Family intervention


main point of contact for the family. Having the same key worker is an important part of the plan. The average length of an intervention is around 13 months with


contact with the family decreasing during the course of the intervention from an average of nine hours a week to 6.8 at the point of the final review and exit. Altogether 150 local authorities took part before March 31 2010. In November 2010 a report was published to evaluate how effective they had been.


Did they work? Monitoring and evaluation of family interventions by J.Dixon, V. Schneider, C Lloyd, A. Reeves, C.White, W.Tomaszewski, R. Green and E.Ireland, evaluated the results of the interventions. The families who were supported by the projects were categorised according to: n Family functioning and risk (including those with poor parenting, marriage and relationships issues, experiencing domestic violence or who had child protection issues).


n Crime and anti-social behaviour (having engaged or having a family member arrested, on bail, probation, a tag or a conditional discharge).


n Health (those with mental health, drug/substance misuse or drinking problems).


n Education and employment (where no adult member was in employment, education or training and families with children experiencing problems at school).


Overall, of the families leaving intensive family intervention before


March 31 2010: n 76 per cent left for a successful reason. n 14 per cent left for an unsuccessful reason. n 11 per cent left for a reason which could not be counted as a success or a failure.


The greatest number of successful outcomes came from those


families with domestic violence, involvement in crime and/or anti-social behaviour and those with issues relating to truancy, exclusion or bad behaviour at school. The least successful were those experiencing mental health problems and worklessness. The evaluation found that the longer families worked with a family intervention programme the greater the chance that it was successful.


The way forward Working in an intensive way to develop the capacity of families is an approach the government would seem to be committed to. By publishing its Prospectus: delivering intensive interventions for looked after children and those on the edge of care or custody and their families, the


12


government is demonstrating its determination to push this approach forward. Through this prospectus it invites bids from local authorities and their partners to deliver four interventions: n Multi-dimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC) n Multisystemic Therapy (MST) n Keeping Foster and Kinship Carers Safe and Supported (KEEP) n Functional Family Therapy (FFT) We can expect to see much more from these programmes in the UK


in the future. The commitment to them does not mean that it will all happen seamlessly. Thomas Bowerman from the MST programme is a strong advocate for the approach while also recognising that there are issues of transportability between countries. It is not just the US and UK that the programme is being introduced into and maintaining fidelity to


“With the jargon removed, family


therapy has many sound principles that do represent a shift in the way that we work with our families”


its principles while also adapting it for the local context is an important part of any management team’s work. Transportability between countries is not the only issue. There can be


differences in the application of a programme depending upon locality and context within the UK itself. MTFC is currently working in a number of authorities but there are differences in its level of success across rural and inner city areas. For all these programmes this trial and error period is crucial if family therapy is to be the solution it is hoped for. We are struggling to find solutions to the apparent breakdown of family


life and the subsequent problems that result. With the jargon removed, family therapy has many sound principles that do represent a shift in the way that we work with our families. However, translating the message from the American context to inner city and rural Britain requires local knowledge too. The success or failure of this new direction will depend upon the skill the translators are able to apply to their challenging task.


Further information n Functional Family Therapy: www.fftinc.com/ n Multisystemic Therapy: www.mstservices.com/ n Multi-dimensional treatment foster care: www.mtfc.com/index.html


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