2.1.9 Family Group Conferences - Service Specification

1. Introduction

The purpose of this Service Specification is to understand the nature of the Family Group Conference Service in Lincolnshire. This is an internal document which aims to provide an operational overview of the Family Group Conference Service.

The FGC primarily operates within Lincolnshire Children's Services and within Lincolnshire Adult Care Services.

When working in both Children and Adult Services the aim is to produce a Family Group Conference Plan.

2. What is a Family Group Conference?

A Family Group Conference (FGC) is a decision making meeting in which the service user's wider family network come together to make a plan about the future arrangements for the child/adult. The plan will ensure that the child is safe and their wellbeing is promoted.

Family Group Conferences are intended as a respectful and empowering process in which parents, children and members of the wider family or friends are given clear information about the concerns and are asked to work with the Family Group Conference Practitioner to produce a plan that addresses those concerns and answers specific queries. The expectation is that the referrer will attend the FGC to outline the strengths/concerns and then leave the meeting to enable the family to produce a plan that will safeguard against the concerns.

Every family is unique and has its own community values, culture, personalities, dynamics and history. An FGC uses the family's' / friends own skills, strengths and personal knowledge to resolve difficulties. Using the family's own expertise and ensuring their involvement in the FGC process can help to support the difficulties that are being experienced by the child/young person at that time.

FGC is a targeted approach to prevention and has improved the Council’s ability to manage demand on services. FGC helps to identify the shared needs and collective assets of the family and local community at an early stage, bringing to the fore more creative options and resources as an alternative to reliance on services. FGC’s fit strategically with other work in Adult Care – such as the development of strengths based approaches, community capacity building and support for carers. It has the potential to offer support and shared learning between Adult Care and Children’s Services in terms of helping people and families during transition into adult life.

An FGC plan will be created within an anticipated timescale of 6 weeks for Children's Services; however an extended timescale is anticipated with the Adult Care Service.

The ethos of Family Group Conference is primarily consensual; however within Children's Services, where the child is subject to, or on the periphery of becoming a Child in Care, the FGC will be an expected requirement of the child's Social Care Plan.

3. Referral Criteria to the Family Group Conference Service

3.1 Children Social Care

• A child residing within Lincolnshire who is at risk of becoming a Child in Care. Most cases of this nature are heard at the Support Panel, where decisions are made with regards to case progression. For decisions in relation to LPM's, commencement of pre-proceedings and kinship care a Family Network/FGC Meeting should have taken place prior to or requested.

A referral for a Family Group Conference will also be considered when:

• A Lincolnshire Child in Care, to support a swift return to family/ family friends;
• Children open to Lincolnshire social care with a case status of CP, CiC or CIN and the Family Network Meeting has not been successful;
• When a Restorative Conversation is required;
• When mediation is required between parents/family members to agree a plan;
• When Family Finding is required;
• Children open to a TAC, where Early Help are involved and there is an identified acute risk/ concern that cannot be resolved through an initial Family Network Meeting (agreed in advance with the FGC Coordinator or Practice Supervisor).

Referrals will only be received from within Lincolnshire Children's Services.

3.2 Adult Social Care

A referral for a Family Group Conference will be considered to:

• Develop the Protection plan;
• Family plan to support the individual;
• Redress/Resolution/Recovery for the individual;
• Disagreement between family members;
• Relationship breakdown;
• Need for independent input;
• Placement or provider breakdown;
• Unpaid carer breakdown;
• Hospital discharge planning;
• Team Around the Adult;
• Need for mediation to support parties to explore all options.

3.3 Life Links

Life Links is a new strand of work being offered through the Family Group Conference Service for Children in Care and Care Leavers.

• A service to be offered to young people who have CiC status at 15.9yrs and onwards;
• Care leavers – supported by Barnardo's;
• All care leavers up to the age of 25 years;
• The plan will ensure that (s) he is safe and his/her wellbeing is promoted through a supportive network;
• A practitioner will be allocated to the young person who will work with them to develop a lifelong network that will support them going forward.

3.4 Disruption Meetings

Where a foster placement breaks down after the child being in the placement for six months or longer, a Disruption Meeting must be held to identify the reasons for the breakdown and to learn lessons from the events surrounding the breakdown.

• The Family Group Conference Practitioner will organise a disruption meeting to take place within 4 weeks of the request being received.

3.5 Foster Carer Support Network

It is recognised and acknowledged that Foster Carers like any other parent/carer may at times struggle with parenting a child due to a numbers of different reasons which may or may not link directly to the relationship with the child. The aim of the intervention is to prevent a disruption/breakdown in the child's placement and referrals will be considered when:

• Breakdown in the child/carer relationship
• The carer is not managing the child's behaviour and the support of the network could help to alleviate the associated stress.
• The carers have a personal bereavement
• The carers own child is ill or having problems

The carers are requesting additional respite.

