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Strengthening Families, Protecting Children (SFPC)

Family Valued in Darlington

Strengthening Families, Protecting Children (SFPC)

Darlington Borough Council (DBC) was a ‘trailblazer’ for Family Valued and began working with Leeds City Council in 2019.

DBC has shared its experience of implementing Family Valued, its impact on social work practice, and what this has meant for children and families.

Report: Lessons from the implementation of Family Valued in Darlington

Lessons from the implementation of Family Valued in Darlington describes how the change programme was managed and what it has achieved so far. Lessons have been captured in a ‘Q&A’ format and divided into a series of thematic areas including programme management, impact on practice and Family Group Conferencing.

Key questions include:

  • What convinced you that Family Valued was what you were looking for in Darlington?
  • What have been the benefits of implementing Family Valued?
  • What is the role for leaders in making the programme a success?
  • How did the Family Valued help you shift focus to quality of practice?
  • What are you doing to ensure the transformation is sustainable?

Videos: Hear from practitioners in Darlington

What Family Valued means in Darlington (The DBC children’s services team)

Why we chose Family Valued in Darlington (Jane Kochanowski, Assistant Director)

Empowering practitioners and the impact on families (Jane Kochanowski, Assistant Director)

Using a relational approach (Chris Bell, Head of First Contact and Early Intervention)

Family Valued and the front door (Chris Bell, Head of First Contact and Early Intervention)

Family Valued training and culture change (Martin Webster, Workforce Development Manager)

Family Valued and social work practice (Paige Thomason, Principal Social Worker)

Our approach to managing risk (Paige Thomason, Principal Social Worker)

The impact of Family Group Conferences (Nici Franks, FGC Facilitator)

Family Group Conferences and family-led plans (Pascalle Hatfield, FGC Facilitator)

Roles and relationships in Family Group Conferences (Pascalle Hatfield, FGC Facilitator)