Strengthening Families
in Sunderland
Introduction to the Strengthening Families
Strategy and Family Focus in Sunderland
March 2013
An inclusive definition of family
• A broad and inclusive definition of family to reflect the
complexity and vibrancy of family life in Sunderland
• Refers to the bond between people brought together
through birth, legally recognised relationships, kinship
or an otherwise close connection. This includes
families of all ages, those with or without children,
and those with connections across more than one
household, in more than one community.
Context
• Families matter
– Provide for family members’ basic needs; socialise children and
young people; offer a key source of financial, social and emotional
support to majority of population; help build strong communities
• Financial pressures and the need to do things differently
–
–
–
–
Prevention and early intervention throughout the life course
Better coordination and integration between partners
Holistic ‘whole family’ / ‘whole community’ responses
Building capacity and reducing dependence
• Move towards more asset based approaches
– Nurturing the strengths and resources of people and communities
– Empowering individuals, families and communities to control their
own future and take ownership of change
Context (continued)
• Personalisation
– Greater involvement, choice and control
– Flexible and tailored support that responds to needs, preferences
and aspirations of each individual
• Responsive local services
– Moving towards integrated services at a locality level
– Flexible and tailored services that respond to local needs,
conditions and priorities
Organisational challenges
• Moving from a focus on the individual to a focus on the
whole family
• Moving from crisis-led support to prevention and early
intervention
• Moving from a deficit model to an asset-based approach
• Moving from fragmented services to seamless provision of
support
• Moving from inaccessible to flexible and accessible
services
Strengthening Families Strategy
Sunderland is a city where families recognise and
fulfil their ambitions and potential
• Families have the aspiration and confidence to take
up opportunities to achieve a better future for
themselves and their community
• Organisations provide the right support, at the right
time, and in the right way so that families can meet
their own needs and realise their aspirations.
Principles of the approach
Our approach to working with families is:
•
Asset based, recognising and building on the strengths within each family
and their community
•
Capacity building, reducing dependence on services in the longer term
•
Family-focused, taking a whole family approach to improving outcomes
•
Personalised and responsive, tailoring support to family needs and
circumstances, and adapting as these change
•
Pro-active and pre-emptive, seeking to identify and appropriately address
issues at the earliest opportunity, and prevent problems developing in the
first place
•
Integrated, working together across services and organisations to achieve
more for families
•
Locally responsive, planning and delivering services at a locality level
where appropriate
•
Intelligence-led, based on insight and evidence of what works
Strategic Objectives
• Empowering families to help themselves, increasing
their independence and resilience
• Encouraging the community to do more for families
• Intervening early and as soon as possible to improve
outcomes and prevent problems from developing or
getting worse
• Developing responsive family-focused services that
are easily accessible
FAMILY FOCUS
Family Focus
• ‘Troubled Families’ programme launched by the Prime Minister
in December 2011
– Estimate that £9bn per year is spent on 120,000 families
nationally, with only £1bn on preventative services
• 120,000 families met 5 out of 7 criteria such as living in poor or
overcrowded housing; no parent has any qualifications; mother
has mental health problems
• Using these criteria Sunderland was identified as having 805
‘troubled’ families
• Four new criteria for identifying families locally
DCLG Criteria
• Criterion 1 - Young people involved in crime and
families involved in anti-social behaviour
• Criterion 2 - Households affected by truancy or
school exclusion
• Criterion 3 - Households which have an adult on
DWP out of work benefits
• Criteria 4 - Local Discretion – can be used to add
other families who meet 2 of the 3 criteria above
Family Focus
• Sunderland Local Discretion Criteria - families
where there are substance misuse (young people
and adults), domestic violence or child protection
issues
• Renamed Family Focus in Sunderland
• Targeted support to ‘turn around’ the lives of 805
families
• What does ‘turn around’ mean?
Family Focus (continued)
• Sunderland has to meet stated outcomes with at least
805 eligible families over the lifetime of Family Focus
(by May 2015)
• Success measured by achieving stated outcomes
around:
–
–
–
–
Getting children back into school
Reducing criminal and anti-social behaviour
Getting parents on the road back into work
Reducing the costs to the taxpayer and local authorities
Family Focus Outcomes
“Turn around” =
• Each child in the family has had fewer than 3 fixed exclusions and
less than 15% unauthorised absences in the last 3 terms
• 60% reduction in ASB across the family in the last 6 months
• 33% reduction in offending by all minors in the family in the last 6
months
• One adult in the family has moved off out-of work benefits into
continuous employment in the last 6 months
Family Focus Payment by Results
• Payment by results based on 40% of the cost of
intervention - £4,000 per family
• Initiative seen as an opportunity to review and
improve the way partners work with the most
challenging and vulnerable families across the city
• Not extra resources but development of a new way of
working with families with multiple and complex
needs
Family Focus Delivery Model
• Strengthening Families Panels in each locality since
1st March 2013
• Single point of contact with the family through a key
worker
• Single assessment using the Family Wheel
• Single Family Agreement developed with the family
• Flexible packages of support for each family based on the
Family Agreement
• Regular progress reviews
• Outcomes for each family tracked
Family Focus Delivery Model Key Stages
• Stage 1: Identification of the family (including agency
referral)
• Stage 2: Multi-Agency Strengthening Families Panels
• Stage 3: Family engagement and assessment by the
key worker
• Stage 4: Development of the Family Agreement
• Stage 5: Delivery of a flexible package of targeted, coordinated support for the family
• Stage 6: Family review, tracking and monitoring
arrangements
How Family Focus fits with Safeguarding
• Social worker will always be consulted before any
Family Focus intervention begins
• For some families the social worker will be the Family
Focus keyworker
• Opportunities for families, but the timing is critical and
for some families that won’t always be right
• Core Groups will play an important role - sometimes
other agencies might join core group
• For some families Family Focus will need to wait until
end of CP plan
Opportunities
• Family Focus provides an opportunity to accelerate wider
Strengthening Families approach
• Transforming relationships with individuals, families and
communities in ways that build resilience and reduce
dependence
• More effective and efficient use of resources through better
coordination across services and partners
• Developing new models to support known and ‘hidden’ families
• Tailoring support to each family’s needs and strengths
• Achieving a better balance between responding/reacting and
preventing/intervening early
• Delivering outcomes valued by families and communities
Family Focus Information
Further information on Family Focus:
•
•
•
•
Family Focus e-learning module
Family Focus Toolkit
Family Focus Family Wheel
Family Focus agency referral form
available at www.sunderlandpartnership.org.uk by the
end of March 2013
Contacts for further information
Family Focus:
• Joanne Cholerton, Sunderland Strengthening Families Manager
(joanne.cholerton@sunderland.gov.uk)
Strengthening Families Strategy
• Jane Hibberd, Head of Strategy and Policy for People &
Neighbourhoods (jane.hibberd@sunderland.gov.uk)
Contacts for further information
Strengthening Families Co-ordinators:
• Julie.Underwood@Gentooliving.com - West Locality
• Marie.Bainbridge@sunderland.gov.uk - Washington
and Houghton Localities
• Bev.McKnight@sunderland.gov.uk -North and East
Localities