4. The Referral Procedure

4.1 Children Social Care:

Referrals will come into the Family Group Conference team via the following routes:

• Following a decision/outcome from support panel;
• Referrals from the child's allocated social worker via Mosaic.

Emergency referrals can be made directly through Mosaic to the FGC managers in situations when the child / young person are deemed to be at immediate risk.

Referrals will be considered and allocated within 24 working hrs of receipt by the FGC Coordinator (or delegated officer).

4.2 Adults

All referrals for FGC for Adult Services will come to the FGC Service via Mosaic.

4.3 Life Links

All referrals will come from either the Young Person's social worker or Leaving Care Worker via Mosaic.

4.4 Disruption meetings

All referrals will come from the Foster Carers Supervising Social worker via Mosaic.

4.5 Foster Carers Support Network

All referrals will come either via the Foster Carers Supervising Social Worker or the Child's Social worker via Mosaic.

5. The Process of a Family Group Conference

FGC meetings follow the FGC model, outlined below.

The role of the Practitioner is vital in negotiating attendance at a Family Group Conference and in informing all service users about the process involved. This role is separate from other professionals' involvement with the family.

The FGC Practitioner will aim to undertake meetings with the family and friends; this will identify the support networks within the family.

It is the aim of the Lincolnshire FGC team that all extended members will be contacted, if a considerable geographical distance is involved this will be primarily by phone however face to face contact may be agreed following a discussion with FGC managers.

It is key that within each FGC, the service users' voice is captured and where appropriate they attend the conference.

The Practitioner organises the meeting in conjunction with the service user and their identified family members, carers, friends and support network.

Prior to the conference the FGC Practitioner should discuss with the service user how they will be enabled to participate in the conference and whether they would like a supporter or advocate in the meeting. The service users must be enabled to participate fully within the process and it is the Practitioner's role to find flexible and imaginative ways of achieving this. There will be occasions where the service user chooses not to attend their FGC, should this be the case their input must be sourced in alternative ways. For families where English is not their first language, interpreters will be sourced.

The Practitioner negotiates the date, time and venue for the conference with the family and arrangements are made where possible to facilitate their attendance without them needing to take time off work etc. This may mean that conferences take place at weekends or in the evening. The Practitioner sends out invitations and makes the necessary practical arrangements; including interpreters

The FGC team sits within the wider service area which includes Family Time and TIME Programme in Lincolnshire.

6. The Process of Restorative Conversation

A Restorative Conversation Meeting is an opportunity to bring everyone together to talk through any issues or concerns in a supported and facilitated way.

The focus is given to hearing everyone’s voice and devising a range of agreements as to what needs to happen going forward to resolve matters.

As part of the Restorative Conversation everyone will have the opportunity to talk about:

• What has happened—their perspective;
• Who has been affected by this and how;
• What needs to happen to move things forward—Restorative Conversations Agreements;
• The Restorative Conversation Agreement will include a series of commitments from all individuals involved.

7. The Process of Life Links

The Life Links Practitioner uses various tools and strategies to engage and empower the young person to be involved in the decision making process; encouraging the network to share the responsibility for safety, permanence and well-being of the Young Person. Tools used include:

• Eco mapping;
• Calendaring;
• Mobility Mapping and Connectedness Map.

The aim is that over a period of time the network will continue to meet and review their plan when professional support has stepped away ensuring safety for the young person through a lifetime network.

• Case worker makes the request for FGC via Mosaic;
• Practitioner allocated within 48 hours;
• Practitioner contacts the young person to arrange face to face meeting to explain the service and consent to progress;
• Direct work completed with young person utilising family finder tools;
• Practitioner/Young Person speaks to identified network and agrees the first meeting;
• Case worker attends the initial meeting to share information with the network;
• Network identify unmet needs and agree who in the network is going to provide support going forward and progress to a meeting to develop the support plan;
• Young person and the network meet monthly (or as agreed) to review the plan and over coming months the network identifies one of the group to facilitate review meetings going forward;
• The Practitioner supports until the young person and network are confident that the plan is being implemented and sustainable;
• The Practitioner closes involvement.

8. The Process of a Disruption Meeting

On receipt of a request to chair a disruption meeting the allocated practitioner will:

• Will contact the referrer and get a case overview;
• Will liaise with all parties and complete a prep visit to understand what has happened from everyone's perspective and discuss with them the agenda for the meeting;
• Will arrange where appropriate to speak to the child/young person and capture their views;
• Will book a venue and minute taker and confirm the date with attendees;
• Meeting will take place within 28 working days of request;
• Following the meeting the minutes will be sent to the Team Manager Fostering and uploaded onto both the Foster Carers and Child's Mosaic record.

