Parental Mental Health and Child Welfare Network - News
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SCIE implementing the Think Child, Think Parent, Think Family guide
SCIE is working with the five integrated Health and Social Care trusts in Northern Ireland, and five sites in England to pilot the implementation of the ‘Think Child, Think Parent, Think Family’ guide. The sites in England are:
- Birmingham
- Liverpool
- London Borough of Lewisham
- London Borough of Southwark
- North Somerset
The sites are currently developing their implementation plans, and are at different stages with this. SCIE will continue to support the pilot sites for two years (three years in Northern Ireland) as they implement their plans. SCIE is also working on an evaluation of the projects to determine the impact of putting the guide’s recommendations into action. For more information about the pilot sites and early guidance on the key characteristics of a successful service, visit the Implementation sites
For the Guide itself, go to SCIE Guide 30: Think child, think parent, think family: a guide to parental mental health and child welfare.
The Parental Mental Health and Child Welfare Network is working with the implementation team at SCIE to share our resources and support those working to hold a family-centred approach in their thinking.
STUDY DAYS
THINK FAMILY? NEW MODELS OF PRACTICE STUDY DAY 30 APRIL 2010
BIRMINGHAM CVS 9.30am – 4.00 pm
Don’t miss this crucial event which will use keys to unlock the potential – treasure chest or minefield? – of ‘Thinking Family’. It will present findings from the latest DH evaluation of Family Nurse Partnerships; create a safe space for critical debate and reflection on family–focussed working; give examples of where local services are piloting different ways of working systemically with the diverse formations of adults and children that constitute families; and hear how recognising the resources of parents with mental health problems and their children can really make a difference.
Contributors include:
- Kate Billingham DH Programme Lead Family Nurse Partnerships
- John Burnham Head of Family and Systemic Psychotherapy and Director of Systemic Training
- Judith Lask Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice in the UK
- Anne Rawcliffe Suffolk Think Family Coordinator
- SCIE Hugh Constant Practice Development Manager think child, think parent, think guide implementation
- Frahana Rashid Post Natal Depression (PND) Project for Pakistani & Pushto women in Washwood Heath, Birmingham
Free places are available for service users and people who are unwaged.
To view the programme and book your place please click here
PREVIOUS STUDY DAYS
LIVING WITH PERSONALITY DISORDERS – HOW CAN WE SUPPORT BETTER PARENTING? NOVEMBER 2009
The full report from this thought provoking and interactive study day in London and the one that preceded it in Leeds (March 2009) will be available online www.pmhcwn.org.uk
PMHCWN AT THE ALL PARTY PARLIMENTARY GROUP MEETING ON PARENTAL MENTAL HEALTH AND CHILD WELFARE
On Monday 22 March members of the PMHCWN steering group participated in a meeting at the House of Commons jointly hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Social Care and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Children.
Amanda Edwards deputy Director of SCIE, spoke about the need for guidance to support services around the country. Many children’s and adults’ services are already working together to put the needs of the whole family at the heart of their practice, but they face an uphill struggle for many reasons including a lack of confidence on the part of staff about areas outside their expertise, and an unwillingness to ask for help. As both adult mental health and children’s social care services are areas of high stress and high risk people tend to close down and pass responsibility on to someone else. A key message is to build strengths and resilience in families with one eye on risk, and building workers’ knowledge of mental health behaviours that could present a risk to children.
The crucial context for this is understanding that almost all parents are doing their best to bring up their children, and that simple and practical steps such as explaining to children what is the matter when a parent becomes unwell, helping parents to get their children to school on time, and creative combinations of individual budgets and direct payments can make a difference to parents’ ability to look after their families.
Amanda’s presentation was interspersed with moving clips from Social Care TV, SCIE’s channel, which will be available from June. Louisa from Keeping the family in Mind spoke about the responsibilities she had had to take on as a child when her mum was ill, including feigning her mum’s signature on any number of letters so that she would be taken seriously by services to whom she was largely invisible as a child. Louise Wardale from Barnardos Keeping the Family in Mind and the Merseyside collaborative explained how they had got their ‘think child, think parent, think family’ site up and running.
A lively discussion ensued with points about the need to have underpinning structures to support the parent-child relationship and how the division between adults’ and children’s services works against this. Work on pushing for a family threshold for services as advocated in the SCIE guidance was welcomed and is reflected in recent DSCF publications including the review of Family Pathfinders.
PUBLIC POLICY, CONSULTATIONS AND GUIDANCE DCSF
REMINDER - SUPPORT FOR ALL – THE FAMILIES AND RELATIONSHIPS GREEN PAPER
Launched on Wednesday 20 January 2010 and closing on Wednesday 21 April 2010 this Green Paper sets out a wide range of measures to support all families as they bring up their children and to help families cope with times of stress and difficulty.
York Consulting has just published the first in a series of updates from the Think Family Pathfinders Evaluation. Click here to find out more.
The government has set out how it plans to transform social work in England.
Children’s social work teams across England will receive £48m in 2010-11 to transform conditions on the frontline.
The funding includes £23m to help reduce pressure on frontline workers, £15m to improve IT systems and £10m to help Cafcass tackle the backlog of cases.
For Sector responses click here
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
FROM CHILDREN, FAMILIES AND MATERNITY E BULLETIN
Latest e-bulletin (download here) includes update on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) and information regarding age appropriate environment provision for under 18s receiving hospital treatment for mental health problems.
NEW RESEARCH, PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
CONSERVATIVES LAUNCH CHILD PROTECTION: BACK TO THE FRONTLINE POLICY PAPER
Conservatives are proposing that social workers will be able to establish social work practices similar to GPs' surgeries, and failing local authorities may be obliged to contract out all or part of their children's social care provision.
The Conservatives' plans would also see the creation of a national post of chief social worker, the scrapping of the children's database, ContactPoint, and the anonymous publication of all serious case reviews.
OFSTED REPORT FINDS THAT INCONSISTENT MENTAL HEALTH PROVISION IS DISADVANTAGING YOUNG PEOPLE IN CARE – FEBRUARY
Access to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) is inconsistent for young people in care, with provisions varying from good to none at all, according to Ofsted’s latest report.
NEWS FROM SPN’s PARTNERS AND OTHER ORGANISATIONS
SCIE/NICE PRODUCE LOOKED-AFTER CHILDREN GUIDANCE CONSULTATION
SCIE and NICE have teamed up to produce guidance on the physical and emotional wellbeing of looked-after children which is out for consultation until 14 April. Registered stakeholders for this guidance are invited to comment on the provisional recommendations via the NICE website. The final guidance, due out in the autumn, aims to address these inequalities and improve the outcomes for looked-after children and young people.
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