 The benefit of family safeguarding model for children and families is that where we use a really restorative, motivational and strength-based approach, our goal is to work with families at the lowest level that it is safe to do so. It means that families aren't put through lots of really difficult and sometimes quite traumatic processes where they don't need to be and it means that they are supported when they need it at the earliest possible moment so for example if a family is struggling with their mental health, one of the parents is struggling with their mental health for example, that child and that parent needs that support straight away and sometimes unfortunately social workers will try to in other ways of working refer to other services and then there can be a wait and then the service will say no this isn't right for me and also some families when they go through a really tough time they find it hard to engage with those services so they would have been asked well you need to go along to the substance issue service and you need to work with them and because it's a voluntary service if the parent is struggling with their drug use and they don't turn up and they don't go they will be closed and then of course the support's not there for them and then the children continue to experience harm or difficulty in that family because we have these workers sitting in our teams, we can assertively work with those parents and we can keep trying and we can meet them where they are so we can go out to do the home visit, to work alongside the social worker and to really try to create that relationship and this is all about relationship building really and we know that the relationships that social workers build not only with the children on their caseload but also with the adults around them so their parents, their extended family, their professionals are one of the most important things that's going to help to create change and so by having this team around the family to support all of them in all of their different needs will build those great relationships and it will really create change and motivation interviewing also helps with this and it's all about understanding that a behaviour may need to change for a parent because it's harming a child but that doesn't mean that that parent is being deliberately harmful or it doesn't mean they're a bad person it's about saying well this behaviour may need to change but they've got many strengths and how can they build upon those and they've been successful in the past and we've seen some really good feedback from some children and families about how their social workers have worked with them so that's really positive and for other agencies, other professionals, there's nothing that could be more helpful really than having additional workers in to work those families or even to give off a consultation to them or help them to understand well this is what we're doing and this is why we're doing it really the other benefit is that what we know is that when we get this right it supports staff and staff will stay and for children and families having that consistent social worker we know makes such difference to their experience and for other professionals and other agencies it makes a real difference for them as well because it's all about communication and knowing who's working with this family so when it's working well and where it will work it creates just a raft of benefits for children and families and other agencies