Young mother cuddling her baby on a play mat

What is 'Connecting Families'?

Connecting Families Team was established in April 2013, as Bath and North East Somerset Council’s response to the Government’s Troubled Families Initiative. BANES Council has successfully completed phase one of the programme and is now well underway with phase two; with the aim to work with and support 700 vulnerable families by 2020 as part of the Early Help Core Offer. The criteria for the programme are:

  • parents and children involved in crime or anti-social behaviour
  • children who have not been attending school regularly
  • children who are at risk and need additional help
  • adults out of work or at risk of financial exclusion and young people at risk of worklessness
  • families affected by domestic violence and abuse
  • parents and children with a range of health problems

Connecting Families is a key department for Bath and North East Somerset Council that are providing support to the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Programme. For more information on the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Programme, please click here.

Core Purpose of Connecting Families

To enable families with multiple complex needs to receive the services they need to change and support them to achieve resilience, health and wellbeing within their community.

How does it work?

After completing a full assessment of a family’s needs (called a family profile), a keyworker will coordinate services and provide intensive home-based professional family support.  As well as streamlining the services working with these families, the keyworker will provide tailor-made packages to meet the individual requirements of all the families we work with. This approach maximises resources, avoids duplication and reduces costs and focuses on improving outcomes for all family members.

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles said:

“The Troubled Families programme has been a brilliant partnership between the government and councils, changing the way services are run, saving taxpayers money and turning around the lives of some of the hardest to help in the country, with kids back in school, youth crime and anti-social behaviour cut and adults better able to work. Building on this momentum, we are now able to help even more families and deal with even more problems and I am delighted that that work will now begin in the next few months.”

There is further information on the Department of Communities and Local Government website.

Troubled Families National Impact Study

In order to fulfil our obligations as part of the Troubled Families programme it is necessary to share information with critical partners, to effectively delivery of the programme and to undertake a full evaluation.

In order to identify families, understand the difference we are making and focus on who can potentially access the additional support the programme offers we will be sharing personal records that may relate to you.

This might include records in relation to; any involvement with Social Care, any involvement with The Police, Courts and Probation, aspects relating to your employment, anti-social behaviour, violence in the home, substance misuse, educational attendance and behaviour, vulnerable children and health issues.

The personal data of individuals and families will be linked with information from public agencies / organisations such as; the NHS and health organisations, Department of Work and Pensions, The Police, the Ministry of Justice, Probation Services, Schools, Youth Connect and the Youth Offending Service. This data will be shared with the Department of Communities and Local Government and Office of National Statistics for the National Impact Study.

The reason to link the information is to help the Government and local service providers understand whether or not the programme has been effective in reducing offending, truancy and getting people ready for work and to help improve the service over time. By sharing this data it will not affect your benefits, services or treatment that you receive.

Data agreements are in place to ensure that:

  • the data can only be used for carrying out research;
  • the linked data cannot be used to make decisions about individuals;
  • the linked information is anonymised to reduce the risk of individuals being identified;
  • it will not be possible for any person or family to be identified from any published reports;
  • the linked personal data will not be shared with or made available to the local authority or any other public agency;
  • all data is transferred, handled and stored in accordance with the Data Protection Act;
  • appropriate measures are in place to prevent unauthorised use of the data;
  • the data is destroyed after seven years

A PDF version of this information is available in the 'documents' section on this page. If you wish to opt out of the National Impact study please contact Paula Bromley, Service Manager on 01225 396931.

What do clients say?

"Without Connecting Families, the kids would have been taken into care. I would not have pushed for a medical myself and debt would be out of control. The kids behaviour has improved and since working with Connecting Families, they know that no means no. My sons have said that things would have got a lot worse without Mark, and that he has been really helpful getting the house sorted and taking them out." - Family 2016

"We were very scared before we met Joan, she has taught us that English people are good and respectful. We feel blessed to have her and the service helping us. Lots of our friends who live in other areas have been complaining about their support workers saying things are not as good. We want to say thank you J" - Syrian Family 2016

The Team


Name


Role


Office No.


Mobile No.


Email Address


Paula Bromley


Head of Children and Families Prevention Service


01225 396984


07980 998554


paula_bromley@bathnes.gov.uk


Tracey Bidgood


Team Leader


01225 396096


07530 263423


tracey_bidgood@bathnes.gov.uk


Marek Petela


Business Analyst Manager


01225 394217


N/A


marek_petela@bathnes.gov.uk


Marie Porter


Senior Practitioner - Early Help


01225 396809


07887 213495


Marie_porter@bathnes.gov.uk


Hannah Fullbrook


Keyworker


01225 396144


07530 263018


hannah_fullbrook@bathnes.gov.uk


Joan Cooper


Lead Keyworker


01225 396126


07875 488581


joan_cooper@bathnes.gov.uk


Matthew Byrne


Lead Keyworker


01225 396130


07977 228360


matthew_byrne@bathnes.gov.uk


Paul Edwards


Keyworker


01225 396153


07887 213466


paul_edwards@bathnes.gov.uk


Paul Hammett


Keyworker


01225 396150


07977 228319


paul_hammett@bathnes.gov.uk


Paul Spreadbury


Keyworker


01225 395098


07887 213460


paul_spreadbury@bathnes.gov.uk


Jan Capel


Employment Adviser


01225 396345


07818 521422


jan_capel@bathnes.gov.uk


Sally-Anne Kington


Admin Officer


01225 396931


N/A


sally-anne_kington@bathnes.gov.uk


Rebecca Wilkinson


Admin Officer


01225 396176


N/A


rebecca_wilkinson@bathnes.gov.uk


Tina Sheeley


Admin Officer


01225 394230


N/A


tina_sheeley@bathes.gov.uk


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