• contents
• inside dudley
• dudley scb
• keywords & contacts
• quick guide
• values
• contact us
• search

Contents

1. Introduction/Principles of Family Group Conferences
2. Referrals
3. Contacting the Young Person and Family
4. Agreeing who Attends
5. Planning for the Meeting
6. Family Supporter/Advocates
7. Preparing Service Providers
8. Invitations
9. The Family Group Conference
10. Stage I - Information Sharing
11. Stage 2 - Private Time
12. Stage 3 - Agreeing and Recording Family Decisions
13. Stage 4 - Ending
14. Follow-up
15. Follow-up FGC Meetings
16. Follow-up FGC Plans
    
    Appendix A - Example of an FGC Invitation
    
    Appendix B - Example of an FGC Plan
    
    Appendix C - Letter for When an FGC is Cancelled
    
    Appendix D - Example of an FGC Follow-up Plan

1. Introduction/Principles of Family Group Conferences

Family Group Conferencing is a family led decision making process in which families are actively involved in making plans for the future of one or more of their children when there are concerns for their welfare. The process redefines and transforms the relationship between family and professionals by empowering the family to take the lead in decision making with professionals acting in a critical support role.

Key Elements of Family Group Conferences (FGC)

• The FGC is a major decision making forum for the child.
• The FGC is made up of as wide a network of family members as possible including grandparents, siblings, uncles, aunts, parents, and the child, as well as family friends who may know the child but are not blood relations.
• The meeting should, where possible, be conducted in the primary language of the family
• Pre-meeting preparation is KEY to  the success of the process and will make up most of the coordinators' time.
• Professionals provide relevant information concerning the services/resources available to the family in support of the child
• An FGC Coordinator facilitates the involvement of the child, family network and professionals in the FGC process
• The family should always have private discussion time at the FGC to produce their plans for the child
• The FGC plan should be agreed and resourced unless it places the child 'at risk of Significant Harm
• The FGC plan is monitored and reviewed

Principles

The principles of the FGC evolved out of ideas about collective responsibility, mutual obligation and shared interests rather than a discourse that focuses exclusively on individual rights and competing needs.

• The child's interests are paramount
• Children are generally best cared for within their families. Services should seek to promote this wherever possible
• Working in partnership with families is beneficial for children and empowers families to make long term change.
• The Children Act 1989 strongly reflects these principles and provides the impetus for using FGC's in practice in a child welfare context
• Family members hold information that non-family members may never know which can safeguard and promote the child's well being
• Family members have the greatest investment in the care and concern of the child
• The people most familiar with the family structure, dynamics, and decision-making practices, are the family members themselves

Guide to Practice

This guide is not a blueprint.  It provides an outline for FGC Cordinators when they are arranging FGC's.  As the practice of FGC's develop, so too will our learning and knowledge and this document will be revised and updated from time to time.

This guide covers some of the key stages of a FGC from referral to completion. Whereas the FGC framework process remains consistent, it should be informed and styled by the family.  Therefore every FGC will be unique.

2. Referrals

Referrals are made by district social workers when a decision needs to be made by the family about the welfare and needs of the children. The family will be provided with information about the process and will have given their consent to the referral being made.  A Family Group Conference is a voluntary process where families develop their own unique plan of action to safeguard their children. (For more information see Family Group Conference Referral Procedure)

Contacting the Social worker

Usually a face-to-face meeting works best.  If the FGC Coordinator already knows and has an established relationship with the social worker then a phone call may suffice.

The FGC Coordinator will agree and clarify with the social worker:

• Timescales/deadlines/significant dates
• The reason for the FGC, 'questions for the family'  and the 'bottom line' requirements their plan will need to address.
• That the family has been provided with information about FGC's and has agreed to participate in FGC process.
• That the social worker understands the requirement to attend and remain for the duration of the FGC
• Ascertain how best to maintain contact with each other (take into account part-time working, school holidays availability, and gather e-mail address and mobile phone numbers to facilitate contact)
• Clarify expectations/anxieties
• Roles and responsibilities (the referrer may be new to FGC's)
• Clarify the FGC Coordinator's role in the preparation and meeting process and as facilitator of the process not case-holder
• Are there any personal safety issues which the FGC Coordinator should know about?
• Does the FGC Coordinator need directions to the home?
• Any new information relating to the family's circumstances.

Because the social worker  defines the terms of the FGC, clarity at this early stage is essential.  Clarity about the reasons for the FGC provides the mandate and impetus for the family and professionals to be brought together.

Timescales

Check with the referrer as to whether there are fixed deadlines that affect the timescales of the FGC Meeting (such as court dates etc.).  In general however, FGCs are not an emergency response.  They are a planned approach to decision making.  Hurrying an FGC may lead to family members being ill prepared or unable to attend.

