FAMILY

INTERVENTION

PROJECTS

A TOOLKIT FOR LOCAL PRACTITIONERS

Version 1

July 2007

1

CONTENTS

Introductionp 3-4

Who do Family Intervention Projects target and why?p 5

How do Family Intervention Projects work?P 6-8

The evidence for Family Intervention Projectsp 9

Step by step guide to establishing a Family Intervention p10-17

Project

Annexes

Sample Family Intervention Project worker job descriptionAnnex A

Standard referral formAnnex B

Assessment report checklistAnnex C

Sample behaviour contractAnnex D

Closure review formAnnex E

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INTRODUCTION

Family Intervention Projects (FIPs) are a tried and tested way of working with some of the most challenging and anti-social families in society. These are families whose behaviour destroys communities. They also have a complex range of issues themselves. Traditional models of service delivery have not been working, either to stop unacceptable behaviour or tackle the families’ challenges, and the result is that considerable resources are wasted. By contrast the assertive approach FIPs take to challenging unacceptable behaviour and co-ordinating the work of local services is a cost effective way of providing respite from anti-social behaviour and getting the families themselves back on track.

A handful of FIP style projects have been running for many years in places like Dundee, Manchester and Bristol. However, their approach has not been replicated. In the Respect Action Plan, launched January 2006, the Government committed to establishing a national network of FIPs. In April 2007 we announced that projects were operational in 53 local authority areas and already working with around 500 families. These projects should reach full capacity by the end of 2007,when they will be working with around 1000 families.

These are families that in the past have often been given up on by many agencies. But now we can offer them the right blend of challenge and support to become decent members of their community, and give their children the opportunity to grow up with a chance in life. Doing this will stop anti-social behaviour and deliver on a broad range of key policy priorities – tackling homelessness, delivering the Every Child Matters outcomes, ensuring neighbourhood renewal.

Tackling anti-social behaviour and its causes requires a wide ranging response across local services – based on a ‘twin track’ of support to change behaviour and enforcement action where appropriate. FIPs can be an important element of that local strategy. Therefore we believe that the person responsible for anti-social behaviour should be the key official in developing local proposals for a FIP. That person will be best placed to ensure that FIPs are targeting the right families and all local agencies are working to change their behaviour.

This toolkit, produced by the Respect Task Force, is designed to help these people and other frontline practitioners, managers, and commissioners of services by providing guidance to help develop local proposals for a FIP. It will also be of benefit to staff in the 53 areas that have established FIPs already as they develop and review their services.

We would like feedback from local practitioners on the toolkit and on issues that surface as projects become more mature. Our contact details are changing as we move across to the newly created Department for Children, Schools and Families but you can send comments to us via our website

In time we expect to produce an updated version of the toolkit. However, the advice in the toolkit is based on experience in over 50 projects and has been written by practitioners with over 10 years experience working in FIPs. Therefore we expect that it will be of immediate use to local services and should be treated as a working document.

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WHO DO FAMILY INTERVENTION PROJECTS TARGET AND WHY?

Family Intervention Projects (FIPs)are targeted at the most challenging and anti-social families. These are few in number, but can cause disproportionate disruption and damage to the communities in which they live.Previous research[1] on six broadly similar projects in the north-west showed that 70% of the families had members who had engaged in youth nuisance, 54% were associated with more general neighbour conflicts whilst 43% had committed property damage.Almost a quarter (24%) of families had members with an Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC) and 16% had members with an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO). Very early findings from the monitoring of families FIPs are working with shows that a significant percentage have members who are engaged in the criminal justice system.

In addition the families themselves typically have entrenched problems. Evidence [2] shows that:

  • Almost nine out of ten (89%) families had some form of threat to their tenancyincluding 14% who were homeless or at immediate risk of homelessness at the time of their referral.
  • Poor mental or physical health and/or substance misuse affected 80% of adults.
  • In 94% of families there were schooling concerns with at least one child.
  • A high proportion were claiming Income Support (89%) and Housing Benefit (87%).

The families targeted by FIPs will be known to, and receiving services from, a range of agencies, such as police, council community safety and anti-social behaviour teams, housing,children’s services including social care, youth offending teams, educationalwelfare, mental health services, drug and alcohol services and Jobcentre Plus. However, the range of agencies involved, the individual basis on which services are offered and the absence of a compulsion to engage with support mean that these are often ineffective.

