Warwickshire News Mine

The county council service organised discussion groups and activities at Kingsbury Water Park in October and invited young people and their parents and carers to take part as a way to evaluate the service.

In total 20 participants from Nuneaton and Bedworth who have used family intervention and support services in the past year attended the two sessions. During this time they frankly shared their views, discussed their circumstances, and outlined their needs with staff from the service.

Feedback from the sessions was overall very positive. Parents described the family support they had received as crucial and vital to their family’s wellbeing, but felt more could be done around preparing the family for the worker’s support finishing at the end of the intervention.

They reported that following on from the support it was easier to deal with bad behaviour from their children, resolve problems in the family and move on in a positive way.

The young people praised their support workers for being easy to talk to and good at explaining things, and said their workers had helped with managing their behaviour, saying that they felt more positive towards life as a result of the support. Some however expressed that they would have preferred a male worker.

The comments from the groups will be used to shape future service delivery to ensure people get the support they need from the right place at the right time. The service is already looking at how to improve the process when workers end their supportive involvement when it has achieved its aims and is no longer needed.

One Nuneaton mum who attended an evaluation session said: “It felt really nice to be invited to share my views to help shape the service and I found the session useful. The gesture shows that they really care what we think and want to know how they can further make a difference.

“I’ve had a really positive experience using the parenting support service. My support worker was so understanding and helpful and deserves a gold star. She gave me the confidence and skills I needed to pick myself up and get my children’s behaviour back on track after their father died last year.

“I now feel much better equipped to deal with any problems as they arise, I’ve tackled a lot of fears, have learned how to cope with change, and have started to give my children more responsibility. My support worker has been able to put me in touch with people who can offer continued and relevant support for as long as my family need it which I am very grateful for.

I would recommend the service to anyone who is struggling with the difficult job of being a mum or dad as it can really make a difference to the whole family.”

Warwickshire County Councillor Heather Timms, Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Families said: “I’m pleased to hear about the success of these events and from people, like this parent, who have benefitted so much from early interventions and support from the county’s family and parenting support team.”

“To provide easy to access services that represent parents’ and carers’ needs, it is important that we continue to reach out and engage with local families through sessions like this.”

Gill Bishop, the Family and Parenting Support Services Manager, concluded: “These events complement other methods of evaluation we use such as questionnaires and telephone surveys. They were our chance to find out face to face, and in more detail, whether the services we provide are what people want.

“We were interested in participants’ experiences of the family and parenting support service, whether they got the right help from staff, what changes there had been to family life and what we could do better.

"We were really pleased with the feedback we received and plan to analyse and implement the changes recommended.”

Link to WCC