This Part of the Report to Be Completed During the Approval Process but Deleted Prior To
BRIDGEND COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL
REPORT TO CABINET
13 DECEMBER 2011
REPORT OF THE CORPORATE DIRECTOR - CHILDREN
Families Together: a family support Strategy for bridgend
1. Purpose of Report.
This report is to inform Cabinet of the result of the consultation on Families Together: a strategy for working with and supporting families in Bridgend County and to seek approval of the final version of the strategy.
2. Connection to Corporate Improvement Plan / Other Corporate Priority.
The subject of this report relates closely to and seeks to progress several objectives and priorities, and in particular:
· Bright Future: Young Voices
· Bright Future: Healthy Living
· Bright Future: New Opportunities;
· Bright Future: Strong Communities.
3. Background.
3.1 Cabinet received a report in June 2011 on Integrating services, Family Support and the 4-5-6 Model. Approval was given to consult on the draft family support strategy, Families Together. This document is an essential element in a range of initiatives which will radically shift the way that services seek to meet the needs of children and young people and their families. The thread which works through this strategy, various Welsh Government initiatives and Bridgend’s Children and Young People’s Plan is one of providing a good level of support as a universal entitlement but identifying needs early and preventing them escalating to a level where they are harder to address and the resource needed has significantly increased. But the strategy is not just about what services can do. Families Together focuses on how each family can best help the children in its care to have their needs met and how services might support them in this endeavour. It sets out where we are now in Bridgend in terms of the needs of families (having listened to children and parents), the extent to which those needs are being met and the roles of different services. The document then describes where we ought to be by setting out clear ways in which Council and other services might help families in addressing the unmet needs. In some instances, it will mean maintaining or developing further a service and in others providing something new. Alongside this picture of support services, and how they might be accessed, the strategy emphasises the role that families themselves need to play.
3.2 The development of Families Together was informed by Bridgend’s 4-5-6 Model and Integrated Working Framework but also by the Welsh Government’s pilots for supporting families with tier 3 (complex) and tier 4 (critical) needs, the Integrated Family Support Services (IFSS), not dissimilar to Bridgend’s Connecting Families project. As from April 2012, the Welsh Government’s Families First programme will support more integrated services to meet lower tier needs at tier 2 (additional needs). The aim is to transform services so that they better meet the needs of children, young people and families living in poverty and help to reduce inequalities. The development of a whole family approach built around integrated services, providing holistic support to children, young people and families at every level of need is at the heart of Families First. The Families First programme aims to drive improvements to family support, its design and delivery, and in so doing, reduce the numbers of families developing more complex needs and thus requiring more intensive and costly interventions. The Bridgend strategy, Families Together, will drive the Families First agenda and also mesh with our Connecting Families project and eventually link with IFSS when that comes to Bridgend.
4. Current situation / proposal.
4.1 The consultation on the family support strategy invited interested parties to comment on the different sections of the strategy via a structured response form which also allowed open-ended comment. Responses were received from a range of agencies, both statutory and non-statutory.
4.2 A good majority of responses were favourable, endorsing the strategy’s aims, analysis of the current situation, assessment of what was needed to bring about change for the better and the priorities for action.
4.3 A number of amendments have been made to the strategy in the light of constructive comments made. These include:
· greater clarity on the target audience for the strategy; a summary version will be produced, once the full document is approved, to make it more accessible for young people and families;
· recognition that not all children and young people can engage easily with their own families and that at times it is necessary for young people and parents to address issues separately, at least in the first instance;
· bringing some of the terminology into line with Welsh Government terms e.g. Team around the Family rather than Team around the Child;
· an explicit acknowledgement that where the responsibilities of children and young people are set out in Section D (How do we get there?) those responsibilities have to be appropriate to age and ability;
· a commitment to review how the current arrangements for different panels which assess the needs of children and young people will relate to locality working;
· an additional action point on child care;
· some updated data based on the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation 2011 release.
4.4 These changes have been incorporated into the version of the strategy now presented for final approval by Cabinet.
4.5 The implementation of the strategy will depend on effective working between agencies, both statutory and non-statutory. The action plan in Section E is a strategic action plan from which lead and partner agencies will develop more operational plans and Cabinet is asked to endorse this approach to collaborative working.
5. Effect upon Policy Framework and Procedure Rules.
There is no effect on policy framework or procedure rules.
6. Equality Impact Assessment
The strategy seeks ways to help meet the needs of all children, young people and their families, without discrimination. An initial equality impact assessment indicates that the research carried out to inform this strategy has been sufficiently broad to embrace the views and interests of a wide range of stakeholders. No equalities issues arose from the development work or consultation and there are no issues arising from the assessment.
7. Financial Implications.
There are implications for both the development and maintenance of services which will support the implementation of the strategy. Funding for the post of Principal Development Officer (Integrated Working) has been identified from within the Children’s Directorate’s resources by not filling a current vacancy. Three other development posts are being funded from Welsh Government grant which has been made available to non-pioneer Families First local authorities in 2011-12; these posts are part of the longer term strategic bid to Welsh Government for Families First funding from April 2012. The wider funding issues around integrated working and operating multi-agency community teams are dealt with in the Integrated Working Framework, section 15. Partners are being asked, at this stage, to endorse the principles and approaches to integrated working but not to commit resources operationally. These decisions will, however, need to be made by February 2012. The Children’s Directorate will also be considering how best to reconfigure service provision, and therefore budgets, to make best use of current resources and fulfil the aims of the family support strategy.
