Family inclusive policy and practice after 'Think Family'

Although there is a long history of social work and other practitioners involving wider family in trying to resolve difficulties faced by particular family members, the evidence base to support this activity has been relatively weak. Since the early 1990s, a number of developments in law, policy and performance management have had the perhaps unintended consequence of directing agencies and practitioners to focus on specific needs and risks relating to particular individuals, rather than seeing the 'bigger picture' of how family networks actually operate and what might be their potential to provide more effective support or resolve issues for those experiencing difficulties.

In more recent years, there has been increasing recognition at government level that this tendency has been counter-productive in terms of delivering services that actually enable people to resolve or manage their difficulties - and has instead resulted in responses that are both costly and can hook people into an unnecessary longer term dependence on a range of public services. However, there has been much less clarity as how best to turn around approaches to service delivery and what might be the best models for delivering services that engage the potential of families and their social networks.

Policy initiatives such as 'Think Family' and 'Troubled Families' have fostered the development of new models and ways of working at a local level and in a variety of organisational contexts. From recent research studies and evaluations, we now have some emerging evidence as to 'what works' within specific service contexts - and also what may be barriers to implementing such approaches within existing organisational structures and processes. However, our understanding is far from complete - and what we currently know has not yet been pulled together across different service contexts in a systematic way that can be shared more widely with policy and practice organisations.

It is the purpose of this proposal to bring together academic and practice communities to facilitate an interchange of knowledge, ideas and evidence that can be used to drive forward effective and innovatory practice - with different service sectors learning from one another. Maximum impact would be achieved by three linked areas of work:
A. Building links within and between organisations to enable a two-way flow that brings in new knowledge and understanding from outside and, in return, gives space for reflection and evaluation of how service innovations are actually working (or not working) as they are applied on the ground.
B. A programme of knowledge exchange seminars and more informal workshops that bring together service managers and practitioners from across health, social care and the voluntary sector, with a particular emphasis on building bridges between services in different sectors.
C. Development of a protected 'partners' website for informal exchange of information and discussion of ideas in development. This would provide a platform for developing research summaries, descriptions of effective service models, discussion papers and training resources. Once developed, these would then be made publically accessible via the Family Potential Research Centre website for practitioners and managers.

Taken together, these three strands of knowledge exchange activity will achieve direct impact on policies and models of service delivery within around thirty participating organisations during the lifetime of the project. Beyond this, it will have wider cross-sector impact through making available the resources that have been developed, so that they can be utilised by other organisations who are facing similar challenges of how to to introduce ways of working that see beyond the individual, and mobilise the potential of wider family relationships in improving and sustaining positive outcomes for family members.

It is recognised from the outset that there can be little space within many health and social care agencies for practitioners and mangers to learn from (and contribute to) relevant research. Nevertheless, we already have interest from a cross-section of organisations across England towards developing more family inclusive policies and modes of practice, as this is starting to be seen as essential if services are to meet the challenges that they are now facing.

This proposal builds on an emerging network of committed organisations that spans statutory and voluntary sector provision and offers an infrastructure whereby the space within organisations for learning, evaluating and training could be opened up to, and shared with, a wider supported community of practice. This would be facilitated by the lead Universities and the Family Potential Research Centre. By this approach, key staff in participating organisations can, in a real sense, feel ownership of driving forward and evaluating the implementation of new models of practice - thereby maximising the potential impact of research in this field.

In turn, this translation of ideas and evidence into practice, and the resultant exchange of knowledge between academia and the field, will be captured in the form of Papers and accessible learning resources that can be made available nationally via the development of the outward facing Family Potential website.

Who will benefit?
The intended beneficiaries of the knowledge exchange will be health, social care and voluntary sector service organisations and, more importantly, the families and family members who are seeking help from them. Around thirty participating organisations, and those who use their services, may be expected to receive the most immediate benefit. In the longer term, with the knowledge and learning resources that are generated through the project being made generally available via the Family Potential website, it is anticipated that there will be potential benefit across the sector nationally.

How will they benefit?
Service organisations will benefit through using research evidence and knowledge from the field to embed ways of working that are more effective in mobilising family resources. Such a shift would reduce the likelihood of re-referral or ongoing dependence on services - thereby both improving outcomes and cutting costs so as to achieve a more efficient use of limited human and financial resources.
Families will benefit from services that include and take seriously the concerns and aspirations of all family members - and which help them to build on their collective resources, strengths and capabilities, rather than focusing just on what they cannot do or have not been able to do well. In turn, this should lead to their having more control and greater confidence in their ability to resolve their own difficulties and improve their lives - resulting in enhanced wellbeing and greater opportunity for family members to participate in the social and economic life of their communities.