Joint Commissioning Group

FIP Plus (Complex and Difficult Families Project) Report - May 2012

  1. Introduction

In March 2012, the Joint Commissioning Group agreed to fund a Whole Family Team within the Sunderland Youth Offending Service (YOS) structure for twelve months and the scoping of the project. The Whole Family Team will work alongside the Family Intervention Project (FIP) Team and build upon the excellent practice developed by them over the last three years as well as:

  • Building on the strong partnership arrangements in place in Sunderland to reduce the number of young people coming into care and custody by increasing the skills and capacity of those who care for them
  • Taking a multi-agency approach by working closely with Health Housing and Adult Services, Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust, third-sector commissioned partners and volunteers
  • Improving the outcomes of these families and improving the life chances of their young people by reducing the risk of harm and preventing them from offending
  • Enhancing the Phoenix project - a pioneering partnership between Sunderland Youth Offending Service and the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service - and carrying out fire and home surveys
  • Training all staff working within the project to be Health Champions and incorporating health advocates into the project
  • Undertaking health assessments on the families and referring them to CAMHS when appropriate
  • Working closely with Northumbria Probation Service to address offending behaviour and patterns within families to better understand family dynamics.
  1. Links to the Troubled Families

In tune with the wider Troubled Families Initiative, FIP Plus will provide a coordinated intervention and an integrated approach to supporting the City’s most disadvantaged and costly families. It will work with partners across the City Council and its third sector commissioned services to seek out new and innovative ways of agencies working together and providing or transforming public services.

A payment by results model has been developed for FIP Plus. In order to ensure that the positive outcomes that the project achieves for local families are captured, a comprehensive tracking and outcome measurement system has been devised by Angela Steward, project consultant, Laura Johnstone and the team. This comprises:

  1. A robust nine-point outcome tool to capture baseline entry data and the positive outcomes achieved and journey travelled by the family when they exit the project. Aside from capturing data on:
  • Engagement/Maintaining Engagement
  • Parenting/Family Behaviours and Relationships
  • Life Skills, Life Styles and Living Conditions
  • Health
  • Mental Health and Coping Abilities
  • Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour
  • Drug and Alcohol Misuse/Addictions
  • Education and Training
  • Income and Employment.

This tool has a column containing the national and local Troubled Families criteria. We had also hoped to include the Health and Wellbeing Board Outcomes but these are not yet complete. However, we are confident that sufficient baseline data will be collected relating to ‘Health’; ‘Mental Health and Coping Abilities’ and Drug and Alcohol Misuse/Addictions’ to enable us to still provide data as to the HWB outcomes achieved by the FIP Plus families.

  1. A Troubled Families Eligibility Checklist so that we can establish which of the families are part of the 805 troubled family cohort.
  2. A document showing interventions accessed by the family before and during the project. This will provide valuable data both for families who would not previously engage with services as well as for those who were clogging up services and not moving forward.
  1. Scoping Event

A scoping event was held in April 2012 and led by Angela Steward and Dorothy George, project consultants and the Think Family Co-ordinator. In attendance were the FIP Operational Manager, the Safer Communities Officer, the Hidden Harm Co-ordinator, the Troubled Families Initiative consultant and colleagues from Northumbria Probation Service, YDAP, NERAF, NECA, Lifeline, Counted4 and Fushia

At this event, the attendees discussed:

  • The current good practice, which will be incorporated into this project to increase its chances of success
  • The tool offered to the Integrated Offender Management Unit to identify families from the high crime-causing cohort for the project
  • The nine-point outcome measurement tool detailed above
  • Their hopes and fears for the project
  • What they can offer the project
  • The importance of FIP Plus aligning with the Troubled Families Initiativeand other family work.
  1. Timeline

Following this meeting, an initial timeline for the project was drafted:

Quarter 1 2012

  • Three new SWITCH project workers (2 FTE posts) to be inducted into the existing team of four (3 FTE posts)
  • TheIntegrated Offender ManagementUnit to provide details of 15 families from the high crime-causing cohort (10 families and a fallback of 5 if some refuse to engage or disengage later)
  • Workers to engage with new families, assess their needs, collect baseline data and begin intensive work with them.
  • Outcome tool training to be rolled out to staff and outcome tool guidance manual completed
  • Think Family Co-ordinator, Project Consultant and PCT Commissioning Manager to meet to ensure that the outcomes of this project match those of the Health and Wellbeing Board
  • Think Family Co-ordinator to ensure that the outcomes of this project match those of the Troubled Families Initiative.

Quarter 2 2012

  • Work with families well underway
  • FIP Team to complete Health Champions training.
  • Work begins to incorporate health advocates into the project.

October 2012

  • Mid-term project evaluation completed.

March 2013

  • Final project evaluation completed.
  1. Recommendation

The Group are asked to note this information and to make appropriaterecommendations.

Laura Johnstone

Think Family Co-ordinator

May 2012

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