Background: The Frome Learning Partnership (FLP) is a cluster of seventeen schools in and around Frome (Somerset) working together for the benefit of children in all three phases of education (first, middle and upper schools, covering an age range of 4 to 18 years).
After staff from all seventeen schools attended an awareness raising session on 'children affected by parental offending' (CAPO), delivered by the Barnardo's i-HOP service, the FLP were keen to ensure that children and families in their communities received effective support and information regarding parental offending. In response, the FLP committed to identifying a trained 'Champion' for children and families of offenders in each of their schools, who would provide a point of contact and support for all families affected. Proposed aim and outcomes for the Champions model: The Champions model aims to "ensure children and young people affected by family members' offending are happy, safe and successful". It aims to achieve this by providing the following outcomes: Children and their carers affected by a family member offending: 1. Know who to talk to to gain support and information in their school. 2. Know that they can speak to someone in their school that they trust and will understand their situation and not judge them. 3. Have access to and information about universal and targeted support, services and resources. 4. Feel included, listened to and understood by their school community. FLP schools: 5. Have school cultures that recognise and understand the needs of children affected by family members_ offending. 6. Work together and with other agencies to make sure we are trained to effectively support families affected by offending. Delivery of the Champions model: Each school invited a staff member to nominate themselves as their school Champion. The identified Champions then attended Hidden Sentence training at HMP Bristol and were given the opportunity to speak to a young person who had been affected by parental offending, about how, as schools, they could support children and young people more effectively. Following their training the Champions developed their own set of outcomes (as above) and Terms of Reference for individuals taking on the Champions role:
All FLP Champions will:
- Attend the 1-day Hidden Sentence training course.
- Be a member of the national Barnardo's i-HOP service (now NICCO)
- Be the identified point of contact for children and families affected by a family member's offending.
- Be the identified point of contact for staff members who require information, support or guidance in supporting a child/family member affected by a family member's offending.
- Be the identified point of contact for external agencies to share practice and guidance re. supporting child/family member affected by a family member's offending.
- Provide non-judgemental, sensitive and informed support and information to children and families affected by a family member's offending.
- Raise awareness about the needs of children and families affected by a family member's offending across their school community where appropriate.
- Attend 3 FLP Champion Group meetings per year.
- Lead on the implementation of the FLP Champions Action Plan in their school.
- Be aware of how work with children and families affected by a family member's offending sits within the overarching behaviour and vulnerability strategies, policies and guidelines.
The Champions model is promoted throughout the school communities to ensure that children and families know where to go for support. Schools achieve this through: Delivering school assemblies,delivering staff briefings, promoting the scheme on school websites and in weekly newsletters, promoting the scheme in the local media and placing posters on school notice boards identifying the school CAPO Champion.
Through termly meetings the Champions support one another, share information and ensure consistent practice. They also keep up to date with practice and policy development by feeding into the Local Authority CAPO steering group and inviting speakers from other agencies (such as Magistrates) to attend their support meetings. The model has been given a small budget by the Learning Partnership to purchase resources for each school to support children and families of offenders (all resources are listed on the i-HOP replacement site NICCO). The Champions have developed a recording system and clear protocols for how to respond to children affected by parental offending - see documents below. Somerset Local Authority hopes that other Learning Partnerships will adopt similar models so that support is available in schools across the locality. Somerset Early Help Hubs also plan to have CAPO Champions identified in their services and will be building on the terms of reference and protocols developed in this model to ensure consistent practice is adopted across the area.
