Family Group Conferences Research Articles

The power and potential of space and place in family group conferencing: Reimagining the role of the venue in child protection practice

Family Group Conferencing is a family-led decision-making process used in children’s social care in the UK. Unlike traditional meetings between families and professionals when there is a safeguarding concern, Family Group Conferences are often held outside children’s services’ premises in a ‘neutral’ venue. In this article, we critique the idea that a meeting location can be neutral as spaces may be experienced differently, and hold multiple meanings, for the family, their network and professionals who take part. Starting from the premise that relationships with and in space have the potential to disrupt power imbalances and affect families’ and professionals’ experiences, we propose the meeting location for the Family Group Conference is instead viewed as a core component of the intervention. This bespoke approach begins with the question, how could the meeting venue improve the experiences of Family Group Conferencing for families and professionals? To answer this question, we use two fictional vignettes written from the perspectives of a young woman and her social worker. The vignettes were created based on the combined practice and research experience of the co-authors and are used in the article as a tool to theorise the possible benefits and limitations of considering the meeting venue as an intervention component. By reimagining how meeting somewhere meaningful to the family could influence families’ and professionals’ experiences of Family Group Conferencing this paper contributes to social work research and practice in the UK and beyond.

How Family Group Conferencing Can Support a Contextual Safeguarding Response to Community-based Youth Harm: Lessons for Practice from a Participatory Study

Abstract This article reports on a study that brought Family Group Conferencing (FGC) and Contextual Safeguarding together to create an innovative practice response to extra-familial harm. It took place as part of a wider research project into the implementation of Contextual Safeguarding—an ecological approach to creating safety for young people harmed outside the home. Whilst there is growing understanding in social care of the contextual dynamics of young people’s safeguarding needs beyond their homes, many remain unsure about what it means, in practice, for them to create safety in a context. Using data collected via participatory and embedded research methods, this article considers how FGCs were adapted to create responses to youth harm that shifted the focus from ‘family’ to ‘community’; addressed the ‘social conditions of harm’; and drew on practitioners’ existing FGC skills. It demonstrates conceptual alignment and practice benefits for bringing the two approaches together and argues that drawing on the value-base and skills of FGC coordinators has considerable potential. The article highlights three key elements that are needed to recreate similar responses, namely: organisational mandate/support; conceptual framework aligned to ecological theory; and skills and attributes that include facilitation, working restoratively and with authority in challenging situations.

How might shared decision-making meetings reduce the need for children to be in care? A rapid realist review

Summary Meetings to enhance shared decision-making, such as family group conferences, potentially contribute to enhancing meaningful involvement of families. Such meetings are also claimed by some to reduce the need for children to be in care, either by increasing support from family for parents or by identifying care from within the family network. This rapid realist review aims to develop an understanding of how meetings that facilitate shared decision-making between professionals and families might work to safely reduce the need for children to be in care. It identifies mechanisms that are thought to make a difference and contextual factors that influence the impact of identified mechanisms. Findings A comprehensive search of academic and gray literature identified 64 documents spanning seven types of shared decision-making meetings. Data from these papers were collected using an iterative process of juxtaposition, comparison, contrast, and combination with a developing program theory. Data from the literature was supplemented with consultation to ensure relevance to the UK setting. The review identified three key mechanisms that made shared decision-making meetings more likely to be effective in safely reducing children's entry to care: enabling participation and engagement; building trust and reducing shame; enabling participation in decision-making processes. It describes how these work before, during, and after meetings. Applications The findings help us understand the complicated research findings about the relationship between meetings and care entry and provide a theory about what is needed to make such meetings work that is of practical use for practice and future research

Correction to: Impact of Family Group Conference Referrals at Pre-Proceedings Stage on Child Outcomes: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Correction to: Impact of Family Group Conference Referrals at Pre-Proceedings Stage on Child Outcomes: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Impact of Family Group Conference Referrals at Pre-Proceedings Stage on Child Outcomes: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Abstract Previous evidence on the impact of Family Group Conferencing in the UK cannot establish causality. This article presents results from the first UK randomised controlled trial of Family Group Conferences. All families entering pre-proceedings between September 2020 and May 2022 in twenty-one local authorities in England were eligible for inclusion in the trial. In total, 1,511 families were randomised and child outcomes were collected from administrative data until up to twenty-one months post-referral. Half of the families were randomly allocated to be referred for a Family Group Conference, on top of usual practice during pre-proceedings. The (pre-registered) primary outcome is the child’s looked-after status twelve months after the pre-proceedings letter. This was 8.6 percentage points lower among referred families (36.2 percent vs 44.8 percent). Children were also less likely to have care proceedings issued (59.2 percent vs 71.7 percent) and spent less time in care (87 vs. 115 days). However, there was no significant difference in whether a child’s living arrangement remained the same or changed in the months after the decision. These findings have implications for the support given to families during pre-proceedings; they provide evidence in favour of Family Group Conferences as a way to reduce the chances of children going into care.

