Our nationally accredited Family Group Conference Service has been established for over ten years.
We offer family-led meetings, called Family Group Conferences, which are aimed at achieving positive change to improve the lives of children and young people. Families come together to discuss and agree on what they feel needs to happen to support the changes that are needed in a child life. The Family Group Conference provides the structure for this to happen.
Situations where a request to the Family Group Conference Plus Service could be made will include:
- preventing reception into care
- at the point of a pre-birth assessment starting
- where families are already involved in court processes
- prior to consideration of court involvement as promoted in the pre-proceedings checklist
- where there are child protection concerns and it is felt the family would benefit from using our services to help support the required changes
- at the point of child in need to prevent further escalation or support a step-down to early help
Any of the above might routinely include the following issues but there may be others, such as:
- exploring the wider family and friends network to ensure all the potential strengths of the family are known
- improving communication between family members for the benefit of their children
- sharing accountability for the care and safety needs of children with the wider family group
- issues of conflict between the adults where the child/ren are significantly affected
Every situation is unique to each family and we will talk with families to discuss what they want to achieve and how they wish to go about achieving this. Our service is an ‘opt in’ offer, and families can choose whether or not they want to work with us.
In addition to the meetings, we also undertake visits to families to explain what we can offer and explore if they would want to engage with our service.
Please contact us directly to discuss any queries, or if you would like to know more, at fgcplus@devon.gov.uk