-Provide Local Authorities with access to a specialist service which can make assessments of children and families -Provide support and therapy to ensure that placements which are 'at risk' can be sustained and disruption prevented.

Family Futures Local Authority Consultation Service

• Provide quick and easy access for social workers and parents to a specialist service when there are concerns about children who are either in adoptive or in permanent foster placements, or in the process of being placed
• Provide a way of managing and prioritising those children and families who may require a comprehensive assessment in the first instance or may require on-going therapeutic support or an intensive attachment and support programme.

The service is offered in the following way:     

• Two members of the Family Futures team are available at a Local Authority venue for between three and five consultation slots of a hour and a half duration. Typically, the Local Authority Social Worker for the child and/or the Link Worker, accompanied by the parents, would meet with the Family Futures' team to discuss their current concerns and to devise a short-term action plan. In advance of the consultation, the Local Authority Social Worker will have provided Family Futures with a brief outline of the family situation and any relevant papers or reports. The intention is that in the majority of cases, this consultation would be sufficient to produce a significant change.
• In more complex situations, either as a result of the initial consultation or a subsequent one, the family may be referred to Family Futures for a comprehensive assessment.   Families referred through the consultation service will be given priority to ensure an early assessment is possible within 30-days.

A Managed Response to Families in Crisis

The Consultation Service enables Local Authorities to provide a rapid response, in collaboration with a specialist agency, to families in crisis. In this way, the skills and services of the Local Authority are enhanced and where there are gaps, Family Futures are able to provide a complementary service. Consultations typically would take place every six weeks to two months enabling any crisis or concern to be contained within a realistic time frame. Subsequent to that, families could be offered a more comprehensive and intensive package of assistance if funded by the Local Authority. The Local Authority is able to specify, in advance, the level of service provision for which they wish to budget so that the use of these resources can be prioritised. For example, a Local Authority could decide that they would purchase four assessments a year. A decision to allocate an assessment could then be done quarterly, based upon priorities that emerge from the cases that have been seen during the two consultation sessions held during that period.

An Advice and Mentoring Service for Adoptive Parents and Foster Carers

Heart to Heart
An adoptive parent advice and support service. Family Futures recognises the importance and need for sympathetic advice and support for adoptive parents and long-term foster carers to help them cope with the challenges of adoption. If your Local Authority agrees to subscribe to this service as part of their post adoption support service, Heart to Heart offers telephone and face to face counselling on the following topics:

• Getting it right from the start: introductions, transitions and settling children into your home
• New ways to parent: advice on how to adopt a developmental re-parenting approach with children who need therapeutic parenting
• Managing contact: helping parents and carers manage direct and indirect contact with birth relatives and siblings
• Can’t do not won’t do: tackling learning difficulties and school based problems
• Talking about the issues: helping parents and carers talk to their children about the past
• Living with Kevin and Perry: the teenage years
• Safe guarding yourself: coping with aggression and violence in the home.

These and other issues can be addressed by our adoptive parent advice and support service which is provided by a team of parent mentors, a teacher and child therapists all of whom have experience in helping parents manage the challenges of adoption today.

Please see 'Heart to Heart ' flyer for further information

Contact Family Futures for costs