Integrated Family Support Service Update for Partnerships

April 2010

Background

As part of the Communication Strategy for IFSS it was decided that a quarterly update report will be circulated to all partnerships whose field of work may be affected by IFSS. The IFSS Delivery Team ask that these reports be taken as information reports at your next partnership meeting. Should you need any further information about the IFSS, please contact Tricia Jones on 729785 / or the IFSS Senior Administrator, Sandra Goring on 298734 / who will be able to put you in contact with a member of the IFSS Delivery Team.

Over the past 3 years the WAG Children’s Health & Social Services Directorate has led on a consultation process focused on improving integrative care for families. In response to concerns expressed across Wales, the new Integrated Family Support initiative was developed. The consultation process revealed the widespread concern that Health and Social Care for adults and Health and Social Care for children were defined and delivered in isolation from each other. This mitigated against effective interventions with families where the additional needs of parents impacted on the care of the children.

The powers and duties of local authorities in relation to children who are in need and looked after by them, are set out in the Children Act 1989 and a raft of regulations and guidance made under that and subsequent Acts. These set out local authorities’ and their partners’ responsibilities in relation to safeguarding the welfare of children and young people and general duties under section 17 to support children and families in need. In relation to looked after children they set out care planning, placement and case review procedures in order to ensure local authorities are acting as good corporate parents to safeguard and enable children to achieve their potential in life.

Local authorities, Local Health Boards (LHBs) and their partners must have regard tothese principal duties when operating IFSS. Local authorities must also ensure thattheir responsibilities for and in relation to child care, child protection and casemanagement responsibility remain with the referring case worker in the localauthority child care team. Similarly case management responsibility for ongoingcasework with adult members of the family shall be retained by the relevant adultservice. The IFS Team will be a rich resource to the service and will be activepartners in delivering improved outcomes for children and their families.

Pioneers will have a designated status in law to allow them to operate their child andfamily service in a different way that enables referrals to the IFST from an appointeddate. The intention is that a suite of regulations and guidance will be in place by theimplementation date in September 2010 to allow pioneer areas to effect the newarrangements.

The IFS serviceis designed to draw together all the relevant professional expertise from adults and children’s services tointervene with high risk and high need families where parenting capacity is compromised by substance misuse. This expertise combines to inform an intensive intervention which is delivered intensively, up to 80 hours over 4 to 6 weeks, including evenings and weekends to ensure maximum family engagement. It is also expected that IFSS will act as an engine for system change in family support services both in practice and organisational culture.

Wrexham IFSS

Wrexham Local Authority is one of three in Wales in receipt of the funding for the next three years to develop an IFSS. The other two sites are Newport, Merthyr and Rhondda Cynon Taff as a consortium. The Wrexham IFS team will be based in Abbey Road South in the Wrexham Industrial Estate. The new team sits in the Children and Young People Service in the Prevention and Inclusion Department. In addition to the Team Manager, the team will comprise the following practitioners who will each work with all members of the family:

Intervention Workers:

  • Consultant Social Worker
  • Health Visitor
  • Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN)
  • Adult Substance Misuse Worker
  • 2 x Childcare Social Workers
  • Parenting Worker

Supporting the Intervention Workers there will also be

  • 2 x Family Aide Workers
  • 2 x Administrative Workers
  • Part-time Performance Officer

The term ‘IFSS’ is used to describe not only the intense work of the IFSS Team, but also the other services engaged by the Team to support the family during the intervention and also the ongoing service delivered to IFSS families afterwards, all of which will have been significantly affected by the IFSS intervention.

‘Go Live’ Date

A letter addressed to the Chief Executives of all Pioneer Local Authorities and Local Health Boards is expected from WAG later this week, stating that owing to recruitment difficulties across the Pioneer areas the agreed time line for the IFS Teams to ‘go-live’ has been postponed until September 1st 2010.

The Role of Integrated Family Support Board (IFSB)

The multi-agency strategic IFSB meets six weekly, chaired by Clare Field, Strategic and Performance Director for Children and Young People’s Services. Whereas the IFSS Team, as one individual team, can only do so much in changing the way family support services are delivered, it is the multi-agency governing body, the IFSB which has a much wider remit, which is seen as the ‘Engine for Change’. The roles and responsibilities of the Board will be prescribed by WAG but at the time of writing, have not yet been published. The Wag Central IFSS Implementation Team will provide training for the Wrexham IFSB in early July to ensure their role is fully understood. The IFSB will have statutory powers to enable the changes needed in the children’s and adults’ service environment in order for IFSS to be introduced and to succeed, are actioned.

