A new Family Group Conferencing Service has been launched by Community Family Care for families in North Somerset.

The breakfast launch, held at the Town Hall in Weston-super-Mare, was attended by social workers, early help workers and family support workers who wanted to find out more about the new service.

Family Group Conferencing empowers families to access support from relatives and friends who together come up with a plan to help solve a problem they may be experiencing. The aim is to enable children and families to safely stay together with the guidance of a Family Group Conference co-ordinator (who is not a social worker).

Community Family Care won the three-year contract for North Somerset Council, worth £150,000 by competitive tender. It has recruited several family group conference workers to provide the service from Weston-Super-Mare for a minimum of 24 troubled families per year.

Project Lead is Amanda Culverhouse, supported by Sessional Co-ordinator Teresa James.

Chief Executive of Community Family Care Mark Kingston said: “We’re very pleased to have won the contract and look forward to working with North Somerset Council.

“We’ll be providing an essential service for families who have experienced a lot of grief and trauma. The aim is to support them so that they are able to reach their own solutions.”

Community Family Care is an independent, not-for-profit agency which provides bespoke support services for children and families, building on families’ strengths to help make positive change and bring about lasting outcomes.

North Somerset Council has provided Family Group Conferencing since 2003 with an in-house team. Councillors agreed to outsource the service to external providers in 2016.

The big BoA Youth project launch is on Tuesday 23 October between 3 – 7pm and Community Family Care and BoA Town Council invite youngsters, ages 8 – 18, to drop in and meet the new youth workers and have a say in provisions going forward. 

The event will take place at the Youth & Community Centre (Frome Rd, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, BA15 1LT).
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The three new Youth Workers can’t wait to meet young people of the town and share ideas. Along with proactive conversation, there’ll also be creative and sporting activities on offer plus free pizza, soft drinks and snacks.

As part of their Youth Strategy, the Town Council has pledged over £144k over three years to the Youth Service. This includes initial contributions of £8k from the Colonel William Llewellen Palmer Educational Charity and £6k contribution from the local Wiltshire Council Area Board to help expand the service into the nearby villages, in some cases supporting existing provision. 

The funding will help to reinstate and nourish youth services in this area, which have sadly fallen by the wayside in other areas across the country.

Leader of the Council, Cllr Dom Newton, who authored the Youth Strategy and holds this project close to his heart, said:

"We’re hugely excited to see the relaunch of youth provision in the town, and to be working with Community Family Care.  Our aspiration for the service is very much that it reflects our young people’s needs and helps them to develop in their role as a key part of the town’s future, and over the coming months we look forward to seeing the service grow and flourish."

We hope that the new Youth Club provision and affiliated projects will be well attended, and if you’d like to find out more, please contact Community Family Care on 01452 840999 or via info@communityfamilycare.co.uk​.

Click here for more information about BoA Youth.

Community Family Care has received a pat on the pack from Gloucestershire Police for its Art Journal project.

Police and Crime Commissioner Martin Surl and his deputy Chris Brierley visited the team and saw some of the art journal work in progress and presented a plaque to Community Family Care.

Earlier this year, they awarded Community Family Care £10,000 from the Commissioner’s Fund to run the Art Journal project with young people in the Tewkesbury area who have experienced or witnessed domestic abuse.

The new one-year pilot project, in co-operation with the local PCSOs and Neighbourhood Policing Team, involves 12 groups across schools and the local community within Tewkesbury Borough.

​Each young person, in either a one-to-one session or a group session of up to six people, creates their own art journal which is theirs to keep and add to. This supports resilience and arms them with the tools to cope at times of need and stress.
 
The programme uses a variety of therapeutic techniques to improve positive mental health and boost emotional wellbeing.
 
Community Family Care is a registered charity which supports families all over Gloucestershire. It is part of Community Foster Care, an independent agency which provides foster carers for children all over Gloucestershire.

Parenting column by Sasha Hart, family care manager at Community Family Care, Staunton

Your child has hopefully settled in after heading back to school.

They were no doubt excited to see friends and have possibly made new ones.

But you may have had the dreaded playground squabble and are not quite sure how to deal with the fallout.

Relax (a bit): it’s normal

Children fall out (and in again) fairly quickly. It is part of children learning how to communicate and deal with differences.

Reassure, hug and listen

Your child might feel as if their world is collapsing. Give hugs, provide shoulders to cry on and support them in managing their emotions.

Help them to help themselves

Encourage your child to think through what they could do to resolve the situation. If there’s been a misunderstanding, how could they try to explain? If the other child is consistently mean to them, who else could they play with instead? Supporting them to come up with their own solutions is great for encouraging problem solving and building their resilience.

