Working with children in Barnet

Family Focus is a new and exciting service to support targeted families early when concerns are first identified in order to prevent problems increasing later.

What is family focus?

Family Focus is a team of Family Support Practitioners who will support families with multiple needs. They aim to help families become more resilient and reduce the need for support from specialist services, such as social care, at a later date.

The team of Family Support Practitioners have a wealth of professional knowledge and expertise. They are experienced and skilled in supporting the needs of parents, carers, young people and children 0-19 (to 25 with disabilities). Their role is to work alongside families using a non-judgemental, empathetic and persistent approach.

Who will the family focus team work with?

Families identified with multiple needs such as:

• domestic violence
• mental health concerns
• substance misuse
• disability
• poor attendance in school
• behaviour concerns
• family conflict.

How is a referral made to the family focus team?

When any practitioner working with a family, child or young person identifies multiple needs a Common Assessment Framework (CAF) assessment should be completed. The CAF should then be submitted to the multi-agency support team. This should include a request that the case be referred to the family focus team . 

The CAF assessment can be downloaded from the CAF practitioner page.

A practitioner may discuss the family’s needs with the multi-agency co-ordinator who can be contacted on 020 8359 4405.

How will the family focus team support the family?

The Family Focus team will persist in engaging all families referred to the team. They work with the whole family with children aged 0-19 (to 25 with disabilities) supporting them in the home, school or wider community.

They will use evidenced based parenting programmes to focus on developing parents’ strategies and skills for managing behaviour and to improve communication and relationships within the family.

They will signpost to and coordinate other agencies who can address the needs of all family members building a team of support around the whole family.

Parenting Programmes

Family focus will deliver parenting programmes to families with multiple needs. Parents wishing to attend a parenting programme will find information on universally accessible courses on the parent-support-courses webpage.

How to contact the Family Focus team

Parents and Practitioners can contact the family focus team via the dedicated family focus duty line on tel: 020 8359 7933 or or by email: family.focus@barnet.gov.uk.

What other support is available?

Information about other support available to families in Barnet is shown on the following pages on Barnet Online:

• domestic violence
• children's centres
• safer families project.