Family centre is praised for work during Covid-19

Staff at Lanarkshire family centres that offer vital support to those in need have been praised for their efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Councillors on South Lanarkshire Council’s social work committee were given an update on centres throughout the area including Cambuslang and Burnbank in Hamilton earlier this month.

Teams at the centres work to help families tackle the effects of a range of social issues, including unemployment, drug and alcohol misuse, homelessness, domestic violence and poor mental health.

Soumen Sengupta, the council’s director of health and social care, praised the teams.

He told the Reformer: “They have a fundamental role in our commitment to early intervention by helping to strengthen the capacity of individuals, families, and communities.

“By increasing our focus on prevention, we, and they, can build resilience before problems arise.

“Our specialist staff work hard to reduce child protection referrals through early and intensive family support.

“It has been a privilege for me to be able to bring our elected members up to date on the huge body of work being done now, and crucially, throughout the lockdown periods of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The Cambuslang and Burnbank Family Centres are purpose-built and offer nurturing environments where support is targeted primarily towards families with children under five. There is also a focus on young parents aged up to 18.

A key success reported to the committee was that of the implementation of an intensive group work programme.

With the majority slowly returning to inperson, Covid-safe events, staff also used and adapted new technology to ensure as many as possible were able to continue during the lockdown periods of the last 18 months, including evidence-based programme for parents, Incredible Years.

There is also the 14-week Mellow Parenting programme based around helping parents develop positive relationships with their children, and a project aimed at parents who work that is designed to reduce social isolation, stress, and mental health issues.

Soumen told us: “With the delivery of our group work programme, our aim is to achieve positive outcomes for parents and families by building self-confidence, self-esteem and resilience which, in turn, can lead to improved parenting. Most importantly we have seen that this can result in children remaining at home and being parented safely, which is the outcome we all want.”

Councillor John Bradley, chairman of the social work committee, went along with Soumen to Cambuslang Family Centre to see the work for himself and was full of praise for the work of both centres. He said: “Our provision is in line with the GIRFEC (Getting It Right For every Child) national approach in Scotland to improve outcomes and support the wellbeing of our children and young people by offering the right help at the right time from the right people.

“It’s encouraging to hear how the staff in our centres embraced technology to make sure the groupwork programme could continue to be delivered throughout the pandemic, which I know must have made a significant difference to the lives of so many at such a challenging time.”