1. SOLAS
FAMILY INTERVENTION and
PREVENTION PROJECT

2. Who are the SOLAS Family
Intervention Project?
And why do we exist?
• “Troubled Families”

3. The SOLAS Family Intervention and Prevention
Project (FIPP) was established in 2010 to reduce anti
social behaviour in households were the behaviour was
so challenging that the family were at risk of either losing
their home and/or children were at risk of being
accommodated by the local authority.
The service offers intensive and holistic support to
families who are in crisis.
We work with the hardest to reach families who currently
cost statutory services huge amounts in agency time,
care and criminal proceedings, police call outs,
evictions, legal proceedings etc. If problems are
unaddressed the cost to agencies of long term
intergenerational problems is on such a scale it’s hard to
quantify.

4. Our model of working with a multi skilled staff team
significantly reduces the need for ongoing
involvement of other services. However the main
cost effectiveness is demonstrated by the significant
change in the direction of the families’ futures,
preventing their problems escalating and reducing
the burden on publicly funded services at a time of
increasing cost pressures.

5. CURRENT FUNDERS
The service is a joint Charter
Housing and SOLAS project
and is currently funded by a
mixture of local authorities and
social landlords.

6. Why FIPP is INNOVATIVE
• Concentrates on ‘family led recovery’, working alongside families
to achieve what they see as important. When success is defined by
families (rather than professionals) they feel motivated to achieve
their goals
• Builds meaningful relationships to promote family autonomy
• Facilitates effective multi-agency working
• It can be creative and flexible with its deployment and use of
resources. Staff have small caseloads and work flexibly when
needed by the family; families are supported on average 9 hours
a week as long as they need it, this can be for up to two years
for some.

7. Phase 1
6 Weeks
Intensive Phase
10-12 hours per week
Phase 2
6 Weeks to 4 Months
Transitional phase
Up to 6 hours per week
Phase 3
5 to 10 Months
Maintenance Phase
2-4 hours per week
Phase 4
10 to 18 months
Optional Phase
2 hours a month, more if needed

8. TAILORED SUPPORT
Freedom Programme
Motivational Interviewing
Anger management
Solution Focussed Brief Therapy
Child Therapy
Restorative Approaches
Parenting Programmes

9. WHAT WE DO....
• Home management skills
• Budgeting, benefits and debt support and advice
• Setting up daily routines
• Supporting regular school attendance – and support
for children in the school setting
• Parenting Skills, family relationships
• Support to attend meetings
• Building confidence and self-esteem
• Positive changes to drug and alcohol use
• Help and advice on employment and training
• Other help or support that the family may need
including referral to other agencies

10. OUTCOMES FOR FAMILIES
November 2013 to March 2015
90.5% of children were prevented from being registered
on the Child protection Register
96% of children were prevented from entering local
authority care
71% of young people and children accessed appropriate
education
94%of children and adults were prevented from
becoming involved or continuing to engage in ASB
and criminal behaviour
88% of young people and adults were supported to
address Domestic Abuse

11. Cost effectiveness: FIPP delivers strong
value for money generating savings of at
least £1.17 million over 3 year (2010 – 2013)
(Cordis Bright, 2013)

12. Area of saving What these savings include Amount saved
Successful tenancies for 14 families
at risk of homelessness/ eviction
Staff and legal costs, security, rent loss,
repairs and re-letting. Housing
partners incur these costs.
£140,856 in total
(£10,061 per
family)
12 of 16 households disengaged
from antisocial behaviour
Police time , Youth Offending Service
involvement and court appearances
£201,696
(£16,808 per
child)
The cost effectiveness of this service was evaluated independently by
Cordis Bright in 2013. Below we have illustrated the main conclusions in
relation to cost-savings:

13. Outcomes from one local authority:
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Familys facing
eviction
warnings or final
warnings given
Familys involved
in ASB
Police
interveniton
Neighbour
complaints
Before Interveniton
After Intervention

14. Complexity of the issues:
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Physical health
issues
mental health issues Domestic violence substance misuse
Before interveniton
After Intervention

15. NEET FAMILIES:
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Problems attending
education
Employment Social service
Involvement
debt concerns
Before Intervention
After interveniton

16. Meet a family
• Sarah & Adam Wilkinson
• Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your
family?
• Can you describe what life was like when FIPP
first met you?
• What services were already involved with your
family?
• What were your experiences with these services?
• How was FIPP support different to other services?
• How did we support you?

17. The FIPP approach
We worked holistically with the family. This meant
working with each individual family member and the
family as a whole. We focussed on what the family saw
as the key issues whilst ensuring that the needs of
statutory agencies already involved with the family
were also met.
FIPP takes a strength based restorative approach with
the families that they work with. This means personal
and family boundaries are discussed collaboratively.
Everyone is encouraged to take responsibility for their
actions and the impact of their actions on themselves,
their family and the community. So by building,
repairing and maintaining relationships within the
family and with other professionals, empathy,
understanding and support can be developed.

18. Discussion
Are now all working within a multi-agency, whole
family paradigm.?
What are the remaining challenges in practice?
How do we overcome them?