Families Taking the Lead: A New Approach to Adult Care Planning
In this article, our CEO, Debbie Burns, explores how Family Group Decision Making can support adult care planning. Expanding access to this approach forms part of our strategic aims, and we are currently exploring targeted support for people living with dementia and their carers, alongside contributing to wider discussions in this field. Here, we examine the potential benefits that Family Group Decision Making can offer adults and the wider networks around them.
Families, friends, and communities are often the people who know us best. Yet when important decisions about care and support need to be made, their voices can sometimes be overlooked. Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) is changing that by putting individuals and their support networks at the centre of planning and decision-making.
Sarah McClinton, Chief Social Worker for Adults at the Department of Health and Social Care, described the approach as:
“Such an excellent way of working with adults... where it's not just about families but the whole relational context... it is an important model shifting power to the people that really need to be in the driving seat and in control of the care and support that is right for them.”
Family Group Decision Making is a structured and facilitated process that brings together an individual, wider family members, friends, and relevant professionals to develop a shared plan for care and support. An independent coordinator helps guide the process, ensuring everyone can participate openly and constructively.
What makes Family Group Decision Making different is that it is designed to be person-led rather than professionally led. The individual, alongside those closest to them, takes the lead in creating the plan. Professionals provide information, advice, and oversight where needed, but the decisions remain with the person and their support network. The result is a plan that is realistic, sustainable, and owned by the people who will put it into action.
A Different Way of Making Decisions
Family Group Conferences offer a genuine alternative to traditional meetings where professionals often lead discussions and set the agenda. Instead, families are empowered to make decisions together, supported by independent facilitation.
Three key principles sit at the heart of the model:
Independence: Coordinators are neutral and independent from statutory services and professional organisations. Their role is to support the process, not influence the outcome.
Person-Led Planning: Participation is voluntary, and the individual and their support network decide who is involved, what is discussed, and how plans are developed.
Everyone's Voice Matters: The process is designed to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to contribute, with particular attention paid to helping the individual share their wishes, views, and goals in a way that feels safe and accessible to them. The family and support network are in control of everything from deciding who attends to choosing where and when the meeting takes place. The coordinator's role is simply to bring people together and create the conditions for meaningful conversations and collaborative decision-making.
Strengthening Families and Communities
Family Group Decision Making is about more than holding meetings. It recognises that families, friends, neighbours, and wider communities are often best placed to provide practical and emotional support when challenges arise.
Experience from Family Group Decision Making in children's services has shown that involving wider support networks can help reduce feelings of isolation, encourage people to seek help, and reconnect families with sources of support that may have previously been overlooked. It can also help people feel more confident and less alone when facing difficult decisions.
By drawing on the strengths, knowledge, and resources already present within a person's network, FGDM helps create solutions that are more likely to succeed because they are developed by the people who know the individual best and are committed to supporting them.
Supporting Adults at Different Stages of Life
Family Group Decision Making can be used in a wide range of situations, including:
Supporting unpaid carers who are feeling overwhelmed and need additional support.
Helping older people remain independent and safe at home.
Planning successful and sustainable hospital discharges.
Supporting young people with disabilities or additional needs as they transition into adult services and take greater control of their support arrangements.
Its flexibility means it can be adapted to the unique circumstances of each individual, ensuring that support plans reflect what matters most to the person and those around them.
By creating space for people to come together, share responsibility, and develop plans collectively, it helps build stronger support networks and increases the likelihood of positive, long-term outcomes.
Whether you are a social care professional, commissioner, healthcare practitioner, voluntary sector organisation, family member, or someone looking for support yourself, Family Group Decision Making offers an opportunity to place people back at the heart of decisions about their lives.
How to access this form of support via Daybreak
Daybreak offers Family Group Conferences for adults through both organisational referrals and private purchase options. Organisations and local authorities can access a spot-purchase service, while individuals and families can seek support directly.
If you are a professional and would like to find out more, discuss a referral, or explore how Family Group Decision Making could help, contact headoffice@daybreakfgc.org.uk.
For anyone seeking more information in a private capacity please complete Daybreak's online enquiry form.
Further information
When people are trusted to lead the decisions that affect their lives, supported by those who know them best, stronger outcomes and stronger communities can follow. The below resources offer some additional exploration of this topic:
Family Group Conferences for Adults - information for Daybreak
Training to be a Family Group Conference Coordinator working with Adults
Family and Group Conference in Adults Research & Practice Network
DHSC blog “Family and Group Conferencing for Adults – a key strengths-based practice