Conversely, it may be important to capitalise on the energy for the FGC from the family and to convene the meeting at a speed that suits them and the professionals.  This will require a BALANCING of interests, the needs of the family and the requirements of the professionals.

3. Contacting the Young Person and Family

It is usual for the FGC Coordinator to start by contacting the parent the child lives with (unless the referrer or coordinator has good reason to start with other family members instead).

The family will have been informed about the FGC process by their social worker and will have provided their consent to pursue an FGC.

(DVD's are available providing information about the FGC process for families where there are literacy issues.)

The FGC Coordinator will make a phone call or send a note, within 5 working days of receiving the referral, to arrange to visit.

The family needs to know

• Who has requested the meeting (if they are not aware), and why
• How important their involvement and contribution is
• That the meeting will be run to suit them
• What the FGC process involves.

It is critical that the family and child understand and buy into the FGC process. The FGC Coordinator may need to ENERGISE, ENCOURAGE AND MOTIVATE the young person and the family and help them start thinking about what they want and how the conference can help them achieve their goals.

4. Agreeing who Attends

This is one of the most complex tasks of managing an FGC.  It is important that the FGC Coordinator remains independent and maintains the position that the identified family network will be invited unless there are exceptional reasons to exclude them.  It may be precisely the person the parents are resisting attending who will challenge them or offer a genuine solution. Parents and children may have differing views about who needs to come, and the FGC Coordinator will need to negotiate agreement for the inclusion of as wide a family network as possible.

It is rare for a coordinator to exclude a family member and this is usually only on safety grounds. The FGC Coordinator should let the excluded person know they are excluded formally, and the reasons for the exclusion should usually be given in writing. The excluded person should be encouraged to make their views and suggestions known to the meeting by letter/recording/phone call.

Identifying who is in the Family Network

Every family is different. The way each family defines its own family will be crucial in shaping the FGC Coordinator's work. The role of listening and negotiating who should attend is central to the Coordinator's task. The family network will include blood relatives, in-laws, step-relatives and partners and close family and community friends.

It is important for the Coordinator to work on the expectation that he or she will include everyone who has the well-being and concern of the child at heart.

It is unusual to specifically exclude a family member and then only with good reason.

The FGC Coordinator will start with parents and children to discover who is part of their family network; to get a feel for who all the people are, before debating who will come to the meeting; talk to the child(ren) on their own, with parent's permission, to discover how best to involve them in the process and enable them to get their views heard.  Pictures, photos, family trees, genograms and ecomaps all help families remember who might be contacted; try and visit and speak to everyone who is concerned about the child, whether they are coming to the meeting or not, and go through an information leaflet with them.  There may be initial resistance but the focus is on the needs of the child and getting a variety of supportive people to the meeting; try and negotiate resistance and listen to family members reasons and fears about who to invite.

Encourage the family to spend time thinking about their family - old photographs, weddings, birthdays etc. may be useful memory tools.

Any contact addresses or phone numbers will be useful and one often leads on to other contacts.

Identifying who is "family" and who should attend the FGC represents a key challenge for FGC Coordinators.

The need to be as inclusive as possible while listening to the desires of parts of the family on who should be there is a constant balancing act.  At the beginning of negotiating the FGC, Coordinators need to emphasise that the process works best when it is as inclusive as possible.

The only time a Coordinator has a responsibility to exclude a certain family member is if they think that person will present a risk to the child.

It is expected that most, if not all, family members will need a visit and preparation for the FGC. Face to face contact is the best and most effective way of inviting and preparing family members. This presents a real opportunity for the FGC Coordinator to start building the family's sense of ownership of the process and the issues they have identified.

5. Planning for the Meeting

The FGC Coordinator will discuss with the family:

• Where they want their meeting - it needs to be neutral, accessible and comfortable
• When is the best date/time to hold it, to get all 'key' family and professionals there
• What help might they need in preparation
• Whether they need a supporter or friend
• Explore if they need a pre-meeting with anyone in preparation for the FGC
• How do they want information provided to them
• What service providers need to come to offer help
• Is there any special way the meeting should start
• What food and drink do they want and when and who should provide it (funded by project)
• How long should the venue be booked for,
• Are there access, travel, child care arrangements that need to be made to enable attendance
• Is a second room needed for children to use

If in doubt -'ASK THE FAMILY'

6. Family Supporter/Advocates

The child's wishes and feelings need to be heard and taken into account when families make decisions about them at the FGC.

A FGC aims that young people are: prepared so they can confidently take part in the meeting by planning what they want to say and how and when they want to say it; feel emotionally supported at the meeting if the going gets rough; can respond to what adults say, check understanding, ask questions and challenge if they need to. At all stages, from preparation through to final action planning, the young person needs to be not only involved in the process, but also in the task and outcomes. It is paramount that their voice is heard.

