System Change

 
As both families and the key workers who visit them will know, the way the system currently works with families leaves much to be desired. Bureaucratic requirements mean that, on average, 80% of key workers' time is spent on admin and only 20% actually with the families. Much of that 20% is also devoted to assessments. This means frontline workers end up spending the majority of their time on the system itself, rather than in building the kind of relationships that open people to change and address causes rather than symptoms. In addition to this, most interventions focus on one family member and in relation to one aspect of the problem — neglect, alcohol abuse, violence, etc — the agenda of the system, not the whole family.

The average cost of working with each family is £250,000 a year. This is a conservative estimate; the real costs are likely to be much higher. And yet little, if any, change is being achieved. Many families ending up 'stuck' in the system, often for generations. We see it as being a bit like a gyroscope — on the outside of the family is all the activity of the system every time crisis occurs, yet on the inside, for the family, nothing moves or changes. All this money and effort is being used simply to maintain the status quo — the system becomes an additional risk factor for the families and a barrier to change.

What's needed is a new relationship with families that starts from a different place and supports transformation.