The way that we parent has the most critical and lasting influence on a child’s life. Every generation of parents has challenging issues to grapple with but currently, for a growing number of parents, the twin pressures of reduced family income and a cut back in support from the state is undermining their ability to provide a stable and loving home for their children . Where families are struggling to cope the impact is borne out in the disintegration of a critical part of what binds our communities together. Within the family there is an increased risk of breakdown, of child behavioural problems and of neglect, and in the wider world there is a massive drain on the public services that are left to pick up the pieces.
What we face is not an insurmountable mountain of entrenched and unsolvable problems. We know the scale of the challenge, we know what action is required of government, both local and national, and we know how to turn lives around on the ground. For many years organisations such as Action for Children have delivered services that have proven success in transforming the lives of families with significant social, health, economic and behavioural problems. Through appropriate investment and strong leadership from government we want to see that success built upon and taken even further.
Official Government figures estimate that just over 120,000 families in England are experiencing multiple problems. These problems include mental ill health, violence, money pressures and problems with drugs or alcohol. Many of the parents in these families will have been brought up in similar homes themselves. These parents are 34 times more likely to need drug treatment and eight times more likely to need treatment for alcohol abuse. Most worryingly there are child protection concerns in a third of the families.
These facts have not gone unnoticed by political leaders at the very highest level. Indeed in December 2010 the Prime Minister David Cameron made a personal commitment to turn around the lives of those troubled families by the end of this Parliament. The riots of July 2011 hit home to him the level of urgency that is required in the application of his ambition and prompted his demand for "rocket boosters" for those very efforts.
While achievable; effective and sustainable change for these 120,000 plus families will not come easy. Solutions do exist, but they require a long term vision, strong political leadership and a clear targeting of resources.
The key to success is sustained trust and support through the development of high quality professional relationships with vulnerable parents who may well have suffered in childhood themselves and often have limited or no parenting models to draw on. To break long-term cycles of suffering, families need targeted support that helps them find their own solutions without putting a label on them.
The evidence shows that intensive family support services prevent anti-social behaviour, keep children out of care and provide a cost-effective solution to service provision. They have achieved remarkable results. For example an analysis of services for families at risk of eviction due to anti-social behaviour found that 85% of complaints about antisocial behaviour either ceased or reduced to a level where the tenancy was no longer deemed to be at risk[1]. The families who were involved in anti-social behaviour had decreased from 89% to 32% and the number of families with four or more anti-social behaviour problems declined from 45% to 5%[2]. Furthermore an analysis of social return on investment made found that for every £1 invested annually in intensive family support projects, society benefits by between £7.60 and £9.20[3]. One family support service run by Action for Children that works with over 40 vulnerable families with children at risk of offending reduces the number of children going into care by more than half, saving the local authority more than £37,000 per year for every child. If life changing services such as these are cut across the UK, we calculate it will cost the UK economy £1.3 billion per year[4].
The core element to an effective family support service is the quality of the human relationships developed. Previous research and evaluations have all shown that establishing an effective professional relationship with vulnerable parents is what makes a real difference in improving outcomes for children. Yet too often this is overlooked.
We have recently undertaken research in order to better articulate what this relationship looks like, and to understand the core elements of our family support services that are critical to this success. Our research, published in September 2011, identified the core practitioner qualities, skills and knowledge required:
- A child-focused approach : practitioners must have a clear focus on the outcomes intended for children and young people. This is particularly important for practitioners who have limited or no contact with children.
- Integral to the development of good relationships, is the achievement of an effective balance of support and challenge that takes account of children, young people and family needs, service context and engagement.
- Being open, clear and direct with parents from the outset
- Demonstrating credibility and genuineness to build trust with parents: being down-to-earth and demonstrating warmth
- Empowering and enabling families to address issues themselves. A solution-focused approach helps build parents’ independence by working with them to identify issues, set goals and develop their own skills to resolve issues.
- Action-focused practice : working with parents to prioritise and resolve issues
- Practitioners’ ability to interact positively with children and young people break down barriers , putting parents at ease
- Facilitating parents’ understanding : help parents to understand terminology, jargon or actions needed in a way that is not patronising
Practitioners’ ability to develop effective relationships with vulnerable parents is directly influenced by the organisation in which they operate. Key organisational qualities such as a strong management commitment, the effective use of supervision and the ability to provide flexible, needs-led delivery are all essential.
The voluntary sector is in a unique position, we have the skills to engage service users in support, the autonomy to trial new ways of working, and the ability to innovate and provide flexible support. By having a clear organisational focus on supporting staff to develop, enhance and deliver these core relationship skills, there is the opportunity to build further on the expertise of the workforce and maximise the outcomes that are being achieved for service users. The research has developed resources (the skills and organisational frameworks) that provide organisations and professionals with tools to support the development and delivery of an effective professional relationship, and to help demonstrate how these are being achieved in everyday practice.
In conclusion, we welcome the current high profile given to family policy, but want to ensure progress is maintained once the political focus has shifted. Policy makers have failed so far. During the lifetime of a 21 year-old, there have been over 400 different policy initiatives, with each one lasting a little over two years[5].
The challenge now is to embed sustainability and investment for the long-term. This is not about reinventing the wheel, or an everlasting quest for new solutions. It is about securing investment in staff and organisations which are equipped to work in the most complex of circumstances and able to address entrenched problems. Policy needs to start valuing the things that matter.
We would urge that the developing the confidence of adults to undertake good quality parenting is a key block in the building of community capacity. In a time of financial cuts, it is short-sighted and a financial own goal not to recognise that by intervening to support parents at an early stage, we can help prevent young people from getting trapped in the same cycle of deprivation that have trapped their parents and grandparents.
Solving the complex problems facing the most deprived children requires a level of long-term commitment that can only be achieved by cross-party consensus and a willingness to take an agenda forward over a generation.
[1]Anti-social Behaviour Intensive Family Support Projects: an evaluation of six pioneering
projects, Sheffield Hallam University (2006)
[2]ASB Family Intervention Projects – Monitoring and Evaluation, National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) 2010
[3] Backing the Future: why investing in children is good for us all, New Economics Foundation (nef), Action for Children (2009)
[4]New Philanthropy Capital used the SROI models developed by the New Economics Foundation (nef) to provide figures on Action for Children’s East Dunbartonshire Family Service on the success of the programme in preventing children from going into care. This figure takes into account the savings of £0.8bn the government would make from not providing family support services to all children in the UK at risk of going into care. However, cutting these services would be a false economy, as many more children would be taken into care, at a cost of £2.1bn. This gives a net cost of £1.3bn (£2.1bn - £0.8bn)
[5] As Long As It Take: a new politics for children, Action for Children (2009)
