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Lucy Akhtar, Children, Young People and Families
Communities and Tackling PovertyWelsh Government
Family Support– Welsh Government Perspective
Outline of Presentation
•Welsh Government’s priorities
•Welsh Government’s approach to family support
•Families First and Flying Start – messages from recent evaluation
Programme for Government Commitments
• Education• 21st Century Healthcare• Supporting People• Tackling Poverty
Children's rights based approach
•Welsh Government is committed to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as an integral part of our work to improve children’s outcomes and help them to achieve their potential
•Welsh Government is committed to working towards full implementation of the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011 – duty to have due regard to the UNCRC
Approach to Family Support
• Shift to outcome focus rather than solely outputs• Whole family approach that is strengths-based• Stronger culture of assessment, identification of need,
information sharing, prevention and earlier intervention • Support for families through all levels of the continuum of
need • Develop and improve our evidence base of what works and
what does not• Greater integration of service delivery to ensure greater
economy, efficiency and effectiveness• Address wider issues (risk factors) that may interfere with
parenting capacity
Key Family Support Programmes
Significant investment by Welsh Government:
•The Integrated Family Support Service•Communities First•Families First•Flying Start•Family Information Service •Funding of Third Sector organisations through CFOG (CFDG from September 2014)
Families First
•Joint Assessment Family Framework JAFF used to assess the needs of the whole family
•A Team Around the Family TAF model that oversees and coordinates the interventions families receive
•Coherent range of strategically commissioned, time-limited, family focused services/projects linked to local identification of need - Delivered by Local Authorities and their partners
•Participation in inter-authority learning sets both nationally and locally
•Improved support for families with a disabled child
National evaluation of Families First - Year 1 report
• Independent evaluation - Ipsos MORI and Ecorys • Focus of the report - early implementation and delivery of
the programme • Draws on research with national stakeholders including
Families First practitioners• Questions around impact and effectiveness will be
addressed in later evaluation reports
Findings• Stakeholders support the design of all five key elements of the
programme• Implementation of JAFF and TAF progressing well• Positive changes in the way families are assessed and supported e.g.
early intervention, active engagement of families, greater coordination, focus on family’s strengths and on outcomes
• Improving the process of commissioning by introducing a more coherent, structured and needs-based approach to commissioning;
• Improvement in the scope and nature of the services that are commissioned by basing commissioning on locally-identified need
• Disability strand successful in protecting and maintaining services for families with a disabled child
• Learning Sets viewed as beneficial
Flying Start
•Free quality, part-time childcare for 2-3 year olds
•An enhanced Health Visiting service
•Parenting Support
•Early Language Development
Flying Start Evaluation
Independent programme of evaluation - Ipsos MORI, with support from SQW
•Qualitative report on high need families – (October 2013)
•Area case study report examining the implementation and delivery of Flying Start across all 22 local authorities (November 2013)
•An impact report based on a survey of parents using Flying Start and a comparator group (December 2013)
•A synthesis report that summarises the findings and lessons from all of these reports (January 2014)
Qualitative research with high need families
• Most families felt well supported and positive about the services they received
• The enhanced health visitor provision is key to enabling better and faster assessment of need; more effective referral and signposting; and motivating parents to take up services
• Parents report positive changes to family life – better relationships, routines and healthy eating
• Parents often said they had not realised that parenting skills could consciously be improved
• Parents reported that their children had enhanced school readiness, social skills and confidence
• Not all parents understand the benefits of FS
“The best thing I ever learnt was distraction... I still use it now on my six year old.”
Area case study synthesis report
• Many areas have now established a continuum of provision, from enhancing parenting skills and strategies amongst parents with low levels of need to providing intensive support for those facing particular challenges
• Some challenges engaging certain groups – e.g. fathers, BME parents
• Various activities identified to engage parents
Impact report
• Between June 2012 and January 2013 over 2,000 parents were surveyed about parenting, the development of their child and any services their family had used whilst bringing up their child.
• Half of the parents lived in Flying Start areas and the other half in selected comparison areas.
• Significantly more parents in Flying Start areas were aware of and reported attending parenting programmes
• 89% of parents in Flying Start areas reported that they had enough advice and support on how to look after their child and to keep them happy and healthy
Learning from the evaluation
• National Shared Learning Event – 12 December 2013
• Action Learning Sets training• 4 Regional Flying Start Learning Sets to be
developed• Delivery of training to Flying Start staff on core
positive parenting principles – pilot in Cardiff• Flying Start Parenting Guidance• Parenting Support Guidance- Overarching
Principles
“Coming here now and having Flying Start, there’s a whole world that I didn’t even know existed because I come from a small little village where there was nothing. And now they can put me in touch with anybody, I’m doing this training. Before I thought I wasn’t anything at all, I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have qualifications, I didn’t have nothing and there was no way up from there, but now there is. It’s like sunshine…I can actually have a future now.”
Lone parent, Flying Start User
