Safeguarding Families pilot to be rolled out across Dorset
It's been trialled in the Chesil, Dorchester and West areas for over a year
A scheme, that's been trialled in part of Dorset to reduce the number of children in need of protection or going into care, is to be rolled out to the rest of the county.
Safeguarding Families Together has been running in the Chesil, Dorchester and West areas since November 2022.
An evaluation study of its efforts has been carried out by the University of Bedfordshire and found it's making a positive difference.
The programme brings together agencies and teams to work with a whole family with issues like mental health, substance misuse and domestic abuse.
They provides wraparound support to a family so they can focus on positive changes to behaviour which provide a safer environment for their children with service users reporting better health and overall improved emotional wellbeing.
The scheme's been extended for a further year (2024-2025) with services starting up in the North, East and Purbeck parts of Dorset from October 2024.
One parent told the study into its work that Dorset Council should “promote the SFT service amongst local communities, communicating the benefits of working together with the SFT team so people realise that they’re not just there to take your kids away...it’s not like it used to be... ‘we can actually help you’”.
Another said she found the approach 'holistic’:
“It seems like they’re looking at the whole, how everything interrelates, so the domestic abuse and then the mental health and then your children are part of that but not everything’s separate? So maybe that’s what this new project is doing is it’s enabling almost, yes, that word “holistic” to look at everything and around?”
Another described how their increased understanding of the impact of substance use had reduced their alcohol and drug use, resulting in improved physical energy levels and emotional wellbeing:
“We just had a chat and went through everything as to why drugs and the alcohol use was problematic, and then she spoke to me from the safety point of view. She just went through all the effects that it can have on yourself, children, your genuine life, and then it can lead you to knowing the wrong people, all of that.... Then we set up a plan for me to stop. Went through the symptoms of when you’re giving something up.
"I cut down to cut out.... She only gave me the information on what I needed to know for what I was using at the time, and I found her so supportive and helpful. She went above and beyond as well, and I really found her really helpful and encouraging."
Theresa Leavy, Executive Director of Children’s Services, said:
“We want Dorset to be the best place to be a child and we make sure we do our very best to help keep families together, even when they are going through tough times.
“The Safeguarding Families Together programme wraps around the whole family and supports them using motivational interviewing, which is a counselling approach designed to help people find the motivation to make a positive behaviour change.
“I am incredibly pleased that it has shown positive impact on our families and that we are able to extend it to cover the whole of the Dorset Council area”.