Gellideg Family Centre
Background
The Family Centre work with our most vulnerable families offering a variety of services aimed at improving family life for those families and enabling the children to reach their full potential and have positive life experiences.
There is also a provision to support foster carers to prevent placement breakdown and improve the stability of placements.
Staff Group:
Gellideg's staff group have different skills and the Centre functions from 8.30 am – 11.00 pm Monday – Friday and 9.00 am – 11.00 pm Saturday and Sunday. We have flexible working patterns within these working hours. We work with Drug Aid and a Drug Aid worker is based at the Family Centre.
The staffing group consists of a Family Centre Manager; 8 outreach workers; 3 family aides and a clerical assistant. Also based at the Centre is the Contact and Life Chances Team that consists of a manager; 4 contact workers and admin support.
The Family Centre is part of the Child & Family Support Team and within that team there is a Specialist Health Visitor who also supports the Family Centre, being based there at least one day a week and she also facilitates parenting groups with staff from the Centre. She also has a role in respect of supervision of the Family Aides.
Services Provided
The work undertaken by the staff is varied and adapted to each family’s need, the plan is put together by the social worker and a referral sent to the Family Centre. The reasoning behind this is that the remit of the Family Centre altered as more initiatives were developed in the Borough an example of this was the Flying Start initiative and the initiatives with Cymorth funding these initiatives focused primarily on preventative work hence Gelli Deg was able to target its work with those families that were far harder to reach and where the childrens names were on the Child Protection Register
The desired outcome being to be part of a plan that’s goal was to deregister the children work with them under the auspices of Child in Need and eventually the families would be accessing community projects and no longer require the support of the Department . Also monitor any re-referrals to see where the gaps in the provision are
As the Service runs 7 days a week 365 days a year we are able to respond to crisis situations reducing the risk factor and provide a far more rounded client service
We are currently in the process of collating data to evidence how referrals have changed , how the Service has developed and looking at lessons learned, have we got our group work right? What is missing? What went well and continues to
There will also be an evaluation of the work with the families and its impact on the Child Protection Register
A customer Satisfaction questionnaire is currently being developed for our most vulnerable families. We are collecting the informal comments at present and the feed back from families is positive. We already have one for the Contact Service
The Drug Aid worker works within the team and plays an active part in much of the group work as well as the direct work she undertakes with individuals.
She provides training for the team around drug and alcohol misuse and participates in the Family Centre training programme.
Our facilities are also available to the Children with Disability team and the Leisure Link workers. Our groups are available to the team as well as the Sensory room and use of the building
Group Work
Group work is available. A new group about to start has a focus on couples and will look at relationships, domestic abuse issues, drugs and alcohol and other topics. The outcomes of this group will be evaluated as part of the work the Specialist Health Visitor does within the Centre
We also offer Keep Safe Work, Independence Skills. Sexual Health. Promote healthy lifestyles, physical activities and during school holidays we have an activity programme that is creative and promotes positive experiences for the children, also one day a week during that programme we focus on an activity that includes the parents/carers as well.
Where do Referrals come from?
Referrals are received via the Intake and Early Assessment Process, i.e. one point of entry. However, the originator of the referral may be from any source. The key to the process is ensuring each contact receives an Initial Consideration. Should there be a clear need for a service of the type outlined above, but no requirement for social work allocation for formal assessment, a referral to Gellideg Family Centre may still be made. In which instance, the Key Worker would be identified from the Family Centre. All involvements, assessments and services received would be entered on to the SWIFT system. Each case will receive periodic review by the Family Centre Manager in line with a pre-determined timescale. Where a service is being received without an allocated Social Worker, and should circumstances dictate, a request (referral) to the Intake & Early Assessment Team for assessment should be made in the normal way.
Once received by the Manager the referral will be considered and the referrer notified of its receipt and the intended action as per current operating procedures. The decision as to the provision of service rests with the Manager of the Family Centre.
For more information, contact the Duty Officer on (01685) 724506
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