How Family Group Decision Making can help #KeepThePromise
By Sara Ali
Written by Sara Ali, Children 1st, we are delighted to share research funded by the Corra Foundation from an evaluation by Robert Gordon University of the Children 1st Family Group Decision-Making (FGDM) pilot in the Scottish Borders. Funded through the Promise Partnership.
What is FGDM?
Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) is a family-led and strengths-based process which can help a child’s wider family to come together to agree a family plan to support their child before a life-changing decision is made about the child’s future. It offers a practical way of upholding children’s rights, as set out by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), particularly Article 9 which highlights that children must not be separated from their parents against their will unless it is in their best interests and Article 12 which details the right of the child to have their views respected in decisions made about them.
Family Group Decision Making has its origins in approaches within Maori communities in New Zealand. It was brought to Scotland by Children 1st in 1998, and we are the largest charity provider of FGDM support in the country. In 2021 Scottish Borders Council commissioned us to undertake a pilot FGDM service for children and families involved in child protection processes, to consider how it could help them meet the aspirations of The Promise – to ensure children were safe and loved with their families wherever possible. With the Council we commissioned Robert Gordon University to evaluate the pilot service.
Key learning from the evaluation was that everyone who participated, which included family members, young people and representatives from the Scottish Borders Council child protection team and Children 1st felt that FGDM helped towards realising the aspirations of the Promise.
“Participant satisfaction with FGDM, especially in comparison to traditional child protection forums, was overwhelmingly high.”
FGDM was found to be more positive and empowering than other child protection social work forums, in that it helped to amplify and maintain the centrality of the voices of children and families, improved communication, and provided a sense of unanimity and opportunity to heal relationships within families.
“We are all talking more, we are on the same page now instead of blaming each other. We all have agreed what he needs to do and when, and what the boundaries are. We can all pick up the phone and know what’s expected of us.”
While the evaluation highlighted learning about how FGDM can be developed further, all participants wanted the service to be expanded and to include a wider variety of families with different levels of need.
“I didn’t even know it was a thing… [FGDM], I think that FGDM should be offered in school before it even reaches social work. It would have been good to have had this before it even got to this point, instead of after my son was taken away from me. People should know about this service, it might have stopped this from happening.”
Following the pilot, Children 1st continues to work with the Scottish Borders Council to offer Family Group Decision Making Services for children and families within the local authority. Since 2021, Children 1st have supported 223 children in 154 families in the Borders with FGDM.