The Connecting Families initiative – run by the Council to help people deal with serious issues affecting their home lives – has welcomed a Government announcement of more than £200 million to support such schemes nationwide.
The Council has identified 190 families in Bath and North East Somerset which are set to benefit from the Connecting Families approach over the coming year. Work is on-going with all these families and the Connecting Families core team is currently working intensively with 25 families.
Councillor Dine Romero (Lib-Dem, Southdown) Cabinet Member for Early Years, Children & Young People, said: “Bath & North East Somerset Council’s approach is to ensure that each family has a named key worker to bring together the services and agencies that can help them; work with the family to decide on key changes that are needed; draw up an action plan and crucially provide practical hands on support.
“Practical support will depend on the needs of the family. It could be, for example, liaising with the school and taking the children to school for a period – if poor attendance is a problem – or assisting with filling out application forms, interviewing, volunteering and work experience – if unemployment is an issue.”
Less than six months into the local programme, Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Connecting Families initiative is already beginning to see the benefits of this way of working together with families. In one case, a young person not attending school is now attending regularly and in another a mother has secured a job, her first job in 16 years. In both cases these are a direct result of a member of the Connecting Families team providing support.
Councillor Paul Crossley (Lib-Dem, Southdown), Leader of Council, said: “The announcement of further Government funding into the 2015/16 financial year, recognises the very good work that is being undertaken and ensures that Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Connecting Families team has more time to work with more families and to be able to embed the new ways of working with a wide range of partners.
“We have yet to hear exact details of how the money will be allocated, but we welcome the focus on ‘early help’ to ensure that families get early support to meet their needs before problems become entrenched.”
