there had been a pattern of physical and emotional abuse over the previous months.
The couple had lived together through the COVID-19 pandemic, during which their daughter Leah had experienced violence and this put their unborn baby at risk too.
What help did they received?
The family were brought into Child Protection planning team and a social worker was allocated as lead practitioner to facilitate a team around the family's needs.
A collaborative care plan enabled a range of well-paced interventions for both parents to access. The plan focussed on the strengths of the family whilst ensuring the safety of Jo and the children.
Although initially the couple separated due to police bail conditions, there were times during the process that they appeared to be reuniting. The risk to the children was therefore dynamic, requiring a dynamic plan for the family. Mike was ultimately convicted of offences against Jo and was subject to a probation order.
Once the parents had permanently separated, there were disputes about co-parenting and care of the children. Mike wanted to see the children regularly, but he was not able to be consistent enough to enable this.
The social worker used strength-based Motivational Interview techniques to empower the family to make the most of the support offers available and encouraged them to take ownership for their progress. Motivational Interviewing is an approach that supports the family member to identify and state what their priorities are and how they want to make change. When they felt comfortable to do so, the parents addressed previous childhood trauma with the social worker, and mental health practitioner.
Jo discussed with the social worker that she wanted to move house to be closer to her family. She often felt anxious and recognised that she needed support around her. She also shared she wanted to gain some educational qualifications and become a midwife herself.
The maternal family, as well as some members of the paternal family, were involved as part of a whole family plan to enable the safety and well-being of the children in the long term. The children’s development was monitored by health workers throughout.
Building on the very positive parenting that Jo intuitively provided for the children, 11 delivery partners contributed to the successful outcomes for the family.
The support provided by agencies included Jo attending a domestic abuse Freedom Programme on-line, in-home parenting support provided for Mike by the social worker, a range of domestic abuse provisions for Mike, and individual mental health support for both parents.
What progress was made/what changed?
The children were at times exposed to abuse and conflict between the parents, but the risks significantly decreased through the period of support.
Jo demonstrated significant resilience during this process, and she focussed on the emotional well-being of the children. She gained priority for a housing transfer and started an access programme at college. Leah was also benefiting from childcare in a nursery setting.
Mike spoke very positively of the services that he had received, especially in relation to his own mental wellbeing. Mike had not worked since the start of the pandemic and was offered support to access employment when he is ready.
The Family Group Conference process was used to review how the extended family could be alerted to any risks for the children and support Mike to continue have access to his children in a safe way.
The support this family received demonstrated a positive example where one whole family plan based on the strengths of the family itself provided well-paced interventions. This enabled the safety and well-being of the children and contributed to developments for the parents that will enable them to sustain long-term benefits for themselves and the children. The family is moving out of statutory support.
Comment from Jo “Don’t be afraid to get the help. Things will go smoothly as long as you are open to it and you work together”
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