Malachi Community Trust

ACTION

Malachi Community Trust is a community interest company that goes into schools to deliver a support programme that includes producing musical dramas to identify children whose behaviour could put them at risk of developing offending problems.

It was selected as one of 25 services to take part in Catch22's Realising Ambition programme, which aims to reduce youth offending through investing in early intervention.

Its services had already been operating in schools in Birmingham for 20 years, so the £376,000 Realising Ambition funding went into replicating its services in Somerset, where it had interest from a number of schools. Schools are offered the programme free initially, but then pay for it through pupil premium funding. Now Malachi runs in 104 schools.

The team is made up of 60 frontline counselling staff, who offer universal and targeted therapeutic support for pupils in primary and secondary schools. The programme has three parts: a universal drama exercise, a parenting course, and one-to-one counselling sessions. Most schools buy in the whole package, but some will want just one or two elements.

Initially, staff go into schools and work with a whole year group over one term on an "early identification musical drama production", explains Laura Evans, Malachi chief executive. The pupils all take part in one of six musicals, all written by Malachi, which address different family-related issues, including transitioning to secondary schools, friendships, arranged marriages and conflict within the family.

"We go into class every week, where the pupils practice songs," says Evans. "We also do circle time, where we use characters in the show they're working on to explore issues that go on for children and their families."

Children who have problems at home may present difficult behaviours at school, and this can be picked up in these sorts of activities, Evans says: "All we're noticing are those behaviours and not necessarily unpicking the reasons behind them."

Each child completes a strengths and difficulties questionnaire at the end of the term, which Malachi uses to help identify children that would benefit from targeted work.   

The targeted interventions are based on identifying and addressing underlying family issues that could be factors in a child experiencing problems and which could put them at risk of offending. Issues that typically arise include money problems, alcohol abuse, domestic violence, parental and child mental health, and antisocial behaviour.

There are two types of targeted work: a parent group programme and one-to-one intensive support.

Evans says many of the children and families may have already experienced interventions from other agencies, so overcoming any negative preconceptions they may have is vital.

"They may have had interactions with social services, they might have had a wealth of interventions that they'd tried and failed," Evans explains. "Often, they just don't want to know.

"We find if we flood a school in the first term with a real feel-good show, and we do an after-school club, we get to know parents by the time our service filters into the more targeted stuff."

The first targeted intervention is one-to-one sessions with the child, their parents or carers, and with the whole family. These are led by workers trained in several counselling models, who aim to understand the family dynamics in order to break inter-generational problems.

Malachi also offers a targeted, 10- to 12-week parenting programme that is delivered in small groups and aims to identify and help solve the reasons behind the core problems that are contributing to the families, difficulties. "We do exercises about how the past is impacting on the now, what control we've got over that and what we want to change," Evans adds.

Funding for all three programmes ended last year, but Evans says Malachi's early intervention approach is continuing to gain interest in schools.

"We're interested in the emotional wellbeing of children that have difficult starts and that go on to develop mental health issues, and if we can support the family to provide something more stable and emotionally intelligent, where children can talk with their families about feelings, emotions and anxieties," Evans says.

"We want to break inter-generational cycles and minimise the likelihood of those children developing their own mental health issues and repeating patterns that have been set over generations."

IMPACT

Malachi's group parent programme was selected as one of three in Catch 22's Realising Ambition programme to go through a randomised control trial, the results from which will be available next year.

The Centre for Analysis of Youth transactions evaluated the trust's services in Birmingham. It concluded that Malachi's services are well targeted to helping children develop socially and emotionally.

Attendance data for children in four schools showed "significant" improvements after the intervention. They had reduced stress levels and improved contact with their parents.

Parents reported to researchers that they felt supported by Malachi's staff, that their parenting skills had improved, and that family relationships had improved.


This practice example is part of CYP Now's special report on preventing youth offending. Click here for more