To help parents cope with stressful family problems, an innovative new service has been launched by Gloucestershire County Council. It is hoped the Family and Placement Support Service, launched by Social Services in January 2004, will help keep more children with their families - a key aspect of the county councils childcare strategy.
Councillor Maureen Rutter, portfolio holder for childrens services, said: "Gloucestershire is taking a real step forward in developing services to support the care of children in family settings. "This new service brings together more than 60 experienced, enthusiastic and knowledgeable professionals. They will provide struggling parents and children with a range of creative and imaginative services designed to iron out difficult family problems.
This new service brings together more than 60 experienced, enthusiastic and knowledgeable professionals. They will provide struggling parents and children with a range of creative and imaginative services designed to iron out difficult family problems. | | Maureen Rutter |
"Preventative services are already working well to help parents take control of their problems before situations get out of hand. "This has helped Gloucestershire Social Services keep more than 90 children out of care and save £3 million which has been re-invested into childrens services."
A key part of this new service is also ensuring stable care for children who are in the councils care by providing ongoing support in their placements with foster carers or at residential units. This includes creating packages of support for foster carers or organising activities for children to give foster carers some respite. Weekend activities The Family and Placement Support Service is made up of teams who work with children and parents to assess problems and organise appropriate solutions.
Locality Teams based in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Stroud work with children and parents in all parts of the county. Each team will consist of family support workers who will work with children and families referred to Social Services and organise appropriate services, and in some cases utilising the skills of staff from the following teams.
The Activities Team organise breaks for children and provide respite for foster carers or support to parents.  | | Help is at hand when family communication breaks down |
It organises weekend activities like camping in the Forest of Dean or water-based activities at the Cotswold Water Park in South Cerney. It also organises evening activities. Staff also encourage young people to participate in community based activities in their own area.
The Parenting Assessment Centre at Russet House offers help and support to parents in difficult situations and offers relevant support. The Parenting Skills Group is on hand to offer help where relationships between parents and their offspring are nearing breaking point. The Parenting Puzzle project enables parents to take part in creative workshops to identify ways of improving troubled family life. Mums and dads are use role-play and interactive theatre to work through problems including communication and dealing with challenging behaviour.
A further project, called the Family Group Conference scheme, is based on a successful initiative developed in New Zealand. The council works closely with Barnardos to enable parents and children to iron out their problems and plan their own solutions away from their home environment.
Alan Barton, manager of the service, said: "The service which is new to Gloucestershire will provide support to children and carers as well as supporting social workers to carry out specific plans for young people." »The Family and Placement Support Service can be contacted on 01452 418659. 
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As the BBC's Taking Care season explores what it is like to grow up in care, Gloucestershire County Council is playing its part in keeping children out of care. 
