The Role of Family Support Worker in a Children's Center - Research Paper Example

 Family Support Workers Introduction Children’s Centres started in 1997 in the United Kingdom to alleviate poverty by preventing it through working with children and raising school standards. It was the government’s aim to create a programme that will decrease the number of children experiencing education failure; getting into trouble with anti-social behaviour; preventing illnesses; or becoming teenage parents (“Every child matters”, 2003, p. 5). In 2000, a devastating event occurred that of the death of Victoria Climbié, an 8-year old girl who was horribly abused for a long time and eventually murdered by her great aunt and the man with whom they were living with. Following her death, a public inquiry was made because reports revealed no actions were taken by the social services on the twelve occasions over ten months to save Victoria’s life. There was also no coordination with the hospital attendees and the police department. It was concluded that the government needed to add greater measures against child abuse and not be complacent about it. Major changes in child protection policies were made and the Every Child Matters initiative was formed, which focused on four key elements such as (1) focusing on supporting families and building up on their careers; (2) making sure that the children get the necessary intervention before it is too late and protecting children from further harm; (3) see to it that weak accountability and poor integration are eradicated or kept to a minimum which were the underlying problems identified in the Victoria Climbié case; and (4) ensuring that the people working with the children are adequately trained, properly rewarded and valued (DCSF, April 2009). This initiative also paved the way of the passing of the Children Act 2004 which its ultimate purpose was to make the United Kingdom a better and safer place for children of all ages. It also included provisions affecting disabled children (“Every child matters”, 2003, p. 5). Children Centres In order for the government to realise the mission of improving the well-being of young children, tasks must be delegated upon the local community in order to reach as many underprivileged families as it can. The Childcare Act 2006 described a children’s centre to be a place where it is managed by an English local authority with a purpose of securing that early childhood services are made available in an integrated manner and the activities for the young children are provided by childcare or early learning for young children. Early childhood services meant (1) the local authority social services identify families who need support and early intervention performed; (2) health services such as paediatric care and vaccinations for the children and post-natal care for new mothers; (3) have services available to assist or encourage parents to acquire employment and preserve it (DCSF, n.d.); and (4) day care and education programmes for the children. Other objectives of children centres are improving health outcomes for children and families, decreasing incidences of crime, reducing child poverty levels, facilitating parents to manage time in order for them to be able to study and work, and helping lone parents to access work and training opportunities (DCSF, July 2009). The children’s centre approach is more of a preventive measure in alleviating poverty by addressing the core problems of economic disability such as lack of education and lack of employment. Since 2005, over 100 children’s centres were funded by the government to create a model for high quality, integrated services young children and their parents (DfEE, 2001). In general, it was revealed that parents are enthusiastic about using the children’s centres (Anning, 2005). However, the question remains if these children’s centres are able to address problems that families face. Häggman-Laitila (2005) in Finland conducted an inquiry of project families receiving family services from public health care and revealed that families needed support in parenting and child care. In addition, early support was needed for problems relating to health, work or school, unemployment or family crisis (p.197). Furthermore, this study revealed that family-centered services were greatly appreciated by the project families where the service providers worked hand in hand with the family rather than being dictated by the service providers. Support Providers Until recently, child welfare was handled by social service workers; however, because of the Climbié incidents and others, it was revealed that social workers were over-worked leading them to misjudge a case as not being too serious and not investigating the matter further. But instead of adding more social workers, children centres employed a multi-agency approach. Service providers were involved in the areas of health, education, social services, schools, and voluntary, community and independent organisations. Through the multi-agency approach, family’s needs can be supported very quickly. Some families are so complex and have chaotic lifestyles that they needed help from different sectors in the first place. Having the multi-agency approach in the children’s centres addresses the needs quickly and more easily since there is already coordination within the system (Apps, et. al., 2006). This coincides with the staff interviews conducted by Anning (2005) which asserts that the focus of the services should include the whole family rather than the children only, involving the community at large, and operating flexibly as multi-agency teams. Moreover, this