Family Welfare Association - Peterborough FGC Service
Key Facts
Location
Project Criteria
Project funding
£86,403
Funding round
The Family Welfare Association (FWA) was set up in 1869 as a charity to work with vulnerable families and people. We deliver a wide range of community based programmes including:
- home and project based support to parents and their children
- community based mental health services
- financial help for families in need
- educational grants advice for disadvantaged people.
We have set up a range of services in Peterborough. These include a Family Centre, a Well Family service, a Family Group Conferencing centre, a Contact Centre and a Family Hurdles Project (support for parents of children with difficult behaviours).
We are using the Parenting Fund grant to extend the availability of our Family Group Conferences (FGC's) to parents/families of children over 13 who have challenging behaviours. In Peterborough there are very few services to support parents of teenagers with difficult behaviours. Our aim is to use Family Group Conferences to enable children and young people to remain settled within their families and to prevent them from needing support from statutory services. Parents and families can use the process to identify support that will work for them within their own networks and communities.
A Family Group Conference helps families to plan and make decisions with assistance from professionals. Families are seen as the 'experts' on what might work for them. By identifying their own solutions they are more likely to stick to the plans made and be committed to using the support they have chosen. The process is an empowering one, and research suggests that it increases family resilience.
We will collaborate with other services working with parents of teenagers, so that parents/families have information about what other support is available to them. A trained, independent coordinator is being appointed to convene and coordinate the family conference and work with the family in preparing for the conference. The coordinator is neutral and is there to facilitate and act as 'broker' between the family, the young person and professionals. Each conference is unique to the family, and offers a culturally sensitive approach. This has been proven to increase the involvement of fathers and paternal relatives.