CYP(3) PAP 30

Children and Young People Committee

Inquiry into Parenting Action Plan

Response From Powys Children and Young People's Paernership

Following the request to provide evidence to the Children and Young People Committee on the Parenting Action Plan, it is important to understand that the detailed response to the report has been written primarily by Barnardos Cymru under the umbrella of the Children and Young People’s Partnership as.  As already outlined in their response, Barnardos Cymru provides both the facilitation and organisation to support the direct delivery of parenting programmes within Powys.  

The work and activity of both Barnardos and the Multi-Agency staff who support the delivery programme is monitored through a Multi-Agency Project Management Board which sits under the umbrella of the Children and Young People’s Partnership.

Outlined below is information in relation to the CYPP which aims to set the context of delivering services within the county of Powys and the way in which it intends to be able to do this .The children and young people’s plan will be the single most driving force for change and modernisation of services for children, young people and their families.

Background information

Powys has a population of 35973 children and young people between the ages of 0-24 years.

They live in the most sparsely populated county in England and Wales covering some 2000 miles.

The population on the whole enjoys good health, a high quality natural environment, low crime rates and low unemployment. However underneath this apparent "rural idyll” there are serious issues impacting on quality of life, health and well being for individuals, families and communities.

Due to the rural nature of the county access to many social, health and other services and facilities are more difficult than in urban areas. Services for children and young people in particular can be affected by the need to provide services to a small population across a large area.

In order to understand the needs of children, young people and their families living in Powys the Children and Young People’s Partnership conducted an Assessment of Need process including a Childcare Needs Assessment - the findings showed a need for

• Improving the co-ordination and quality of early years and family support services and the need to implement a universal framework for assessment to ensure risks are identified so that early preventative action can be taken.
• Alternative and complementary education and qualification opportunities to ensure that we reduce the small but significant numbers of young people who leave education without any formal qualifications and / or are no longer in training education or employment.
• Improved support and intervention for the children and young people who have been or who are at risk of being excluded from school.
• An improvement in the quality of the learning environment and the need to work in partnership to support schools in becoming the hub for a community focused service approach, particularly in areas of disadvantage.
• Better recognition and support for the emotional health and well-being of children and young people attending universal services together with improved access to more specialised support for those with mental health problems.
• Improved access / availability to health, play, leisure and cultural programmes and activities to encourage healthier and more active lifestyles.
• Maximising the opportunities for children and young people to participate in the planning, development and management of their own opportunities and services and to advocate for those who are unable or are excluded from doing so.
• Prioritising the housing support needs of young people and families with children.
• The provision of childcare to support those in or entering training or work in a bid to help reduce the proportion of families claiming worklessness benefits.
• Increasing the range of, and access to, services for children and young people with a disability.
• Better, co-ordinated and accessible information so that children, young people and their families can make more informed choices

Vision of the Powys Children and Young People’s Partnership

We want all children and young people living in Powys to reach their full potential by having access to the services they need and that those services value and respect them (and their parents and their carers) and promote their health, wellbeing, learning and development.

The principles which underpin the Children and Young People’s Partnership’s vision are:

• That children, young people and their families will feel involved, informed, supported and empowered.
• That children and young people will be actively safeguarded and protected from harm
• That there should be equality of access to services including linguistic equality.
• That services are delivered by a skilled and effective workforce
• That we will maximise the efficient use of our resources to exceed minimum standards of quality
• That we will enhance our capacity for partnership working by stepping outside our traditional boundaries of service delivery whilst still recognising our individual skills and competencies
• That we are committed to the delivery of demonstrable improved outcomes for children, young people and their families.

Equity and Diversity

Powys CYPP is committed to promoting equity and diversity through the delivery of this Plan and in particular ensuring that the Plan meets the needs of specific identified groups.

These include:-

• children and young people with a disability
• children and young people experiencing discrimination and bullying
• children and young people who require Welsh speaking services
• children and young people who can not access services due to lack of transport

Whilst some of these needs can not be met by the CYPP alone there is a commitment to working with other key partnerships to help make them happen, in particular the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board in terms of bullying and discrimination and the Local Service Board through the Local Delivery Agreement in relation to transport.

The Audit of Need identified children and young people with a disability as a priority and the Plan addresses disability as a cross cutting issue. However, to ensure that there will not be a loss of focus the CYPP have set up a specific cross sector / stakeholder Disability Reference Group. Its role is to provide support and guidance in relation to the operational delivery of all aspects of the Partnerships work relating to disability. In particular it will help to ensure that the actions outlined in the Plan are achieved.