Coordinators are facilitators of the whole FGC process and as such have no role themselves as supporters or advocates to particular individuals, except in the most general sense. It would not be appropriate for a FGC Coordinator to become partisan at an FGC by supporting the child in getting their view heard.

Options to assure that this is accomplished include:

• Family supporters
  
  (Currently this is the preferred way of supporting young people at their FGC)
  
  The FGC Coordinator will:
• Help the young person identify someone in the family/friendship network who might support them at the meeting.  Ideally this is someone not centrally involved with the 'problem', maybe an aunt or more distant family member.  Sometimes children choose a youth worker or teaching assistant.
• Enable that person to meet the young person to elicit their views prior to the conference
• If necessary, meet with the identified support person and 'coach' them into the role of representing and assuring that the child's views be heard.
• Suggest that the young person is helped by a supporter (not the FGC Coordinator) to draw pictures, write down 'wishes and worries' or make notes or posters to take to the FGC. At the start of the meeting the Co-ordinator introduces that person in their role as supporter to the child

Independent Advocates

(Where family supporters are not available and the child would like this help)

The role of an independent advocate is to support the vulnerable person, and enable their voice to be heard.

The FGC Coordinator may commission an external independent advocate to work on this specifically with the child in advance of the FGC, and attend the FGC with them.

The advocate will normally support the child during stages 1 and 3 of the FGC (see sections 10 and 12 below), and only participate in private family time at the express wish of the child and other family members.

Any external advocate is there just for the child, and will leave the room if the child does.

The independent advocate needs to be either a) a trained advocate from a recognised advocacy service or b) an FGC Coordinator who has participated in a minimum of a one-day advocacy training course.

7. Preparing Service Providers

The FGC Coordinator will:

• Recap on the process
• Coach where necessary - not all will have had training or attended an FGC before
• Agree their availability as far ahead of the meeting as possible, work with the timings that suit the family but acknowledge and be realistic about service-providers constraints too (you do want them to re-refer!)
• The information they are bringing - it is important they talk about strengths as well as concerns, and explain clearly about resources and services available without being prescriptive
• How will they put information across
• Brief, clear, reports usually verbal, supported by using bullet-points or notes on flip chart- they should all have been previously shared with child's parent/carer
• No 'new news' - they need to discuss their input with parents/carers and young person in advance
• Any limitations to what they can agree for child safety or other legal reasons
• Encourage them to be pro-active in checking out availability of service provision in advance
• Prepare them to anticipate questions they may be asked, and how the family may feel about the agency they represent

8. Invitations

Child or adult family members may want to do these themselves.

They should be sent out at least one two weeks in advance and contain the following:

• Name of child 
• Date of FGC 
• Time
• Venue of FGC
• Reason for the meeting
• List of those to be invited
• Refreshments provided
• Contact details of coordinator.

If a child's invitations lack some of these details, include them in a covering letter.  Don't forget directions to the venue/map for those who may need it.

(See Appendix A - Example of an FGC Invitation)

9. The Family Group Conference

The FGC Coordinator will:

• Double-check arrangements for obtaining access to the venue
• Allow plenty of time and arrive early
• Prepare food
• Pay attention to welcoming, introductions and physical comfort (food, drinks, comfortable chairs, toilets etc.)
• Engender feelings of equality and respect - think about seating
• Empower the family to have the meeting in their way
• Start when family is ready
• Ensure introductions take place; the child or family member may want to assist with this
• Welcome everyone who has come as important to the child in some way
• Acknowledge any anxieties you have picked up
• Explain who is helping the child have a voice at their meeting
• Recap on the reason for the meeting - have the 'question for the family' written up and visible on a board/flipchart paper
• Clarify the three-stage process
• Information sharing and asking questions
• Private family discussions and planning
• Agreeing and recording family decisions
• Highlight any ground rules for the meeting which the family would like mentioned e.g. 100%
  • Confidentiality
  • Opportunity for all to speak
  • Respect other's views
• Reinforce that this is the family's meeting and the process can be flexible to suit them (breaks, food, time-out)

10. Stage I - Information Sharing

• Referrer explains why they requested the FGC and shares all relevant information with the family about concerns, strengths and available help and services in a way which is open honest, respectful and concise
• Referrer explains anything which could not be accepted for legal or safety reasons
• Flip chart paper, white boards, or brief notes previously shared with the family may assist
• Family members are encouraged to clarify and ask questions
• Other professionals share information about their role and help they can offer
• The child may elect to put their point of view over at this stage, with the help of their support person or advocate, or share drawings or written information
• If absent professionals have sent written information, it is better read out by a colleague than the FGC Coordinator.

