Whole family approaches to responding to parents and children in families affected by domestic abuse: Implementation Toolkit.
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Whole family approaches to responding to parents and children in families affected by domestic abuse: Implementation Toolkit
About this toolkit
The toolkit aims to support the implementation of ‘whole family approaches’ when responding to both parents and children in families affected by domestic abuse.
‘Whole family approaches’ are where practitioners from both adult and child focused health and care services work to support families where the parent and the child (ren) are victims/survivors, and a parent/other adult is a perpetrator of domestic abuse. This includes family-led approaches and Co-ordinated Community Responses (CCRs).
These approaches typically involve multiple agencies, each with a focus upon different members of the family, and therefore different skills and practices, which can lead to whole family approaches being difficult to implement.
- This toolkit provides a step-by-step guide for implementing whole family approaches to respond to both parents and children in families affected by domestic abuse.
- It provides advice about each stage in the process (how to plan for, embed and sustain the approach), and tools which have been designed to support users in this task.
- The toolkit has been designed so that it can be used as a standalone document or could be used in a complimentary way alongside already established documentation and models of practice, such as Family Group Connections.
- The principles, activities and tools can be adapted for use when implementing most new approaches within a multi-agency/partnership setting.
Who is the toolkit for?
The toolkit is primarily designed to support strategic leads (individuals responsible for shaping public services and overseeing the best use of public funding).
It also includes tools for operational managers (individuals responsible for overseeing the day-to- day operations of services) to support the delivery of the approach.
The toolkit provides step-by-step guidance for planning, embedding and reviewing stages of implementation.
It also includes specific content which may be helpful to managers and practitioners involved in the delivery of multi-agency whole family approaches.
How we developed the toolkit
This toolkit was co-developed as part of an applied research study that undertook an examination of key factors that impacted on the implementation of Whole family approaches responding to families affected by domestic abuse.
The study focused on three regions of England, each delivering whole family approaches inclusive of a locally developed system wide model, a family safeguarding centre’s model and the Safe and Together model.
The study found that professionals having a shared understanding of the practice approach, why they were working in this way, and how this differed from what came before it was important to enact and embed the new approaches. Regular structured opportunities to come together in multi-agency networks supported reciprocal learning, and the implementation of new innovative approaches was further supported by practitioners from different services thinking together and acting together.
You can download the toolkit, below
Funding
This work was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration (NIHR ARC) National Priorities Programme for Adult Social Care and Social Work, led by the ARC Kent, Surrey and Sussex (ARC KSS) and University of Kent.