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Our Aim:

To work with families to create positive

change enabling children to remain safely

at home wherever possible.

Families Together is an intervention service aimed at creating positive change in the way families function. Our interventions are focussed on discovering and developing family strengths and enabling people to learn and practice new skills and patterns of behaviour, thus achieving clear and measurable behavioural change so that children may safely remain in the family home wherever possible.

Families Together is based at Sheffield Alcohol Advisory Service and works in Partnership with Sheffield Children’s and Young People’s Directorate and Sheffield’s Youth Offending Service

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Families Together team structure:

Family Therapists:

• Sarah Fridlington

• Teresa Clayton

• Tracy Carnall

• Richard Ramsden

Senior Family Therapist:

·         Helen Joyce – currently on a secondment to the Youth Offending Service

One to One Counsellor and Maintenance Counsellor:

·         Paul Johnson

Administrator:

·         Greer Furniss-Coates

Manager:

·         Rob MacRae

Contact:

For initial contact, referrals and further information please contact: Greer Furniss-Coates — Families Together Administrator on 0114 250 6976

Or email on: greer.furniss-coates@sheffieldaas.org.uk

Within the Families Together service there is the Families Together Crisis Service, Respect Service and One to One service. 

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Crisis Service

Who are we?

The Crisis intervention is a service for families where the Social Worker or Family Support Worker is so concerned about the risk to the child/ren or young person within that family that they are considering placing, or have already placed the child/ren in local authority care. The initial intensive intervention lasts for 4 – 6 weeks with a family Therapist spending usually around 30 hours per intervention within the family home completing evidenced based therapeutic work with all family members. The Therapist is available to the family 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We work mainly in the family home and provide a high level of contact during the intervention. The aim of the intervention is to work with the family in order for them to make the necessary positive behavioural changes to ensure the child/ren or young person can remain safely within the family home wherever possible.

How do we work?

The basis of our model:

• To recognise and feed back to the family the existing strengths, resources and positives within that family

• To instil hope in a family

• To work with the family to build on and develop these by teaching new skills and setting specific and measurable goals.

The basis of this model draws on Crisis Theory…Motivational Interviewing …Solution Focused Brief Therapy…Systems Theory …Cognitive Behavioural Therapy but, importantly, it is about drawing on families strengths, values and preferred futures.

Using these models of practice we help explore and remove the blocks to change;

• We explore and reflect values and beliefs about family life, helping families to feel strong, positive and clear about what they want and how that conflicts with their present behaviour.

• We explore and reflect strengths and skills within the family to enable people to feel more hopeful, confident and motivated to make the changes necessary.

Maintenance work:

After the initial 4 – 6 week intervention, follow up contacts are carried out once a week up until the one month review. Meetings are then held at 3, 6 and 12 month to support the family. During these periods booster sessions can be requested to support the family.

Additional support maybe agreed and a One to One counsellor will pick up ongoing maintenance or support work as decided with the referrer, Therapist and family.

The referral criteria

The Referral source is Sheffield’s Children and Young People’s Directorate.

• The family must be in crisis

• The family are motivated to work with our service and agree to the crisis intervention

• The family are at immediate risk of having their child/ren removed

• There is a risk of the child/ren being taken into local authority care in the future if no changes are made

• We can work with families where there are long term carers such as grandparents or foster carers

• There must be an allocated Social/Family Support worker for the duration of the initial intervention

• If the referral is from a Family Support worker it must be endorsed by their Team Manager

• Please note: There does not have to be substance use issues within the family you refer.

Reunification work

We can work with families where the children are accommodated by the local authority and the parents are willing to engage with Families Together. There must be a plan to return the child/ren or young person during the intervention.

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Respect Service

Who are we?

The Respect service is a crisis intervention service for families where the Social Worker, Family Support Worker, Youth Offending case officer or Sheffield High Support Service Key Worker has serious concerns about the risk to a young person (11-15 yrs) within the family. The initial intensive intervention lasts for 4 – 6 weeks with a family Therapist spending usually around 30 hours per intervention within the family home completing evidenced based therapeutic work with all family members. The Therapist is available to the family 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The aim of the intervention is to work with the family in order for them to make the necessary positive behavioural changes to ensure that the young person (11-15 yrs) can remain safely within the family home wherever possible.

The referral criteria:

A) Professionals referring:

• Youth Offending Service: There must be an allocated Youth Offending Case Officer for the duration of the Crisis intervention and the referral must be endorsed by the parenting co-ordinator. There must also be an up to date risk assessment.

