Border Busters Family Support Project in South West Birmingham

The lead school in one of the emerging Extended School Clusters in Birmingham was St Thomas Aquinas .The Headteacher invited Father Hudson’s Society to the first meetings of the Cluster and eventually, after much planning and an open commissioning process, Father Hudson’s Society was chosen to provide the Family Support.

Establishing this new project was a challenge. The Cluster of 14 schools is large and geographically dispersed. It would have been impossible to have one Family Support Worker trying to create the kinds of relationships with fourteen different staff teams that are critical to forming a high quality service.

A project serving four schools was seen as possible. The Steering group carried out an assessment of need, and a consultation on which schools were keen to be involved.

As a result, St Thomas Aquinas Senior School ( the lead school), Rednal Hill Junior, St Rose of Lima in Weoley Castle and St Brigid’s in Northfield agreed to become involved in establishing the new Project.

The Head of St Brigid’s also agreed to making office space available in his school, which was critical to making this new project work .The availability of space to meet parents is also vital .

The Family Support worker started work in February 2007 and shares an office with the Extended Schools Coordinator.

Within 6 months over forty families had been referred.

As well as direct work with families, part of the role is to provide parenting programmes. The worker is accredited to provide Triple P and also Positive Parenting programmes. The first took place in the autumn term of 2007 at Rednal Hill primary. 

Working in the senior school adds another dimension to the work. She does direct work with young people as well as offering the parenting support.  The senior school has a full time School nurse, Pastoral staff and the Heads of Years’ team whom she relates to. In the Primary schools the Heads and Deputies and the Sencos, as well as Administrative staff have worked closely with the Family Support worker.

A time limited project on Inclusion in 2007 was very successful –enabling many vulnerable families to access activities to promote greater independence and confidence.

The Management Committee not only has the Heads and Deputy Heads of the schools involved but also a representative from the Statutory services, in this case the Primary Care Trust.

In the Summer of 2008 the Family Support worker left to take up the role of Deputy Manager in a Children’s centre .The Cluster Steering group reviewed and evaluated the project and decided there was a need for two workers to provide the service to all Cluster schools .With funding support from the Local Authority’s Parent Support Advisor development ,as well as from the schools and Father Hudson’s Society, it was possible to recruit two new staff ,who came into post in September 2009 ;both are now based at St Brigid’s .