Action for Children Liverpool Family Support Service
‘There’s definitely a huge gap in provision of positive activities for the six to 13 age group in this area,’ argues Christine Lewis, Deputy Project Manager at Liverpool Family Support Service. ‘From our point of view they are the ones who are most at risk of getting into trouble, or of parents being unable to control them.’
‘We find that there seem to be two extremes: on one hand some children are out roaming around the streets getting involved in all kinds, and the older ones are having them as runners and so on. And then there’s the other extreme, where parents are so frightened of the violence on the street that their children are never allowed outside. So when it comes to them being in a group environment like at school, they can’t cope. They need to learn how to resolve conflict through play and interaction outside of the home with their peers.’
Action for Children’s Liverpool Family Support Service is a successful early intervention and preventive service working with children from pre-birth to 14 years, for families who are vulnerable to social exclusion. The service aims to support families to develop their own strengths, and to reduce the incidences of anti-social behaviour. The service accepts referrals from anywhere; from school nurses, health visitors and family GPs, through to social services and educational psychologists. And they will work with families for as long as they need the support – up to four years in extreme cases.
The service offers help to parents around implementing routines and boundaries, as well as one-to-one sessions with children and young people. The four project workers and one manager work in the family home, in schools or in the team’s base at Walton Family Centre.
‘Behavioural problems are almost always the issue,’ says Christine. ‘We get referrals about children who are out of control at home or at school because they have never learned how to handle anger or to resolve conflicts. Often the parent simply can’t cope with their behaviour and is on the point of giving up. A lot of work goes into offering strategies to help both the young person to self-regulate and gain control of their emotions, and for the parent to remain calm and consistent for their child.’
‘We also work a lot on parental capacity and how parents interact with their children. The service started from a family support ethos, but has evolved into almost a therapeutic service. We are dealing with feelings and emotions which have often lain dormant for years, but are impacting upon the parent’s ability to positively parent their children. The work can be a ‘drip drip drip’ thing for years, but sometimes a tiny bit of advice and support can get parents turning things around.’
Christine says that despite the huge life changes going on for many children during middle childhood, this is a neglected age group as far as services are concerned: ‘There are a lot of services available for children 0–5 years, such as Sure Start and children’s centres. And the older age range has the youth service and targeted provision by individual projects for 12 to 25 year olds. But we struggle with the middle age range, particularly in finding suitable positive activities for them to take part in which don’t cost a fortune for the families.’
‘There are some very good services for this age group, including two that run in parks and community centres during the summer called Splash and Fusion. We also use one called Positive Futures in north Liverpool, a football group for boys and girls that is run in a local youth centre, which is excellent at instilling discipline and fun into the children’s lives. But again, places are limited and often have to be booked beforehand. Apart from these, there isn’t much going on that we can refer families to.’
