Reflections on Family Intervention Projects

Judy Nixon

Sadie Parr

Sheffield Hallam University

The target populations Characteristics of families referred

80%

57%

30%

16%

16%

9%

21%

14%

13%

28%

58%

80%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

% adults w ith 1+ support needs

Depression

Alcohol

Mental

Physical

Self harm

6 IFSPs

BtC

Children’s health and well beingchildren's health needs

26%

16%

22%

3%

7%

28%

10%

18%

5%

17%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

learning diff iculties

Alcohol

ADHD

Self harm

drugs

6 IFSPs

BtC

Popular conceptions of FIPS ....'Sin bins' for the 'neighbours from hell'

Reflections: FIPs as a punitive form of social control?

The criminalisation of social policy– the criminalisation of social policy– addressing need through the lens of crime prevention– the 're- emergence' or 'excavation' of the 'problem' family– extended surveillance of every day life– 'The Respect thing ..they see it as we should work with the worst

of the worst to take on the most challenging families and you've gotta take them , you've gotta force them to work with you even if they don't want to work with you. Well the reality of it is, we have always done that but , but we've never put it in those terms." Local Stakeholder

......oras a [creative] way of plugging gaps in service provision?

– as a soft alternative to enforcement action– as a 'last resort'– filling a service gap

"often support and interventions would be missing because social services criteria for what they will accept and deal with is so high due to their resources so yeah, I think there was, there was a gap and this was partly about plugging that gap' Project manager

Professional habitus and narratives of resistance

– Service users reported that the practice values of respect, honesty and listening were key to developing constructive relationships with project workers;

– "Today's kids are tomorrow's mums and dads and son and so forth. You've got to break that cycle and you've got to interact with them....at the end of the day they are part of the community- you can't, you know, you can't just throw the baby out with the bath water' Local Stakeholder

Local practices

FIPs as a model for the Family Pathfinders? Can these initiatives provide a practice space

within which progressive responses can be developed ...or

Is it inevitable that such interventions will be trapped within a framework of coercive moral regulation?