The FGC Coordinator's role throughout this stage is to ensure

• All understand what is being said, and can ask questions and gain clarification
• Interaction is encouraged
• All feel safe and blame is avoided
• Planning and decisions are saved for private time.
• Family members are not put on the spot or made to divulge information.

Dealing with the unexpected

Be guided by the family, feedback to them and ask 'what do you want to do'?  If a problem emerges, make it explicit and encourage the family to find a way forward

11. Stage 2 - Private Time

The FGC Coordinator asks the family to focus on the needs of the child and come up with solutions and plans for a way forward, which everyone can agree to.

Ask the family to decide who will check-up that the plan is working and decide when to meet for a follow-up meeting to review it.  Remind them who is helping the child have a voice at the meeting.

Let them know you are available outside if needed and you and the referrer will come back in once the family have decided on a plan for a way forward

It is essential the social worker remains on site during private family time to provide clarity around questions and concerns should they be raised by the family.

Clarify and emphasise with the family that in this process they have as long as they need (when the room booking ends); they can come in and out as they need; you are available in the building; food and drink is theirs to have when they want; to call the FGC Coordinator back in once they have a plan agreed or noted down; leave food, drinks, tissues, paper and pens available.

The FGC Coordinator and service providers withdraw.

12. Stage 3 - Agreeing and Recording Family Decisions

The written plan represents what happens in the future to the child.

The FGC Coordinator will:

• Ask the family to relay their plan
• Use active listening skills and clarify each point of the plan
• Don't add extra suggestions from service providers or yourself as part of the plan
• Write it up on the flip so all can see using their language and phrases
• Include details of 'who' will action various points and be clear about 'when and 'where/how'
• Note names of those who will work together to keep an eye on (monitor) the plan (ideally someone from family and a service provider)
• Negotiate a convenient review date with all present and check venue availability.
• What if plan breaks down?
• Any back-up arrangements (plan A, plan B)
• Check everyone agrees (watch body-language, maybe ask some people directly)
• Ensure child/supporter are also on board and in agreement

(See Appendix B - Example of an FGC Plan)

13. Stage 4 - Ending

The coordinator will:

• Explain when you are going to send out the plan and who else will receive a copy (usually all invitees receive one whether they attend the meeting or not)
• Check you have everyone's addresses/contact details
• Explain about feedback (evaluation) forms and give out or agree to post with the plan
• De-brief child and key family members as needed
• Explain you will be in touch about 3 weeks prior to the review to remind family members.  Make sure they have your phone number in case they need to alter the date agreed or bring it forward.
• Finally - clear up, lock up, go home and relax!

14. Follow-up

The FGC Coordinator will:

Write up and send a copy of the plan within 2 working days to

• Everyone who attended the FGC
• Everyone who was invited but didn't attend
• The FGC project

The FGC plan will be used by the agencies working with the family in the future and needs to include all essential information.

What if the referral does not reach an FGC?

If after working on a referral for 4 weeks, there is still no date in sight for arranging the FGC then discuss the situation with the project that allocated the referral.

If it is agreed by all that the FGC will not go ahead at this time, then write a summarising letter, outlining why the FGC is not taking place and confirming what you have agreed with the family, and how another referral can be made.

(See Appendix C - Letter for When an FGC is Cancelled)

Send this letter to the parent(s) and send a copy to the referrer, school (if an education FGC) and project manager.

15. Follow-up FGC Meetings

All families are offered at least one follow-up to their FGC.

The date will have been agreed at the initial FGC, but don't assume everyone will have made a note of it even when this happens.

It is essential that  the referring social worker attends the follow-up review meeting to provide feedback from a children's services perspective, as to the effectiveness of the family's plan. They may also need to discuss any issues which may have arisen in relation to resourcing the plan.

The FGC Coordinator will:

• Make a note in your own diary 3 weeks ahead of time to initiate any follow-up the family would like. This will allow for any alterations should any changes in circumstances occur.
• Visit the child and key family members again in person and make sure to phone all the others.

The purpose of a follow-up is to

• Discuss how the plan is working out
• Make any changes
• Share information about any other issues which have cropped up since the FGC and make necessary plans
• Celebrate successes

Usually a follow-up will have the same format as an FGC:

• Information sharing about progress, and agency input
• Family time making plans and decisions
• Agreeing revised plans and action

A copy of the plan will be provided for everyone or noted on a flipchart where all can see is sometimes a good way to start sharing information. It helps to concentrate on the 'spirit' rather than the 'letter' of the plan, as details sometimes change.

Some families will say they don't want private family time and move straight from stage I to stage 3 and their preferences need to be put first.

16. Follow-up FGC Plans

The format will be exactly the same as for an initial FGC, but under the heading 'Reason for the FGC' there will need to be a sentence or two describing what has happened since the FGC and any new issues to consider at the meeting.

(See Appendix D - Example of an FGC Follow-up Plan)

End