Service Information
The Family Intervention Service (FIS) is a specialist county-wide intervention service. It offers intervention and targeted response for children and young people aged 0 to 18 years and their families (where needs are present at Complex level of the Effective Support for Children and Families in Somerset guidance). FIS has a clearly defined service specification for our families, communities and partners.
There are four core strands of offer within FIS:
1: Complex case work
2: Young carer oversight
3: FIS Duty Service
4: Oversight of Missing response and return home interviews for children aged 8 and over.
Complex Case Work Strand
The service will provide increased flexibility over operating hours alongside aid co-ordination by operating between 7am to 10pm. This includes some weekend work where appropriate and mutually agreed.
There are Family Intervention teams in each of the four county areas. They will work closely together with partners and communities to provide effective intervention for families experiencing complex issues with a better, more focussed use of the Council’s resources in meeting family needs.
The service objectives are to:
- Deliver a bespoke interventions to children, young people and their families with complex needs.
- Reduce the number of adolescents, children and families requiring a statutory children’s social care service.
- Engage with adolescents, children and their families when stepping down from children’s social care and prevent re-escalation.
- Reduce the number of young people entering the care system, supporting them to remain safely at home with their family network.
- Reduce the number of young people involved in substance misuse, crime and anti-social behaviour.
- Engage with young people who are not in education, training or employment and improve school attendance, aspirations and outcomes.
- Enable young people to stay safe.
- Respond to needs for families to reduce and eliminate abusive episodes.
- Engage with young people who go missing to keep them safe and promote positive outcomes to prevent further missing episodes.
- Some oversight of young people who have caring responsibilities towards a family member via Somerset’s Young Carers Service.
- Reduce youth homelessness through mediation with young people and their families alongside the Pathway to Independence service (P2i) for young people aged 16 to 25.
FIS will only work with families where informed consent has been gained. Practitioners will be open and honest with families about why it is important to share information, who with and how it can help support meeting the needs of a family to effect the change they have identified.
The target groups are families experiencing complex needs. The team may work with families where an individual over 18 has Special Educational Needs, is at risk of homelessness or where younger children are in the home subject to team capacity and local managerial agreement.
Partners should make requests for consideration of a service through the Family front door using the Early Help Assessment (EHA) indicating they are requesting consideration of a FIS service the Emergency Duty Team (EDT) to the workers when needed.
FIS Duty Service: FIS duty service is for internal Children’s services team, for children aged over 10 in crisis after 5pm and at weekends. This incorporates our Rapid Response service between 10pm and 7am, Friday through to Monday and is generally an EDT call out service.
Service Criteria to include in the EHA
Please ensure you complete the EHA in full, no additional information is required to make a request for support.
Section 9
Please use the drop-down menu to select “Family Intervention Service (FIS) for 0 to 18”.
Contact Details
Via front door at Somerset Direct 0300 123 2224