Reducing Reoffending: Supporting Families, Creating Better Futures

I seem to remember hearing government encourage us to "Think Family" - what's that about? Think Family was a Social Exclusion Taskforce review of families at risk - a recognition that "parent-based family circumstances" can have a dramatic effect on a child's life chances, and that the child's needs cannot be seen in isolation from the family environment in which they live.

For families where the parent and/or child may have additional needs, children's and adult services are meant to work together to identify, assess and respond to the needs of the family in order to secure better outcomes for the children. It's all part of a notable shift in the way in which the main political parties have been framing policy developments that have an impact on children and young people; each party has either published or is due to publish most of its thinking about children in a family policy paper.