A Tiered Approach to Service Provision

The CYPP has adopted a common framework for the mapping of service provision for children and young people which is related to their level of need, this has resulted in four levels or tiers:

The tiered model recognises that:

• Children and young people may present at different tiers over time, for different types of need (health, education, social care) at any one time.
• The additional needs of children and young people may arise from both their own difficulties or the difficulties experienced by those seeking to exercise parental responsibilities.
• Children and young people may move up and down the tiers depending on the nature and severity of their needs.
• Wherever possible children and young people should seek to have their needs met by universal provision.  Service providers from the higher tiers of specialism (Tiers 2 - 4) should facilitate universal service providers in meeting the additional needs of children and young people wherever possible

The CYPP plan has identified a number of planning priorities all of which will either directly or indirectly impact upon the delivery of parenting provision, the planning priority that is likely to have the biggest impact is outlined below:

Family Support and Childcare

The CYPP want to reduce the need for children and young people to be safeguarded or looked after by ensuring children, young people and their families have access to services which help to support positive family life.

What do we want to do?

• Have in place responsive integrated multi-agency teams across health, childcare and educational services that enable all parents, carers and family members to provide appropriate support for all children and young people to meet their full potential.
• Have screening and assessment processes in place to enable the early identification of vulnerabilities that may impede children and young people meeting their full potential.
• Facilitate early intervention, on a cross-agency basis where appropriate, to meet the needs of vulnerable children and young people and their families.
• Reduce the need for children and young people to be safeguarded or looked after by the Local Authority away from their usual family support network.
• Where children require specialist services from providers outside of the county, ensure that there is a continuous pathway in place to support their return to Powys at the first appropriate opportunity.

How will we do it?

• Through the development of respite care services for children and young people
• Where parents’ capacity to meet the needs of their children is compromised.
• Where children and young people have specific needs that their family may not be able to meet without additional support.
• where children and young people have significant caring responsibilities, evidence based
• Enhancing evidence-based early family intervention programmes / services
• Increasing the range of parenting provision with a particular focus on the following group):
• Young parents
• Parents with mental health difficulties
• Parents with learning difficulties
• Parents with substance misuse issues.
• Parents of teenagers
• Securing sufficient childcare places to meet the needs of parents in or entering work or training
• Developing services to meet the needs of vulnerable children at specific points of transition in their life.
• Facilitating access for children with disabilities in to accessing mainstream services to meet their health, education, social care and lifestyle needs.
• Developing family support services for
• Children and young people at risk of family breakdown due to compromised parenting.
• Children and young people with complex needs
• Young carers
• Children and young people who exhibit harmful behaviours
• Specialist abuse services
• Developing protocols and services in conjunction with adult services (Social care and the LHB) to ensure adults with mental health, learning disability and substance misuse needs who are also parents/carers of children and young people will have their needs prioritised.

Specific Response to the Delivery of Parenting Action Plan  written by Barnados Cymru with some additional comments from the CYPP

The Parenting Action Plan agreed in 2005 had some very modest goals and many of them have been partially achieved.

Bilingual helpline for parents

There appears to have been no progress made towards this aim.  At the moment, Parentline plus currently provides an English language service that Welsh parents can access.  It is imperative that a Welsh language service can be provided in the future.

Develop and distribute a series of booklets

Booklets have been produced and distributed via health visitors and schools.  These booklets have been well received.

Working group on grandparents to propose a programme of action

The working party has met and produced a report with 18 recommendations. The response from the Assembly Government is keenly awaited.

Funding a training programme for the Incredible Years programme

This training package has been delivered and in Powys, Barnardos Powys Services have complemented this programme with further training of other identified professionals and the provision of support. All practitioners are part of a network of facilitators. Provision of parenting programmes occur on a termly basis throughout Powys.

Commission SCIE to produce information on programmes used in Wales

The Assembly has co-operated with several local authorities to commission research into the Family Links programme. There are other programmes used in Wales that need to be assessed e.g. for parents of teenagers

Strengthen parental participation

A useful practice guide has been produced by Jayne Isaac.  However there is no reporting mechanism to see how well local authorities have implemented the recommendations for the report.. There are plans for the establishment of a parent network to improve parental participation in both planning and delivery of services.

Framework Partnerships to consider the needs of parents and carers

It is felt that this recommendation is rather vaguely worded and it can be difficult to judge the outcome.

Through the consultation of the Children and Young People’s Plan, Barnardos were commissioned to undertake direct consultation with parents and that this proved to be a very positive approach to gaining the views of parents and carers and is a means that will be utilised again in the future.

Further development of parents.net

This website no longer exists and has not been replaced by any other resource that is available to parents.

