structure involved team leaders, who
had been fully trained in safeguarding ,
providing real-time updates to social
workers, explained Micky Browne, CRI’s
safeguarding lead. The Multi-Agency
Safeguarding Hub (MASH) not only
improved collaborative practice, but it
also reduced inappropriate referrals, he
said. ‘The better agencies work
together, the more efficiency will
develop in the long term.’
DS Steve Rudd, of Birmingham police,
added: ‘When we sit round the Mash
table now, we look a what’s happening –
do police actually need to run off and
lock mum and dad up? In multi-agency
working we all come from a different
angle. We’ve developed an under-
standing of where we’re all coming from
and issues are very quickly resolved.’
Exchanging data that was easy to
comprehend was key to creating multi-
agency risk assessments, said Sue Smith.
Joy Barlow believed that we needed to
overturn our culture of ‘educating in
silos’, bringing drug and alcohol content
to social work courses. ‘You’ve got to get
people together in terms of learning and
development,’ she said.
The Federation of Drug and Alcohol
Professionals (FDAP) were working with
Adfam to develop standards and identify
competencies that people working with
families should all have, said FDAP’s
chief executive, Carole Sharma, who
added: ‘This sector has been guilty of
generating mystique around ourselves.
We need to undo this.’
Dr Judith Yates was hopeful that
Adfam’s new report would provide
focus and remind commissioners of
their power to make a difference.
‘I remember the
Hidden Harm
report
landing on my desk and it’s stayed with
me,’ she said. ‘Four years ago health
visitors hadn’t had training on alcohol. I
hope Adfam’s report will encourage
people, including pharmacists, to talk
to each other.’
Inevitably the question of diminish-
‘I WAS SPOTTED, SUPPORTED
AND ENCOURAGED’
In an emotional speech to the main conference,
Ian Day
looked back to 12 years ago when he was
‘deeply entrenched in addiction’.
WHEN HIS PARTNER BECAME PREGNANT
he made a decision to be ‘a
great dad’ – but nine months later he was in prison.
‘We slipped through the social services net,’ he said. ‘They had to be the
enemy. But we were difficult people to work with.’
With his daughter taken into care he had spells of homelessness before being
introduced to treatment service by an old friend, who was in treatment now herself
and ‘looked good’. This is where ‘interventions came into play… it was a small
window of opportunity to help a person. I was spotted, supported and encouraged’.
Six months out of treatment, he approached social services to try to win
custody of his daughter who had been taken into foster care. He was ‘not, on
paper, the person you’d give custody of a child to’ – ‘at that time the reaction
was “you’re male”, I had nowhere to live and I hadn’t seen my five-year-old for
three years. So I had to prove I could be that person.’
Securing a flat took two years, during which time he was tested continually
by the agencies involved.
‘I had to see my daughter in a room with a person taking notes – I was very
nervous,’ he said. ‘I got enrolled on courses and at the time it felt very
demeaning – they asked very obvious questions. It was very frustrating, but
looking back it was the right thing because of my previous history.’
With ‘all of the agencies speaking to each other throughout’ he had his day in
court and won custody. Now settled with his daughter and current partner of six
years, he says he is grateful for the ‘safe environment’ created by agencies
working in partnership, which led him to an outcome he never dreamed possible.
December 2015 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 11
More conference reports at:
‘This is one of the
most difficult and
fraught areas of
practice.’
Joy Barlow (below left),
pictured with (clockwise)
Sue Smith, Max Vaughan,
Martin Smith, Carole
Sharma and Judith Yates.