entails the services of other agencies around the centre to offer combinations of childcare, pre-school education, adult training and family welfare services (p. 23). Family Support Workers According to the Children’s Workforce Development Council (2007), a family support worker is referred by a social worker to a family experiencing various problems such as those that might include the abuse of drugs or alcohol; one parent in the hospital or in prison; financial or marital difficulties; or not having experienced good parenting hence, the new parents are clueless about taking care of their own children. The family support worker goes into their homes to offer practical help and emotional support. They are not there to take on the tasks for the families, but rather to give them advice and to show them how things are done. Such tasks include: (1) bathing, clothing and feeding the children appropriately with special emphasis on heath and hygiene issues; (2) playing with the children to give them the proper physical and intellectual stimulation, love and attention; (3) dealing with disciplining the children without scolding them to the brink of abuse or how to deal with children who already have behavioural difficulties; (4) supporting families where either parent or child has a disability; and (5) gaining control over the family budget. They usually stay with the family for a certain number of hours a day, several times a week for a few months or until they are able to do things adequately on their own. Some families may take longer to assist than others; hence the family support worker should be able to identify the problems in the family and individualise the “family work plan” to address the matter straightforwardly. Usually, family support workers visit during early mornings, evenings and weekends because these are times when most families are together. When children are of school age, mornings are ideal to make sure that the children have eaten breakfast, put on clean clothes and are properly prepared for school. After each visit, the family support worker must record what tasks were done, account for the attitudes of the parents’ towards their children, the condition of the home, etc (CWDC, 2007; Lgcareers, n.d). Sometimes these reports will be used as evidence in court and the family support worker present as a witness should the children be subject to a care order. Moreover, family support workers can be involved in the “Assessment and Rehabilitation” of children wherein they work together with a social worker to assess the current parental situation and the children who have been in foster care are allowed to come back home on a trial basis. The family support worker then continues to make visits until everything has been settled in the family and they are able to handle things on their own (CWDC, 2007). A family support worker should therefore possess knowledge and competence in the areas of (1) behaviour management; (2) child development; (3) communication skills; (4) family systems; (5) teaching skills; (6) individual program plans; (7) home milieu; (8) community milieu; (9) assessment skills; (10) decision-making ability; and (11) problem solving activity (Jamieson et. al., 1988, p. 14). Behaviour Management Behaviour management is “all of the actions and conscious inactions to enhance the probability people, individually and in groups, choose behaviours which are personally fulfilling, productive, and socially acceptable” (Baldwin & Baldwin, 1986, p. 22). B.F. Skinner and Carl Rogers have given two distinctly different approaches for addressing behaviour. In Skinner’s “Positive Reinforcement Psychology”, he suggests that one can manipulate behaviour by first identifying what the individual finds rewarding. Once the rewards an individual wants are known, then one can select those rewards they are willing to give in exchange for good behaviour. Rogers, on the other hand, proposes that in-order to effectively address behaviour problems, one must first get the individual to want to behave appropriately. This is done by teaching the individual the difference between right and wrong including why one must do what is right. Rogers believes that the individual must have an internal awareness of right and wrong (Myers, 1999, p. 137). Behaviour management is usually applied over a group level by an educator. Family support workers should also act as educators that teach families socially acceptable behaviour to replace inappropriate ones using the Social Learning Theory (Krumboltz & Krumboltz, 1972; Jamieson et. al., 1988, p.14). This is necessary to achieve a goal of self-discipline. One example of the social-learning approach is that children learn through observation. If the children see their parents happy and care-free while drinking alcoholic beverages, they might see this as a reciprocal behaviour between drinking and happiness and interpret that drinking brings happiness. The child might then develop a drinking behaviour in the future (Atkinson et. al., 1993, p. 541). Child Development Child development refers to the “biological and psychological changes that occur in human beings between birth and the end of adolescence, as the individual progresses from dependency to increasing autonomy”. Areas of development are biological, cognitive, and social. It is explained by many psychologists such as Piaget, Kohlberg, Freud and Erikson, all of whom believe that human beings go through discrete, qualitative, distinct steps or stages of development (Atkinson et. al., 1993, p. 97). Family support workers should understand these theories because it will help them deal properly with the