1. Sandwell’s Family Group Conferencing Service
If you are not sure if a FGC is right for a family you are working with or not, we would be happy to speak with you about this. We can be contacted by , phone or we are located next to the Family Solution Team within Early Help, so pop in to see us.
If a family, child or young person would like more information about FGC’s before they agree to a referral being made, we can arrange to visit the family to talk to them about it. We will not do joint home visits with the referrer as we need to remain and be seen as independent by the family.
For any further information or a referral form please contact Andrea Underhill (Family Group Conference Coordinator) on
Or call Andrea on:
Mobile:
Sandwell’s Family Group Conferencing Service
Leaflet for Professionals
Family Group Conference Service
Family solutions Team
Early Help
Oldbury Council House
Oldbury
B69 3DE
Families creating
brighter futures

2. The primary decision makers at a Family Group Conference (FGC) are the family themselves and not the professionals. FGC’s give the family an opportunity to look at the worries that professionals have and as a family come up with a plan to address these.
Families can choose if they want a Family Group Conference or not. Families are supported throughout the process by an independent convenor (Independent from case management).
At Sandwell’s family group conference service we have a
FGC coordinator, Andrea Underhill and three convenors: Gill Punshon; Jamie Owen and Sandra Welcome.
The FGC conveners will work with all members of the family to:
Prepare them for the conference
Make sure that everyone fully understands what the worries are and what the plan needs to address
Arrange a date, time, venue and food for the
Conference
The convenor will chair the first part of the conference; write up and distribute the plan and coordinate a review meeting to see how the plan is going.
FGC’s take around 4—6 weeks to organise. Once a referral is received and allocated the convener will keep you updated on progress.
How to refer
Talk to the family and offer a Family Group
Conference. One of the FGC team can go out and explain the process if this would be helpful.
Pop over, call or Andrea to discuss the
potential referral.
Referrers will need to complete a referral form for a FGC with the family. Part of this referral is a short report which will out line to the family (in simple terms and using no jargon) what the worries are that need to be addressed in the FGC. This part of the referral will need to be signed by the family and child/young person if appropriate and acts as the families consent to this information being shared with the FGC convener.
The referral will be allocated within 48 hours and the allocated convenor will go out, meet and prepare the child/young person and family. The convener will keep the
referrer updated throughout the process.