1. Lyn Môn Owen-Hughes Tina Jones Rachel Peters
Supporting Children and Families on Anglesey Delivered by Rural Family Service
Lyn Môn Owen-Hughes Tina Jones Rachel Peters

2. Overview of the session
Introductions
Rural Family Service history and successes
Incredible Years® ASD and Language Delay group October – December 2017
Key findings
Feedback from parents
Questions

3. Barnardo’s UK
Barnardo’s purpose is to help the most vulnerable children and young people transform their lives and fulfil their potential. As one of the largest charities in the UK last year we delivered over 900 services supporting 230,000 children, young people and their families. Our strength is in the diversity of the services we provide, each of which is locally based and addresses local need

4. Barnardo’s Cymru
During , Barnardo’s Cymru worked with over 8,400 children, young people and families across our 89 services within 18 of the 22 local authorities in Wales. We have continued to work with some of the most vulnerable children & young people in Wales through the delivery of our core services and have offered support to a broad cross section of children and young people from ages 0 to 25+ years.

5. Services available Emotional and mental health and wellbeing
Family support
Domestic abuse
Substance misuse
Young carers
Child sexual exploitation/ harmful sexual behaviour
Contact
Supported housing/ floating support
Work with teenage parents
Skills and training
Adoption and fostering
Advice, information and advocacy
Support to BME families
Support For care leavers
Child disability and additional learning needs
All of our services address child and family disadvantage; we strive to demonstrate greater effectiveness and provide the very best value for money, both to commissioners and to our supporters. This means we are uniquely placed to transfer best practice across elements of delivery and apply innovation from different areas of our work to new settings.

6. Rural Family Service Established in 2000
Aim; To provide a high quality parenting service
Using interventions which are researched and evaluated.
Anglesey Health and Well-being Service
We believe that our success has been due to the co-working with parents/carers and providing them with a choice and range of services
On Anglesey the Rural Family Service was established in 2000 with the aim being to provide a high quality parenting service based on intervention which are researched and evaluated i.e. with an evidence base. We believe that our success has been due to the co-working with parents/carers and providing them with a choice and range of service. (Rachel and Tina will discuss further)
With this in mind we are hopeful in establishing the Anglesey Wellbeing Project, a targeted mental health service supporting children and young people aged 8 – 18 years old experiencing poor mental health and wellbeing. It will support need at Tier 2 and lower level Tier 3 of the mental health hierarchy of need; this cannot be sourced from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) due to their high service thresholds and lack of a therapeutic approach. We will work with a range of need from complex, such as self-harm, to lower level, such as anxiety and low self-esteem.

7. Mindfulness Nurturing Parents
Rural Family Service
Happy Tums
Mindfulness Nurturing Parents
Incredible Years®
Chill Out
Money Pot Pres

8. Rural Family Service
Incredible Years® groups (Basic, Toddler, Autism and Language Delay) = 74 (465 parents successfully completed the programme)
Chill Out = 37
Mindfulness Nurturing Parents = 9
Happy Tums = 8
Money Pot Pres = 10
Escape = 10
School Readiness = 6
In addition to group intervention, the Incredible Years® was offered on an individual basis

9. Incredible Years® Autism and Language Delay October – December 2017

10. What’s involved? Home visits Assessment Childcare Location/ venue
Measures (pre/post)
Evaluation
Phone support
Signposting
Supervision
Celebration session
Accreditation
Training
13 parents successfully completed the programme
Parents of children aged between 4-10
All sessions delivered bilingually
Parents had the opportunity to link in with group leaders following the end of each session
Final session celebration. Invited a Barnardo’s volunteer and her son (17 years old) who has a diagnosis of ASD to share their experience. Group members found this to be inspirational.
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) discussed
An additional room was made available every session, in the room we had different resources for parents to help themselves, this included information regarding Barnardo’s ‘Five to Thrive’
Developed friendships (continued peer support after completion of the programme)
Increase parents understanding of ASD
Supportive and safe group to be able to share
Group leaders had sufficient time before each session to plan
Increased parental confidence (92%)
Mental Health and Well-being improved following completion of the course (92%)
Encouraged parents to share ideas

11. Key findings Sharing experiences and ideas
Feeling less isolated and feelings of ‘I’m not the only one’
Strengthened relationship with their child due to focused and positive attention
Increased parental confidence
Positive outlook
Stress levels decreased

12. Found the group discussions very helpful (92%) Bilingual group discussions
Increased patience and understanding
Increased ability to problem solve
Able to set clear boundaries
Better listening skills
Decrease in reactivity

13. “I have been able to handle things better using the methods suggested during the course”
“Everything was enjoyable and helpful, but what I enjoyed most was listening and chatting with the other parents. It’s a great feeling that you’re not alone and others understand what you are going through”
“The course has definitely changed and strengthened the relationship between me and my child. I am more patient and understanding with my son than I was before”
“I feel this course has encouraged me to make more effort to have just one to one time with my son and to have more positive moments”

14. “Brilliant course!! I looked forward to coming every week”
“Definitely seen a decrease in behavioural issues – I feel better equipped to deal with situations in a better, calmer manner”
“I have felt well supported by the group and by Barnardo’s”

16. “From attending the Incredible Years® programme and Mindfulness course I am totally transformed, I am now much more confident of myself as a parent, happy with myself, confident of my relationship, more confident when I talk to people, I feel of worth. Thank you for everything, me and my family can’t thank you enough”
Quote from group member 2017