Family Group Conference Provision in UK Local Authorities and Associations with Children Looked after Rates

Abstract Family group conferences (FGCs) in child welfare share decision-making with family members by bringing the immediate and wider family together to make a plan to meet a child’s needs. This paper reports survey findings on FGC provision in the UK in 2022 and explores whether in England the presence of an FGC service and the rate of FGC provision is associated with the rate of children in care, entering care, in kinship foster care and leaving care. Seventy-nine per cent (n = 167) of local authorities in the UK provided FGCs to families, and 14 per cent (n = 29) did not. Services that were more established offered a more diverse range of FGCs. The introduction of FGCs in English local authorities was associated with a higher rate of children in care, but also higher rates of kinship foster care, a key goal of FGCs where it is not possible for children to stay with their parents. Higher rates of FGCs were associated with more children leaving care, possibly due to reunification with birth families. To understand in more detail, the circumstances of children in and leaving care in local authorities with FGCs, individual data linkage studies are needed.

Whose benefactors? Whose beneficiaries?—Negotiating help at the intersection between the family and the state

AbstractSocial work is characterized as a helping profession. Consequently, the nature and purposes of social work revolve around concepts of help and helping. In this article, I explore what happens when the extended family network and friends are brought together by child welfare services to make decisions to help a child. Based on analyses of a single videotaped family group conference, this article offers insights into the challenges and complexities families face when dealing with the mandated task to devise a plan that meets the child's needs. By examining sequences of interaction where friends and family members discuss future scenarios with some cast as beneficiaries and others as benefactors, I show how some of these complexities can be captured in terms of the relationship between benefactive stance and benefactive status. The complexities include ambiguities regarding the relationship between nominated future scenarios and the problem(s) they were designed to solve. Furthermore, participants dealt with uncertainties regarding who was more inclined towards specific future scenarios and thus understood to be the actual beneficiary. Additionally, the analysis shows that social identities ascribed to recipients when resolutions to problems were linked to family members' past shortcomings complicated the acknowledgement and acceptance of assistance.

Strengthening Relationships: Children’s Participation in a Family Group Approach to Family Violence

Family violence strains family relationships and cultural ties. A family group approach strengthens these relationships by centering the family, their relatives, and close supports in safeguarding all members. Risk-averse jurisdictions, however, may prohibit the practice, and workers may hesitate to invite the children. Such responses diminish the opportunity for adults to be inspired by the children to act and for children to gain participatory competence and pride in their family. To support the involvement of family, this article offers strategies shaped to local settings. Reaching into their extensive experience of family group conferences or circles in child welfare, the authors overview inclusive practices in four diverse places: Aotearoa New Zealand, United Kingdom, Mi’kmaq in Canada, and Israel.

The outsider within: The agentic practices of Family Group Conference coordinators in the context of families with children at risk

AbstractFamily Group Conference (FGC) is a participatory decision‐making process for families with children at risk, for whom concerns were recognized by the family, the professionals and/or the community. In its initial stages, FGC is organized, and the families are accompanied, by independent coordinators. The study used a qualitative, action‐oriented methodology to explore what practices coordinators use to foster FGC's family‐led dynamic. The data collection included 13 semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews and two research group discussions with coordinators to learn about their perspectives and practices. The study found that these practices were guided by three main principles of action: to affirm the family's control and responsibility, to highlight the family's ability and to orient the family towards the future. The article explores how these practices contribute to the family‐led dynamic of FGC and situates them within the context of the welfare system and the positioning of the coordinators as ‘outsiders‐within’ to both the family and the welfare services. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on participatory child welfare models and agentic practices and offers implications for policy and implementation of FGC in a manner that recognizes and respects families' agency.

Child protection inequalities for Pasifika children in Aotearoa New Zealand: diverse realities

ABSTRACT Child protection inequalities are population group differences in contact rates, experiences and outcomes of child protection systems. This article reports rates of Pasifika children’s contact with the statutory child protection system at three outcomes: substantiation, having a family group conference, (FGC) or entering care (placement), and describes intersections between these outcomes and socio-economic deprivation. Including all children resident in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2019–2020 aged 0–17 years, this study compared rates between sole Pasifika, Pasifika plus other ethnicities (Pasifika+), and Non-Māori, Non-Pasifika (NMNP) children. Substantiation was twice as likely for Pasifika, even after controlling for sociodemographic factors, and Pasifika children were 25% more likely to enter care than NMNP children. As socio-economic deprivation increased, rates of substantiation increased for all groups, but most sharply for Pasifika+ children. Sole Pasifika children had the highest rate of substantiation and FGCs in the least deprived quintile of socio-economic deprivation, but the lowest FGC and placement rates in areas of highest deprivation. Pasifika+ children had double the rate of sole Pasifika children for placement in high-deprivation areas, but this was equal to the NMNP rate. Findings are analysed via theories of inequalities. Aggregated ethnic categories obscure considerable variation in within-group experiences.

