"They helped me, they guided me so I have kept that in mind - I know what to do now" Marian Brandon Penny Sorensen

1. BASPCAN 12th
-15th
April 2015
‘They helped me, they guided me so I have kept that
in mind – I know what to do now’
Family Coaching as Early Help for Whole Families
Marian Brandon
Penny Sorensen
Free Paper Session 39: Innovations in knowledge and service delivery

2. Background to TF programme
 Dept. Communities Local Govt. – ‘nuisance’ families
 Each Local Authority had a target number of families to
reach – for LA to identify/support
 Some flexibility in designing services in different
authorities
 Not statutory, not universal
 Whole family approach
 Part of ‘early help’ agenda?
Free Paper Session 39: Innovations in knowledge and service delivery

3. Free Paper Session 39: Innovations in knowledge and service delivery

4. Study Methods
14 months duration - qualitative and quantitative:
Interviews with 20 families
Interviews with 4 managers and 2 data analysts
Developmental workshops with 20 family coaches
Case study diaries kept by family coaches
Focus group with 5 professionals
A detailed analysis of costs associated with 50 families
who have completed the intervention
Interim report to allow for early changes/improvements
Free Paper Session 39: Innovations in knowledge and service delivery

5. The Family Coaching Service: Findings
Free Paper Session 39: Innovations in knowledge and service delivery

6. The coaches told us about their work
 Winning over families other professionals can’t work with
 Building rapport and encouraging progress by: being tenacious,
providing practical help and responding to the family’s expressed
need
 Whole-family approach, but different family members ready to
engage at different points in time
Something simple like a family that has not
engaged with anyone else and they have engaged
with you makes a big difference; but you do
wonder what all these other people have been
doing? (Coach)
Free Paper Session 39: Innovations in knowledge and service delivery

7. Families told us:
When she [coach] first came I was very
apprehensive…but then when you look at how she is
doing oh! Forget it – you say wow!
I remember meeting [coach] for the first time and ...
thinking ‘you had better be a miracle maker because
I need help!’
Free Paper Session 39: Innovations in knowledge and service delivery

8. Professionals told us: (children’s services,
police, education, mental health, housing)
‘Extremely firm
but very caring’
…they are able to do a lot
more with the family than I am
I kind of felt they needed to
be more task centred and
you know not encourage
dependency
Free Paper Session 39: Innovations in knowledge and service delivery

9. Coaches
•Engage with families
•Build relationships
•Persist
•Enjoy their work with
whole families
•Have ability to work
jointly with other
professionals
Families
•Engage with
coaches
•Build relationships
•Value the
intervention
•Learn to work with
other professionals
•See changes and
benefits
•Feel listened to
Professionals
•Impressed with
coaches’ work with
families
•Coaches are
excellent
communicators
•Value the outcomes
for families
•Admire tenacity of
coaches
Congruence
Free Paper Session 39: Innovations in knowledge and service delivery

10. Tensions
 Engaging families
• Persistence or harassment?
 Working with families
• Dependency?
• Support and supervision
• Boundaries
 Working with professionals
• Boundaries
• Whose case?
 Endings
• What happens to families?
Free Paper Session 39: Innovations in knowledge and service delivery

11. TF in context of austerity and added
pressure on services
 26.6% reduction in LA budgets since 2010
(Institute for Fiscal Studies in Ofsted 2014:9)
 Child protection being more tightly rationed and
cases being diverted to early help (NSPCC
2014)
 Since 2010 – 84 reports discuss the value of
early help – but resources for early help are
dwindling. Is this where Troubled Families fit?
 Who gets access to this early help?
Free Paper Session 39: Innovations in knowledge and service delivery

12. So ……
 Is this a cheap/expensive model of early
help – is it cost effective?
 Is it a model of social work without social
workers?
Free Paper Session 39: Innovations in knowledge and service delivery