Family Support and Monitoring
The NFSS support and monitoring services are wide in range and benefits. There is a minimum of disruption as the assessment is carried out in a highly supportive manner. An emphasis is put upon assisting the family to look at their strengths and reach their potential while giving priority to ensuring the safety and welfare of the child.
Two Levels Offered
Support and/or monitoring 24/7 can be made available at specifically required times. Key monitoring times might be bedtimes, meal times, and any other time professionally identified at the referral point. Assessments will vary in terms of the number of hours per week and levels of required support. The assessment will clearly illustrate any potential risks to the welfare of the child and determine if the family reunion is in the best interest of the child.
Additional Support
The NFSS Outreach and Home Support package is offered on two levels. Assessment & Home Support and Intensive Assessment and Home Support. It is our opinion that in most cases it is sensible to first do a Viability Assessment to establish exactly what concerns need to be taken into account and what level of intervention will be required. In many cases, the Viability Assessment lays a crucial foundation on which to build with further services.
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Home Support
This service is aimed at families where there is some concern in the opinion of professionals or the courts about aspects of the family’s ability to parent the child adequately. This level of intervention would consist of support and monitoring for a minimal number of hours per day and on a daily basis and will usually suffice for this level of monitoring. The times of monitoring may vary to take into account the various demands of the day and the evening.
Intensive Assessment & Home Support
This service is available to families where it is considered that support and monitoring need to be more extensive. This would include an increased number of hours and perhaps monitoring throughout weekends and during evenings at key times. The amount of hours would be determined on the basis of ensuring the safety of the child and maintaining the necessary levels of support. Key times could be meal times, bath times, bed times etc. With every assessment report,
conclusions and recommendations will be made available in order to identify key areas of concern and to establish how the family’s needs can be met whilst primarily meeting the needs of the child.
Family/Parenting assessments
The NFSS will strive to work with families, their environments, and networks as whole units, within the auspices and guidance of the Children’s Act, the Working Together to Safeguard Children, and the Human Rights Act.
The assessment period will focus and report on the family’s needs as well as its strengths and weakness. The assessment team will work in partnership with the family to help them to identify any areas of concern that may have a negative impact on the well-being of the children. The assessment team will advise in the report as to how the family might improve their potential to parent their children at an improved parental level.
In our experience, the services in this area are often highly critical in nature and concentrate on the negative aspects. This is something of an over-simplistic approach in our opinion and the NFSS strives to offer advice and support wherever it is considered probable that the desire and ability are present within the family structure to make the necessary adjustments.
We will work with the family to complete a comprehensive assessment form as part of a wider documented assessment. “The NFSS is able to offer a tailor-made service, drawing from all of the resources listed”
Assessments and court
• Structured rehabilitation plan• Support for children on the edge of care.
• Emergency 24/7 referrals line.
• Form F.
• PAMS Assessments
• Family Support with logs for Local Authorities.
• Court reports on request.
• Domestic violence victim and perpetrator support.
• De-escalation and behavior management techniques.
• Viability Assessment.
• Intensive Support/Assessment 24/7.
• Parenting & triple P Classes (Webster Stratton Program).
• Bridge Building
• Mentoring Services.
• Life Story Work.
• Anger Management.
• Support Program.
• One to One Key work Support.
• Supervised Contact Adult Advice and Counseling Services.
• General Principles of Budgeting & Debt Management.
• Benefits Advice.
• Housing Advice.
• Anger Management for Adults.
All assessments will be carried out within the guidelines of our anti-discriminatory policy and practice. We will ensure that the dignity and privacy of the child and the family will be maintained.
We also provide workshops on gangs, knives and knife crime and anti radicalization.
Supervised Contact
The NFSS will provide as part of their Supervised Contact Service, an escort to and fro’ for all children attending the contact session. Transport with escort for children living beyond the outside area is also available as an additional service.
The supervising worker will be a trained and experienced member of the NFSS staff team and wherever possible the same worker will be made available for each contact session to minimize disruption for the children, young people, and families involved.
The Hope Project
The Hope Project Cornwall CIC, is a ‘Holistic agriculturally based, ECO Outdoor Recreation, Learning Therapy Hub’and ‘Pack Animal Walking service’, working with all people, at risk of social and recreational exclusion and children or young people who would otherwise likely be exposed to the effects of nature deficit disorder. We bring children and young people who cannot access the best landscape, to the best parts of Cornwall, to engage with our team of mentors in a range of learning-based activities. We are able to access the services of the Hope Project to support young people who are experiencing periods of crisis and would benefit from additional time limited support within our 15 acres of incredibly beautiful Cornish natural woodland and countryside. We are also able to arrange workshops for groups of young people to support the effects of NDD and engage in art as a therapy.
Advocacy
NFSS-trained staff will work diligently on behalf of the service user and act in the service user’s best interests. The advocacy support service can help the service user to identify facts, options, and remedies to their issues. This may involve confronting representatives from other organizations whilst maintaining the rules of confidentiality and professionalism.