children. The behaviour of a three-year old and a seven-year old child are different as night and day, hence, the family support worker should know which activities are appropriate for each development stage and teach their parents as well. Communication Skills and Counselling A family support worker should be able to bridge the communication gap between the families and service providers such as doctors, nurses, midwives, teachers and social workers. It is not so much as being able to interpret between the two camps because they speak the same dialect but families may feel more comfortable talking with family support workers because they are able to speak with them in a more informal manner than the other service providers. A family support worker should not only be an effective communicator but also possess advanced counselling skills (Jamieson et. al., 1988, p. 14). Bates and Stevenson (n.d.) compared good counselling and communication skills and concluded that one is not as good as the other because one can become an effective counsellor but not an effective communicator. Effective counsellors have a strong knowledge base and an awareness of their own human vulnerability. They are aware that they are often dealing with people who are vulnerable and easily influenced. They bare the responsibility of their clients’ emotional life and death. If they are unable to do so, they may just be an effective communicator (p. 7). Nevertheless, it is important that family support workers possess both especially because their jobs can be highly emotional. Family Systems Although family support workers’ main focus is the children, they must take in part Bowen’s family systems theory, suggesting that the family is an emotional unit and its individual members are interconnected and interdependent. Thus, none of whom can be understood in isolation from the system. Each individual in the family plays a role and there are rules to respect. Individuals are expected to respond to each other in a certain way according to their role. This keeps the family balanced; however, it may also cause dysfunction. For example, if the husband is in a depressive mode and was not able to overcome it, the wife may have to take in more responsibilities to pick up the slack. The change in roles may sustain the relationship but may push the family in a new equilibrium if the wife or any other member of the family becomes overwhelmed (GenoPro, 1998). The financial burden might also be transferred to one of the children, usually the eldest. Teaching Skills A family support worker must have the capacity to teach the children and their parents (Jamieson et. al., 1988, p. 14). This can be in the form of chores and school projects. It is also important that parents learn how to delegate chores in the house and find ways to make it fun for the children to do rather than force them to do chores. To be a more effective teacher, the family support worker must also be student-centered in their approach in teaching. Even if a family is underprivileged as to being totally in the dark about basic skills in the house, they may develop aspirations once the basic skills have been taught to them. At this point, the family needs someone to guide them rather than have an authoritative figure telling them what and what not to do. Also, learning is more likely if the student is actively involved the learning process. Individual Program Plans and Assessment Skills Not all families are the same, some families might different numbers of children, some families have children all at the pre-school age or all at the high-school level or members from both, some families have two parents while other families have only one parent. A family support worker must therefore be able to individualise each of the families they work with. He or she must be able to identify the problem and create programs that can address these problems (Jamieson et. al., 1988, p. 14; Epstein, 1980). Home and Community Milieu A family support worker must be able to establish and utilize all aspects of the home environment. The family support worker must be innovative enough to make use of what is currently available in the house because not all families might not be able to afford even the basic equipment for their home such as a refrigerator or stove even if this is what the family support worker recommends. The family support worker can rather teach them family budgeting for their daily meals if the family is unable to keep foods that could easily spoil. The family support worker must also have the knowledge of the resources available in the community for the needs of the family (Jamieson et. al., 1988 p. 15). This can be a day care centre, a school or an adult community centre that can teach the parents some skills that can give them employment, or a health centre that can look after their health. Decision-Making Ability and Problem Solving Ability Family support workers must be competent enough to make decisions on their own without direct supervision. In addition, their recommendations should be valued because they are the ones who have direct contact with the families. This can achieved through proper and continued training of family support workers (Jamieson et. al., 1988, p.15). Family Support Workers and the Multi-Agency Approach It is recommended that the staff of the children’s centres should basically include a nursery staff and family support workers. The family support workers will take on additional posts which will focus on addressing health issues of the family related to hygiene practices while the nurse and doctors will address the biological health. Conducting career