family and adolescent support hub (fash)
TRANSCRIPT
Family and Adolescent
Support Hub (FASH)
Paul Sutton
Head of Service, Youth and Family
Support Service
www.enfield.gov.uk
Striving for excellence
Background
In January 2015, Enfield Council was awarded one-year
funding of £2.06m by the DfE’s Innovation Programme
to set up a Family and Adolescent Support Hub (FASH),
providing early help and support to young people aged
11 to 17 years on the edge of care.
The local authority provided a contribution in kind, along
with new funding of £0.992m over the same period.
What is the FASH?
The FASH is a multi-disciplinary, rapid reaction service that works intensively
with children, young people and their families to keep young people out of
the care system where this is in their best interests, and to prevent negative
outcomes such as youth homelessness, school exclusion, crime leading to
reoffending, sexual exploitation, NEET and prison convictions.
The cornerstone of the service is comprehensive assessments and case
planning carried out by qualified Social Workers, involving other
professionals as appropriate, to form a bespoke, sequenced intervention for
the whole family - a team around the family - for up to nine months.
Aims
The overarching aim of FASH is to reduce the number of young people in
care. To achieve this, FASH works intensively with children, young people
and their families to:
• improve family and young person resilience
• improve family parenting
• improve family and young person participation in education and training
• improve family and young person interaction
• reduce family domestic violence
• reduce family mental health issues
• reduce youth offending
• improve multi-agency working across the borough.
Aims
In the longer term, FASH aims to:
• reduce the rates of looked after children
• reduce the number of late entrants into care
• reduce the rate of re-entry to care
• reduce re-referral to social care
• reduce youth crime leading to reoffending
• reduce youth homelessness
• reduce the rates of offending
• reduce the number of crime victims
• reduce sexual exploitation
• reduce the rates of NEET
• reduce rates of exclusion
• improve family health
• reduce the rate of prison convictions.
Strategy
Enfield’s strategy for the FASH brings together a wide range of
professionals (led by Social Workers), combined with enhanced staffing
levels and other resources, and augmenting existing good practice with a
range of other approaches to transform our response to young people and
their families.
The FASH also developed ideas from current research into rethinking
support for adolescents to be able to achieve its short and longer-term
target outcomes:
• Key professional consistency: reduced caseloads (maximum 8) give
staff the time to build relationships and ensure the young person has the
same key worker for the whole period of support.
Strategy
• Recruitment: FASH appointed Social Workers and other professionals
with the right skill-sets and experience of working with adolescents and
families with complex issues.
• Targeted early intervention: feedback from Enfield’s young people in
residential care highlighted missed opportunities for intervention at an
earlier stage. Specific focus is placed on ensuring early identification of
key factors contributing to family breakdown to form a bespoke
sequenced intervention for the whole family – a team around the family
– to prevent the need for crisis intervention and re-entry to care.
• Multi-disciplinary social work teams: young people have access to a
range of in-house support to prevent ‘referring out’ which can increase
the risk of disengagement.
Strategy
• Building resilience: qualified social workers undertake intensive work
with families, aimed at building resilience and improving parenting to
prevent re-entry to care.
• Reunification: FASH developed the NSPCC’s Reunification Framework
to meet the needs of Enfield’s LAC. Effective planning and post-
reunification support is key to embedding lasting changes within families
to prevent re-entry to care.
• Evaluation and service improvement: a comprehensive programme
of evaluation of the FASH undertaken by an independent evaluator, will
be used to shape and improve future practice.
FASH structure chart
FASH Teams
• Family and Adolescent Support Team (FAST) helps young
people aged 16 to 17 years who are homeless or at risk of
becoming homeless, and provides intensive support and family
mediation to 13 to 17 year olds and their families to prevent them
from entering the care system.
• Reunification and Adolescent Support Team (RAST) supports
the return home of children and young people aged 11 to 17 years
who are currently being looked after by the Local Authority, as well
as children and young people aged 11 to 17 years who are on the
cusp of coming into care.
FASH Teams
• Child Sexual Exploitation Prevention Team (CSEP) is
responsible for working with all young people aged 11 to 17 years
who are identified as being at risk of, or experiencing, CSE in
Enfield. The Team also works closely with other agencies to
prevent the sexual exploitation of children and young people
within the borough through:
• Awareness raising
• Education sessions for young people
• Consultation for other professionals
• Intelligence gathering
• Disruption activity
Specialist FASH staff
The three FASH teams are supported by 2 Clinical Psychologists, 2
Learning Mentors, 2 Activities and Engagement Officers, and a
Healthy Living Case Worker. In-house support prevents ‘referring
out’ which can lead to disengagement, and enables young people to
access specialist services as soon as they need them.
