The issue
Fairfield is a large metropolitan borough with significant income disparities across the local area and some families experience high levels of deprivation. A recent rise in referrals from health providers and primary schools for parenting support led to the Local Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP) conducting a review to understand the reasons for this increase.
The review, coordinated by the LSCP business unit, included:
- Local service mapping, including a multi-agency review of referrals, to understand what was available for parents and where this was being delivered; what support was provided prior to referrals; which families were being referred and by whom; which families were attending; and whether families were completing the intervention. They also used a waiting well strategy to understand waiting times and analyse support provided to families while awaiting services.
- Local multi-agency workforce mapping, including an audit of training levels and workforce skills to identify training needs in delivering parenting interventions, and to better understand how Early Carer Social Workers were being supported to engage with diverse families.
- Local stakeholder mapping and engagement, including roundtable sessions with multi-agency practitioners to build and strengthen collaboration across the local system, including roundtables with partnership and practice supervisors, and coffee sessions with parents in different community locations to gain feedback from families and review their experience and accessibility of interventions.
The findings
Parenting support and interventions were primarily led by the local authority. A more coordinated approach to practice and commissioning across multiple agencies would enhance their effectiveness.
Awareness of available support and how to access it was limited among some multi agency professionals and the public, leading to delays in providing the right support to parents at the right time.
A variety of parenting programmes were available but their utilisation varied. Analysis of available data indicated that reach varied across communities, with some minoritised populations being underserved. Analysis of service audit and feedback from parents showed that knowledge, stigma and programme characteristics, such as time and delivery location, were barriers for fathers. Lack of father-inclusive practice from service providers was also identified as a barrier to fathers’ engagement. Language barriers were identified as a key barrier for minority parents engaging in support, with families expressing the need to integrate cultural differences into provision.
Multi-agency workforce development presented an opportunity to enhance consistency in language, practice approaches, and referrals to programmes, supporting a more cohesive system-wide approach to practice.
A gap in information sharing between General Practitioners and Children’s Services meant that mental health support for parents was not always identified or understood on a multi-agency level. This gap impacted the effectiveness of multi-agency support plans for the child.
The Family Help team identified an increase in the numbers of referrals linked to parenting stress, especially where parents were experiencing challenges with their child’s development, and in the context of poverty, poor mental health and social isolation.
The review identified the need for targeted parenting support to address the challenges faced by families with young children.
The action
The first step taken by Fairfield’s LSCP was to collaborate to develop a coordinated response, agreeing a set of joint values and mission with clear aims and desired outcomes. This was supported by an engaged and committed elected member and driven forwards by a part-time project lead funded jointly by the partnership.
Together they designed the Thriving Families programme, a flexible, tiered model of support. The goal was to deliver holistic, multi-agency Family Help support to help empower parents, enhance children’s outcomes and reduce the need for statutory interventions.
The local offer included:
- Universal access to parenting workshops delivered regularly in Family Hubs located in the most disadvantaged wards, focussed on positive parenting strategies, communication and child development.
- Targeted support offering evidence-based group-based interventions for families with identified challenges such as child behavioural issues and parenting stress
- Intensive evidence-based intervention offering one-to-one sessions with appropriately qualified staff (likely with level QCF 6/7 qualifications) to families needing bespoke support (such as navigating family conflict or addressing behavioural concerns), and supporting onward referal into more specialist interventions, such as referring families to specialist parent-infant relationship teams, where indicated.
Fairfield’s LSCP engaged all partners from the outset, with schools, health visitors and voluntary, community and faith organisations co-designing services alongside local families and providing venues for delivery of interventions, consultations and workshops. Local families contributed to designing information to share with parents and practitioners to raise awareness of the support available. Early and sustained publicity was key to the model’s outcomes. Thriving Families was delivered by a multi-agency team including Early Help practitioners, CAMHS workers for mental health support, volunteer parent peer supporters and interpreters to ensure inclusivity for families with English as an additional language. Partners worked together to review, update and embed referral pathways across the partnership to promote access to support. The partnership sought to work with existing community networks and structures to promote positive perceptions of available services by offering outreach ‘taster’ sessions, representing the Thriving Families offer, in community settings such as religious spaces and groups.
A multi-agency panel received referrals supporting interdisciplinary discussion and facilitating families journeys into effective support. A task and finish group worked together to improve information sharing with GPs with a focus on how parental mental health is understood and supported, in collaboration with the Integrated Care Board. Stronger collaboration and shared understanding across the local partnership supported improvements in recruitment and retention onto available parenting programmes.
The model was supported by investment in workforce development across the partnership, with practitioners being trained in and supported to refer to a range of evidence-based interventions and provided with ongoing supervision and dedicated time to access technical assistance support and participate in communities of practice to embed learning.
A virtual team hub allowed stronger interagency communication and coordination of workforce training, intervention monitoring and feedback across teams and settings to promote continuous improvement. Staff were able to easily access a repository of research and practice evidence and guidance; coordinate feedback from families; access bite-size refresher training; and seek consultation from specialist practitioners.
This included the development of some recorded presentations in a variety of community languages to support local practitioners and parents to easily access information and advice to support navigation across the local offer.