The Family Partnership Model (formerly the Parent Adviser Model) arose from an acknowledgement that many services have difficulties in meeting the high levels of psychosocial need in families associated with their children’s problems. The Model and associated training were developed to help practitioners understand what it really means to work in partnership with families and to develop the skills of working collaboratively with them. The Model assumes that the process of helping is essentially an attempt to integrate the expertise of parents with that of potential helpers, and not the imposition of expert knowledge. The development of a genuine and respectful partnership has implications for outcomes in a number of ways, including it being a vehicle for a clear understanding of the problems and therefore the basis for effective problem management, but also the self-efficacy that parents may derive from being put in control.

The services provided by the Centre are all intended to help commissioners, managers and frontline workers from health, social services, education and voluntary sectors to consider the implications of the psychological and social aspects of helping for the design and implementation of their services. The Model and its implications are described fully in the key text for our training (Davis, Day & Bidmead, 2002); this book may be helpful to all people who work with parents and their children. However, we provide a range of services that will help elaborate the ideas more fully and enable the development of the qualities and skills involved. These range from short presentations to elaborate extended training.

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Commissioned Presentations

The Centre staff are happy to negotiate with individuals or organisations a range of presentations and formats. For example, we regularly provide conference papers on different aspects of our work (e.g. theory, service design, practice and research), as well as stand alone seminars of different lengths, and a variety of workshops. We attempt to adapt each event to the needs of the commissioning organisation through careful negotiation, and we try to work in partnership with our audience, whoever they are.

Fees: By negotiation 

This is the basic course of our training programmes and is based upon a published manual (Davis, Day & Bidmead, 2002, see Pubications Section). Any individual or organisation can commission us to run the course, which involves two facilitators working with groups of 12 participants in their locality. It consists of 10 sessions, each lasting 3 and a half hours. The sessions are preferrably conducted at weekly intervals, but the course may be run over 5 days at weekly intervals if the facilitators have to travel long distances. Each session involves a discursive seminar to address the theoretical aspects of the course and a practical skills practice. Participants are also expected to do short reading and practical assignments between sessions. The content of the course covers: the needs of families; the aims and the processes of helping; the nature of the parent-professional relationship; the qualities and skills of the helper; the exploration of problems; personal construing; ways of facilitating change; and collaborative problem solving. The course is interactive throughout and responsive to the needs of the group, with the facilitators continually modeling the processes and skills of helping. Each participant receives a copy of the course text to keep.

Click here for a short overview of the model

Fees: £1,200 per day per group (i.e. £6,000 in total)+ £31 per person for the course text (i.e. £372 per group) plus travel and/accommodation expenses as necessary for the facilitators.

Supplementary Modules (involving six half day sessions) can be added to the core course or conducted separately to cover topics such as:

• The primary prevention of child mental health problems.
• Parenting toddlers and young children.
• Post-natal depression.

This course is for appropriately qualified staff, who are interested in developing their ability to supervise frontline staff. It parallels the Core Family Partnership Course in both theory, skills development and the style and format of the training, including discussion, skills practices and assignments between sessions. It involves 2 facilitators working with groups of up to 12 participants over 10 half-day sessions preferrably at weekly intervals. It is usually run on a commissioned basis at a location decided by the organisation requesting the course.

This programme is for appropriately qualified people who wish to learn how to facilitate the Core Family Partnership Course. It can be commissioned by organisations, but is often run by the Centre itself, if there are enough individual applicants. Participants should usually have already trained on the Core Course and have previous experience of facilitating groups. However, prior attendance at the Core Course is may be waived for people with sufficient prior experience, a working knowledge of the underpinning theories, and well developed helping skills. The course consists of 6 full days, usually conducted at weekly intervals for groups of up to 12 people. Participants are required to prepare for the course by studying the text and manual of the Core Course. The training consists of seminar discussions and skills practices in which individuals take turns in facilitating parts of the Core Course with feedback discussion on their performance. It includes an in-depth exploration of the Family Partnership Model, the content and structure of the Core Course, and the style and skills of facilitation. Following the training, participants are usually expected to work with an experienced facilitator in conducting at least their first Core Course.

This programme is open to experienced facilitators of the Core Family Partnership Training Course. Its aim is to enable participants to deliver the Family Partnership Facilitator Course, so as to train facilitators. Each course is designed specifically for the group involved, but will usually involve 5 full days of training preferrably at weekly intervals for up to 12 participants.

Supervision is important for all people working in services for children and families, in order to help them function effectively and develop. The Centre is concerned to provide skilled supervision for anybody using the Family Partnership Model in their work. It is appropriate for frontline staff working directly with families, or for people who are acting as supervisors, facilitators or trainers. We can provide supervision on a one to one basis or in groups and it can be conducted in a face to face situation or by telephone where distance is a problem. This service may be commissioned by organisations or individuals and the content, length, number and frequency of sessions will be negotiated to suit the needs of the participants.

The Centre can respond to a range of consultancy requests from organisations thinking about or already using the Family Partnership Model in their work. This may include, for example, considering the appropriateness of the Model to their work, and the implications for implementation, including service structure, training, supervision, evaluation and research.

The Centre staff can be approached to conduct or collaborate in research in any aspects of service development or evaluation.

All the services listed above are designed to be collaborative. Staff attempt to work in partnership with all people using the services, so as to be as clear as possible about the needs of the participants, to negotiate the aims and content of the activities and to make use of the expertise of all partners to maximum effect. All our services, including training programmes, can be modified to meet specific needs of particular organisations or individuals with venues arranged for the convenience of those requesting our help.

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Click here for details of commissioning organisations with whom we have worked