NSPCC: Programmes for children living in high risk families

Pam Miller, Senior Analyst, Strategy Unit, NSPCC

NSPCC: Priority Themes

Seven Priority Themes• neglected children• sexually abused children• physically abused children in

high risk families• children under one• looked after children• children with disabilities• minority ethnic children

Physical Abuse in High Risk Families• Theme launch: Glasgow, 6 March 2012• Service Commissions currently being

undertaken– SMILES– FED-Up– Caring Dads, Safer Children– New Orleans Intervention Model (NIM)– Domestic Abuse Recovering Together (DART)– Bespoke services (Parkside Mental Health Services and

Family Alcohol Services)

•A family approach for children who live with parental mental health difficulties

•Based on the Australian SMILES programme

Family SMILES (Simplifying Mental Illness plus Life Enhancement Skills)

Family SMILES – programme specifics

• Eight week group work programme for children aged 6 to 13– Reduce risk of harm to children who live with parental mental ill health– Improve the child’s capacity to cope more effectively– Develop protective factors in the child’s life and strengthen resilience– Improve self-expression and creativity– Increase self esteem – Reduce feelings of isolation– Provide age appropriate education about mental illness

• Six individual sessions with parent(s)– Enhance the parent child relationship– Develop and enhance protective parenting– Reduce behaviours that increase levels of vulnerability and risk to the child.

Family SMILES – implementation and evaluation• Nine NSPCC locations

– Coventry– Belfast– Southampton– Lincoln– Grimsby– Bristol– Manchester– Prestatyn– Middlesbrough

• Evaluation tools– Rosenberg self esteem questionnaire– Health of the Nation Outcome Scales Child & Adolescent Mental Health (HONOSCA)– Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)– Child Abuse Predictive Inventory (CAPI)

• A family approach for children who live with parental substance misuse

•Based on FEDUP and SMART groups

FED-Up – Family Environment: Drug Using Parents

FED-Up – programme specifics• Twelve week group work programme with children aged 5 to 12

– Provide a non-stigmatising, non-threatening environment which can support children living at home and ensures they are kept safe.

– Support children and young people by giving them a voice and someone to turn to for emotional support and promotion of their well being

– Enhance the child’s self-esteem

– Provide a safe environment for children in which to share experience and express wishes and feelings, which are acknowledged and heard

– Promote social skills and social inclusion

– Develop a safety plan for the child through an approach which is pragmatic and interactive in order to raise awareness of personal safety appropriate to the child’s age and understanding.

• Parents are worked with individually prior to the group work with the children starting and then during the time the children are attending the group.

– Promote parents knowledge and understanding of the impact of parental substance use upon their child/ren

– Enhance protective parenting.

FED-Up – implementation and evaluation• Fourteen NSPCC locations

– Blackpool– Coventry– Crewe– Glasgow– Grimsby– Hounslow– Hull– Lincoln

• Evaluation tools– Rosenberg self esteem questionnaire– Health of the Nation Outcome Scales Child & Adolescent Mental Health (HONOSCA)– Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)– Child Abuse Predictive Inventory (CAPI)

– Liverpool– Londonderry– Manchester– Sheffield– Stoke– Warrington

• Programme is not a perpetrator programme

•Programme to work with violent fathers in a parenting context

•The Caring Dads programme was developed in Canada

Caring Dads, Safer Children

Caring Dads, Safer Children – programme specifics

• Seventeen week group; eight to twelve men in each group; two hours per session

• Group co-lead by male and female facilitators• Men should currently care for or have contact with their children• Partners/ex-partners are offered support via the partner

engagement worker• Children will be contacted at times during the group and at the

end of the group to gather their views on progress made in the relationship with their father

Caring Dads, Safer Children - implementation and evaluation• Four NSPCC locations

– Cardiff– Prestatyn– Belfast– Peterborough

• Evaluation– Key difference from other evaluations and programmes is that assessment of

parenting includes views of children.– Parenting Stress Index– Parental Acceptance and Rejection Questionnaire– Controlling Behaviour Inventory– Well being scales

Caring Dads, Safer Children – quantitative profile of fathers

• Reporting on 72 men for whom we have data• Will be able to report on the following:

– demographic information recorded on CRIS/Alpha– results of standardised measures– % of scores that are clinically significant – agencies already involved with father– Facilitators’ views on fathers’ commitment to the

programme– Attrition and reasons for attrition and non-attendance

Caring Dads, Safer Children – profile of their children

• Data available on 114 children*• Age: Ranged between 0 to 17 years. Mean = 6, Median = 5• Relationship to father: 88% child, 7% step-child, 5% NK• Gender: 44% female, 54% male, 2% NK• Father lives with children? 30% Yes, 65% No, 5% NK• Ethnicity: 46% Any Other White Background, 38% White

British, 7% Welsh, 5% Mixed Background

*Not total number of children, awaiting data from groups.

Questions?

• Di Jerwood, Development Manager, Physical Abuse in High Risk Families, NSPCC, 01347 810492, djerwood@nspcc.org.uk

•Pam Miller, Senior Analyst, NSPCC, 0207 825 7438, pam.miller@nspcc.org.uk