Resist the temptation to wade in

Parental instincts might urge you to sort the problem but wait to see if everything settles by itself.

Confronting the other child isn’t fair or appropriate and your child will probably find it embarrassing.

It’s also important to encourage children to problem solve for themselves to develop independence.

Proceed with caution with the other parents

Many parents struggle to accept their offspring have done anything wrong. The children are likely to make up before the week is out which will potentially leave an awkward feud between the parents.

If the other child’s parents confront you it is sensible to suggest ‘let’s leave the children to sort it out’, or similar.

If you feel the incident was serious and the school needs to get involved, perhaps say that you would rather the school dealt with it.

When to speak to the teacher...

If the dispute involved physical violence, becomes persistent, and/ or your child doesn’t want to go to school or is having trouble sleeping, then it’s time to raise it with their teacher.

They can then keep a closer eye on the children, intervening if necessary.

Community Family Care, based at Staunton, Gloucestershire helps families, children and young people in need of additional support.

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​Parenting column by Sasha Hart, family care manager at Community Family Care, Staunton

With back-to-school time approaching, preparing to get back in to the school routine can trigger a range of emotions.

Parents may feel a sense of relief combined with sadness that extended time as a family is over.

Children may feel apprehensive about going back or feel excited about a new term and seeing friends again.

The first few weeks of term can be stressful so we’ve put together some survival tips.

Be prepared

During the first few weeks of term your child is likely to be tired and more likely to misbehave or be irritable.

They have gone from a prolonged time at home and fun activities to a structured day with a cognitive overload.

Factor this in when booking other activities and allow your child some downtime.

Back to routine

Try to prepare your child for the changed routine ahead of time.

If you know they struggle in the mornings, get them up earlier in the final couple of weeks of the holidays and get back to regular bedtimes.

Talk through the routine with your child so they know what will happen. 

Have a chart with the times and what usually happens as a reminder.

Get back in to a regular homework routine as soon as possible – children will often have more homework than the previous year and will need to keep on top of it from the start.

Plan ahead

Be as organised as you can to help things to run smoothly.

Do as much as you can the night before to help with those first mornings and allow extra time to avoid a mad rush.

Remind your child ahead of time what usually happens when they are at school – what time they need to be up, when homework days are or who will be picking them up from school.

Make time to talk through any anxieties your child may have.

Take five

Parents often use the first weeks of back to school time to catch up with things they were unable to do during the summer, whether that’s work, washing or deep cleaning the house.

Remember that everyone needs downtime – take five minutes to savour a cup of tea in peace and quiet.

Community Family Care, based at Staunton, Gloucestershire helps families, children and young people in need of additional support.

Click here to download PDF of this article.

​Parenting column by Sasha Hart, family care manager at Community Family Care, Staunton

With the summer holiday approaching, many parents will be to wondering how they are going to entertain children and keep chaos under control.

The holidays can be a stressful time with everyone at home and it can be hard to juggle the things you usually do when the children are at school.

We’ve put together some tips for encouraging children to help with tasks so you don’t feel frazzled.

Having children help out means there is more time for family activities and important down time for parents at the end of the day.

Plan ahead

Talk to your children about helping out over the summer holidays.

You may want to sit down as a family and decide on a jobs list that is reasonable and realistic for your children given their ages and within their limits.

Only choose jobs that are safe for them to complete. Let each child pick 2-3 jobs each they are going to take responsibility for and explain why helping is important.

If children cannot decide on their own jobs, pick some for them. Finalise a job list for each child.

You may want to get them to draw this up into a timetable or show your child how to complete their jobs and support them by completing them together initially.

Agree on a set day or time for jobs to be finished and explain you will be checking they have been done. Set agreed rewards and consequences.

Rewards

Common rewards for completing tasks include pocket money.

Rewards could be anything from earning spending money for a family trip, to earning the family trip or extra time with mum and dad. Rewards do not need to be expensive.

Consequences

Agree some consequences with your child ahead of time. If a child does not want to help out and complete their tasks then remind them of the agreed consequence and make sure you follow through in implementing it.

Review

Remember to review your child’s progress with them and support them to make changes.

Review if your child is realistically able to complete their chosen tasks.

Remember to provide your children with lots of praise for completing tasks.

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Community Family Care has won a three-year contract to run a groundbreaking youth services project for Bradford on Avon Town Council in Wiltshire.

The council has drawn up a new Youth Strategy and sought an organisation to deliver a new approach.

