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Working With Families – Why Troubleshooting is Not Enough
On 15th December David Cameron announced that the government was committing £448m to be spent on ‘troubleshooters’ who will work with ‘problem families’. The ambition is to have helped 120,000 families by 2015 – getting children back to school, putting parents on the road to work and, presumably, helping to reduce the cost to the taxpayer.
On the face of it this is a good thing. It tackles two big issues that we at iMPOWER have been talking about (and doing something about) for the last couple of years – a holistic approach to social work which looks at the whole family, and the management of demand as a key tool for reducing cost and improving outcomes.
It is clear that some families need help, and that right now that means lots of people making lots of appointments to talk about different but closely related things. Many of the councils we have worked with recognise this and we undertook some pioneering work with Norfolk County Council to understand exactly what this felt like for families. The results were a depressing image of a disjointed and frustrating experience. Having one person who acts as a gatekeeper for a family makes life simpler for everyone, and allows them to focus on change instead of diary management.
Working with families can also be a great way of managing demand. Again, the councils we work with understand the inter-generational grip that crime, abuse, mistreatment and poor parenting can take. They also understand how difficult it is to break this cycle. Working with an individual may solve the problem for one person, but working with a family creates the opportunity to change how the family unit works, reduce the likelihood that the current generation will end up in care, prison or both and reduce the demand on the public sector. The recently published study of the Hackney model, ‘Social Work Reclaimed’ provides many examples of where working with parents to provide children with structure, routine and a sense of security has had a significant impact on outcomes.
So far, so good; but as the details of this initiative emerged some real challenges appeared. First of all, whilst central government is providing £448m this only represents 40% of the cost, with councils being asked to find the remaining 60%. Council finances are in a parlous state and there is a real risk that funding will have to be taken from other important services. This may feel like too great a risk for councils fighting to maintain their OFSTED status, but the cost of ‘troubled families’ – Mr Cameron estimated that £9bn was spent on 120,000 families – far outweighs this.
Second there is a lack of clarity about exactly what the troubleshooters will be doing, and who will be doing it. The Family Intervention Projects have made great strides but the problem still exists. Councils, and Mr Cameron, need to be clear about exactly what troubleshooting means and how it will make a difference before investing so much money in it.
The question of who is equally important. It has been suggested that charities may undertake this work, and whilst their skill and commitment is not to be questioned this poses a number of risks. There will be a new set of individuals involved in families lives; the role and morale of social workers, family resource workers, CAMHS professionals and others currently involved could be undermined further as a different set of ‘experts’ are brought in to do their job; and what happens when the troubleshooters head off into the sunset (or their next assignment). How will their work be carried on by the local social workers left behind? We need to move on from an ‘initiative-based’ approach to working with families, to something much more sustainable delivered through mainstream services and funding routes. This will only work if there are joint teams and a clear approach to skills transfer.
Finally, I mentioned at the start that we believe in a holistic approach to social work. It is interesting that the infographics released along with Mr Cameron’s speech focused on the implications for the justice system – for example the statistic that 24% of prisoners had been looked after. Whilst this is a useful way of making the costs real, and of looking tough on the causes of crime, the ambitions of this initiative should be far wider than this.
Despite these reservations, the government’s commitment – financial and political – to addressing these problems is good to see. I believe that Mr Cameron’s proposals are a positive step, but only one step on a much longer journey. At iMPOWER we believe that real change will not be seen until a joined up approach to working with families in a holistic way becomes a part of everyday life for everyday social workers and not a tool for creating headlines and political capital.
4th January 2012
David Colbear is Manager at iMPOWER. To contact him to discuss this blog or any aspect of our work, please e-mail dcolbear@impower.co.uk or call 020 7017 8030.
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Lurraine
Full of salient points. Don't stop believing or writnig!
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