The amount of support available to parents

There is evidence that services to parents have improved, as a result of the commitment of Children and Young People’s. Partnership and the increase in investment in developing the menu of services available for children, young people and their families.  In particular Flying Start has seen an upsurge in provision for the 0-3 year in certain geographical areas within Powys.  This is an example of services that are targeted at a particular group or area.  This is not without difficulties as research shows that parents whose children have behavioural difficulties are located throughout a community rather than in specific geographical areas.

However WAG service developments on occasions lack the overall strategic join up so that opportunities to enhance universal provision at a local level can sometimes be challenging due in part to the specific criteria of funding streams or departmental direction of travel.

The provision of open access services appears to encourage particular groups such as fathers and those from BME communities to see that services can be non-stigmatised.

More information available

The introduction of Family and Children’s Information Services is to be welcomed.  However much of this information is through the written form, which is not appropriate for those with learning difficulties or literary problems.  There is a need for other methods to reach a wider audience such as TV campaign, information sessions and the use of graphics and images in written materials.

The CYPP is committed to the improvement of information systems and the access of local information. This forms an important part of the delivery element of the plan.

Barriers experienced by parents in accessing services and information services

The key barriers that our workers report are those of access - working within a rural area in Powys- services have to be provided in areas other than in large towns, gender ,and the possibility of stigma..

Working within the voluntary sector with partner agencies, the provision is seen by parents and carers as more welcoming and less stigmatised. Initially with most services being targeted at specific individuals or groups of parents, many carers, mothers and fathers report that they  have felt that  they have to be a 'bad parent’ to receive help and support.  This stigma has in the past prevented many mothers and fathers and other carers from seeking earlier help.  

The services provided have provided parenting support and provision later in the evening and attracted fathers and male carers to the service on Saturdays.

Examples of innovative services

The following may be seen as example of innovation that could be replicated in other areas.

Barnardo’s Parent Works Service delivers and co-ordinates the Incredible Years Programme throughout Powys. The service has trained multi-agency professionals in the programme and provides the programme on a termly basis at schools and other venues throughout the county. This approach reflects the partnership approach within the Children and Young People’s Partnership and ownership with other agencies including children’s social services, health, education and the voluntary sector.  We provide all materials, and crucially all practitioners are involved with supervision and support on a weekly basis. The supervision is provided by the Wanless funded Psychologist who works alongside the service in conjunction with the IY Accredited Team Leader of the Parent Works Service and is recognised nationally as an example of innovative practice. This approach also ensures that the IY programmes are delivered with fidelity which is reflected in the positive outcomes for the parents and children.  Teachers within the county have been trained in the IY parenting programmes which is further complemented by their training in Classroom Dina and the School.

Based Behaviour programme which further improves outcomes for children in Powys. Having professionals trained from a multi- agency network also ensures that the agencies have experienced professionals who can model the positive parenting messages within their services and service users e.g. school nurses, CAMHS, Social Workers. Further training is being provided for the younger aged IY programmes specifically for Flying Start parenting provision.

The Parent Works service also provides parenting provision for parents of teenagers in partnership with the Youth Offending Team and is piloting the IY Pathfinder 8-12 parenting provision.

Continued work on parenting issues

The key issues still to be addressed by the Welsh Assembly Government may be summarised as follows:

• The need for a universal service that meets parents’ needs when they are struggling with their children.
• Ensuring that health, social care and education and voluntary sector  professionals offer a consistent message about positive parenting to avoid confusion for parents and carers.  
• Understanding that parents/ carers need accessible help from ante-natal classes through to the early twenties.  
• A bi-lingual telephone helpline which needs to be widely publicised throughout Wales.
• Services that ensure workers engage with fathers and extended family members, who are very important to children. E.g. Fathers in prison and grandparents who care for their grandchildren.
• Use of common evaluation tools to compare the results of different programmes.
• A response to the recommendations of the Assembly Government’s working group on grandparents.
• CAF- developing an assessment process by which all professionals can and will work with families to help assess and identify need.

What has worked and what hasn’t?

There are many examples of good practice throughout Barnardo’s Cymru and some of the key elements are summarised below:

• The use of well-trained staff who are able to interact positively with parents.  Research for SCIE shows the crucial importance of trained facilitators in group work with adults.
• Programmes that respond to parents’ needs and services that are willing to spend time to ensure that parents and carers feel comfortable and welcome.
• Using well researched programmes that are known to deliver improvements in outcomes for children and parents.
• The involvement of service users and others as volunteers in all aspects of planning, delivering and managing services gives credibility to the work and helps to engage other parents.
• Working with other professionals e.g. Youth Offending Services to co-deliver programmes for parents that give a consistent message.
• Planning services to avoid duplication and increase the numbers who are able to access services.