Children in Wales is actively involved in helping to develop further the Family Group Conferencing Model in Wales.

A Family Group Conference is a meeting in which family members themselves, including children and young people, design their own plan to overcome identified problems and to respond to the concerns of professionals. The conferences, or Family Group Meetings as they are sometimes known, are typically convened by independent co-ordinators who are not directly responsible for assessing the family or providing services to them, but to ensure family and friends are invited and adequately prepared. Children are actively encouraged to attend and are often supported by an advocate. The meeting has 3 stages: Information exchange, private family time and planning, and there may be subsequent review meetings.

Children in Wales is working to further develop the Family Group Conferencing Model in Wales:

• Through attending the meetings of the All Wales Family Group Meeting Network. This is the network for agencies involved in the delivery of family group conferences/meetings in Wales and for organisations and individuals with a commitment to promoting good practice and the further development of the model.
• By hosting the All Wales Family Group Meeting Network website, which sets out the use of Family Group Conferences/Meetings in Wales, including details and contact numbers for each current project, funding sources and referral criteria. The information is set out in respect of each of the 22 Local Authority areas.
• Children in Wales organised the launch of the Family Group Toolkit at the Senedd in coordination with The All Wales Family Group Meeting network and Family Rights Group in March 2007.
• Children in Wales undertook a mapping exercise of the Family Group Conference services across Wales in 2008 and produced a report of the results.

For more information contact: Sean O’Neill, Policy Director, Children in Wales, Tel: 029 2034 2434, E-mail: sean.oneill@childreninwales.org.uk