training for the parents, assisting them to develop skills and teaching them how to best to land a job and being able to keep it. It is critical for the family support worker to encourage the parents to keep their employment not just for the now but for the future of their children and their own future and a feeling of fulfilment. Some centres may also have to employ staff dedicated to helping families in the minority ethnic groups because there are practices in these groups that are unique to themselves. Gender differences must also be addressed (“Every child matters”, 2003, p. 4). Another advantage of the multi-agency approach is to have the services directly available for the families; however, coordination between these agencies must be emphasised in order for proper follow-up to occur. The family support worker can act as a triage wherein he or she assesses the problem of the family and then direct them to the proper agencies for their concerns. In a personal commentary reported by one of the family support workers of the Sure Start Children’s Centre, it has been reported that in the previous set-up, she spent most of her time building connections with partner agencies. She found it difficulty because of the effort she had to make in tracking down the right people; getting the right services; and following up on them. She also had difficulty dealing with the individualisation of her cases and there was no coordination with the other family support workers. She also found that her role was very demanding in terms of finding the right people in other agencies that she was unable to engage in preventive work so families were referred to her too late in the game, when their problems were already advanced. However, when the Sure Start Children’s Centre Programme integrated the multi-agency approach, she found herself working along with a team and was not left on her own. Since she did not have to spend a long time chasing after the people she needed for her cases, she is able to spend more time with the family. The family could also identify themselves with a team rather an individual and they could approach them when they needed something even when she was not present at the centre. The level of service is also up-graded because the level of expertise is specific. She also found the communication between agencies to be convenient and she could, for example, informally talk with one of her colleagues in the police department if she was to ask a simple question rather than to have to go through all the formalities of requesting a particular query (DCSF, Feb. 2009). Conclusion There is an urgent need to examine the skills, knowledge, training and supervision of the family support workers that are out there now and that will be recruited in the future. A family support worker’s role is not as simple as visiting a family’s home. He or she must be able to build a relationship with the families to make their interventions effective. They must possess knowledge and skills enumerated above because they are the frontrunners of social service. They are the ones who work directly with families and their observations are given much weight. Also the families are able to discuss with them in a more informal manner than other service providers. Training and continuous education of family support workers and their roles as defined is essential in making the government’s children’s centres a success. Aside from those mentioned above, family support workers must also possess practical skills in teaching parents about breast-feeding, smoking cessation, etc. In the end, the local government must be able to assess through children’s centres and family support workers which resources must be allotted for which families, for optimised effectiveness.  References Anning, A 2005, ‘Investigating the impact of working in multi-agency service delivery settings in the UK on early years practitioners’ beliefs and practices’, Journal of Early Childhood Research, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 19-50. Apps, J, Reynolds, J, Ashby, V and Husain, F 2006, Family support in Children’s Centres summary: Research and policy for the real world, Family and Parenting Institute, High Gate Road, London. Atkinson, R.L., Atkinson, R.C., Smith, E.E., Bem, D.J. 1993, Introduction to Psychology (11th Edition), Forth Worth: Harcourt Brace College. Baldwin J.D. and Baldwinn J.I., 1986, Behavior principals in everyday life (2nd Edition), Engle Wood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Bates, M and Stevenson, P (n.d.), Good counselling is just excellent communication skills! Or is it?, viewed 10 May, 2010, . Children’s Workforce Development Council 2007, Occupational summary sheet: Family support workers, viewed 8 May 2010, . DCSF – Department for Children, Schools, and Families DfEE 2001, Early Excellence Centres; Developing High Quality Integrated Early Years Services. London: DfEE. Department for Children, Schools, and Families Feb. 2009, Family support worker, Crown Copyright viewed 8 May, 2010, . Department for Children, Schools, and Families April 2009, Background to every child matters, Crown Copyright viewed 8 May, 2010, . Department for Children, Schools, and Families July 2009, Sure Start Children’s Centres, Crown Copyright viewed 8 May, 2010, . 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Lgcareers 2007, Family support worker, viewed 8 May, 2010, . Myers, D 1999, Social Psychology (6th Edition), Boston: McGraw-Hill College. Presented to Parliament by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury by Command of Her Majesty 2003, Every child matters, Crown Copyright, Norwich. Read More