WHAT WE DO
Multi Family Groups
“A child who
is better understood
will understand
parents and
teachers better.”
- Professor Peter Fonagy
Multi Family Groups (MFGs) are a school-based educational intervention aimed at vulnerable children who are having difficulties with learning and are at risk of being excluded from school due to their emotional/behavioural challenges, or excluding themselves through EBSA.
It is an evidence-based model (see here), provided to schools free of charge, funding permitting.
The main aim of the group is to reduce blocks to learning and improve the emotional well-being of children both at home and at school.
The intervention involves a group of 5-8 children and a parent/carer, who meet weekly in school for around 2.5 hours.
Groups are facilitated by a mental health professional and a school based professional.
They create a safe and playful environment and community in which to promote conversations about shared difficulties and work towards individual school-based targets.
Families are encouraged to work together to:
- engage and support each other,
- share difficulties,
- encourage change and offer hope,
- observe and challenge patterns,
- share strategies,
- explore new behaviours.
Each week there are fun activities to support these explorations, as well as discussion and refreshments!
Throughout the course children work on targets set in collaboration with their parents and teachers. These targets are reviewed weekly and new targets set when appropriate.
For Children
For Parents
For Schools
Children are better able to...
~ Manage anxiety
~ Seek help
~ Trust and build relationships
~ Learn
~ Understand the boundaries
Helps parents to...
~ Feel safe
~ Feel heard
~ Form trusting relationships
~ Grow in confidence
~ Learn new skills
~ Understand their children's needs/ anxieties
~ Manage rather than react to challenges
Helps schools to...
~ Build communities
~ Improve relationships with families
~ Access expert mental health advice and training
~ Better understand how to help families in difficult circumstances
~ Discover additional methods of helping pupils with SEMH challenges
~ Encourage teamwork
Our Core Concepts
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De‑stigmatisation:
removing the negative labels and associations that people may feel with being identified as a child or family that needs additional mental health or behavioural support.
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De‑isolation:
bringing families together to encourage positivity and belief in change, to benefit from giving and receiving advice from others, and to provide a supportive sense of oneness that comes from ‘being in the same boat’.
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Living proof:
seeing one’s own experiences and feelings reflected in those of other people, making it easier to visualise and realise change. Showing that change is possible through sharing the positive experiences of others.
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Learning:
learning new behaviours and skills that can be transferred to home and school life – and learning how to learn.
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Mentalisation/Reflective functioning:
improving an individual’s capacity to perceive and interpret human behaviour, often considered as the ability to see oneself from the outside and others from the inside.
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Change:
focusing on the possibility of change and how to make change happen. Bringing families together provides a supportive and energising space in which new behaviours and feelings can be tested and reflected on, creating a path to change.