That means that the wider community continue to experience unacceptable levels of anti-social behaviour which can destroy people’s enjoyment of their home and public space and undermines community spirit. It also means that the families themselves become socially excluded and sometimes homeless. In particular children’s physical and emotional development and educational attainment can be severely damaged. The financial cost of these failings is also significant – it is estimated that the cost of dealing with these families can be up to £250-350,000 per family per year[3].

HOW DO FAMILY INTERVENTION PROJECTS WORK?

There are different types of delivery models – outreach support to families in their own home, support in a non-secure tenancy located in the community and 24 hour support in a residential unit where the family live with project staff. In addition exactly how FIPs operate varies from place to place. However, all FIPs share distinct features. They use an assertive and persistent style of working to challenge and support problem families to address the root causes of their anti-social behaviour.Theirspecific objectives are to:

  • Stop anti-social behaviourand incidents of offending behaviour.
  • Prevent cycles of homelessness and provide sustainable routes back to settled housing for families.
  • Help achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes for children and young people, with a specific focus on:

Improving children and young people's attendance and behaviour at school, reducing the level of truancy and exclusion.

Reducing the prevalence of teenage pregnancy and tackling broader sexual health issues.

Reducing alcohol, drug and volatile substance abuse of both children and young people and their parents as well as a focus on other key public health areas such as obesity and smoking.

Reducing the number of young people not in education, employment or training.

Help to deliver the Government’s priority of halving Child Poverty by 2011, as a milestone towards eliminating it by 2020 and improving child support.

The way that FIPs work to deliver these goals can be summarised in a number of key principles which apply wherever a FIP operates. The principles should also apply to work with the most anti-social families more generally.

  • Work with the most challenging familieswho persistently perpetrate anti-social behaviour.Families suitable to work with FIPs will have one or more members who are facing enforcement action and will often be facing the risk of losing their home as a result of anti-social behaviour. The immediate priority must always be to stop the anti-social behaviourand bring respite to the local community.Working with these families can be difficult - members may be intimidating or threatening.However, FIPs must ensure that they are working with the most anti-social families in the area. Target families are also often reluctant to engage as they do not want to change their behaviour. If families are allowed to refuse offers of support or even entry to the family home behaviour will not change and children’s life chances will be affected.Refusal to engage with FIPs must not be an option open to families.
  • A ‘twin track’ of enforcement and support. Changing the behaviour of these most challenging families it is not a question of offering either support or enforcement in isolation. The proven success of FIPs is based on systematically linking enforcement and support to provide families with the motivation and opportunities to change. FIPs provide intensive, structured, support – sometimes under 24 hour a day supervision. They ensure that families get the support from both mainstream and specialist services which has often been lacking. However, this support is conditional on families accepting responsibility for their own actions, engaging with the FIP and changing their behaviour. Families must see that not doing so has significant consequences.
  • Take a whole family approach. Traditional service delivery often focuses on individuals and can be ineffective in tackling the underlying issues within families which may be causing anti-social behaviour and undermining the support offered. FIPs ensure that a whole family approach is taken. For example there are obvious links between a parent’s alcohol misuse and their inability to get children to school fed and on time. Similarly anti-social behaviour by children and young people may be addressed effectively through a course teaching the parent parenting skills. In fact improving parenting skills will nearly always be a core part of the FIP support package. There is strong evidence that parenting programmes can improve parenting skills and have lasting effects in reducing bad behaviour, even in cases where parents are initially reluctant to accept help. Support provided shouldstop anti-social behaviour in the short term and tackle household issues that may contribute to that anti-social behaviour.
  • A behaviour contract is agreed between the family and the key worker.This should set out both the changes in behaviour that are expected, and support that will be provided in order to facilitate that change. The conditions should be practical – such as children attending school regularly, appropriate use of language to staff and children or attendance at 4 pre arranged home visits per week.All members of the family should sign up to the contract. It is important that the contract is seen by both parties as a personal commitment between family and key worker about support that will be provided and behavioural change that is expected. To ensure that failure to comply has consequences for families, contracts should identify sanctions that will apply if families do not adhere to the terms. For example that further enforcement action such as an ABC will result if there are continued complaints about anti-social behaviour by a member of the family. However, sanctions need not be formal interventions. For example in residential projects a consequence of drunkenness could be an early curfew or removal of other privileges. A sense that personal behaviour - good and bad – has consequences should underpin all FIPs work with families.
  • Keyworkermust ‘grip’ the family. Families who work with FIPs will already be known to and working with services but have not been forced to engage effectively or change their unacceptable behaviour. The lead FIP key worker should use a persistent and assertive working style to ensure families stick to the agreed contract and change behaviour. For example families may need regular prompting, even collection, to ensure that they attend appointment with services. These are intensely practical projects which focus on providing a routine for those living in chaotic circumstances - getting children up and fed in the morning, clearing up, preparing meals and bed times. Families are often learning these for the first time. Families report that day to day skills such as cooking, hygiene and daily routines had often been taken for granted by other agencies. Key workers have also provided practical support like cleaning or mending appliances to make homes liveable, backed up by clear cleanliness standards checked daily. This is typical of the ‘hands on’ approach that may be needed.
  • Key worker must ‘grip’ other agencies.Families working with FIPs will be engaged with a wide range of services - we are aware of cases where up to 19 different agencies are involved. All can play an important role but this can create confusion and opportunities for families to play agencies off against each other rather than change their behaviour.The key worker must ensure that all appropriate information is shared, that the right resources are committed, that all agencies attend relevant meetings and that where families do not co-operate, appropriate sanctions are put in place.

