Think family in Dorset
The 'think family' agenda links up the provision of helping services in social care, heath, and community support into an approach that can meet the needs of all family members. By integrating or aligning the shape of services in Dorset, issues which cut across provision for children, young people, parents and carers such as mental health, crime and disorder, domestic violence and family support can be more efficient and be experienced by service users in a more 'joined up' way.
In July 2010 leaders from a range of services in the county council, NHS, Probation, and voluntary sector were invited to a workshop to examine the opportunities and challenges raised by this agenda.
As a result of that workshop and action plan has been developed which seeks to improve some key aspects of service provision. Essentially these fall into four main areas
- Safeguarding adults and children - how best should the work of the adult and children's safeguarding boards be linked?
- Front line service delivery - how do families experience services across a range of family need and how can teams around families be better co-ordinated?
- Workforce development - how can staff in a range of services be supported and trained in family awareness and family approaches?
- Commissioning - how does our understanding of need in the community, the provision of service specifications and contracts, and the measurement of outcomes, reflect issues which cut across both adult and children's services?
This page provides resources and links for anyone interested in the think family agenda in Dorset. It includes the most up to date action plan. This is a working document, with responsibility for implementation shared across a number of leadership groups. These include the safeguarding boards from
Dorset Local Safeguarding Children Board (opens in a new window) 
and Safeguarding.
The goal is to ensure that the family approach is embedded in a range of key planning forums.
It includes background material from the 2010 workshop and links to the safeguarding boards and other web pages that are essential to the think family agenda such as What is domestic violence and abuse, Dorset's Carers' Strategy 2010 -2013, Mental Health Strategy 1 in 4 and Dorset Drug and Alcohol Action Team.
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Joint Commissioning Manager - Parent Support
Name: Jerry Brady
Email: j.brady@dorsetcc.gov.uk
Tel: 01305 224740
Full details for Jerry Brady
