News from Peterborough City Council

A team of specialists has begun working with families whose children could be at risk of being taken into care or custody as part of a new service led by Peterborough City Council.

 

Multisystemic therapy (MST) is a family and community-based treatment programme for young people aged 11 to 17 with complex clinical, social and educational problems, such as aggressive behaviour, drug abuse and school exclusion.  

 

The programme will work with families where young people could be at risk of getting involved in anti-social behaviour, developing early personality disorders, becoming persistent offenders or being taken into care, identifying the factors that have caused these risks and help these families turn their lives around.

 

Peterborough was selected as one of ten pilot areas to share a £17.5 million funding pot in November 2007. The programme is being led by the city council in partnership with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

 

The MST team is managed by MST supervisor Zoe Ashmore, who is consultant forensic psychologist for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, seconded to Peterborough City Council's children's services, and project manager Gill Camera. The MST therapists are Paul Churchill, Kim Mabbutt and Sonia Belson and Vanessa Lyon.

 

Each therapist will work with up to five families for three to five months, in homes, neighbourhoods, schools and communities. Young people will be referred from youth offending teams and children's services.

 

Gill said "We will be working closely with parents to help them understand that it is better for their children to enter into this programme rather than end up in care or custody. MST is about the whole family working together.

 

"If we can keep children and young people with their families, not only that family, but the whole of society will benefit. The latest international research shows that young people who go into custody often end up reoffending.

 

"Approximately 50 families will go through this programme in the first year and if we can keep a number of these children from entering the care system then we will have achieved a really positive outcome."

 

Councillor Stephen Goldspink, cabinet member for education and children's services, said: "Research has shown that MST is one of the most effective ways of intervening to reduce criminal behaviour in young people.

 

"All children deserve stability in their lives and we want to help families with the potential to have a positive future to stay together wherever possible."

 

Tim Bryson, director of children's services and nursing for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We are very pleased to be partners in this innovative service that will be available to young people in Peterborough with mental health problems, and who are at risk of offending. This service will provide much needed support to vulnerable young people."

 

The MST approach is being piloted by the Department for Children, Schools and Families in partnership with the Department of Health.

 

 

 

1.      MST pilots are taking place in: London Merton & Royal Borough of Kingston, Leeds, Reading, Barnsley, Peterborough, Sheffield, London Borough of Greenwich, Trafford, Plymouth and Hackney.

 

2.      MST is a licensed programme developed and run by MST Services based in South Carolina, USA. It is widely used in the US and Norway and is being trialled in other countries such as Australia and the Netherlands. A robust research programme will collect evidence of the impact of the pilots and inform decisions about any wider rollout of the model.

 

3.      The primary goals of MST are to reduce criminal activity; reduce other types of anti-social behaviour such as drug misuse; prevent young people from entering the care system and; achieve these outcomes at a cost saving by decreasing rates of secure and out-of-home placements.