9. The Process of Foster Carer Support Network

Follow Section 5, The Process of a Family Group Conference as follows the same process as Family Group Conference.

10. How does a Family Group Conference Plan Integrate with the Child's Current Social Care Plan?

In the first instance a Family Network Meeting must take place within 5 working days if the child is CP/CiC and 10 working days if the child is CIN. If the plan created from the Family Network Meeting is not robust and further meetings or impartiality is required, a referral is to be made for a Family Group Conference to create a robust family plan. The FGC plan will contribute to the progress/safety plan for the child.

Where a Plan is in place or is being considered, it is essential to discuss how the FGC plan will contribute to keeping the service user safe and reduce the risks that have been identified in the Protection Plan.

Serious consideration must be given to develop a robust plan to prevent the child becoming accommodated or for the successful rehabilitation of the child back into the care of the extended family.

FGC should have taken place prior to cases being presented at Social Care Panel for decisions in relation to accommodation, LPM's, commencement of pre-proceedings and kinship care. In some circumstances the work completed at The Family Network Meeting may suffice.

The Plan made at the a Family Network Meeting /FGC will support decision making in respect of the child/ young person and inform future reviews of a child protection plan/ child in need plan/ Child in Care review care plans.

FGC's are family led meetings and not all professionals involved with the family need to attend. For this reason, Core Group Meetings should not be incorporated into a FGC.

Within Adults Services FGC meetings can occur in place of the Best Interests meetings so that work is not duplicated and is more streamlined.

The Practitioner informs the referrer of the date and time of the FGC and confirms their attendance at the meeting. If the referrer cannot attend the meeting they are to nominate another worker from their team to attend on their behalf to share the concerns and strengths with the family group, and then allow the family to agree a plan that will safeguard against the concerns.

The Family Plan drawn up at the FGC must be endorsed by the referrer at the end of the FGC.

Family members who have agreed to monitor the family plan should be invited to future social care meetings to ensure that there is continuity between the processes.

Where the FGC process uncovers new information that the service user is suffering or likely to suffer Significant Harm the Practitioner must inform the service user's child's social worker immediately or in their absence refer to that team's duty officer. At weekends and evenings any concerns should be reported to the Emergency Duty Team.

Click here to view the Family Network / Family Group Conference referral route

11. Completion of the Family Group Conference Plan

Upon completion of the FGC plan this will be input onto Mosaic and sent for authorisation to the FGC Coordinator (or an alternative FGC manager) prior to distribution.

Upon approval the FGC plan it will be sent to the involved family members and the referrer by their preferred method.

The FGC services involvement will end once the FGC plan has been completed and a FGC Closure Quality Audit has taken place.

12. Staffing Structure

The FGC service operates across the whole of Lincolnshire. To meet geographical demand the FGC team is structured as described below:

13. Peer Responsibilities

Support for the Children's Workforce

The Family Group Conference Service is also happy to support the development of Children Services Staffs (Social Workers, Early Help etc) by providing shadowing opportunities and also support at Family Network meetings on more complex cases with the aim to develop workers' skills, knowledge and confidence in this area of work. We are happy to provide support during staff induction and also for staff who may identify a wish to find out more about the Family Group Conference Service as part of their supervision or annual appraisal.

14. Performance Standards

The FGC team contributes to the following Performance Indicators:

• Stability of placements;
• The case status escalating
• Numbers of children rehabilitated home.

Quality and assurance of casework is monitored during 6/8 weekly supervision and at closure audit. FGC will also be considered when wider themed audits are taking place.

And for Adults Services:

• The Lincolnshire Peer Review (July 2017) commented favourably on Adult Care's significant "move away from an investigatory/identification of perpetrator model, to a much more useful and effective ‘learning and action’ approach" – one which mirrors the direction of Making Safeguarding Personal. It concluded that there is a need to drive forward with a move away from a ‘systems and process’ model of safeguarding towards a more personal approach;
• The Care Act 2014 makes it clear that involving people in adult safeguarding is expected at a number of levels. There has been an increasing demand from people who use services and the public around the shape and nature of services provided. Gathering feedback from a wide range of stakeholders can help organisations to find out what works. This can be translated into a financial argument; effective engagement could potentially save money by making better decisions;
• Safeguarding should be person led and outcome focussed. It engages the person in a conversation about how best to respond to their safeguarding situation in a way that enhances involvement, choice and control as well as improving quality of life, wellbeing and safety;
• FGC fits well with the six principles of the 2014 Care Act:
  • Empowerment;
  • Prevention;
  • Proportionality;
  • Protection;
  • Partnership;
  • Accountability.