Written evidence from Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council

Summary

Introduction

Doncaster Stronger Families programme sits within the Communities service area of Doncaster Council, which is in the Adults Health and Wellbeing Directorate. The Phase 1 programme commenced in April 2012 with a target figure of 870 families to ‘turn around ‘ in the three year period up to end of march 2015. Doncaster achieved this target in January 2015.

The Stronger Families Programme is truly partnership driven with a mandate provided by Team Doncaster (the equivalent to LSP) reporting to the thematic partnership boards and a multiagency Steering Group Chaired by a senior manager in Doncaster Children’s Services Trust (DCST).

Doncaster feels strongly that there is evidence to show that the Troubled Families programme is having positive effects on the lives of families who are involved in it. We have evidence to show that families who have been supported to ‘turn around’ their lives do make long lasting and sustained changes to their behaviours and become more able to  cope in the future with less interaction with high end services.

 

Our Programme in Numbers

Phase 1 – April 2012 – March 2015:

 

Phase 2 April 2015 – March 2020

Target to turn around 2950 families

Increased engage with figures in year 1 from 490 – 550 and met his target.

Currently engaged with 781 families

 

2016/17 Q1 Performance report:

 

Doncaster Stronger Families programme met its target of turning around 870 families within the lifetime of Phase 1 of the programme and had 1576 active families at the end of Phase one.  Within the context of the Troubled Families programme 914 families were ‘turned around’ during this period but the vast majority of the families worked with evidenced positive outcomes against the criteria in the financial framework.

Jo Miller the Chief Executive of Doncaster Council has said:

“As Chief Executive of Doncaster Council I take a great interest in the welfare of our residents and I took the opportunity to meet one of the more complex families supported by our Stronger Families Programme. The family talked about being in a difficult place and ashamed of where they had got to and so did not engage with any services. They described how they avoided the family support worker at first but through her persistence begun to listen to her and eventually work with her. They talked enthusiastically about how they had been helped to improve their lives and how they were in a much better place feeling proud of their achievements. “

As the programme has progressed we have asked families for feedback on their experience of the support they have received and how we can improve this. We have also received feedback from other agency staff on how the programme has supported them in their work.  The vast majority of this feedback has been positive relating to the ‘different way’ we worked resulting in positive outcomes for families.

For example one family had become heavily in debt; mental health issues had compounded this situation so they were reluctant to seek or accept help. The father had been made redundant and this compounded their problems. The son had also been suffering from anxiety and depression impacting on school.

The family were known to Communities Neighbourhood officers but refused to engage initially. Over time officers kept contacting the family to offer support and keep an eye on them; finally the family engaged with the programme via a Communities Neighbourhood Officer as their situation had become dire.

The officer assessed the family needs with them and discussed what they wanted to happen. An action plan was developed and actions prioritised to halt the increase of debt, prevent an impending eviction and give space to think about medium to longer term actions.

The family were in such a position that they needed a food bank parcel, negotiations with a debt collection company who were coming to remove anything they could and provide evidence for a court hearing on their debts.

The son had previously not attended school due to poor uniform and subsequent bullying, through the programme’s ‘Innovation Fund’ the worker was able to provide a school uniform which helped boost the sons self-esteem and he began attending school regularly again and displayed far more confidence than he had for a long time.

When the immediate issues with debt and finances were sorted, the family were encouraged to think about seeking support for the mental health. The father was supported to link in with mental health services which had an immediate benefit.

Eventually both parents were supported to think about work and training. With the help of the DWP Troubled Families Employment Advisor (TFEA) the mum enrolled on a college course training to be a carer.

Through the support of the programme the parents were able to get a grip on their debts, improve their emotional wellbeing and begin to function again. The family have provided very positive feedback to the programme saying

“Our family can’t thank you enough for all you have done for us and your support. You have given us back hope and your help has been fantastic in every which way possible…You deserve a pair of wings cos you’re an angel in disguise.”

 

Another example is a family where a family with very complex issues were supported by the programme resulting in a real change in the family’s ability to function and eventually thrive.

Prior to the case being picked up the mum had attempted suicide due the situation she was in and the mental stress of mourning the death of her sister who had been a murder victim. She had been a victim of domestic violence, was alcohol dependant, living in unsafe private rented accommodation and was on income support. The children were not attending school regularly.  She did not have a positive view of services and was socially isolated so would not engage readily.

Through a persistent approach the family began to trust the worker and build faith in the services supporting them. They were helped to move into safe accommodation nearer other family members to improve support network. Children moved schools and now have 100% attendance. Mum had an ambition to set up a business and so was supported to access training and since then has become self-employed.

All contact with previous abusive partner has ceased and alcohol consumption has reduced considerably to social drinking only.

Below is a thank you note received from the family:

PAC evidence - Thankyou letter

 

Doncaster has adopted a service transformation process for its Stronger Families Programme in that rather than developing a new service using the funds from DCLG it has supported partner agencies to begin changing the way they work with whole families in a coordinated way, through increasing capacity, providing workforce development, trialling interventions, etc.

Examples of this are:

Often it is the simple things that families feel most beneficial, for example families have said:

…”could talk to her (the worker) and she would listen.” Because we allowed staff time to work with families.

“(the worker) made me feel like there’s someone understands what I am going through”. Because the lead worker builds a working relationship with the family.

“(the worker) listened to our viewpoints and issues as well as focussing on plans…” so supporting the families to think about what they want and building this into action planning.

Our joint funded EWO’s work closely with families in a more intensive way than they would normally be able to and therefore are able to deal with far more complex cases. The feedback from families is similar in that they provide time and space for families to improve.