It was impressed with the presentation by the Community Family Care team and agreed that CFC would provide “a highly innovative, responsive and localised service” for Bradford on Avon and the surrounding villages. 

The new service will also bring jobs to the area with the expected recruitment of several youth workers.

Community Family Care’s team will work with young people aged 10-18, and with people aged up to 25 if they have additional needs or have been in care.

It will deliver some ‘traditional’ services in addition to outreach work and more targeted work with young people. The not-for-profit organisation will also work closely with schools and other service providers, including delivering preventative work to address behaviours that may place young people at risk.

Councillors are keen that the service provides a platform for young people to have more of a say in decisions that affect them, and wants the service to provide opportunities for youth participation and citizenship initiatives.

Leader of the Council Dom Newton said: “We are very excited to be working with Community Family Care in delivering one of the first new Youth Services to be commissioned since 2010.

“The service has key elements – outreach and detached work, as well as youth club services – but it will really be for our young people to decide, with the new youth workers, what those new services really look like. 

“We’re looking forward to seeing how those develop, and are hopeful that it will help a new generation of young people engage in their local community, and with an expectation and understanding of their right to have their voice heard in decisions, locally and nationally.”

Mark Kingston, Chief Executive of Community Family Care, based in Gloucestershire, said: “We’ve been operating in Wiltshire for more than 14 years and see our role as unleashing the potential of young people, enabling them to realise their ambitions and bring a rich seam of experience to their local community.

“We believe that sticking by children and young people is a vital ingredient in our belief in them and that investing in the community will bring long-term social and economic gains which are critical to the realising of ambitions and happiness.”

Notes for editors:

Community Family Care 

Community Family Care is a trading name of Community Foster Care, which is a registered charity with 20 years’ experience of supporting children and families through fostering and edge of care services.

Established in 1998, Community Foster Care developed from neighbourhood projects and supported local families to foster; enabling young people to safely remain within their communities.

Today Community Foster Care operates across offices in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Lancashire, and Cumbria, providing high quality fostering services and, through its Community Family Care Team, it also offers a range of edge of care and early intervention support to children and families.

About Bradford on Avon’s Youth Strategy

The Youth Strategy document was adopted by the Town Council in late 2017, and covers both youth service provision in the town and area (part one) and improving opportunities for jobs and housing in the town (part two) for young people up to the age of 30.  

This was based on a review of current demographic trends, which show a marked difference in the numbers of 20-30 years olds in the town, against other towns of similar size, and the social imbalance that can bring.  

It is also predicated on the idea that providing young people with the opportunity to engage in their local community means that they will value the outputs far more, and that it embeds a habit of engagement in decision-making that will enhance political engagement of all types. 

BOATC have assigned £40,000 funding for the Youth Strategy in year one, with a further £8,000 from the CWLPEC and around £6,000 from the Bradford on Avon Area Board. The contract is for three years lasting until July 2021, with a total contract value of just under £142,000 split over those three years.

​Parenting column by Sasha Hart, family care manager at Community Family Care, Staunton

Switch off, tune out and enjoy summer without screens

With the summer holiday approaching many parents may be thinking about reducing their children’s screen time.

UK health advice suggests children should have screen free days and two-hour limits on time in front of screens.

It sounds great but the reality of implementing this can be a battle many parents struggle with.

Here’s how to set some boundaries and swap screen time for face time.

Set a good example

Children learn from their parents so if it’s normal to see you on your phone or tablet, they will want to do the same.

Turn off your tech for the same time you expect your children to.

Establish rules

Have family rules regarding screen use and implement times when you have family time and everyone turns off their tech.

Create a family agreement regarding the use of screens/ tech and get everyone involved in coming up with the rules for breaks so everyone is on board as a family.

Use apps to help programme breaks on devices and use consequences such as turning off the internet or power to help enforce breaks.

You may also have a tech box where devices get put during a screen free day. You may also have school rules and weekend rules regarding screens.

Equal devices

The average family has nearly two dozen screens under one roof so they must be treated the same.

Don’t just swap a tablet for TV time. Try to eliminate background TV so children get used to screen free time.

Removal of a device could be a consequence for not following the family agreement.

Be active

Plan what your child views, watch programmes or play games with them and comment on what you’re watching (more interactive).

Screen time can be isolating so have a balance of interaction during time on tech. It can be used as a teaching tool.

Tablets and phones can limit the amount of eye contact shared between children and parents so remember to put down your tech when responding to your child.

Provide alternatives

Creating a weekly schedule based on the idea of one hour of technology use equalling one hour on other activities.

There are lots of alternatives to screen time – relive your childhood fun.

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