Young People in Focus

IYPP PROJECT

4. Project Development

The project was planned in 3 phases:

PHASE 1

Development phase

PHASE 2

Service delivery

PHASE 3

Completion

The project development and practice barriers and the ways in which they were overcome at various phases are discussed below.

4.1 Barriers

4.1.1 Staffing

Problems regarding the staffing changes began to surface just after the project agreement was signed, with integral staff leaving and delays in recruiting replacements.  The only dedicated Parenting Worker in place during the development phase was the one in Bracknell.  So the Young Person’s Parallel Worker based herself at the Bracknell Office and together the two worked tirelessly to develop the programme itself and literature advertising the project to possible referring agencies.

The Operational Manager from Bracknell Forest YOT agreed to take over the financial and day-to-day management of the IYPP Project. Unfortunately prior to the commencement of the IYPP Project the Parenting Coordinator left to take up alternative employment and the parenting worker went on maternity leave. This left the YOTs in a dilemma. Later, the Operational Manager responsible for the day-to-day running of the project also left.

4.1.2 Confidentiality

Clarity regarding confidentiality, particularly for the young people, became an issue for the workers to deal with. Some young people were reluctant to have their thoughts and feelings discussed with their parents.

4.1.3 Time

The parents’ and the young persons’ programmes had to run in conjunction with each other. So it soon became apparent that late afternoon and evening visits were going to have to be made to fit in with work, school and teenagers’ social lives. Consequently most visits took place between 3.30pm and 6.30 pm. Whilst the majority of work was being completed in Bracknell this was not a problem. However, when Slough YOT later came on board the Young Person’s Parallel Worker, based in Bracknell, was often late for appointments because of rush-hour traffic. Whilst it made sense to complete the visits to Slough families during one evening, it was not always convenient for the families. So the Bracknell Young Person’s Parallel Worker spent a lot of time travelling, which cut down on the amount of appointments she could manage. This highlighted a problem that one parallel parenting worker was insufficient to cover three geographical areas.

4.1.4 The limitations of a six week programme

Both original project workers, who initially developed the programme, felt that on occasions the six week intervention was not long enough. This resulted in them having to withdraw from the families before change was established.  There were also limited resources available to offer ongoing support. 

4.1.5 Factors impacting on the length of the programme

Some families were unable to complete programmes within 6 consecutive weeks because more pressing issues would often make them lose focus. The programme would have to be picked up after these problems had been resolved which interfered with the consistency of the programme, particularly for the young person. This also meant that delivery of the programme exceeded the six-week plan. Other reasons for this included school holidays, sickness and temporary disengagement.

4.1.6 Consistency across the three sites

As there were three sites involved in this project, one issue that arose was that of delivering the programme consistently across the three sites.

4.1.7 Completion of research questionnaires

We found parents and young people were not always very motivated to fill in the questionnaires needed for the research and so some families who took part in the project were not able to be included in the research study.

4.1.8 Achieving the agreed level of service delivery

Slough were unable to recruit a parenting worker until half way through the service delivery stage of the IYPP project and were therefore unable to contribute to the project at the beginning as they could not deliver the parents’ programme. Windsor and Maidenhead suffered extreme staff shortages and were forced to commission parenting services from an outside resource, which only provided group work programmes this prevented them from making any practical contributions to the IYPP Project although they did provide support via the Steering Group.

As Bracknell was the only YOT able to recruit the appropriate staff by the time the IYPP Project was due to start the onus fell on them, not only to develop the programme, but to deliver services as agreed to families within the time scales of the IYPP Project.  It was hoped that the recruitment issues could be addressed within the other YOTs so that they would be able to begin to provide families with a service and further contribute to the project as a whole, as had originally been envisaged.

4.1.9 Training

All the workers involved felt that they needed to gain knowledge around wider issues, for example, better knowledge of bereavement, marriage guidance, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), housing services and the benefit system. Training staff from all three YOTs involved in the project also presented difficulties.

4.2 Overcoming the Barriers

A number of strategies were developed to overcome the barriers highlighted above:

• A Steering Group was set up with Parenting Coordinators and Operational Managers from each participating YOT, supported by the IYPP Project Co-ordinator and a representative from the Education Department (as it was felt that some referrals would come from services based in the education system). The Young Person’s Parallel Worker also attended. The Steering Group met every 3 months throughout the IYPP Project and was particularly important in developing strategies to overcome the barriers identified.
• When the Parenting Co-ordinator and Parenting Worker who worked across all three YOTs left, it was decided that each YOT would provide its own parenting worker. However, the Young Person’s Parallel Worker would still work across the three unitary authorities as originally intended.
• The Steering Group acknowledged that it could jeopardise the consistency of delivery of the parenting programme if three different Parenting Workers delivered the programme in their own YOTs. Consequently a practice forum was developed. Workers across the three sites met on a six weekly basis to discuss and resolve practice issues and to ensure consistency across the three delivery sites.
• Bracknell Forest YOT were able to recruit a replacement Parenting Worker and, as managers of the East Berkshire YOTs IYPP project site, conducted interviews for the Young Person’s Parallel Worker with two members of the Steering Group.
• The Slough YOT team suggested that some of the project budget be used to pay a sessional worker to deliver the young people’s programme in Slough. The Steering Group agreed this on the understanding that the programme was strictly adhered to for the sake of consistency.
• The Young Person’s Parallel Worker based in Bracknell Forest YOT delivered informal internal training to the sessional worker at Slough who was recruited to deliver the programme to young people in Slough.  This not only helped to increase capacity, but was also important for consistency of delivery. Once Slough was delivering the programme to their own clients, the issue of time taken up travelling for the Bracknell based young person’s worker was alleviated.
• The IYPP project workers from Bracknell Forest YOT went on a promotional tour of the local statutory agencies within Bracknell to explain about the project and to encourage referrals to the project. This was very successful and they returned with numerous requests for referral forms.
• Young people’s concerns about personal information being shared with their parents were resolved by workers clarifying the confidentiality agreement. This meant young people could be confident that information wouldn’t be shared without their permission unless child protection issues were involved. However, they were also encouraged to consider when and how it might be helpful to share some information that could lead to greater understanding and to positive changes in their relationship with their parent/s.
• Additionally, the joint session at the end of the programme gave the opportunity for both parents and young people to share issues and information when they felt more confident and able to express their thoughts and feelings to each other.
• The project workers had to develop strategies to ensure questionnaires were completed whilst ensuring confidentiality and anonymity. The workers visited families prior to commencement of the programme to discuss the IYPP Project and how they (family members) would be contributing to the development of a more effective service for families in their community.  Consequently ‘Before’ questionnaires forms were completed before the programme commenced.
• Project staff accessed training on a number of issues, some of it organised by the IYPP Project Co-ordinator and some externally funded. They also attended the quarterly Multi site IYPP project meetings, where staff from all five models met to discuss a range of issues. The workers awareness and knowledge was raised, which allowed the workers to assess need more effectively and refer to other support networks where relevant, so that families could re focus on the programme.

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