Daybreak’s continued partnership with Reading Borough Council providing Family Group Conferences

We have successfully retained the contract to deliver Family Group Conference services for Reading Borough Council, for a further three years.

Since 2021, we have worked in partnership with Reading Borough Council to coordinate Family Group Conferences for children, young people and families that are supported through Children’s Social Services. Family Group Conferences are restorative, and family-led processes that bring together a support network to address concerns or challenges being faced by families. Keeping children’s voices at the heart is a key part of our work, ensuring that they are supported to safely and appropriately play an active role in the decision making process.

Our renewed partnership will enable us to work alongside 50 families each year in the city, and comes at a time of increased focus on ensuring that families are offered this form of support as early as possible, via the Families First Partnership Programme.

In addition to our work with families, this partnership will also see us extending our support for the local Reading community. Each year, we will also:

• deliver a free, tailored training session to a locally based organisation working with children and families.

• facilitate support via an adult focused Family Group Conference in partnership with Reading Adult Social Care; this is part of our continued aim to broaden the use of services.

• offer a funded place on our Family Group Conference Coordinator training programme for a Reading resident, creating a pathway into freelance employment and enabling them to support families alongside Daybreak in their local community.

More information about our community-focused additional initiatives will follow throughout the year.

The core purpose of this essential service includes improving safety and well-being in the home, reducing the need for children to become looked after, and enabling children to remain within their family or wider support network whenever safely possible. We work with a skilled and dedicated team of freelance Coordinators who work diligently to prepare families for conferences, helping them to work together to create practical, emotional, and safety support plans that protect children’s well-being.

To support our renewed partnership, we have launched a fast-track recruitment period over summer, welcoming new Coordinators to the team.