The Children’s Society - Include Programme Whole Family Working Lloyd Meredith-Chapman, Development Worker The Children’s Society Include Programme September 2013

Why Whole Family? The Journey ‘Children do not care in isolation: they care because someone in their family has unmet care need’

Young Carers in Focus (YCiF) is an exciting new opportunity for young carers to feel empowered and supported to have a say about their lives and facilitate change at a Local and National level. The key aim is to ensure that participating young carers will have improved resilience, confidence, skills and knowledge, improving their wellbeing and quality of life particularly during key educational transition points to independence. Over the course of the programme the YCiF team will work directly with over 200 Young Carer Champions across England to deliver this aim, as well as reaching out to all young carers across the country through Makewaves, a safe social networking site. About YCiF…

Hampshire The Hampshire young carers Initiative are commissioned by Hampshire County Council to carry out development work across the county to help agencies to: Increase identification of young carers and improve support for young carers and their families to work to reduce the numbers of young people undertaking inappropriate and harmful caring roles. Increase effectiveness of young carers and their family's participation in service planning and delivery

The Context – Where are we now? Carers Strategy 2010 Model Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on working together to support young carers - The Association of Directors of Adult services and the Association of Directors of Children's Services 2012 Signposts Whole Family Pathway Young carers: Personalisation and Whole Family Approaches School Nurse Initiative Legislative change

The Children’s Society Whole Family Working The National Include Programme

Prevention through Partnership Aim to improve outcomes for children and families where a parent is experiencing mental ill health or substance misuse and relying upon a child to provide care build partnerships early interventions preventing poor outcomes for young people and their families help all agencies working with these vulnerable families including sure start and early years ‘The opportunity to talk to professionals in my area has opened so many doors to make a difference’ delegate

Assessments should take into account the whole family “I would like for all professionals to get together and talk about us as a family, rather than as separate individuals”

Agencies should work in a more co-ordinated, joined up way ‘…for all professionals to get together and talk about us as a family rather then as separate individuals’

11 million children in England 130,000 children living in families affected by domestic abuse 369,000 children in need 67,000 children in care of the local authority 37,000 subject to a care order 52,000 children subject to a child protection plan (all figures, 2012) 166,000 young carers 250,000 – 350,000 children affected by parental drug abuse 1.3milion affected by parental alcohol problems

Latest workforce stats…. 87,442 social workers registered with General Social Care Council, 23,670 AS; 22,050 CS. 45,720 employed by LA’s (March 2012) 146,912 police officers in England (HO,2010) 438,000 teachers, 219,800 education staff (DfE School Workforce Census 2011) No one agency can support the needs of the Whole Family, we need to work together to offer timely and effective support

Taking an overview: Logistics: over 100 local authorities, over 700 participants. Participants’ praise: “This was the best working day of my life!” Strategy and leadership in Central Bedfordshire, building relationships and mutual understanding among directors Simple solutions in Hertfordshire single point of contact, backed by dedicated and informed staff Radical revolutionaries Banardo’s in Liverpool redefining the possible by using Common Assessment Framework across adult and children services Practical partnerships in Stockton between East Raverns Trust and the Crime Reduction Unit bridging adult and children services When to visit in the Wirral? 11am or 6pm? Targeted training with Addaction in Peterborough: training staff to handle tricky face to face meeting.

What’s Next for PTP?

Making a STEP CHANGE for young carers and their families: Prevention, Intervention and Partnership Share the good practice nationally to strengthen joint working and promote the key messages of the MOU and 2010 Carers Strategy Offer solution focused examples built from Guidance, Legislation and Evidence Based Practice Share and continue to develop our extensive range of learning and resources and For a full list of events please visit: