Good Idea: Volunteers help children and families stay together

Provider: Community Service Volunteers (CSV) and the London Borough
of Lewisham

Name: Parent Advocacy Service

Summary: A London borough has asked a charity to train volunteers to help families going through review child protection conferences

To divert children from care, the London Borough of Lewisham is working with the volunteering charity CSV to train volunteers to support parents during review child protection conferences.

The idea came from the local authority, which asked CSV to devlop the volunteer programme following the success of the charity's Volunteers in Child Protection service. Whereas volunteers on the earlier programme work in homes to help families come off and stay off child protection plans, Lewisham wanted families to have access to support when attending review child protection conferences.

These reviews occur every six months throughout the lifetime of a child protection plan, which can last about three years. Each review meeting may last for about four hours.

Jill Williams, business development manager at CSV's Volunteers Supporting Families service, says parents often fail to attend review meetings. "Families tend to go to their first conference, because it comes as a shock when they find out there's a possibility they're on child protection," she says. "But they don't necessarily attend well at the review meetings. The meetings are complex and if you're there because you're under scrutiny from social care, it can be quite a difficult situation to be in."

The council offers the advocacy volunteers to families to provide independent support through these meetings. The support is optional, but families that choose to take them up are matched with a trained volunteer. "They will meet up with the family before the review to explain what will happen and how it happens," says Williams.

The volunteer also joins the carers at the review meeting. "They can help the parent express themselves during the conference," says Williams. "It's not that the volunteer is on the parent's side, but having someone physically next to you is helpful."

After the review meeting, the volunteer meets the family to make sure they have understood the whole process and what they need to do next.

Volunteers have to complete two days of preparation before they are matched with a family. CSV's advocacy co-ordinator Vanessa Haruperi, who is based at Lewisham Council, says the training includes learning about the principles of advocacy, child protection, confidentiality, disclosure, safeguarding, and communications. The volunteers also have to attend review child protection conferences as observers, so that they are ready to answer any questions in the future.

Since December last year, CSV has trained 14 volunteers for the project. Two have been matched to families and are already supporting them, seven are waiting to be matched and five are waiting to observe a meeting. The approved volunteers will each support several families.

Haruperi says the volunteers have mainly been women and many are also mothers. "A few of our volunteers are interested in working in healthcare or social work, so volunteering gives them insight into the field, but some just want to support their local community," she says. "The responses so far have been really good. One parent recently told us that prior to having a volunteer supporting her, she would usually not make it through a whole conference - she would have to leave or take a break. But she was able to make it through the full conference with this support. That was definitely progress."

The project is funded until March 2014, after which Williams hopes the council will continue the work. "We are hoping to show the local authority this is something that's needed," she says. "It's something independent from the social workers, so families are able to trust them and say everything they need to say."