Magic Dust for Troubled Families

Love Barrow families Who? What? Where?

Facts about Barrow-in-Furness   Industrial town with a population of around 70 000 History of shipbuilding and ironworks The 32nd of 326 most deprived districts in England Central & Hindpool wards amongst 3% most deprived areas in UK Health issues include significantly worse figures than England average in low breast feeding rates, children’s tooth decay, hospital stays for alcohol-related harm, smoking, life expectancy and early deaths from cancer

Claire John Alison Annette Vicky Trina Sarah Helen

The DMM and Love Barrow families A home in Barrow SAA Research CAMHS: A whole family approach It feels like magic dust!

The Theory behind the Practice Co-production www.neweconomics.org The Dynamic Maturational Model of Attachment & Adaptation www.patcrittenden.com Signs of Safety www.signsofsafety.net

Co-production “It is about designing and delivering public services in an equal and reciprocal way between professionals and service users, their families, friends and communities’’NEF Goes beyond consultation, user involvement and citizen engagement to equal partnership From ‘doing to’ to ‘working with’: no more ‘users’ and ‘clients’ Professional and experiential knowledge and resources are valued and combined

Assets Being Barrovian Recognition that all families have assets and want to give as well as receive Evidence that giving and being connected is good for mental and physical well being and has wider benefits for the neigbourhood and community Commitment and dedication from colleagues across agencies. Workers bring assets too!

Family Outcomes Compassion and Understanding Help for all family members from one team Support provided in the community and as early as possible To not live in fear of having children taken away An honest relationship with one main worker who treats us as an equal

Frontline Practitioners A local initiative that joins up services for whole families “Think Family” One clear assessment tool for a family that can be used by the Love Barrow Families team To have less paperwork and more time to spend with families so that we can respond when it’s needed and for as long as needed To feel safe within a team that can work with families to hold and address risk as part of our day to day work To have high quality supervision, training and guidance provided by experienced professionals who can act as mentors and who can support ongoing care planning (which holds longer term goals in mind too) and evaluation

Sample Family Dashboard

Feedback from families who are not here today

“I feel like I am trusting my worker to help me learn how to be a better parent because I know that she can stand in my shoes as well as my children’s shoes. No one has ever done that before” Donna, mum of four

“You care, you just care!” “When I said I could only concentrate on one problem at a time you listened and trusted me to get there”

“I feel like our core group meetings work better because Alison takes charge and everybody gets a chance to say what they think” Simon, dad of Reece

Donna’s Views

LEARNING FROM THE TEAM True co-production is hard! Time is needed to really grow things from the ground upward Theories, research and evidence is only useful if it informs what we do in a way which connects to real life and makes sense to ordinary people Services are set up to do things to people rather than with them Challenging the way that things are done is a difficult task-lead by example

Being in a team with colleagues who see things through the lenses of their own organisation is a challenge and an opportunity to learn Working together as a team to get things done seems to be safer and more effective for us and for families Co production means we are in a constant process of learning and adapting what we do and how we work to each unique family that comes through our door