The FASH is also able to commission services, such as Family
Group Conferencing, as and when required.
Family and Adolescent
Support Team (FAST)
What does FAST do?
In June 2015, the Family and Accommodation Support Team
transferred into the FASH . This followed the merger of the Young
Person’s Housing Support Service for 16/17 year olds and the
Adolescent Support Team in October 2014.
FAST still operates in two distinct areas:
1. providing a consistent and coordinated response to 16 and 17
year olds who have experienced family breakdown and present
as homeless. The Team provides a range of solutions, including
supported accommodation and mediation, to minimise the need
for temporary accommodation or looked after status for these
young people.
2. providing intensive support and family mediation to 13 to 17
year olds and their families who have experienced family
breakdown, to prevent the young person from entering the care
system, and to help them achieve improved outcomes in terms
of reduced anti-social behaviour and offending, increased
emotional wellbeing, participation in education and social
inclusion.
What does FAST do? (cont.)
FAST Referrals: Adolescent Support
Between 01 April 2014 – 31 March 2015, FAST received 33 referrals for
adolescent support. FAST worked with 27 of these young people.
Between 01 April 2015 – 31 January 2016, FAST received 27 referrals for
adolescent support and worked with 25 of these young people.
No. of referrals No. of cases worked
01 April 2014 - 31 March 2015 33 27
01 April 2015 - 31 January 2016 27 25
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
FAST Referrals: Accommodation Support
Between 01 April 2014 – 31 March 2015, 213 16/17 year olds presented to
FAST as homeless. Of these young people, FAST worked with 74; 34 were
accommodated in supported accommodation and 40 returned to the family
home. 12 young people had emergency B&B accommodation prior to
being placed in supported accommodation.
Between 01 April 2015 – 31 January 2016, 145 16/17 year olds presented
to FAST as homeless. Of these young people, FAST worked with 72; 45
were accommodated in supported accommodation and 27 returned to the
family home. 19 young people had emergency B&B accommodation prior
to being placed in supported accommodation.
Age Breakdown: Adolescent Support
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Age
01 April 2014 - 31 March 2015 4 10 7 5 1
01 April 2015 - 31 January 2016 1 2 3 8 5 4 2
4
10
7
5
11
2
3
8
5
4
2
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Age Breakdown: Accommodation Support
16 17
Age
01 April 2014 - 31 March 2015 28 46
01 April 2015 - 31 January 2016 25 47
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Gender Breakdown – Adolescent Support
Male Female
01 April 2014 - 31 March 2015 14 14
01 April 2015 - 31 January 2016 11 14
14 14
11
14
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Gender Breakdown – Accommodation Support
Male Female
01 April 2014 - 31 March 2015 20 54
01 April 2015 - 31 January 2016 54 91
20
5454
91
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Ethnicity – Adolescent Support
6
8
1 1
2 2
1
2
5
1 1 1
2 2
1 1
7
1
2
1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
01 April 2014 - 31 March 2015 01 April 2015 - 31 January 2016
Ethnicity – Accommodation Support
15
12
11
1 1
7
1 1
6
8 8
4
1
7
19
1 1 1 1
3
12
1 1
7
13
23
10
2
4
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
01 April 2014 - 31 March 2015 01 April 2015 - 31 January 2016
Length of Case – Adolescent Support
2
3 3 3
6
1 1
3
0 0
1
2
1
0
1
2
1
4
5
1
0
4
1
4
2
0
1
0 0 00
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
<1month
1 - 2months
2 - 3months
3 - 4months
4 - 5months
5 - 6months
6 - 7months
7 - 8months
8 - 9months
9 - 10months
10 - 11months
11 - 12months
12 - 13months
13 - 14months
14 - 15months
01 April 2014 - 31 March 2015 01 April 2015 - 31 January 2016
Length of Case – Accommodation Support
6
24
13
16
4
65
7
21
14
17
4
2
6
1
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
<1 month 1 - 2 months 2 - 3 months 3 - 4 months 4 - 5 months 5 - 6 months 6 - 7 months 7 - 8 months
01 April 2014 - 31 March 2015 01 April 2015 - 31 January 2016
Mediation
44 44
26
23
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Total number of young people for whom mediation took place Total number of young people for whom mediation wassuccessful*
01 April 2014 - 31 March 2015 01 April 2015 - 31 January 2016
*remaining with or returning to their families
Current FAST Caseload
As at 31 January 2016, FAST are currently working with 43
young people; 21 are receiving accommodation support and 22
adolescent support.
Of these young people, 7 are currently children looked after, and
a further 2 are remanded into Local Authority care.