We recognise the most important influence in a child’s life is family. Children who grow up with safe, stable and nurturing relationships form stronger friendships, develop greater resilience, achieve more in school and are more likely to build positive relationships throughout their lives.
We are child focussed in our intent but recognise that the most effective way to help and protect children is to work alongside the whole family. Therefore strengthening families is central to our aims as we know that families have greater capacity for change when we work with them as partners. This is part of an evidence based approach known as Restorative Practice.
We aim to embed a culture across our workforce where dignity and respect is the basis for our interventions. Every member of staff will understand the principles of Restorative Practice and its ethos will underpin all of our work and align to the borough vision of ‘Forging a Future for all’.
Families Come First
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Families Come First offers a wide range of specialist multi-disciplinary supports within one team.
The team will work restoratively with families under a Child in Need, level 4 social work plan with a clear focus in building on the existing strengths within families, placing importance on relationships with children, their parents, carers and strong professional partnerships.
We provide support to families when they need it most, holding the value that children should remain living within their families where it is safe and appropriate to do so, reducing the need for a child or young person to come into local authority care.
Under the guidance of the team the Child in Need we aim to create sustainable relational and emotional change for families whilst strengthening connections for children, their parents or carers within their local communities.
The team will work with children up to the age of 17 and their families which can include providing direct support individually to parents or carers to facilitate collaborative change over an 18-week timeframe.
We provide individualised support to each family member through collaboration and draw upon a holistic, community-based approach with the aim on connecting families within their townships to create sustainable change.
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The team consists of the following practitioners:
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Team Manager: Our Managers will oversee and quality assure the work carried out in the service and provide direct supervision and support to staff.
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Advanced Social Work Practitioners: Highly skilled, experienced social workers who will be the lead worker in some families, who can support the creation of plans in partnership with families and will direct the multi-disciplinary support within the team to ensure strong outcomes are achieved.
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Social Workers: who will be the allocated worker for the family, will complete Child In Need plans and statutory visits and undertake direct relationship based work with families.
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Emotional Health & Well-Being Lead: An accredited Cognitive Behavioural Therapist who will hold responsibility for co-ordinating therapeutic plans for children and/or their parents.
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Emotional Health & Well-Being Practitioners working directly with children and families under the guidance of our lead, supporting them to recognize the impact of thoughts and feelings on behaviours.
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Intensive Family Support Workers: The most visible role in the family home. They will build restorative relationships with children & families, will undertake direct work and will be fully involved in the collaborative creation of support plans.
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Independent Domestic Violence Advisor: Can help young people and families understand what a healthy relationships looks like, focusing on risks and safety.
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Family Support Workers: Will provide parenting support and direct work agreed within the plan.
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The Money Mentor will work with families to review household finances, strengthen budgeting skills and provide debt management, DWP and housing eviction support and advice. They can also work with parents to move towards the job market.
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The Youth Mentor role will develop positive activities within the family, predominantly working with Children and Young People, working alongside children to take part in social groups, building confidence and self-esteem. The Youth Mentor will also create opportunities for families to interact through sustainable activities and draw upon local knowledge to provide information and support families to develop their own social networks in their local townships.
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Substance Misuse Practitioners will work with Adults and Children whose lives are impacted by substance use. They will develop understanding regarding the impact and reasons for substance use with a focus on harm reduction.
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Business Support: Our dedicated business support team will ensure all admin task are completed. They will also speak with families for feedback upon closure.
How we work with families:
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The team will work collaboratively with families using The Webstar, a conversation aid that focuses on the individualised views of each family member and targets the multi-disciplinary support of the team towards those needs quickly.
The Webstar encourages the practitioner to hear the voice of the child, their parent/carer and includes the Child Friendly Dudley values of children being happy, healthy and safe.
The other domains within the Webstar focus on the multi-disciplinary support of the team:
• Education
• Community Engagement
• Emotional Health & Well-Being
• Substance Misuse
• Finance
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We will create a plan of work with families upon completion of the Webstar which will detail who will work with the family, how they will help , when and where. This Plan on a Page provides the family a snapshot of what support will look like.
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Our process and criteria:
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Families Come First work closely with our colleagues in social care to ensure that children who are referred into our service and those who transition out of our teams support have a clear pathway of how transfers are undertaken. Find out more about the Transfer Process.
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The Emotional Health and Wellbeing Service:
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The Emotional Health and Well-Being (EH&WB) team offers evidence based psychological interventions to children and parents who are also presenting with common mental health difficulties and would benefit from a talking therapy.
This support is modelled on established psychological services like IAPT & CAMHS, however being part of the Families Come First provides the unique opportunity to offer flexible interventions to those who may ordinarily find it difficult to engage with community based mental health services.
The team offers 3 levels of support, ranging from low level counselling to structured forms of therapy, including Cognitive Behavioural & Parenting led therapy.
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​Levels of Therapy:
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Lv1 – offering a space to talk openly with a therapist about issues, supporting periods of instability and learning basic skills to better regulated emotions. Or providing psychoeducation to parents to help better understand their child’s behaviour
Lv2 – to offer a structured, more evidenced based therapy, where the person can work towards a goal and willing to make changes to their thoughts and / or behaviours.
Lv3 – Offered to those who are self-directed and just need low level support to access other service or self-help material.
Additional to these levels, the team also support sign posting to appropriate services and provides opens spaces for other members of the team to gain a psychological perspective of a family.
This range of therapies are provided by low intensity well-being practitioners who can support mild to moderate levels of anxiety, depression and anger through 1:1, group work or a parenting led approaches.