THE EVIDENCE FOR FAMILY INTERVENTION PROJECTS

FIPs work. There is clear evidence that intensive support and supervision to the most challenging and anti-social families alongside clear sanctions where necessary, can stop entrenched anti-social behaviour and improve life chances.

In a two year evaluation of the NCH Scotland Dundee Families Project in 2001[4]59% of cases were deemed successful (i.e. the main goals were achieved). The greatest success was seen in cases taken into the core unit (83%) and dispersed tenancies (82%) with a slightly lower rate of success in outreach cases (56%). The evaluation highlighted 3 key outcomes:

  • The reduction of anti-social behaviour, including crime.
  • The avoidance of high cost options, such as eviction and children being taken into local authority care and,
  • The promotion of quality of life, both for individual families and the wider community.

SheffieldHallamUniversityevaluated 6 broadly similarprojects in the north-west[5],[6]. At the point at which they exited the project, complaints about ASB had ceased or reduced for 85% of families. In addition, for 90% of families project workers felt that either there had been no complaints to the police or the number of complaints had reduced after engaging with the project. In nine out of ten (92%) cases there was either no risk to the community or the risk had reduced by the time families exited the project.

There were also positive consequences for the families themselves. Workers reported that in four out of five cases families’ tenancies had been successfully stabilised with a similar percentage of cases also being assessed as having a reduced risk of homelessness. 53% of children showed improvement in their physical health and 40% showed improvement in their mental health after intervention. 36% of families whose children had schooling concerns showed an improvement. In 48% of cases there had been a reduction in the likelihood of family breakdown.

FIPs are a cost effective way of tackling the problems of the most challenging families. The average project costs range from around £8,000 per family per year for those receiving outreach help in their homes or living in managed properties to around £15,000 per family per year for a place in a residential core unit. In comparison where these families do not enter a FIP the cost to the taxpayer can be between £250,000 and £350,000[7] per family per year.

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STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO ESTABLISHING A FAMILY INTERVENTION PROJECT

This section of the toolkit provides a step by step guide to the processes that local authorities and their partners will need to go through in order to establish a Family Intervention Project (FIP). It is a broadly chronological summary of the process, key elementsof which are outlined in Figure 1.

Experience has shown that it is perfectly possible to move from drawing board to working with families within 6 months, although in some cases core residential accommodation may take longer to get up and running. The advice given in this guide is supported by example materials included as annexes.

Figure1.Establishing and running a Family Intervention Project.

1. ASSESS NEED
2. STRATEGIC BUY IN
3. AGREEKEY ASPECTS OF PROJECT
4. REFERRAL RECEIVED
5. REFERRAL MEETING
6. ASSESSMENT
7. ASSSESSMENT REVIEW MEETING
8. AGREE BEHAVIOUR CONTRACT WITH FAMILY
9. REVIEWS
10. CLOSING A CASE
11. MONITORINGAND EVALUATION

1. Assess need

There are no hard and fast rules about levels of need and many areas will benefit from establishing a FIP. Areas have assessed local need in a number of ways – primarily by comparing local caseloads with the referral criteria for FIPs. As a minimum, it is recommended that families must be referred to the FIP when one or more of the following criteria are met: