3.8 Supporting Family Networks

1. Family Networks

A family network member is any family member or close friend who has a connection with the child. A family network is a group of people who are close to a child, made up of relatives and also non-related, connected people. A family network can include the child’s parents (or any other person with parental responsibility), relatives, family friends, god parents or other members of a child’s community, for example neighbours, teachers and youth workers.

Family networks are a vital source of love and protection and help to provide children with a sense of identity and belonging. Unlike Children’s Services, who come in and out of a child’s life, a family network is permanent, and practitioners should regularly identify ways to involve and strengthen the family network.

With the right support from trained practitioners, wider family members can help birth parents access support, whilst continuing to care for their children at home. Where this is not possible, family members can step in and provide a loving home for children within their existing communities. This could be through an informal kinship care arrangement, supported by a Family Network Support Package. Under circumstances where it is deemed best for the child to be removed from their birth parents, this could also be through formal kinship care, via a Special Guardianship or Child Arrangements Order and supported by a kinship allowance.

Children who are well supported to stay within their family networks have better outcomes than children who enter local authority care. Empowering family networks, with support from practitioners in both Family Help and multi-agency child protection, to make plans to support children and help families to stay together safely, is central to the whole family approach.

2. Family Group Decision Making

Family group decision-making (FGDM) is an umbrella term for voluntary, family-led decision-making forums. These ensure a child’s family network can be meaningfully supported by practitioners to make a plan in response to concerns about a child’s safety and wellbeing.

Practitioners should routinely consider how family group decision-making can be used to empower family networks to practically support parents and carers, whilst prioritising the safety and wellbeing of the child. Through the Families First Programme, local authorities are also funded to support these plans with Family Network Support Packages, where possible.

Family group decision-making should be integrated throughout Children’s Services, supported by a “family first” culture, which seeks to explore all options for keeping children safe at home or in their family network, where safe and appropriate. The offer of family group decision-making should be integrated into the support provided at every point of a child’s journey, from initial referral onwards. This includes through Family Help, multi-agency child protection, into care and as a tool for reunification.

To support local areas with high quality implementation of the duty and delivery of family group decision-making services, the Department for Education has published co-sector developed best practice support and resources on Knowledge Hub (requires log in).

3. Family Group Decision Making or Family Group Conferences?

Family group conferences (FGCs) are a form of family group decision-making forum. Although there is no legal requirement to use a particular family group decision-making model, growing evidence shows that family group conferences are highly effective in diverting children from care, as well as supporting families and improving decision-making processes. Local partnerships should consider the strong evidence for the family group conference model, alongside how to best meet local need and the requirements of individual families, when designing their services. This could include a mixed approach, where family group conferences are delivered at some points in the system and family group decision-making is used elsewhere.

4. Embedding Family Group Decision-making Across the System of Help, Support and Protection

Local partnerships are best placed to understand the needs of their families and communities. This will inform how family group decision-making is embedded. Local partnerships should develop an evidence-based approach that aligns with their practice framework.

Where it is in the best interests of the child, local partnerships should ensure that family group decision-making offers are made as early as possible and that these offers are repeated as a child’s needs change. Local partnerships should consider the principles of “right support at the right time” when embedding their family network service. This should aim to prevent children unnecessarily entering care and support reunification, where appropriate.

The Families First Programme Guide sets out the following expectations:

• Family group decision-making should be offered throughout Children’s Services, from initial referral onwards, including at the point of reunification. Family group decision-making should be offered at pre-proceedings, where this is in the child’s best interests;
• Family Help Lead Practitioners should identify a child’s family network at an early stage and engage them in decision making;
• the family group decision-making process should be clearly defined to ensure that high-quality offers are made to families with consistency;
• local authorities should offer a clear explanation where it has been agreed that offering family group decision-making would not be in the child’s best interests;
• family plans should be integrated into, and given sufficient weight within, family help and child protection plans;
• family network support packages should be used to facilitate any plans made through family group decision-making to help mobilise family network support; and
• relevant practitioners should have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities in the family group decision-making process:
  • o Family Help Lead Practitioners should use information about needs, strengths, any safeguarding concerns, risk or previous harm to inform decisions about wider family members invited to family group decision making;
  • o Family Help Lead Practitioners should consult with the Multi Agency Child Protection Team on concerns about a child’s safety and wellbeing and where there is ongoing child protection activity, including where family group decision making is agreed; and
  • o suitable training should be provided to ensure family group decision making facilitators have the knowledge, skills and experience to co-ordinate meetings safely and effectively, including being able to recognise and address coercive and controlling behaviours. This should be included in the local partnership workforce plan.

5. Minimum Requirements for Family Group Decision Making Services

The Families First Programme Guide sets out the following minimum requirements:

5.1. Appointing a dedicated family group decision making facilitator

There should be a designated family group decision-making facilitator to coordinate and lead the family group decision-making  process. Practitioners should consider offering families a facilitator with no previous involvement or decision-making responsibility with the child or family.

5.2. Preparation

5.2.1 Initial meeting with professionals

The family group decision-making  facilitator should work with the Family Help Lead Practitioner to discuss the child, their family and their history and gather relevant information to generate a full picture of this. Any known risks, concerns about harm, including any family history of domestic abuse should be considered.

5.2.2 Pre-meetings with the parents and child, and planning the meeting

Local authorities should actively seek the child’s views at every stage of the process, except in exceptional circumstances, where doing so would not be in the child’s best interests. Examples include when practitioners have concerns about the safety or wellbeing of a child, including where coercion, controlling behaviour or other harm is known or suspected within the wider family network, or when the child is too young to consent to participate.  The facilitator should gain consent to meet with the child and parents/those with parental responsibility before introducing themselves to explain the family group decision-making process, understand more about the family’s circumstances and work with them to identify people in the family network who could be invited to the family group decision-making meeting.

5.2.3 Co-designing and setting up the meeting

The facilitator should meet with all family network members ahead of the meeting to discuss the purpose of the meeting, how it will run and ground rules. They will discuss if there are any additional needs or considerations that need to be put in place to ensure the meeting is accessible. The facilitator will support the family to decide on a date and location of the family group decision-making meeting. This should be at a time, place and a venue to suit all family network members and, where possible, it should take place on ‘neutral’ ground (not at local authority or other agency offices).

5.2.4 Facilitator’s preparation meeting

Shortly before the meeting, facilitators should meet with the Family Help Lead Practitioner, and the Multi-Agency Child Protection Team where appropriate, to discuss the family group decision-making meeting. They should discuss all the relevant information about the family, to agree what help, support or protection the child needs and how the family network support can be integrated effectively into the Family Help and child protection plan to improve outcomes to achieve this. The key concerns the family’s plan should address, including considerations for keeping the child safe, should be agreed.

5.3. The family group decision-making meeting

The purpose of the meeting is to create a plan for the child, centred around keeping them safe, by addressing the concerns of the local authority and family. The needs of the child should be kept central to the meeting in all circumstances, and this should be clearly explained at the start of the meeting.

• ground rules for the meeting should be established and the key requirements or ‘bottom lines’ that the plan needs to address to keep the child safe should be outlined to the family network;
• the meeting should give the family network adequate time to come up with their own plan to address the concerns for the child. During the meeting, the family network should be offered time to discuss the issues without any professionals present, unless there are safeguarding concerns that deem this inappropriate or unsafe;
• the family network should share their plan with the facilitator, the Family Help Lead Practitioner and Multi-Agency Child Protection Team, where appropriate. At the meeting, the Family Help Lead Practitioner should consider the plan against the key concerns and requirements, seeking input from the Multidisciplinary Family Help team, and the Multi-Agency Child Protection Team where required. If there are child protection concerns, the FHLP should engage the MACPT. If the plan is lawful, safe and addresses the key concerns, it can be agreed;
• once the plan is agreed, practitioners should commit to providing the support contained in the plan to the family network, including any family network support plans. The family plans should be integrated into, and given sufficient weight within, any relevant family help and child protection plans. Everyone who has attended the family group decision making meeting should also have a copy of the plan.

5.4. Reviewing the plan

The family network should be given a formal opportunity to review their plan, within a reasonable and agreed time frame. At the review, the family network and practitioners should consider how the plan is working and if any circumstances have changed. Family Help Lead Practitioners should also consider if the support offered as part of the plan has been delivered.

6. Family Group Decision Making and Safeguarding

Family group decision-making should ensure safety of the child. Understanding the child and family network’s history and day-to-day life and experiences is central to safe and effective family group decision-making.  Planning for family group decision-making should consider the range of harms that children and families can experience, including domestic abuse, coercive or controlling behaviour, teenage relationship abuse, child sexual abuse, exploitation or other extra-familial harms.  If deemed necessary, the exclusion of certain individuals, including family network members and those with parental responsibility, from family group decision-making should be explored. Family Help Lead Practitioners and Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams, where appropriate, should have oversight over assessments of who is suitable to engage with family group decision-making and how to create a safe environment:

• the significance of the adults in contact with the child and their family should be explored;
• close attention should be paid to any serious criminal convictions, previous allegations of child abuse, domestic abuse or impulsive violent behaviour, restrictions on contact with children or involvement with children subject to child protection plans or care proceedings; and
• plans should be put in place to manage eventualities where threatening or disruptive behaviour arises during family group decision making.

Where it is decided that individuals should not be at family group decision-making  meetings, Family Help Lead Practitioners and Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams (where appropriate) should consider whether the views of the individual should be invited and taken into account as part of family group decision-making. This decision should always promote the safety and welfare of the child and be in their best interests. Parents and carers should always be given the information, support and advice required to give informed consent and fully participate in decision making where this is possible. Working Together to Safeguard Children sets out clear principles for working with parents, carers and families to build trust, confidence and respect, which should be embedded throughout the family group decision-making process. For example, family network members may need advocacy to fully participate in family group decision-making.  See also Working with Parents and Carers chapter.

If the family group decision-making  process uncovers new information that the family or child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm, the facilitator should raise this with the child’s Family Help Lead Practitioner immediately and follow these safeguarding procedures.

To support local authorities and all practitioners involved in family group decision-making, the Department for Education has published co-developed best practice support and resources on Knowledge Hub (requires log in), setting out best practice for family group decision-making and safeguarding, including on preparation and safety planning, excluding individuals from family group decision-making, information sharing and when family group decision-making may not be offered.

7. Local Authorities Should Offer Family Group Decision Making at Pre-proceedings

7.1 Overview

The pre-proceedings process offers a final opportunity for parents to avoid care proceedings. It is important for local safeguarding partnerships to consider the following practice principles when embedding family group decision-making at pre-proceedings:

• parents and those with parental responsibility should be offered family group decision making for their child before an application is made to court for a care or supervision order, unless it is not in the child’s best interests;
• the family group decision making offer should be made in the ‘letter before proceedings.’ Where the offer is accepted, family group decision making should be arranged to help, support and protect children and their families, as needed;
• the offer should be discussed with parents in the first pre-proceedings meeting, where written information should be provided on family group decision making so that parents, or those with parental responsibility, can give informed consent. If parents consent to family group decision making, then steps to facilitate this should start immediately;
• when offering family group decision making at pre-proceedings, the following should be considered:
  • o if family group decision making has been offered before;
  • o how successful it was in improving outcomes for the child;
  • o the time that has elapsed since the previous family group decision making;
  • o how the family’s circumstances may have changed in light of moving into pre-proceedings; and
• adhering to Working Together to Safeguard Children, which sets out guidance on pre-proceedings and safeguarding partnerships should consider this when setting up family group decision making services.

The decision to offer family group decision-making should be discussed at the first legal planning meeting, with input from the Family Help Lead Practitioner and the Multi-Agency Child Protection Team. The decision and rationale should be recorded and signed off by a senior manager and included in the court application for consideration by the judge. If the case does result in the initiation of court proceedings, the Family Help Lead Practitioner and Multi-Agency Child Protection Team should also consider how they can evidence the mandated offer of family group decision-making and any resulting actions to the court, for example, through the Social Work Evidence Template (SWET).

7.2 Family group decision making timescales at pre-proceedings

Where an offer is made, local authorities should provide sufficient time for parents or those with parental responsibility to consider their options, including the opportunity to seek legal advice or discuss the offer with family and friends.  Local authorities should ensure that the offer is presented in an accessible way, taking into account the individual needs of those receiving the offer, to ensure informed consent. This should consider any additional learning needs, disabilities, or communication requirements.  The Family Help Lead Practitioner should follow up within a reasonable time period, to confirm a decision and engage with families to address any concerns or barriers that prevent a decision from being reached. Where there are delays, practitioners should assess whether extending the timeframe remains in the child’s best interests. The local authority should facilitate family group decision-making if it has been accepted by at least one individual to whom the offer was made.

7.3 When family group decision making isn’t offered at pre-proceedings

Family group decision-making may not always be in the child’s best interest, for example, when the child and those with parental responsibility have no significant relationship, or if, following assessment of all family network members, family group decision-making has been deemed to be unsafe.  The decision not to offer family group decision-making should take into account the individual circumstances and needs of the child. Local areas should not adopt an approach that assumes blanket exemptions based on certain harm types or the family’s history. Families are complex and whilst it may not be safe for a child to live with their family, for example due to domestic abuse or other types of harm, for many children it will be important for them to remain in contact as part of understanding their history and identity. Where family group decision-making can promotes a child’s wellbeing and safety, it should always be considered.

7.4 Withdrawing the offer of family group decision making at pre-proceedings

The offer of family group decision-making can be withdrawn at any time if it is no longer in the child’s best interests. The decision to withdraw, and the rationale, should be recorded in the child’s Family Help and child protection plan and signed off by a senior manager. If the Family Help Lead Practitioner and Multi-Agency Child Protection Team believe that the child’s circumstances or needs have changed at any point during the pre-proceedings stage, such that court proceedings should be initiated immediately, then the application to the court should be made. Family work, including family group decision-making, should continue including when care proceedings have been initiated. Parents have the right to withdraw at any point.

8. Family Network Support Packages

8.1 Overview

Practitioners throughout children’s services should routinely consider what support already exists within a family network and how this can be strengthened. Those working with families should use a strength-based approach to engage with parents and the wider family network to consider whether a family network support package (FNSP) can facilitate a family-led solution to support a child. Family network support packages are targeted funding for practical support. For example, funding items, such as a car seat, to enable a family network member to provide support transporting children to school, or a loft conversion to enable family network members to provide a safe home environment separate from the family home. Family network support packages should be bespoke to individual families’ needs and co-designed with them, through family group decision making, to ensure they are targeting specific barriers the family network face in providing support.

Although many local authorities already deliver flexible funding to families through section 17 of the Children Act 1989, family network support packages specifically aim to unlock family network support to both de-escalate social care involvement and prevent a child entering care, where appropriate. As well as delivering better outcomes for children and families, this is a cost saving measure for local authorities.

8.2 Expectations for family network support packages

The Families First Programme Guide sets out the following expectations:

• family network support packages should be used to unlock family network support to enable children to remain safely under the parental responsibility of their birth parents or those with parental responsibility at the time of family group decision making;
• family network support packages should fund direct payments or procured goods and services. This can include, but is not limited to:
  • activity passes;
  • training;
  • baby/toddler equipment;
  • furniture;
  • home adaptations;
  • deposits for social housing or rental properties;
  • income supplements;
  • rent/mortgage payments;
  • vehicles;
  • travel costs;
  • visas and travel costs for overseas family network members;
  • support with a child’s education (e.g. helping a child to attend school regularly);
  • childcare or other home care support;
• family network support packages should be tailored to the bespoke needs of the individual children and family networks. They should not be a “one-size-fits-all” solution and local authorities are encouraged to be creative and ambitious in designing FNSPs for families; and
• agreement of family network support packages within the family network should be made via family group decision making, with the agreed support integrated into Family Help or child protection plans and reviewed regularly.

8.3 Family network support packages eligibility

• any family network member, including birth parents, of a child who is under section 17 or section 47 Children Act 1989 and is not looked after; and
• family network members, including birth parents, for a child in Targeted Early Help (part of Family Help) are also eligible through alternative payment routes.

8.4 Local flexibility for family network support packages

• family network support packages can be offered to family networks from initial assessment onward, to enable local authorities to support families early on, to reduce the risk of escalation into statutory services. Local authorities may choose to focus their offer at certain points, to suit local need;
• local authorities should develop a clear family network support packages internal governance pathway to approve family network support package funding requests in line with internal financial/audit processes;
• local authorities should consider how to best streamline family network support package approval and payment processes to ensure timely support is delivered for families. This could include:
  • o recruitment of a Business Support Officer to aid family network support package delivery;
  • o a standardised application or referral form for relevant practitioners to fill out with family network members;
• local authorities are encouraged to consider how they will ensure practitioners working with families are aware of family network support packages and the process for securing funding for them;
• local authorities should support their workforce to understand how family network packages can be used positively and preventively within a family led approach. This includes developing a “family-first” culture that fosters use of this intervention.