St Mungo

1
St Mungos and Action for Children Rebuilding
Shattered Lives roundtable discussion
Supporting homeless and vulnerable women and
their children Breaking intergenerational cycles
of deprivation and neglect
2
The Family Needs of Homeless Women with Complex
Needs
Alexia Murphy St Mungos
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St Mungos Our Vision

• Everyone should have
• A decent place to live
• Something meaningful to do
• Satisfying relationships with other people
• The good health to enjoy them

4
Who are the Women we work with in St Mungos?

• Demographics
• Needs and ability
• Housing and Resettlement
• Women in contact with the CJS

5
Case Study Sarah

• Childhood experience of severe parental violence
• Contact with the care system
• Substance Use
• 4 children
• Housing History
• A life lived subject to assault

6
Womens pathway into homelessness

• History of abuse and violence
• Traumatic loss of children/family
• Substance use / mental health
• Often not characterised by contact with
  homelessness/statutory services
• Childhood characterised by unstable housing
  and/or childhood /adolescent abuse

7
Better Deal for Women

• Peer Research Project - why women achieving
  poorer outcomes than men and what can be done
• Conclusions
• Complexity of needs
• Accommodation recommendations
• Staff understanding and training
• Children and Families as the key recovery goal

8
Missing Families

• Addressing emotional and relationship needs
• The myth of the single homeless person
• Approaching family work
• Developing relationships with childrens social
  services

9
What works?

• Womens Outside-In group
• Lifeworks Psychotherapy
• Enabling child contact
• Chrysalis Psychologically informed environment

10
What works?

• Key considerations
• Stigma / barriers to services
• Domestic Violence
• Pregnancy
• Prostitution

11
Rebuilding Shattered Lives a call for solutions

• 18 month Campaign
• Panel of Experts
• 9 key themes

12
Themes and Experts

• Housing and Homelessness
• Substance Use
• Domestic Abuse
• Families and children
• Childhood Trauma
• Employment and Skills
• Women involved in the CJS
• Mental Health and Wellbeing
• Involvement in Prostitution

13

• alexia.murphy_at_mungos.org

14
Troubled FamiliesJoe TukeDirector Troubled
Families, DCLG
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• The programme
• The families
• Family Intervention
• Challenge for System Reform

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The programme

• PM commitment to turn around lives of 120k
  troubled families by 2015
• Schooling, youth crime/ASB, work high cost
• Primarily PbR. Up to 4k per family
• Programme started April 2012 as at Dec 2012 65k
  identified and 23k being worked with
• Not an education programme, not an employment
  programme, not a crime programme .... a family
  programme turning around each of 120k troubled
  families.

17
The families

• Evaluation will provide richer picture but we
  know
• have complex family structures nearly 1 in 5
  FIP families have more than five children
• often have inter-generational problems that have
  proved intractable
• have a comprehensive range of needs/problems a
  quarter of mums have a long-standing illness, in
  1/3 of FIP families there is DV, 1/2 FIP families
  include children who are truanting, excluded or
  behaving badly at school.
• have high impact on community an estimated 1 in
  5 young offenders come from troubled families
• attract multitude of uncoordinated services up
  to 20 different agencies involved with one family

18
Family Intervention

• Pioneered by Action for Children Dundee
  Homeless Families Project
• A dedicated worker dedicated to the family
• Who looks at whats really happening for the
  family as a whole
• And gives practical hands-on support
• With an assertive and challenging approach
• Backed by an agreed plan and common purpose among
  the relevant services.

19
System Reform Challenge

• Mum plus 4 children
• Eldest in LA care, placed back in family
• Next on Child Protection Plan
• Next is Child in Need
• Next has got Team around Child
• Not integrated, not whole family, not getting
  outcomes