About Strengthening Families
- What is Strengthening Families?
- How did Strengthening Families start?
- What are the goals and objectives of Strengthening Families?
- How does Strengthening Families work at a local level?
- How do families access Strengthening Families?
- What’s the process?
What is Strengthening Families?
Strengthening Families is a cross-sectoral, whole-of-government initiative which uses a structured process of government agencies and community organisations working together to achieve better education, housing, health and social outcomes for families. Both government and non-government/community organisations participate in Strengthening Families.
Participating government agencies include:
- Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC)
- Child Youth and Family
- Department of Corrections
- Department of Internal Affairs
- District Health Boards
- Inland Revenue
- Ministry of Education
- Ministry of Health
- Ministry of Justice
- Ministry of Social Development
- New Zealand Police.
Strengthening Families provides coordinated support to help families/whanau get access to the services they need. The agencies work together with the family to provide support and develop joint solutions to issues, rather than each agency dealing with one part of the problem and never seeing the bigger picture.
How did Strengthening Families start?
Strengthening Families arose from several local and national contributing factors. These included concern about intergenerational cycles of disadvantage, gaps in local service provision, the extent to which the agencies were dealing with the same clients, and the common interest in achieving positive outcomes for vulnerable families.
Strengthening Families local collaboration was piloted in 1996
and by 1999 it had been rolled out across the country. Initially
Strengthening Families was an umbrella strategy that included the High
and Complex Needs, Family Start and Social Workers in Schools
programmes - these have now developed separate governance and
operational structures.
read
more about Family Start.
Strengthening Families now operates in communities all over New Zealand. It is administered by the Family and Community Services (FACS) unit within the Ministry of Social Development.
What are the goals and objectives of Strengthening Families?
The aim of Strengthening Families is to shift the focus from crisis intervention to providing early support to families, so as to prevent difficult situations from escalating.
Families/whānau facing multiple life problems have difficulty accessing the services they need and some do not have the confidence to seek help. Often services already provided are provided in isolation and do not address all the issues. The Strengthening Families process, which is tailored to local needs and circumstances, ensures that families/whānau receive an improved level of service.
As a result, social service providers are not duplicating effort, and family members are able to meet with everyone at the same time.
The key objectives of Strengthening Families are to:
- increase awareness about the importance of child and youth wellbeing
- increase the capacity of families to work together, and with agencies, to solve problems that help improve the wellbeing of their children
- increase the capacity of agencies to collaborate through using the Strengthening Families model.
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How does Strengthening Families work at a local level?
Strengthening Families is tailored to local needs and circumstances. Within each area, the programme is overseen by a Local Management Group (LMG). The groups typically include frontline workers from the health, education, welfare, justice, housing and employment sectors, as well as non-government agencies and iwi/maori organisation and whanau support services.
The Local Management Groups:
- oversee and monitor Strengthening Families work including:
- coordinating case management
- identifying service provision gaps
- involvement in community initiatives
- oversee and support the local coordinator
- provide strategic leadership and enable interagency sharing of information and networking.
The day-to-day coordination of case management is undertaken by Strengthening Families Coordinators. Employed by government agencies or community groups on behalf of the Local Management Groups the coordinators’ work includes:
- promoting Strengthening Families in the community
- liaising between the family and agencies during the case management process
- reporting to the Local Management Groups
How do families access Strengthening Families?
A family can be approached by a staff member from an agency they are involved with, or they can ask to become involved in the programme. Participation is voluntary and Strengthening Families meetings only occur with the custodial parents/caregiver’s consent.
What’s the process?
A coordinator or agency staff member organises a meeting/s where the family and the agencies discuss the issues and develop a single case plan. The meetings are run by independent facilitators who ensure that the family’s needs, concerns and priorities are heard and understood. Faciliators can be Strengthening Families coordinators or agency representatives who have been trained for the role. At the meeting, an agency is identified as the ‘lead agency’ and is then responsible for coordinating what is happening.