A STRENGTHS/ASSET BASED APPROACH TO SERVICE DEVELOPMENT TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES FOR CHILDREN YOUNG PEOPLE AND THEIR FAMILIES 22 ND JANUARY 2010

Framework for assessing Children in Need and their Families 2000 Introduced a concept of systemic assessments that consider all domains of a child’s life and stressed the importance of understanding family members’ and communities’ strengths and competencies. The Needs Triangle

NO CHILD IS AN ISLAND

We have a choice about how we wish to view the people with whom we work. We can either view them as manifestations of pathology and deficit or we can view them as representing a degree of competence and skill. We cannot do both. Further, if we choose to view them in terms of pathology, then the focus on problems that this perspective requires makes it much more difficult for us to recognize their strengths and resources... if we choose to view them as competent and resourceful, then our focus on strengths is more likely to obscure their deficits from our view.” — MICHAEL DURRANT, 1993

In fact, for just about any population of children that research has found to be at greater risk than normal for later problems—children who experience divorce, live with step-parents, lose a sibling, have attention deficit disorder, suffer developmental delays, become delinquent, run a way, become involved with religious cults, and so on---more of these children make it than do not." Bonnie Benard Resilience: What We Have Learned, p. 7

Problem focused assessment often leads to a laundry list of the things that are considered to be "wrong" or dysfunctional with children and their families. We get stuck in our view of the child and family because we have too much information about the problem and not enough information about strengths and solutions. Berg (1994) suggests that once we feel overwhelmed by the difficulties a child and his or her family presents, we tend to rationalise the failure of our professional efforts by describing children and their families as "unmotivated," "resistive," "lacking insight," and/or "not ready" for change. More importantly, when we become too discouraged, we run the risk of communicating this to the child and his or her family. We have over 1,000 children in public care in Lancashire were all of the families: unwilling to change, resistant, unwilling to engage with us?

Traditional service planning to improve outcomes for children and young people identifies risk factors then develops strategies and interventions to reduce risk and fill gaps. An assets-based approach turns the planning equation over, and looks for protective factors already existing in children and young people, their families and in their communities- and provide interventions which focus upon strengthening those protective factors that make a difference.

Premises of Strengths-Based Practices All people have existing strengths as well as the capacity to become more capable and competent Promotion of competence is preferred over the prevention or treatment of poor outcomes Active participation of people in using their strengths to engage in desired activities or achieve desired goals is a necessary condition for an intervention to have optimal positive consequences Practitioners need to adopt and use capacity-building help giving practices to engage people in the use of their strengths

Strength-based practice is founded on four important assumptions Every child, regardless of his or her personal and family situation, has strengths that are unique to the individual. Children are influenced and motivated by the way significant people in their lives respond to them. Rather than viewing a child who does not demonstrate strengths as being deficient, it is assumed the child has not had the opportunities that are essential to learning, developing, and mastering the skill. When treatment and service planning are based on strengths rather than deficits and pathologies, children and families are more likely to become involved in the therapeutic process and to use their strengths and resources

Not one size fits all Families who have complex circumstances including those of minority ethnic origin, and families and children who experience frequent changes of carer or address families who are ‘hard to identify or engage’ families who may be well known to services but are ‘hard to change’.

Developing service intelligence rather than data We need to interpret the rich data we have. What are the parent and family profiles of those we work for. Staff need time to build relationships with families – engage with them not a referral merry go round What works with hard to change families? Do we know the strengths and assets of the families and communities we work for? What can we do to promote protective factors in all domains of a child or young person’s life. Reducing harm may be the best we can do but we have to do this alongside promoting protective factors.

Experience and evaluation data have shown that assets-based approaches have a higher likelihood of community buy-in and sustainability, because they are built around assets that already exist in the community. Protective factors include external and internal assets in the school, home/family, community, peer and individual that research has linked to resilience and positive youth development. Caring relationships in the home and among peers and meaningful participation in the home and in the community were found to be significant in protecting against early sexual activity and increased contraceptive use. “Backing the Future” Action for Children and nef Sept 2009