A Systematic Literature Review With Racially Minoritised People Using Family Group Conferencing in England

This paper presents a systematic literature review exploring the Family Group Conferencing experiences with racially minoritised families in England. The literature search identified eight qualitative studies that met the inclusion criteria. This review found that racially minoritised families felt that Family Group Conferencing was empowering and met their cultural needs at times, but suggested caution about how culturally adaptable the approach is for this population. We argue that FGC could be presented as an Indigenous model of engaging with family networks with relevance for social workers working with racially minoritised communities in England. We suggest that Family Group Conferencing aligns with aims of decolonisation and cultural competence and argue the need to explore how Indigenous knowledge can be valued more effectively in global social work debates.

Family group conferences

Emily Blackshaw, lead quantitative analyst and Max Stanford, head of impact and evaluation at Coram outline findings from an evaluation of the use of FGCs at the pre-proceedings stage

Reflecting upon My Experiences of Being Involved in a Family Group Conference in 2020

Reflecting upon My Experiences of Being Involved in a Family Group Conference in 2020

Adapting private family time in child protective services decision‐making processes

AbstractThe Family Group Conference (FGC) is grounded in a rights‐based framework, whereby children and their families have the right and responsibility to be primary decision‐makers when child protection issues arise, and the statutory agency has the responsibility to convene the entitled members of the family network to lead the decision‐making. A distinct core component of FGC—private family time (PFT)—allows families to discuss the information and formulate their responses and plans privately during conferencing. This paper describes how a large child welfare agency in the United States adapted PFT in two ways: (1) including a parent advocate (PA) and (2) abbreviating the amount of time allowed for this discussion. Given the lack of empirical research on the PFT component, this qualitative exploratory study sought to understand the functions and perceived impacts of PA‐supported PFT during initial child protective services (CPS) conferences at which decisions of child removal or placement were being contemplated. PFT served multiple beneficial functions and impacted families in several positive ways: families gained greater awareness of safety concerns, felt empowered and confident in the preferred safety and service plan, became increasingly engaged and involved in the case decision‐making process and ultimately felt less apprehensive.

FROM BANTU DIVORCE COURTS TO DIVORCE COURTS: A SUCCESSFUL EXERCISE IN LEGAL TRANSFORMATION

In order to establish Family Courts in South Africa, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development established a Family Court Task Team in 1997. During September 1998 a Family Court Pilot Project was launched by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to serve as test sites for possible nation-wide implementation. This project flowed from the “Justice Vision2000” national strategy. The aim of the project was to make justice accessible to families in urban, rural and even isolated communities, by providing co-ordinated and integrated family services to all parties involved in family law disputes under one roof. The establishment of Family Courts was motivated by the following aims: to afford wide and specialized protection and help to the family as a fundamental unit in society, to bring about access to justice for all in family disputes, and to improve the quality andeffectiveness of service delivery in this area (Chaskalson Family Courts 4). With the formation of the Family Court Pilot Project, the vision of the project was defined as to establish a court structure which has its own identity, is accessible to the community, sensitive to the needs of the community, operating according to simple procedures, offering counselling and mediation support services and providing a quality service in a pleasant and user-friendly environment. With its formation, it was envisaged that each Family Court Centre will have two components, the support service and the litigation component. The family support service provides support to the family and encompasses alternative ways to resolve disputes without parties appearing in court, such as counseling and family group conferencing. The litigation component offers services ranging from maintenance, domestic violence, Children’s Court, deceased estates, Family Advocate services, divorces and a help desk. The Divorce Courts form an integral and important part of the FamilyCourt Pilot Project. These courts were originally instituted in 1929 to entertain divorce actions between black people. These so-called Black Divorce Courts were established under section 10 of the Black Administration Act (38 of 1927) and the Black Administration Amendment Act (9 of 1929).

