Think parent, Think child, Think family
Seven minute briefing on Think Family
The Family Model is a useful conceptual framework that can help staff to consider the parent, the children and the wider family as a whole when assessing the needs of and planning care packages for families.
This is particularly relevant where a parent or carer may be experiencing physical or mental ill health.
As a mental health trust, the wellbeing of children and adults in a family where a parent is mentally ill are intimately linked in at least three ways:
• parental mental health problems can adversely affect the development, and in some cases the safety, of children
• growing up with a mentally ill parent can have a negative impact on a person's adjustment in adulthood, including their transition to parenthood
• children, particularly those with emotional, behavioural, or chronic physical difficulties, can precipitate or exacerbate mental ill health in their parents/carers.
The Model also identifies that there are risks, stressors and vulnerability factors increasing the likelihood of a poor outcomes, as well as strengths, resources and protective factors that enable families to overcome adversity.
In recent years, there has been a notable shift in children's and adult health and social care, placing a greater emphasis to consider the child, parent, and family as a whole.
A Think Family approach refers to the steps taken by children’s, young peoples and adult practitioners to identify wider family needs which extend beyond the individual they are supporting. For example, in relation to safeguarding, if you work primarily with adults, you still consider the safeguarding needs of children, and if you work with children, you still consider the needs of the vulnerable adults.
Over 55% of children on a child protection plan have a parent or carer with mental ill health and or Drug, alcohol and substance misuse problems in the UK. Therefore thinking family can link to better outcomes for children and families.
Making Safeguarding Personal
Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP) is a key principle of safeguarding adults practice and is set out in the Care and Support Statutory Guidance and is based on person-centred and outcome focused approaches.
When a safeguarding concern is identified, it requires engaging the person in discussion about how best to respond to their individual situation to increase wellbeing and empowerment, as well as safety. MSP moves away from paternalistic approaches and means we place adults at the centre of decision making regarding their lives, which means safeguarding is done with a person not to them. MSP is relevant to all aspects of safeguarding adults practice, across all agencies, and is not only relevant in formal safeguarding enquiries.
MSP means staff need to ask the person what they would like to happen and how, which may differ from a professional’s opinion. Choice and control are important aspects of MSP, and some adults express a fear of losing control within a safeguarding process whether it is statutory safeguarding enquiry or other enquiries such as police investigations. MSP does not mean that refusal of help should not be taken at face value, however it requires proactive engagement work to help people make sense of their situations and make informed choices.
MSP requires staff to be professionally curious, for example, if a person declines any safeguarding support, be curious to the reasons why and work with the individual to overcome any obstacles in seeking support such as consideration of advocacy. People may not know any other options to their situation and the abuse and/or neglect could be normalised.
When staff identify a safeguarding adults concern, they should:
- Ask the person what their desired outcome is, which should be recorded, and this should guide any action or intervention.
- Support them to understand and consider the risks they face; this often requires more than one conversation
Prior to action is taken for an adult it is important to discuss a concern with the adult directly, MSP requires balancing of consent against safety. There are times when actions should be taken without consent which may mean taking action that the person does not wish to take. These situations are:
- Emergency or life-threatening situations
- Other people are, or may be, at risk, including children.
- A serious crime has been or might be committed.
- If the risk appears to you unreasonably high
- If someone in a position of trust is implicated
When action is taken against someone’s wishes, the rationale for this should be explained where safe to do so to ensure risk is managed.
Think Family
The key summary of Think family is
- There is no ‘wrong door’ – contact with any service should offer an open door into a system of joined-up support.
- Look at the whole family – services working with both adults and children take into account family circumstances and responsibilities.
- Provide support tailored to needs
- Build upon family strengths.
Think Family Think Safeguarding Think Relationships
A resource from Warrington Adult Board & Warrington Safeguarding Partnership
Contextual Safeguarding
The concept of "Contextual safeguarding" was developed by Dr. Carlene Firmin at the University of Bedfordshire's Contextual Safeguarding Network.
It recognises that as young people grow and develop they are influenced by a whole range of environments and people outside of their family.
For example in school or college, in the local community, in their peer groups or online.
Children and young people may encounter risk in any of these environments. Sometimes the different contexts are inter-related and can mean that children and young people may encounter multiple risks.
Contextual safeguarding tells us that as well as thinking family we must consider the context within which the child lives and including the risk of harm outside the home.
It's an approach that's often been used to apply to adolescents, though the lessons can equally be applied to younger children, especially in today's changing world.
