Publications from ODSW Social Insights: Letters by DSW (Vol 1) | Page 105

Family-Centred Practice

• Collaborative Skills
# Accepting the family’s definition of the problem, the behavioural changes
that must take place and practical solutions.
# Sharing the assessment information and the worker’s understanding of
the family with the family, the team and other professionals involved with
the family.
# Referring to other agencies for specialized assessments and services.
# Workers must have a good understanding of the services available in
the community and be willing to advocate with families for appropriate
services.
• Follow-up
# Conducting re-assessments at particular points in the casework process.
# Evaluating the family’s progress continuously.
# Workers may be required to identify and even help create services, when
appropriate ones are not immediately available.

Rebuilding Expectations and Hope in Families
So skills are needed to carry out good as sessments, develop service plans and
to conduct purposeful interventions with children, youths, older persons and
families. These skills are necessary for effective work with families and familycentred practice. To embrace family-centred practice, the strengths of the
family must be valued, emphasised, and acted upon. The worker encourages
and respects the families’ choices and their decision-making. The worker
engages collaboratively with the families, recognising them as equal partners
in supporting the goals that are set out. Effective family-centred practice is
characterised by sensitivity, diversity, and flexibility.
Family-centred practice is one approach in intervention and it is a specific
and systematic way of working with families that has a thorough rationale,
advantages and benefits that have been researched. It applies a body

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