Volunteer work cuts care cases
David Mellen
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
As care referrals rise nationally, Nottingham's use of family support volunteers is reducing numbers.
National economic circumstances and the reduction of central government grants to local authorities is a challenge to us all.
However, challenges also create opportunities - to find new ways to maintain service provision and respond locally to the national trend of more children being taken into care; to think creatively about the way we do things; and to explore new ways of working with partners and our communities.
Early intervention is not a new concept, but perhaps it is one more of us should be revisiting, especially now that the onus is directly on local government to employ decreasing resources more effectively, reduce costs and deliver better outcomes for citizens.
Early intervention
For Nottingham City Council, early intervention is seen as an important principle in all that we do.
By stepping in early, we can help reduce the flow of children entering the care system in the first place, as well as achieving short- and long-term savings, and better outcomes for our young people and their families.
A little over a year ago, we began working with Safe Families for Children, a national, faith-based charity, whose role is to provide early intervention support to families in crisis using volunteers to support them in the very early stages of their need (see below).
Councils are increasingly valuing the contribution that faith-based groups make in our communities and as we realise we can no longer do everything that we once did - it is partnerships like this that can offer the way forward.
Safe Families were able to provide families with respite care, befriending and mentoring, and the resources they needed to cope with difficult challenges that may previously have led to the break-up of their family.
After the first 12 months, we conducted a full audit of the service, which revealed some compelling results.
A review of cases from July 2015 to July 2016, where Safe Families has been involved, shows that an extra 35 children would have been accommodated in emergency short-term care if they had not been supported through volunteer intervention.
In almost 80 per cent of cases, this would have been for a short period of time due to temporary parental incapacity.
In the remaining 20 per cent of cases, it is likely the children would have entered care for a longer period, because the family lacked the support networks to cope with the circumstances they faced.
In both groups, the intervention of Safe Families prevented the children from being accommodated.
By avoiding 35 additional admissions into emergency short-term care, Safe Families has reduced the flow of children into care by 12 per cent over 12 months.
We have seen a fall in the number of children who have needed to come into emergency short-term care from a predicted 301 to 266 (see graphic).
Knock-on effects
When families are supported by Safe Families as an alternative to care, there are also knock-on beneficial effects.
Families are less likely to request short-term care accommodation in the future if they have received support from Safe Families.
Those who have accessed short-term care as a means of dealing with family crises can become desensitised to the prospect of their children spending time in the care system, so are more likely to request intervention as a means of support in dealing with a future crisis.
It is highly likely therefore that those children who receive hosting support from Safe Families will avoid repeated short stay periods in care.
We look forward to continuing this innovative partnership and to the support that it can give families who are struggling.
- By councillor David Mellen, early intervention and early years portfolio holder, Nottingham City Council
ABOUT SAFE FAMILIES FOR CHILDREN
Established in the UK in 2013, Safe Families for Children provides vulnerable families whose children are on the edge of care with intensive support to tackle problems to reduce the need for care proceedings.
It offers three types of support: respite care for children to live at home for short periods, friendship for the main carer, and resources to help make the family home a healthier environment for children.
It works with 21 local authorities, linking them with 418 churches across the country. Authorities receive the programme free for the first year, but are then expected to make an annual contribution to costs.
In addition to Nottingham, it works with Darlington, Gateshead, Middlesbrough, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, North Tyneside and Sunderland, Manchester, Salford, Wigan, Trafford, Liverpool, Wirral, Knowsley, Derby, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Sandwell, Southampton and Walsall councils.
It currently has 2,000 volunteers who work alongside families for up to six months, but aims to train 100,000 over the next decade.
An evaluation by the Dartington Social Research Unit on Safe Families' work found there was no evidence that the programme caused children any harm, primary carers valued the support provided and that there is "some indication" of benefits for improved parental mental health.