Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme Evaluation Report 46 Evaluation of Enfield Family and Adolescent Support Service (FASH)

Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme Evaluation Report 46

The Family and Adolescent Support Service (FASH) was designed to introduce a radical change in the way support for children, adolescents and their families is organised in the Borough of Enfield.

The model aimed to provide a full range of support services for children and young people over the age of 11 and their families. A key feature was the inclusion of other services (psychology, mediation, learning mentors, youthwork) rather than referring out to other agencies; an increase in face-to-face working and greater flexibility of operation to establish effective relationships and support.

The cornerstone of the service was based on conducting whole family assessments, case planning and reviews by a team of highly skilled social workers, drawing in other disciplines to form a customised whole-family intervention; Team Around the Family (TAF).
FASH comprised 3 distinct teams:

• Reunification Adolescent Support Team (RAST); which supported reunification of families after a child had spent a period of time in care
• Family and Adolescent Support Team (FAST); which supported young people who were at risk of being taken into care
• Child Sexual Exploitation Prevention (CSEP); which supported young people at risk from CSE

The level of risk, in terms of young people becoming LAC, varied considerably across the teams.

In addition to the support from experienced practitioners, the FASH model also included training up Parent Champions who could provide peer to peer support for parents experiencing similar challenges.