Ministers launch new 'think family' approach to help vulnerable parents and children

CABINET OFFICE News Release (CAB/003/08) issued by The Government News Network on 10 January 2008

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:

1. Please find the full Think Family: Improving the life chances of families at risk report at: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/social_exclusion_task_force/families_at_risk.aspx.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

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