8. Recommendation.
Cabinet is recommended to approve the final form and content of the family support strategy, Families Together, and endorse the action plan as an agenda for collaborative working with partners in the strategy’s implementation.
Hilary Anthony
Corporate Director – Children
Date: December 13th 2011
Contact Officer: Trevor Guy
Head of Strategy, Partnerships and Commissioning
Telephone: (01656) 642617
e-mail:
Postal Address Children’s Directorate, Sunnyside, Bridgend CF31 4AR
Background documents
Children and Young People’s Plan 2011-2014
Families Together – a strategy for working with and supporting families in Bridgend County.
The 4-5-6 Model
The Integrated Working Framework
Cabinet report: Integrating services, Family Support and the 4-5-6 Model, 28th June 2011
Families Together
A strategy for working with and supporting families in Bridgend County
learn and achieve….
participate and enjoy….
give and receive respect….
be healthy….
be safe….
be confident and self-reliant….
Contents
A Introduction 4
A1: the purpose of the strategy 5
A2: what is meant by ….. 6
A3: the aims 9
A4: diversity statement 10
B: Where are we now?
B1: Bridgend families - their stories and their needs 11
B2: recognising need – assessment and referral 15
B3: meeting needs and current services 16
B4: national and local plans and strategies 19
C: Where do we want to be?
C1: shared values 20
C2: understanding needs 20
C3: recognition and referral 20
C4: support and empowerment 21
C5: positive outcomes 21
D: How do we get there?
D1: meeting basic needs 22
D2: prevention and early intervention 23
D3: working together 24
D4: matching services to needs 25
D5: what services need to do 25
D6: commissioning to achieve the best outcomes 26
D7: resources to meet needs 27
E: Action Plan 28
F: Appendices
Case studies 38
Bridgend statistical context 40
Families Together: a support strategy
A. Introduction
A loving and supportive family environment, whatever form that family takes, is essential if any child is to thrive. There is no perfect family and no ideal model for a family but there are basic needs which have to be met for any child and the family has the first responsibility towards their children in respect of ensuring those needs are met. Public and voluntary services exist to support families in this major undertaking since very few families can meet all their children’s needs without help; schools and the health service are the most obvious examples of being reliant on good quality services. Different children, and different families, will require different levels of support depending upon their needs and circumstances. Difficulties which families encounter can, at times, be severe e.g. through illness, disability, low income levels, a breakdown in relationships and it is then that the services needed to support them become more specialised.
In many instances, by identifying a problem early, it is easier to ensure that the child does not suffer in the longer term. Better still, preventing problems arising in the first place through families being able to recognise potential difficulties and their causes and deal with them, means that services have greater capacity to deal with those family issues which require a substantial commitment of professionals’ time and resources. Therefore, the two principles of (i) prevention and (ii) early intervention are drivers of not only improved outcomes for children and young people and their families but also of making best use of limited resources.
Within Bridgend County, the services available to meet all children and young people’s basic needs i.e. universal services, are largely accessible and mostly of a good quality, though they still have the potential to improve further. Services to meet the more complex and critical needs are often effective, though real challenges still exist. In order to meet the major challenges presented by some very demanding families, the ‘Connecting Families’ project has been established to address their needs in a more coherent way by services working together far more closely. It is where there are lower level additional needs, perhaps in combination, e.g. moderate learning difficulties, poor behaviour, alcohol misuse, that more significant gaps in services have been identified. It is vital therefore that supportive action is taken to prevent such issues leading to children and their families being escalated to the higher tiers of need. The Welsh Government is promoting dedicated teams (Integrated Family Support Services) to support families with the most challenging needs at tiers 3 and 4, an initiative not dissimilar to Bridgend’s Connecting Families project.
In the new Child Poverty Strategy for Wales 2011 the Welsh Government has set out three strategic objectives:
i. to reduce the number of families living in workless households;
ii. to improve the skills of parents and young people living in low income households so they can secure well-paid employment; and
iii. to reduce inequalities that exist in health, education and economic outcomes of children and families by improving the outcomes of the poorest.
Families First is the Welsh Government’s programme which is intended to help transform services so that they better meet the needs of children, young people and families living in poverty and help to reduce inequalities. The development of a whole family approach built around integrated services, providing holistic support to children, young people and families at every level of need is at the heart of Families First. The Families First programme aims to drive improvements to family support, its design and delivery, and in so doing, reduce the numbers of families developing more complex needs and thus requiring more intensive and costly interventions. Bridgend is ready to embrace this agenda of early intervention and prevention and this family support strategy , along with the Integrated Working Framework, set the direction for putting families first and working together with them to effect change for the better.
Supporting families can be complex and diverse in its range of activities. While this strategy document is targeted primarily at professionals and policy makers, it should be accessible to a much wider audience. To this end, a summary version will also be published so that all interested parties, especially children and young people and families, can continue to inform the development of services and offer their perspective on the effectiveness of support given.
A.1 The purpose of this strategy
This strategy focuses on how each family can best help the children in its care to have their needs met and how services might support them in this endeavour. It sets out where we are now in Bridgend in terms of the needs of families, the extent to which those needs are being met and the roles of different services. The document then seeks to describe where we ought to be by setting out clear ways in which Council and other services might help families in addressing the unmet needs. In some instances it will mean maintaining or developing further a service and in others providing something new. Alongside this picture of support services, and how they might be accessed, the strategy emphasises the role that families themselves need to play. The strategy must therefore be one to which most if not all families can subscribe and it is important to develop this sense of ownership amongst all partners.