Vulnerable Families

Thursday 9th February 2012, Grand Connaught Rooms - London, 08:45 - 16:10

Working in Partnership to Improve the Outcomes for Families with Multiple Problems

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Overview

The coalition government has set out its ambition to try to turn around the lives of every troubled family in the country, and create a better future for their children. There are around 120,000 families in England who have complex social, health and economic problems. Statistics published by the Department for Education show that the cost to local services is up to £330,000 per family per year. The coalition government has demonstrated its commitment to tackling families' complex issues through the National Campaign for Families with Multiple Problems. The campaign aims to address disadvantaged families’ multiple social problems.

Innovative approaches to funding include giving local authorities new freedoms to pool budgets to provide flexible and responsive solutions for vulnerable families. New funding will also be given to Local Authorities through Early Intervention Grants. The Department for Work & Pensions has announced a £200 million European Social Fund to help families overcome barriers to employment. The provision will operate on a payment-by-results basis, rewarding providers for helping move families into work. Furthermore Community Budgets were launched in April 2011 in 28 local authorities. Community Budgets aim to remove financial and legal barriers, in order to enable multi-agency local services to develop partnerships working with troubled families. 16 of the 28 community budget pilots were for families with complex needs from April 2011.

Government, businesses, communities and voluntary organisation working together will be central to this campaign in order to support and provide the most troubled families with focused and targeted interventions. Local communities will trial innovative new approaches to providing tailored support to families with complex problems, providing personalised and holistic support and creating pathways to sustained employment and stable futures. Graham Allen's review on Early Intervention highlighted the importance of intervening before social problems become established - this will be central to breaking the cycle of intractable inter-generational problems.

Agenda

This timely and informative forum will provide delegates with an understanding of the government’s vision for turning around the lives of families with multiple problems, and will offer best-practice case studies for providing targeted and responsive services to address families’ multiple social, economic and health problems.

08:45	Registration and Coffee
09:30	Chair’s Welcome Address Baroness Beverley Hughes, Former Minister of State for Children, Schools and Families (CONFIRMED)
09:40	Helping Families with Multiple Problems Overcome Barriers to Employment The government's vision for supporting families into work £200m of European Social Fund – How will this be distributed? Who is the provision for? Working in partnership between private, community and voluntary organisations Ensuring providers and local authorities work together to identify specific local needs, explore local opportunities and to ensure that bids are appropriate to the area Support to reduce social and economic isolation Addressing house and health related barriers Payment by results – improving results in helping families into employment Juliet Mountford, Director, Troubled Families Team, Department for Communities and Local Government (CONFIRMED)
10:00	Addressing the Needs of the Most Vulnerable Children and Families Local authorities role in funding home-based family support programmes Family Action’s model of family support Protecting children by supporting vulnerable parents Preparing families for financial independence Creating a pathway out of family support for parents and children Tackling child poverty and financial inclusion Delivering family intervention projects Helen Dent CBE, Chief Executive, Family Action (CONFIRMED)
10:20	Questions and Answers Session
10:40	Coffee Break and Networking
11:05	Working in Partnership to Improve Family Intervention Services Best practice for providing intensive support for families with multiple problems, including family intervention projects and Multi Systemic Therapy Bringing local agencies together to support families with complex needs Encouraging families to play an active role in shaping the services they receive Commissioning of services to improve outcomes for families and achieve cost savings Kim Bromley-Derry, Chief Executive, London Borough of Newham and Chair, National Family Intervention Strategy Board (CONFIRMED)
11:25	A Whole Family Approach to Challenge Parental Substance Misuse Supporting families where there is parental substance misuse Discussing family case studies Details about the whole family intervention (M-PACT) Achieving outcomes for adults and children for improved health and wellbeing Encouraging partnership working with other community and voluntary agencies Emma Cox, Project Manager, M-PACT, Families Plus, Action on Addiction and Jo Adams, Interim Head of Service, Families Plus, Action on Addiction (CONFIRMED)
11:45	Case Study: The Embrace Model - Working with Alcohol, Domestic Abuse and Families How services can intervene earlier leading to minimizing the impact of parental issues on the health and well being of the children Whole service systems change model easily integrated within practice Developing policies, procedures and protocols for safe practice Increasing identification of domestic abuse and child protection when alcohol is an issue Improving partnership working by demystifying services roles and responsibilities in locality Embracing model outcomes grid for client evaluation Protective parenting Christine Toft, Alcohol, Domestic Abuse and Families, Alcohol Concern (CONFIRMED)
12:05	Questions and Answers Session
12:25	Lunch and Networking
13:25	Family Interventions for Substance Misuse - Redesigning an Integrated System for Adults and Young People Essex DAAT's Department for Education exemplar project Developing targeted and timely interventions with families where substance misuse affects parenting capacity Re-designing services to reduce the number of children being referred to Children Looked After services Target group criteria Multi-agency working to deliver rehabilitation services - working with housing and employment organisations Ben Hughes, Strategic Manager, Essex Drug and Alcohol Action Team (CONFIRMED)
13:45	Effective Implementation of Evidence Based Early Intervention Programmes to Target and Support Outcomes for Children and Families Conduct disorder in children is prevalent and can lead to multiple poor adult outcomes Research suggests that evidence informed early intervention can mitigate the effects of conduct disorder, especially if implemented well Effective Implementation is critical to the success of early intervention Core components of effective implementation include: identification, engagement, staff, fidelity monitoring and the organisational context Elena Rosa Brown, Researcher, Children and Young Peoples Programme, Centre for Mental Health (CONFIRMED)
14:05	Questions and Answers Session
14:25	Coffee Break and Networking
14:50	Supporting and Accommodating Vulnerable Young Families Supporting the housing needs of vulnerable young parents New learning and best practice in relation to supporting families which include vulnerable young women and couples Working in partnership to deliver targeted support Julie Manton, Project Officer, and Michelle Jordan, Young Parents Support Worker,Young Parents Housing Team, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council (CONFIRMED)
15:10	Supporting the Workforce to Tackle Families with Multiple Problems - Lessons from Children's Services Principles of team working with families Skills needs of staff Developing joint working practices Integrated working - a new support programme Sir Paul Ennals, Chair, Children's Workforce Development Council (CONFIRMED)
15:30	The Swindon Life Project: Working in Partnership to Improve Outcomes for Families with Chronic Needs Focusing on families with chronic and multiple needs who are intensive users of public services and resources Supporting families to build the capacity to change their lives The role of Life HQ – A Community Interest Company Building a truly integrated service for all families Providing greater chances for long term sustainable outcomes in health, education, future prospects and stability for families Ceri Willmott, Managing Partner, Life HQ, Swindon Borough Council (CONFIRMED)
15:50	Questions and Answers Session
16:10	Chair's Summary and Close

*programme subject to change without notice

Audience

Delegates will include social workers, social services directors, child protection managers, family mentoring managers, head teachers, employment engagement teams, housing service providers, inclusion services, youth offending teams, community safety teams and community health teams and will be drawn from central government, local authorities, education, criminal justice, health sector, academia and third sector organisations.