What is 'Connecting Families'?
Connecting Families Team was established in April 2013, as Bath and North East Somerset Council’s response to the Government’s Troubled Families Initiative. BANES Council has successfully completed phase one of the programme and is now well underway with phase two; with the aim to work with and support 700 vulnerable families by 2020 as part of the Early Help Core Offer. The criteria for the programme are:
- parents and children involved in crime or anti-social behaviour
- children who have not been attending school regularly
- children who are at risk and need additional help
- adults out of work or at risk of financial exclusion and young people at risk of worklessness
- families affected by domestic violence and abuse
- parents and children with a range of health problems
Connecting Families is a key department for Bath and North East Somerset Council that are providing support to the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Programme. For more information on the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Programme, please click here.
Core Purpose of Connecting Families
To enable families with multiple complex needs to receive the services they need to change and support them to achieve resilience, health and wellbeing within their community.
How does it work?
After completing a full assessment of a family’s needs (called a family profile), a keyworker will coordinate services and provide intensive home-based professional family support. As well as streamlining the services working with these families, the keyworker will provide tailor-made packages to meet the individual requirements of all the families we work with. This approach maximises resources, avoids duplication and reduces costs and focuses on improving outcomes for all family members.
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles said:
“The Troubled Families programme has been a brilliant partnership between the government and councils, changing the way services are run, saving taxpayers money and turning around the lives of some of the hardest to help in the country, with kids back in school, youth crime and anti-social behaviour cut and adults better able to work. Building on this momentum, we are now able to help even more families and deal with even more problems and I am delighted that that work will now begin in the next few months.”
There is further information on the Department of Communities and Local Government website.
Troubled Families National Impact Study
In order to fulfil our obligations as part of the Troubled Families programme it is necessary to share information with critical partners, to effectively delivery of the programme and to undertake a full evaluation.
In order to identify families, understand the difference we are making and focus on who can potentially access the additional support the programme offers we will be sharing personal records that may relate to you.
This might include records in relation to; any involvement with Social Care, any involvement with The Police, Courts and Probation, aspects relating to your employment, anti-social behaviour, violence in the home, substance misuse, educational attendance and behaviour, vulnerable children and health issues.
The personal data of individuals and families will be linked with information from public agencies / organisations such as; the NHS and health organisations, Department of Work and Pensions, The Police, the Ministry of Justice, Probation Services, Schools, Youth Connect and the Youth Offending Service. This data will be shared with the Department of Communities and Local Government and Office of National Statistics for the National Impact Study.
The reason to link the information is to help the Government and local service providers understand whether or not the programme has been effective in reducing offending, truancy and getting people ready for work and to help improve the service over time. By sharing this data it will not affect your benefits, services or treatment that you receive.
Data agreements are in place to ensure that:
- the data can only be used for carrying out research;
- the linked data cannot be used to make decisions about individuals;
- the linked information is anonymised to reduce the risk of individuals being identified;
- it will not be possible for any person or family to be identified from any published reports;
- the linked personal data will not be shared with or made available to the local authority or any other public agency;
- all data is transferred, handled and stored in accordance with the Data Protection Act;
- appropriate measures are in place to prevent unauthorised use of the data;
- the data is destroyed after seven years
A PDF version of this information is available in the 'documents' section on this page. If you wish to opt out of the National Impact study please contact Paula Bromley, Service Manager on 01225 396931.
What do clients say?
"Without Connecting Families, the kids would have been taken into care. I would not have pushed for a medical myself and debt would be out of control. The kids behaviour has improved and since working with Connecting Families, they know that no means no. My sons have said that things would have got a lot worse without Mark, and that he has been really helpful getting the house sorted and taking them out." - Family 2016
"We were very scared before we met Joan, she has taught us that English people are good and respectful. We feel blessed to have her and the service helping us. Lots of our friends who live in other areas have been complaining about their support workers saying things are not as good. We want to say thank you J" - Syrian Family 2016
The Team
Name
|
Role
|
Office No.
|
Mobile No.
|
Email Address
|
Paula Bromley
|
Head of Children and Families Prevention Service
|
01225 396984
|
07980 998554
|
|
Tracey Bidgood
|
Team Leader
|
01225 396096
|
07530 263423
|
|
Marek Petela
|
Business Analyst Manager
|
01225 394217
|
N/A
|
|
Marie Porter
|
Senior Practitioner - Early Help
|
01225 396809
|
07887 213495
|
|
Hannah Fullbrook
|
Keyworker
|
01225 396144
|
07530 263018
|
hannah_fullbrook@bathnes.gov.uk
|
Joan Cooper
|
Lead Keyworker
|
01225 396126
|
07875 488581
|
|
Matthew Byrne
|
Lead Keyworker
|
01225 396130
|
07977 228360
|
|
Paul Edwards
|
Keyworker
|
01225 396153
|
07887 213466
|
|
Paul Hammett
|
Keyworker
|
01225 396150
|
07977 228319
|
|
Paul Spreadbury
|
Keyworker
|
01225 395098
|
07887 213460
|
paul_spreadbury@bathnes.gov.uk
|
Jan Capel
|
Employment Adviser
|
01225 396345
|
07818 521422
|
|
Sally-Anne Kington
|
Admin Officer
|
01225 396931
|
N/A
|
sally-anne_kington@bathnes.gov.uk
|
Rebecca Wilkinson
|
Admin Officer
|
01225 396176
|
N/A
|
rebecca_wilkinson@bathnes.gov.uk
|
Tina Sheeley
|
Admin Officer
|
01225 394230
|
N/A
|
|