This will involve

  • Prioritising services for IFSS families in terms of availability and speed of access
  • Enabling the work of IFSS to dovetail as effectively as possible with the services in other parts of the family support domain
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of the IFSS Team and the changes brought about by its introduction in order to inform future service planning

Recruitment

To date, the IFSS Delivery Team has recruited a senior admin assistant, a health visitor, a substance misuse worker and a children’s social worker. The adverts are out currently for the Team Manager, the CPN and the Family Aides. Adverts for the consultant social worker, the parenting worker and the other admin worker will be advertised shortly.

Consultation & Brokerage

An important role of the professionals within the IFSS will be to provide consultation with professionals concerned about families. Each IFSS team member will have links back into their host agencies and be in a position to assist in relation to care pathways. The IFSS team can act as a broker where barriers in the system are identified, assisting families in accessing the right service at the right time.

Wider Learning, Training & Secondments

The IFS Team members will deliver accredited training courses to the wider work force and provide a platform for learning through secondments and placements within the team. This process will begin in early 2011.

Training

Trainers from the WAG Central IFSS Implementation Team will be visiting Wrexham to deliver training on Motivational Interviewing, Solution Focussed Thinking and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. The initial training in July and August this year will be for the members of the IFS Team but in early 2011, training in these approaches will start to be made available to teams which are also working with IFSS families. All training provided for and by IFSS is accredited. Over the next year, IFSS members will also be receiving training in providing consultation, conducting supervision and delivering training to practitioners based in children’s and adult services.

Outcome Measures for IFSS

A Wrexham IFSS Outcomes Group advises on the outcomes which should be used to determine whether IFSS has been good for families, good for service delivery, good for workforce development and good value for money. This group links to a task and finish group involving all pioneer areas, ensuring consistency in outcomes measurement. The IFSS will be monitored closely in all areas to judge their impact on families and on services. In addition to this, there will be an evaluation of IFSS across all 3 pioneer authorities over the next 3 years commissioned by WAG.

Policies and Procedures for IFSS

It is anticipated that the completion of revised Policies and Procedures for Safeguarding and Support and subsequently the Policies and Procedures for IFSS will be completed by the end of May, along with the project Plan for IFSS and the Risk Register for the operational phase. All the above will be taken to the IFSB for comment and approval.

The IFSS Delivery Team

The Delivery Team is a multi-agency team working hard to bring in the new IFS Team and Service.

They comprise:

Clare Field (Strategic Director for Children and Young People)

Susan Evans (Head of Service for Children and Families Inclusion and IFSS Project Lead)

Francine Salem (Head of Service for Safeguarding)

Tricia Jones (TAC & Parenting Coordinator)

Sue Aston (NHS Manager of Community Health

Godfrey Hayes (NHS Manager for Adult Drug and Alcohol Services)

Chris Pearson (Head of Service for Adult Services)

The Delivery Team work closely with the WAG Central IFSS Implementation Team to ensure that IFSS is introduced as was intended by the Welsh Assembly. The Delivery Team have drawn up a ‘Vision Strategy’ for IFSS, underlining the main aims and principles of the initiative. A summary of the vision for IFSS is provided below.

Vision for IFSB

With the right people on the Board, continuity in membership and a good understanding of the statutory powers invested in it, the Integrated Family Support Board has the opportunity to be an ‘Engine for Change’ in the domain of Family Support Services. Working in accordance with the WAG guidelines for the Board, members will embrace fully their responsibility to prioritise services for the most vulnerable families and to implement the legislative changes made by WAG in order for local changes to take place. The Board will be fully supported by the Wrexham IFSS Delivery Team and the WAG IFSS Implementation Team in order that they are informed about all aspects of the extensive role of the IFSB.

Vision for IFSS

IFSS will be a different kind of team, working in a different way with families, with other services and with the Welsh Assembly Government. A different approach to families and more appropriate service provision will bring about improved outcomes as a result of a new sense of motivation to change. Successes will be sustained by families.

Improved joint working arrangements and workforce development opportunities with other services working with the same families will bring about an improvement in skills across the wider children’s and adults’ workforce, increased continuity of provision and sustained progress for families. IFSS will also improve the career structure for social workers.

The introduction of IFSS will enable wider family support service improvements to be made during the next 3 years and Wrexham will take an active role in this process.

Throughout the pioneer phase of IFSS and beyond, Wrexham will strive to ensure that, in the development of family support services, effectiveness and efficiency are promoted through

  • Providing a clear steer
  • Robust project management
  • Excellent communication between all stakeholders
  • Effective forward planning

Conclusion
As one of the three pioneers, Wrexham has a rare opportunity to influence the direction of legislative change that will transform the way in which services are delivered; it also enables us to apply new approaches which evidence shows, will make a decisive difference to the lives of children and families with complex needs.

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