Stronger Families Norfolk

More than 90 young people are taken into care in the UK every day. Young people in care typically suffer significantly worse life outcomes than their peers in a range of areas, including education, health and employment. Keeping children in care is also very expensive for local authorities, with a single place in a secure children’s home costing over £200,000 per year.

Stronger Families Norfolk supports young people at risk of being taken into care or those that are already in care. It provides them (and their family) with access to a proven therapeutic programme designed to help the family address behavioural and emotional issues, built on a foundation of acceptance and respect.

This is an outcomes-based contract, so the commissioner only pays for measurable improvements in people’s lives. The target outcomes are to prevent young people from entering into care, and for those averted from care, increase the time they spend out of care. The programme has a three-year tracking period and based on the nature of the contract, the commissioner only pays for the time spent out of care during this period.

Stronger Families Norfolk reduces the risk of young people to be taken into care by providing family therapy that seeks to improve communication and supportiveness between parents or guardians and young people, while decreasing hostility and blame. In the first 13 months of the intervention, 64 families have already started therapy and 9,220 days out of care have been achieved.

Stronger Families Norfolk quickly transitioned to remote delivery, obtaining approval from the license owners to provide therapy online or over the phone. If necessary, the delivery partner has provided families with the technology required to run these sessions.

This is the first time these intensive therapies have been delivered virtually, and the team is already seeing some clear benefits. For instance, the lack of travel time means they have capacity to provide extra support as and when it is needed. There is clear potential to continue providing some of these therapies virtually post-lockdown.