Families and their troubled children who are at risk of being taken into care or custody will receive intensive support from trained professionals to remain with their families, thanks to a £17.5m pilot project announced yesterday by government Ministers Kevin Brennan, Ivan Lewis and Gillian Merron.
Multisystemic Therapy (MST) is a family and community-based treatment programme for young people with complex clinical, social, and educational problems, such as violence, drug abuse and school expulsion. It supports young people who are at risk of developing early personality disorder, chronic offending and perhaps antisocial behaviour, and who may be at risk of going into care, to remain with their families in the community.
Speaking at the British Association of Adoption and Fostering conference, Children’s Minister Kevin Brennan said:
“Every child deserves stability in their life which is why we want to help families with the potential to have a positive future to stay together wherever possible. These pilots will help keep children out of the care system, help them go back to school and play a positive part in their communities.
“For those children for whom care is the best option we are taking a Bill through the House which will see radical changes in how these services are delivered.”
Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis said: "Today's announcement is about prevention, helping children and young people stay out of care and custody. Supporting them to remain with their families so that they have a better chance of overcoming their serious problems.
"There is compelling evidence from America to show that Multi-Systemic Therapies can be successful in engaging with young people and that young people who take part in the programme are less likely to commit crime and more likely to participate in education and training.
"The ten newly funded sites will build on two existing pilot schemes in England and will be part of a national research programme to further evaluate the effectiveness of MST in the country."
The MST approach is being piloted by the Department for Children, Schools and Families in partnership with the Department of Health and fulfils the commitment set out in the Cabinet Office's Social Exclusion Action Plan to test interventions for tackling mental health problems in childhood.
Cabinet Office Minister responsible for social exclusion, Gillian Merron said: "This ground-breaking approach will make an incredible difference to families where children are at real risk of falling into the care or criminal justice systems. The intensive support it provides offers a fantastic opportunity for these families to turn their problems around and to avoid ending up in long-term, chronic social exclusion.”
Multisystemic Therapy is delivered over a period of three to six months, in homes, neighbourhoods, schools and communities by professionals who may come from a range of disciplines such as psychology, social work and family therapy with small caseloads. Young people will be referred from youth offending teams and children’s services.
There will be pilots in: London Merton & Royal Borough of Kingston, Leeds, Reading, Barnsley, Peterborough, Sheffield, London Borough of Greenwich, Trafford, Plymouth, Hackney.
The pilot sites reflect the diversity of populations in the UK including new immigrants from Eastern Europe.
There is international evidence to suggest that MST can be successful in engaging young people with anti-social behaviour and their families, and in improving outcomes for these young people, in terms of reducing offending behaviour, family conflict and out of home placement. It is widely used in the places such as the US, Norway , and is being trialled in many other countries such as Australia and the Netherlands
A robust research programme will collect evidence of the impact of the pilots and inform decisions about any wider rollout of the model.
