Update from the Intensive Family Support Teams (IFST)

The Intensive Family Support teams work with families with multiple and complex needs who would benefit from intensive support.

Up until recently the teams were set up in 5 areas but they have recently reorganised to operate as quadrants and are now represented as follows:-

East Herts, Broxbourne & Welwyn Hatfield Manager: Janine Culpin	Watford, Three Rivers and Hertsmere Manager: Debbie Stone
North Herts & Stevenage: Manager: Lauren Penrose	Dacorum & St Albans Manager: Penny Smith

The help they provide depends on each family's situation, but examples of issues they help with include:

• parenting skills
• improving school attendance
• training to help find a job
• help with housing problems
• managing money and debt.

There is no age focus for the service, as long as there is a dependent child (under 18) in the family.

The focus instead is to provide practical support to the whole family, when there is evidence of 4 of the following presenting issues being a concern to professionals across more than 1 family member, or the family are identified as requiring intensive whole family support which no other services are available to provide:

• parents or children involved in crime or anti-social behaviour
• children who have not been attending school regularly
• children who need help (for example they have had an assessment in the last year)
• adults out of work or at risk of financial exclusion or young people at risk of worklessness
• families affected by domestic violence and abuse
• parents or children with a range of health problems.