Ministers launch new ‘think family’ approach to help vulnerable parents and
children
10 January 2008
CAB/003/08
Today Ed Miliband and Beverley Hughes launched a new approach to local
services to improve support for the most disadvantaged families and prevent
problems passing down from excluded parents to their children.
The Think Family report – published by the Social Exclusion Task Force in
the Cabinet Office – will ensure adult services support whole families not
just individuals, and announces a £16m programme of local pilots, to be led
by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Ed Miliband, Cabinet Minister responsible for social exclusion, said:
“The primary responsibility for a family's success or failure will
always lie with parents, but government can make a significant difference
to the chances of success. There should be no wrong door to help for
families, so that whenever vulnerable parents turn to local services they
receive support that recognises the needs of the whole family.
“If we’re going to break the cycle of inter-generational exclusion, we
must empower local services to always ‘think family’ and enable families
to help themselves.”
A ‘think family’ approach encourages local services to adopt the following
basic principles:
-
No wrong door – contact with any service offers an open
door into a system of joined-up support, eg a probation officer or
housing officer identifies the adult language difficulties of a client
and refers them to English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)
training;
-
Look at the whole family – services working with both
adults and children take into account family circumstances and
responsibilities, eg an alcohol treatment service combines treatment with
parenting classes while supervised childcare is provided for the
children;
-
Provide support tailored to need – tailored and
family-centred packages of support are offered to all families at risk,
eg a Family Intervention Project works with a family to agree a package
of support best suited to their situation;
-
Build on family strengths – practitioners work in
partnerships with families recognising and promoting resilience and
helping then to build their capabilities, eg family group conferencing is
used to empower a family to negotiate their own solution to a problem.
In supporting and enabling local services to put these principles into
action, the report:
-
commits a total of £16m to establish a series of Family
Pathfinders to test and develop the ‘think family’ model and
generate and share evidence of what works on the ground;
-
embeds early intervention and prevention within the
existing system of support and extends tailored family services to reach
a wider range of vulnerable families, in part through continued
investment in existing projects shown to work including Family Nurse
Partnerships and Family Intervention Projects;
-
extends the logic of co-operation behind Every Child Matters to adults
services so that all services share responsibility for family
outcomes, encouraging and empowering frontline staff to innovate
and cooperate in response to whole family situations.
Beverley Hughes, Children Young People and Families' Minister, said:
“The Department for Children, Schools and Families has committed £13m for
family pathfinder projects to deliver effective help to families where
complex problems can lead to poor and lasting outcomes across
generations. By working with both adults’ and children’s services,
problems can be dealt with before they become entrenched, leading to
better lives now and in the future.
“In addition, over the next three years a further £3m will be made
available to help up to six family pathfinders extend their work to help
children burdened by caring responsibilities. All children deserve to
enjoy their childhood to the fullest and those children who take on the
role of the carer in a family often miss out. Building more effective
preventative support around the family will help ensure that young people
in families affected by illness, disability or substance misuse do not
fall into burdensome caring roles.”
The report was launched at an event bringing Ministers together with
practitioners and service users involved in projects working with
families with complex problems, who will describe how a ‘think family’
approach is already proving a profound success.
Clare Tickell, Chief Executive of NCH, a leading children’s charity that
runs 20 family intervention projects across the UK, said:
“Through our work, NCH knows first hand that tailoring services and
working with a family as a whole can turn around the lives of the most
vulnerable, impacting on the future of the family, the child and the
local community.
“This investment will go a long way in helping break the cycle of poverty
and low achievement many face by creating innovative ways to engage with
the most vulnerable families, and provide a hub for people to access the
support they need.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
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For any media enquiries about the report, please contact the Cabinet
Office Press Office on 020 7276 0311. We are able to supply case studies
highlighting how the Think Family approach will change things for
frontline staff and service users across the country.
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Please find the full report at:
Think Family: Improving the life chances of families at risk.
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The Social Exclusion Task Force: was created in the Cabinet Office in May
2006, and carried forward and built on the work of the Social Exclusion
Unit, previously in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
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Families at Risk Review: Analysis by the Social Exclusion Task Force
estimates there are around 140,000 families who experience multiple
problems that restrict their life chances. Today's report sets out
for the first time the full policy recommendations to bring about the
changes needed to help the UK's most disadvantaged families.
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Family Pathfinders: To drive forward this new approach, local authorities
and their partners are invited to apply to become one of the Pathfinders,
which will run for 3 years from April 2008 and embed the ‘think family’
approach throughout local areas – from high-level strategy to frontline
delivery. The work will be linked into the LGA/DCSF Narrowing the Gap
network of local authorities to ensure that learning and insights are
spread within other local areas.
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Every Child Matters (ECM): In ECM this Government set out an ambition
that services should work together to ensure that every child can be
healthy, safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and
achieve economic wellbeing. Considerable progress has been made towards
these goals. The recently published Children’s Plan aims to build on
these ambitions and deliver a step change in outcomes through further
system-wide reforms – putting children and families first; providing
services which make more sense to parents, children and young people; by
locating services under one roof in the places people visit frequently;
and investing in all of those who work with children and families
building up capacity to work across professional boundaries.
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Family Intervention Projects: 53 FiPs were set up under the Respect
programme to work with families involved in persistent anti-social
behaviour. The projects challenge and support problem families to address
the root causes of their anti-social behaviour and to tackle wider family
problems. Early evaluation shows the projects are successful in helping
families and improving outcomes for their children. Ongoing funding of
£18m over 2008-2011 to sustain the Family Intervention Project network
has been allocated.
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Family Nurse Partnerships: The FNP is a nurse-led intensive home visiting
programme during pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s life. It
is focussed on prevention and is offered to the most disadvantages
families. FNP promotes changes in behaviour to improve pregnancy and
child health outcomes, supports better parent-infant attachment and helps
women to build supportive relationships, become economically
self-sufficient and link into other support services. FNP is currently
being piloted in 10 sites across England and a further £30m was recently
announced to expand the programme and embed learning from this programme
in universal child health services.
Cabinet Office Press Office
22 Whitehall
LONDON SW1A 2WH
Tel: 020 7276 0311 – Fax: 020 7276 0618
www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Out of hours telephone 07699 113300 and ask for pager number 721338