Positive Social Work (PSW) – Towards a New Methodical Paradigm in Social Work

Various methodological approaches have been appearing in Polish social work for several years, referring to experiences proven in other countries, such as the Solution Focused Approach, Family Group Conference, Motivating Dialogue, Video Interaction Training (VIT), supervision, coaching or community organization/development. What distinguishes them from the current characteristics of methodological activities is opposition to the problem-oriented model dominating social work in Poland and developing a commonly recognizable solution-oriented model. The aim of this article is to present a preliminary concept of a new methodological approach – Positive Social Work (PSW) – its assumptions, to define theoretical references and to characterize a specific “road map” for the development of this approach to the helping methodology.

Penal Mediation: Criminal Case Settlement Process based on the Local Customary Wisdom of Dayak Ngaju

Penal mediation has been a longtime process of criminal settlement used in the Ngaju Dayak indigenous people in Kalimantan. They used the Belom Bahadat philosophy as a form of reform in the field of criminal procedural law stemmed from the politics of criminal law which makes customary law a part of national criminal law. This article is aimed to analyze the concepts of penal mediation in Indonesia and from the international law perspectives; and the settlement process with Belom Bahadat philosophy-based penal mediation in the Dayak indigenous community and its future use in the national criminal procedural law. This qualitative research applied a sociological juridical approach and utilized primary data obtained from interviews with Dayak traditional elders, secondary data comprising customary peace decisions obtained from Dayak customary institutions, and multidisciplinary approach from international law of penal mediation to uphold the strong concept of penal mediation. The results shown that restorative justice is one of the uniqueness in penal mediation internationally, especially in Germany, Spain, and Indonesia. Furthermore, the use of penal mediation in Dayak community is based on the 96 Articles of the Tumbang Anoi Peace Agreement that has existed since 1894. During a settlement, the penal mediation model applied in the Dayak people can be divided into the Victim Offender Mediation model, as well as Family and Community Group Conferences. Consequently, the formulation of this procedure is expected to be a study material in the renewal of criminal law legislation, specifically the Criminal Procedure law provisions in Indonesia.

'Let us be'. Social support needs of people with acquired long-term disabilities and their caregivers in rehabilitation practice in the Netherlands.

In many European countries, including the Netherlands, current care policies encourage 'active citizens' to support each other rather than having individuals rely on paid professional help. Rehabilitation centres also put greater emphasis on social networks assisting adults with acquired long-term disabilities and their caregivers. Often these adults and their caregivers feel insufficiently prepared to cope with the disability in daily life and struggle with community integration. However, little is known about the factors that make vulnerable people accept or decline support from their social networks. We researched the social support needs of persons with acquired disabilities and their caregivers eligible for a family group conference intervention by conducting 19 semi-structured interviews in rehabilitation centres in the Netherlands. A thematic analysis revealed that most couples (15) were reluctant to request (more) support from their social network, even though many of them had a good network to rely on. We identified five reasons for this reluctance: (1) not accustomed asking support, (2) not wanting to be a (bigger) burden, (3) fear of intrusion into one's privacy and independence, (4) fear or problematic motivations such as curiosity or pity and (5) lack of reliability, competence, or comprehension. The main factor seemed to be the lack of reciprocity: couples do not see sufficient options to reciprocate the necessary support. Therefore, before instigating social support-centred interventions such as family group conferences, social care and other health professionals should be aware of any factors causing a sense of reluctance and explore the experiences of an imbalance in reciprocity.

‘Because I'm a kid …’: The struggle for recognition of children and young people involved in child and family social work

AbstractChildren's participation in decision‐making remains a key focus of social work practice. Yet the protection and participation of children in our society remains a setting of tension for children, families and practitioners. Drawing on evidence from a retrospective qualitative study on Family Group Conferencing, this paper uses the lens of recognition theory to highlight the experiences of young people more broadly in the social work system. The study found social workers' attitudes affected children and young people's capacity to be ‘partners’ in decision‐making. Feelings of misrecognition can create barriers for how children and young people perceive and interact with social work professionals. While small, this study sheds light on the experiences of young people's struggles for recognition when involved in the social work system. Further research is needed on this topic to fully understand the implications of (mis)recognition in social work practice.

Исследования результативности практик совместного принятия решений в социальной работе с семьей: методологические вопросы

<p>The article deals with methodological issues in effectiveness research of practices of collaborative decision-making in social work, focused on a family group and its informal social network, exemplified by Family Group Conferences and Network Therapy. The article provides a conceptual review of approaches to constructing the expected results of FGC/NT from the viewpoints of various stakeholders — professionals, adult family members, and children. It analyses the sensitivity to these results in research projects with various research design types, including randomized controlled trials and their suggested alternatives such as discrete time survival analysis, cohort studies, and case-study. It discusses the factors and mechanisms that influence effectiveness of FGC/NT and should be considered in a “theory of change” for these practices.</p>