Provision of an Advocacy Service for parents with children in or on the edge of care

Medway Council believes that where appropriate and safe to do so, every effort should be made to support families to keep their children with their family setting. The Advocacy service for parents will work in a multi-disciplinary way to support families on the edge of care and those with children already in care to build their strength and emotional resilience.

Giving them the confidence to access support and services to ensure they can safely keep their children in their care. The service will provide high quality advocacy support to families to enable them to address the issues and challenges in their lives that may prevent them from keeping their children.

These may include issues such as: -Poor emotional wellbeing -Poor physical and mental health -Experience of Trauma -Significant Learning disability -Limited access to community support and services -Inconsistent use of contraception -Continued experience of Domestic Violence -Ongoing Substance Misuse -Inadequate Housing -Financial Hardship Direct work with families will recognise differences in experiences of these and other factors providing a holistic, well-rounded support focused on building a family’s stability to work through these factors to safely support their child or children. It is likely that the majority of families supported by this service will be in pre-proceedings, some families may have already had children removed.

The service will support families as directed by the Medway Family Partnership Co-ordinator. Note – Families refers to working with both parents (either jointly or separately) or working with single parents (either Mum or Dad).