The Family Assessment Support Team (FAST) is a new service, set
up during 2007.
Linking with the development of the national social care agenda
for preventative services; our aim is to work directly with
children and their families, within their own homes and
communities.
We aim, through our short-term interventions, to positively
divert a significant number of Children ‘from the edge’ of Local
Authority care (11-17 age range), into positive engagement with
their families and supporting professionals, in order to maintain
their place within their own home.
Objectives:
To provide an intensive intervention service over a 12-week
period to children and families who are in crisis that will;
- Provide a detailed assessment of presenting behaviours for both
the child & family.
- Provide an intensive direct support package, working in
partnership with the child, their family and other agencies.
- Promote positive change, decision making and resilience.
- Support family reconciliation and reunification, drawing on the
families’ own strengths, to overcome relationship & parenting
difficulties.
- Maximise each families’ own personal and financial resources
and support each parent to providing a secure & stable
care-giving environment.
- Promote the holistic approach to problem solving, where
families can learn to understand their own needs and prepare for a
positive future together.
The Team Offers:
- Regular contact through home visits and flexible times so we
engage with all family members.
- Weekend contact and out-of-hours phone line (providing a 24
hour support).
- Advice and guidance on issues which the family have identified
as a worry for them.
Although the service has only been in operation for a short
time, below are some positive quotes from children and families who
are engaged with the FAST service;
- ‘I’m amazed at how quickly you were are able to see us’
- ‘We’re communicating more as a family since you’ve been
involved’
- ‘This is news to me; I had no idea you felt like that’
- ‘I’m glad to get some help in sorting out my financial
problems; they’ve been a real worry to me’
Referral Process:
The team accepts referrals from social work teams which meet
criterion following a telephone consultation and completion the
Corporate Parenting – Common Resource Request Form (CRRF).
FAST will also work with children and their families, where the
child has used the ‘crash-bed’, promoting a return home for the
child.
The FAST service and its immediate partners include:-
- Social
Workers
- Family Support Practitioner
- Financial Inclusion
Officer
- Access to Counselling Family Group Conference Workers
FAST are working in close partnership with:-
- 4YP
- Crime Concern
- Restorative Justice/Mediation
- CAMHS
- Parenting Education
- Police
- Youth Offending Service
- Unisafe at home
- Multi-agency Team Around the Child