“She helped me in every way possible to improve the situation.  She even helped me with my mood.  I’ll never be able to thank (EWO name) enough for helping me with this situation” (young person)

“‘attendance improved.  Got tips and help to improve situation and new ways to deal with things. My relationship with school is better” (parent)

The whole family coordinated approach through a lead worker really is the key to success with many families, this is borne out in feedback from families:

“This is a great programme and I couldn’t have done without it. Me and my family are now in a really good place and have never been better. My anxiety level have dropped since accessing the programme and my worker was only ever a phone call away.”

 “I think the program is fantastic, I became involved with the program at a very low point in my life and it has helped me so much, it’s brought on my confidence, helped me deal with everyday life again due to the support of my worker. I have no words to describe just what my worker has done for me if she didn’t come into my life I would of lost my house and potentially my children”

The Stronger Families Programme also has positive outcomes for partner organisations in supporting them to work with families. Below is an email received praising the workers in the programme.

Feedback from A local Academy School

Feedback from Academy School, Safeguarding Lead

“It was lovely to meet you last week. Just to reiterate my praise regarding Kim from the Communities Area Team, Carol YWCA worker, Giovanna, Area Officer and the Stronger Families Programme.

Kim- has continually offered support and continually strives to help professionals in improving their understanding of Stronger Families but also in developing skills and knowledge, ultimately ensuring our families have the access to the best support available. Kim has a vast amount of knowledge and is a true asset.

Carol- The relationship Carol has with some of our most vulnerable critical families is exceptional. She is the voice of reason, the calming influence and most importantly she is making progress where as a group of professionals we have struggled to make any level of change. The challenge she offers families is well received as they fully understand Carol is trying to work with them to develop their own abilities. Families are keen to make change not only for themselves but to evidence to Carol that they are taking on board and accepting the support she is offering.

Gee/Giovanna- Continually goes above and beyond to offer support. Her relationships with members of the community is fantastic and she is resourceful and dynamic in not only creating positive links but in finding solutions to challenges.

The programme I feel is invaluable, supporting some of the most critical families we have. The intensive service offered is second to none and allows change to be supported and embedded into families. The long timescales that allows real challenge and change to occur, often uncovering supporting and rebuilding from long standing issues often from 10+ years ago that have gone under the radar. I am hopeful that the interventions offered will mean that there is a longstanding, sustainable change to the families involved which is already evident  in some of the work within current families that are been worked.”

Thanks

“Claire comes to meetings and conferences regularly to make sure we are all working in partnership and this has led to some positive changes with the family we are working with. Claire works not only in partnership with myself and agencies, but also with the family in question. She has built a good, open and honest relationship with them and this is also helping to move the case forward.” Feedback form a social worker on a current case.

From an academy school re coordinating work around a case by an EWO;

“Grateful for working with me and pulling the case information together to get support from other agencies” ( Armthorpe Academy)

 

Feedback from Social Worker on Feedback form

DONCASTER

Stronger Families Programme

Multi-Agency Evaluation Form

Agency Name:              CYPS Assessment and Child Protection Service ……………………………………………………………..….

Name of person completing form Diane H

Family Name/s: B/ B

(please identify by using the first 2 initials of surname or URN)

How many hours per week of your agency’s time did the family require prior to the Stronger Family workers involvement?

 

Prior to involvement from SF these families could take unpredictable amounts of time. Hence often crisis lead intervention. SF’s reduced crisis providing the right support at a time that suited the families. SF have been instrumental in the forming of plans to reduce dependency on the statutory agency

 

How many hours per week of your agency’s time did the family require during/post* SF involvement? (* Delete as appropriate)

In my experience SF have reduced the time my agency worked with these families significantly. SF worker has the ability to form good working relationships, has a sound understanding of the concerns and the limitations of the family hence this is where the support is required.  Hence families have been supported in a way that meets their needs and understanding more effectively hence once families have made the decision to act on positive change the appropriate and consistent support is available.

 

Please comment on the impact for your agency in your view, of SF worker becoming involved with this family

 

From my point of view I have found the whole experience refreshing in that due to the locality I am able to have an informal discussion with the SF service make a simple referral once we have met the criteria (which I also feel are areas that impact on families negatively). The stronger families come armed with good support networks and extensive knowledge of services to tap into if necessary. Workers have a good understanding of how to make good working relationships with families yet are very clear with their aims and goals, they are able to challenge effectively and are drivers of positive change. Not being time limited is a huge advantage to these families

 

The introduction of Troubled Families Employment Advisors (TFEA’s) has had a very positive effect on the programme’s abilities to support families on the pathway to work and into work.

DWP TFEA Case Example

Success Story – March 2016

An ESA claimant was desperate to find work in his preferred profession of Plumbing now his mental illness had improved. He’d already done a course in this but needed to be part of a minimum of 30 jobs before moving onto the next stage. I liaised with St Leger Homes World of Work Academy, who looked into getting him on with their Plumbing team. I assisted him with his job search in the meantime & updated his CV accordingly. I encouraged him to apply for a Manager’s job at a bookmakers to keep his options open in case things didn’t work out as planned, plus I’d established he had experience in Retail Management previously. St Leger Homes came back with bad news. Fortunately though, he secured an interview at a bookmakers & was offered the position, which he started on 7/3/16. I received a ‘verbal bouquet’ of thanks from the claimant, who described me at the best Jobcentre Work Coach he’s ever had.

The specialist knowledge and time of the TFEA ensured a positive outcome for this individual.

Conclusion

What this proves is that here is a great deal of evidence to show that the Troubled Families Programme does have a positive effect on many families. Services are working far more holistically with families and continue to do so. It is inevitable that some families will struggle to continually maintain their new behaviours and some will revert back, however we endeavour to provide ongoing low level support or access to support to quickly pick up these families again where this may occur and so despite relapsing they are not back to square one so there is always some amount of improvement from their original state.

4 October 2016