Stronger Families Norfolk and Stronger Families Suffolk are innovative social outcomes partnerships between Norfolk and Suffolk County Councils, Bridges Outcomes Partnerships and Family Psychology Mutual. The Stronger Families programme delivers Functional Family Therapy to families where children are on a trajectory towards care entry or where a child has returned from care and therapeutic intervention will support their family to sustain their return home.
Stronger Families delivers Functional Family Therapy to the whole household in their home. The approach enables families to address challenging patterns of behaviour and communication in order to build their capacity for sustainable, positive change. The therapy works to prevent family breakdown and give families the tools to cope, so that children can remain safely with their families and experience reduced involvement with children’s services.
To date, the programme has kept children out of care for 365,000 days, alongside other measurable impacts that go beyond at-risk children to benefit whole families, where a majority reported improved family functioning. 93% of children supported do not enter or re-enter care up to two years post intervention.
The therapy is delivered through an outcomes-based model: partners have the flexibility to use ongoing learnings to adapt and improve programme delivery, while Local Authorities only pay for successfully achieved outcomes (i.e. when a child successfully remains out of care). The model incentivises the creation of long term, positive impact and ensures better value for money.
For more information visit https://www.fpmcic.com/ncasc