• Children and Young People’s Directorate: There must be an allocated Social Worker for the duration of the Crisis intervention.

• Children and Young People’s Directorate: If the referral is from a Family Support worker it must be endorsed by their Team Manager

• Sheffield High Support Service (SHSS): referrals must be endorsed by a manager

B) The family must be in crisis and must agree to the crisis intervention

C) The predominant issues which are affecting the young person (11-15 years old) and the family are related to social and family issues and they are: 

Or: The young person is at risk of accommodation into the care of the local authority (section 20) or a rehabilitation home following a custodial sentence or from local authority care.

Sections A and B of the referral criteria must be satisfied and one or more of sections C to meet the criteria

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One to One service

The Families One to One team aims to help parents who are having problems with alcohol/substance use. The One to One team will only work with parents who have been referred by CYPD due to concern for the child/ren’s welfare.

The One to One Counsellor’s are qualified in alcohol and substance use counselling and parenting skills. We aim to support parents in making positive changes to their substance use and reduce parent’s stress, improving the welfare of their children.

The One to One Service operates a waiting list due to the high demand for its service. When a referral is made and it meets the criteria the client will be placed on the waiting list and will be sent out a pre-intervention pack. The pack  includes: an initial letter,  some information on the service, a decisional balance sheet for alcohol and substance misuse, an alcohol and substance user diary sheet, information on reducing alcohol consumption, an NHS booklet on alcohol “How much is too much” and an NHS booklet about overdose if applicable.  

Where does the counselling take place?

The Counsellor will visit parents at their home, at Sheffield Alcohol Advisory Services (SAAS) or at a venue that will suit the client. They will carry out an initial visit with the Social Worker or Family Support Worker, and then on a one to one basis. The One to One team usually offers weekly appointments, and this is reviewed on a 6 weekly cycle. The intervention average is 6 months.

What does the service offer?

The parent and the Counsellor will work together to address the problems they are experiencing, this work may involve:

Goal setting: 

• Working together to identify the changes you want to make to your alcohol and/or substance use and your parenting.

Reducing harm: 

• Exploring ways of reducing the harm to yourself and others when you are using alcohol and/or substances.

Taking a closer look: 

• Helping you to identify the reasons for your alcohol and/or substance use and explore other issues related to your substance use.

The counselling style: 

• We will explore the way your thoughts, feelings and environment affect your alcohol and/or substance use and parenting: this is called the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy model. (CBT)

Parenting: 

• Helping you to find ways to build on your skills and address your difficulties as a parent, by reducing stress levels and improving family relationships.

Ways of coping: 

• Helping you make changes and achieve your goals by developing alternative coping strategies.

Staying on track: 

• Looking at ways of maintaining the changes you have made.

How to make a referral to Families Together?

If any of the criteria are met then the professional involved with the family can a make a referral. The referral is taken over the telephone and will take approximately 20 minutes. 

Families Together can report on the observations made during work with families.  Families Together do not complete assessments and cannot make statements about parental capacity.

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More about Families Together:

Evidence Informed Practise:

Feedback and Consultation Event

Reflective practise is an integral part of the work Families Together do. We reflect to families and professionals and we operate reflective supervision as part of the model we work to.

 Feedback is very important and crucial to the work we do, it gives us an insight into how the family and professional worker found working with us, what they thought was helpful and useful and what they think we could improve upon. Feedback is really valuable to us and helps us to work more effectively with families, young people and multiple agencies in the future

 Families Together run a fun and informative family event every year with the purpose of gathering feedback from families about how they have found working with our service over the past year, what they particularly liked and disliked and any ideas they had about how we could improve our service for future families.

This event is intended to be relaxed, fun and family focused and to achieve this we work with ‘Children’s Voices’ an organisation who work to provide children and young people of Sheffield with a voice through participation and consultation activity.

Families Together Training

Families Together have provided training on Solution Focused Therapy. Families Together has a 5 day training pack to cover all aspects of Solution Focused Training including Engaging with difficult families, Preferred Futures, Motivational Interviewing, Values work, Strengths work, Goal setting and monitoring and Solution focused work. Each day covers a different aspect of Solution focused work, discussing the aspect, taking part in role plays, feeding back and exploring how Family Support could use this training in their roles.

Families Together is currently developing and preparing to run a parenting course “Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities” within the new Year.

Click here for more information for Professionals. (pdf)