Family Rights Group :: FGC regional training events

Setting up and developing sustainable family group conference services

Regional one day training events organised by Family Rights Group and Office of Public Management (OPM) on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)

Family Rights Group (FRG) in conjunction with the Office for Public Management (OPM) has been awarded the contract by the DCSF to design and facilitate a series of regional events on setting up and developing family group conference (FGC) services.

Why Family Rights Group and OPM?

Family Rights Group has considerable expertise in supporting the setting up of sustainable of FGC projects. The Charity runs the national FGC Network, has led on the introduction and development of practice standards, published the FGC Toolkit (DCSF/FRG, 2006) on establishing FGC services and has pioneered the world first post graduate award for FGC co-ordinators. The Office of Public Management has expertise in running events and training for children’s services managers.

Who should attend the regional events?

The events are specifically structured, including tailored workshops, in order to meet the differing and at times overlapping needs of:

Directors and Assistant Directors Children Services;
Commissioners of family support and parenting services;
Senior managers responsible for children in need, child protection and looked after children teams;
Managers of Independent Reviewing Officers;
Local authority solicitors with responsibility for children's social care;
Family judges (morning session only);
FGC project co-ordinators and FGC managers.

The events are tailored to local circumstances

The current use of FGCs in England is variable ranging from a small number of local authorities with well established FGC projects that are offering FGCs to all families prior to care proceedings to nascent projects with little experience and knowledge of FGC policy or practice standards. We estimate that around half of English local authorities have no FGC project, with some of these authorities occasionally spot purchasing FGCs. Given this patchwork provision, we have designed a day training/information programme that addresses the different situations in each region and takes into account the varying needs within regions. The events will draw upon local experience and provide for the optimal development of FGCs from the baseline which currently exists. We will hold more than one training event in regions where there is particular demand and will hold a national event on 11th November 2010 which will be designed for established projects but would also be a learning opportunity for authorities who attended the regional events earlier in the year, but have progressed developments by then. The regional events are open to all local authorities but are particularly designed to reflect the needs of:-

local authorities with no FGC service or in the early stage of developing/commissioning an FGC service;
local authorities wtih establish a pilot FGC service or relatively small scale FGC projects;
local authorities interested in developing the scope and size of their FGC service.

When and where will the regional events take place?

Dates	Region	Venue
Thurs 11 Mar 10	London	NCVO, London
Thurs 10 Jun 10	North East	The Life Centre, Newcastle
Thurs 24 Jun 10	West Midlands	BVSC, Birmingham

What are the learning objectives?

All participants

To understand the origins, policy drivers and way FGCs link into the drive towards outcome focused, child and family centred services and the court system;
To understand the underlying principles and values of FGCs, the working of the model and up to date research evidence on the impact of FGCs and how FGCs fit with the current child care legal framework;
To explore the potential concerns and typical challenges and how to meet them;
To identify existing sources of external support for developing FGC services;
To provide an initial view of the further support required to ensure the effective take up of FGCs that should be provided at a national, regional and local level.

Officers from local authorities who don't have an FGC service or at the early stage of development:

To identify the key stages necessary to establish a sustainable FGC practice;
To identify the key supports needed to enable effective FGC practice;
To utilise the FGC Toolkit in setting up the service.

Officers from authorities piloting or with newly established FGC services and those who are widening the use of FGCs

To develop and share outline ‘roll out’ plans for widening the use of FGCs;
To explore evidence and experience of FGC delivery in a wide range of practice settings;
To support one another in providing ways of tackling the outstanding challenges in rolling out FGC.

Strategic local authority managers and commissioners

To explore different models of delivering FGCs and the relative merits and difficulties
To locate FGCs within the overall approach to integrated working, and requirements of meeting the new inspection framework
To identify the key strategic management and commissioning challenges in setting up and 'rolling out’ an FGC service and ways of tackling them.

The Draft Programme

9.00	Arrival, registration and coffee A market place with stalls of providers of support to authorities developing Family Group Conferences (FGCs) and local authorities who have established good practice
10.00	Welcome and overview of the event
10:15	Family Group Conferences: an overview What is an FGC The underlying values
10:30	A Family Group Conference – making it real Showing of the new Family Rights Group DVD of a reconstruction of an FGC
11:00	Family Group Conferences – the context Summary of research finding The legal and policy context Presentations and opportunity for questions and answers
11:40	Coffee break
12:00	Service users’ views on FGCs Young people and family members to talk about their experiences.
12:15	Setting up and developing a sustainable FGC service Showing of the new Family Rights Group DVD on setting up an FGC service and key questions to be considered by senior managers. Commissioners, referrers, FGC project managers, FGC co-ordinators, Cafcass officers and the courts.
12:35	The challenges in setting up a sustainable FGC Service – Question and Answer Panel discussion The panel will include: Family Rights Group’s Chief Executive or Deputy Chief Executive, a senior manager in a local authority which has successfully introduced FGCs, an FGC manager, and family members.
1.00	Lunch Buffet lunch and a further opportunity for participants to visit the market place stalls of providers .
2.00	Supporting effective practice Participants break into three streams of workshops.

*Local authorities at early stage of developing FGCs*	*Local authorities which are piloting or have small scale FGC services and those who are interested in the widening the use of FGCs services*	*Strategic managers and commissioners*
2.00 Briefing on the objectives and working process of the workshop.	2.00 Briefing on the objectives and working process of the workshop.	2.00 Briefing on the objectives and working process of the workshop.
2.10 Getting an FGC project running Presentation on utilising the FGC Toolkit. Exploring the essential steps including the role of the project team, developing key policies and procedures, and the administrative, training, supervisory and management support required for FGCs.	2.10 Moving on from piloting to sustainable use of FGCs Presentation on on extending current practice and linking into wider children and families service and policy developments including the CAF for early intervention, link with ICS for children in need, and the impact of the PLO for children on edge of care. It will also consider use of FGCs in addressing youth offending, anti-social behaviour and school exclusions.	2.10 The strategic management and commissioning requirements for effective practice Presentation and discussion to consider how to establish and embed an FGC service including the link with wider children and families' services and policy developments including the CAF for early intervention, link with ICS for children in need, and the impact of the PLO for children on edge of care.
2.40 Organising effective support Work group to focus upon an authority to plan how to set up a service.Option of using different scenarios to identify typical challenges and how they can be tackled. Facilitated work groups.	2:40 Planning the move to the widespread use of FGCs Use of a planning tool based on the DSCF FGC toolkit. Facilitated work groups.	2.55 Identifying and tackling the challenges Individuals use a shared wall chart proforma, based on the Toolkit and OPM’s development work, to identify emerging good practice and outstanding challenges. Facilitated group work on outstanding challenges.
3.40 Sharing key learning points	3:40 Sharing good ideas identified through the planning work	3.40 Sharing the challenges and potential ways forward
4.10 Identifying further support that should be provided at a national, regional and local level	4.10 Identifying further support that should be provided at a national, regional and local level	4.10 Identifying further support that should be provided at a national, regional and local level
4.30 Close	4.30 Close	4.30 Close

How can I book on to one of the events or find out more information?

If you or a colleague are interested in attending, please click here to download a form and email it to fgc@opm.co.uk . For further further information you can also ring Jasmine Miller on 020 7239 7825.