Denbighshire’s family group conference accreditation journey: ‘Making FGC sparkle’

What we have learnt:

We have learned a lot about our FGC service and what our practice means for the children and families we work with. As a team, we have been able to celebrate the things we do well and look at the ways we can improve.

The accreditation process has meant we have looked outside of our FGC team. We have worked with social workers and other referrers, independent reviewing officers and other practitioners to check our shared understanding of what a good FGC looks like across the local authority. And we will continue to work with our partners to further develop our FGC offer.

In short, accreditation has put the sparkle back into FGC!

Some things we are already doing differently:

• We have clarified our FGC offer and redesigned the information we give to families.
• We have simplified our referral process to enable more families to have access to our service.
• We have changed the way we record and store information to ensure families’ right to privacy and confidentiality.
• We have revised what data we collect to better inform development of our practice.
• All coordinators now take part in monthly reflective supervision sessions so we can continue to learn from each other.

Some changes will take a little longer to implement such as the agreement to extend our FGC offer to include referral at the point of initial child protection conference.

This journey to achieve accreditation status is just the beginning for us as a service, not the end, and it is the difference that will make the difference.

Find out how our accreditation could help your family group conference service sparkle here.