Knowledge Exchange: Family inclusive policy and practice
Website profile for participating organisations
Current policy and practice and models for working with families.
This form is just so that we can gather some information about the work that you are doing and why
it is innovative in terms of the approach you are taking to ‘whole family’ thinking and practice. We
would like, with your permission, to use this information to generate examples of different sorts of
practice and policy to share on the new Family Potential website. If you could take a moment to
complete this two page summary of your activity and e-mail it back to us we would be extremely
grateful.
Organisation name:
Stockport Council
Organisation description (Please could you give brief details - e.g. Local Authority / campaigning
group / service commissioner / NHS Trust / independent or voluntary sector provider – together
with any relevant hyperlinks to your organisation’s website):
Local Authority and Integrated services from the Foundation Trust
Name(s) of the project(s) / team(s) who specifically work with / for whole families (if relevant):
Stockport Family
Description of that work (Please could you describe the remit and function of this work and what
you think may be innovative in this – please don’t be modest!)
Please attach any relevant literature that you may have, including service information, leaflets or
publications about the work that you are doing and/ or give links to your website if this material is
already available there.
Stockport Council is delighted to have been awarded DfE Innovation Programme
funding to support a radical programme of whole system change, called Stockport
Family.
Stockport Family aims to create a more integrated and agile social care
system by challenging the concept of ‘referrals’, ‘thresholds’ and agency
boundaries. All work with whole families is being underpinned by
restorative and relationship based practice and the Multi-Agency
Support and Safeguarding Hub to ensure that professional assessments
can be undertaken and reviewed in communities. The aim is to integrate
partners to create a single service that stops the traffic of cases between
services. Social Workers will be freed up to offer intensive interventions
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to families and keep children safe within their own communities.
Specific activities include reviewing of roles and responsibilities across
the workforce; joint working between social workers and clinicians; a
new way of using business support; a skills development programme
across the whole workforce; and introduction of a new approach to
reflective supervision and mentoring.
The overarching aim is to achieve a reduction in costly court
proceedings by 2017, representing a 20% decrease in Looked After
Children.
Are you currently evaluating or monitoring that work in any way?
Yes
Description of any monitoring or evaluation that has taken, is taking place, or is planned to take
place (or please attach any PDF’s or documents):
As part of Innovation Programme we are working with colleagues in TNS-BMRB as evaluation
partners.
Are there any topics of particular interest that you would like to explore with other organisations
and academic partners through the Knowledge Exchange? You can be as general or as specific as
you like.
Could you leave contact details below for the people in the
organisation who it is best to contact about the innovative work you
are doing with families:
Name:
Deborah Woodcock
Please tick if you are
happy for these contact
details to appear on the
Family Potential
website next to a profile
of the work
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E-mail:
deborah.woodcock@stockport.gov.uk
Telephone number:
07800618998
Website address:
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THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO COMPLETE THIS FORM.
Please return this form by e-mail to S.H.Fenton@bham.ac.uk. If you have any questions about the
form please contact Sarah-Jane on 07769 711 085.
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