In Stockport Family, we have a ‘community of practice’ model, that explicitly connects and identifies how we work together as an integrated children’s service. This guides us in achieving the shared vision for all children and young people in Stockport to have the best start in life and realise our Outcomes Framework. We have an explicit ‘community of practice’ model that connects the Outcomes Framework with our key practice influencers and sits behind and within all the learning and training we offer.
Where possible we want to foster ‘whole family’ early help practices. We look to work in a co-produced way, focused on relational working, drawing on strengths; seeing these as the best opportunities for growth & success, within families and across professionals, assisting our children & families to thrive.
We have 5 key practice influencers.
- Restorative Practice
- Co-Production
- Systemic Practice
- Solihull Approach
- Trauma Informed Practice
All 5 are connected by the following central principles.
- NEEDS: We believe in a ‘Humans first…’ approach. This means recognising the importance of identifying the needs of those we work with, and our own needs, and how whether these needs are met or unmet influences our behaviours and affects our emotional health and wellbeing. This also acknowledges that we are all on a learning journey, having good days and bad days, all needing empathy when we make mistakes.
- RELATIONSHIPS: We believe in the importance and power of relational practice. The building and maintaining of healthy relationships are essential to living well. Relationships are seen as the starting point for all our work and are appreciated as the best opportunities for growth & success, providing the foremost position for ecological change.
- UNIQUENESS: We believe in the value of seeking to understand before being understood. We believe that if we are to understand another’s world, we need to see them as social beings who bring their own unique life knowledge and experiences which are interconnected and impacted by wider systems. How we relate to and understand each other affects our ability to feel seen, heard & valued.
All 5 bring their own distinctive additions.
| Model | Core Concepts | Core Ideas | Key Beliefs About Change |
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| Co-Production |
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| Systemic Practice (Milan) |
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| Trauma-informed practice |
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To achieve our goals we work with various organisations within the Stockport community. Which include:
New Beginnings Greater Manchester - Stockport Council
At New Beginnings, we work closely with parents whose children are at risk of being removed into care. We have learned that parents who find themselves in the child protection system have most likely experienced prolonged episodes of trauma, such as physical, sexual and emotional abuse, often within the home, at some point in their lives. These traumatic events can lead to issues with mental ill health as well as drug and alcohol misuse.
Contact directly via phone: 07584 434537 or Email: info@nbfoundation.co.uk
Online learning: free courses and resources for all Stockport families. Plus, specialist emotional and mental health learning for teenagers. Nurturing emotional health and wellbeing from antenatal throughout childhood and adolescence. Stockport Family, in partnership with the Solihull Approach, offers free access to inourplace evidence-based online courses expertly designed by NHS professionals.
Sign up to better understand your child’s feelings and behaviour and raise them to be emotionally aware, sociable and confident. Courses are tailored for all stages of a child’s development to help all family members through reflective, supportive learning without judgment.
The Caring Dads program works with fathers to change patterns of abusive behaviours, increase fathers’ awareness of child-centred fathering, and to promote respectful co-parenting with children’s mothers.
- Caring Dads is a 17-week group programme.
- Takes referrals where children are open to a Stockport Social worker (these criteria may change in the future).
- The men must be willing to attend and have some insight into their behaviour.
- Must have contact with the children.
- Can be attended by stepfathers or partners.
Caring Dads is not a parenting course but is designed to meet the needs of fathers who have been abusive to their children’s mother, through the lens of being a “caring” dad. The goals of a Caring Dad’s group are to improve fathers’ relationship with their child and family, and to help them to better understand children’s development and needs.
Targeted support for fathers in Stockport with up to 2-year-olds where the parents have some emerging mental health needs.
Contact directly via Telepohone 0161 344 0669 / Mobile 07842316765 or Email grahamrogers@homestarthost.org.uk
Our bodies and brains work together. Feeling well is not just about being physically fit and healthy, it’s just as important that you feel good mentally, too. Having good mental wellbeing means you feel positive and are able to get the most out of life.
The VOICE Programme is for any victim or survivor of intimate coercive experience and domestic abuse, whether in-situ, post separation or historical, no matter how they identify in terms of their gender, sexuality, race, faith, culture, disability or any other identifiable difference. It supports victims and survivors to identify the broad spectrum of abusive behaviours, the process of dismantling that a victim goes through, and the significant impact of such traumatic experiences within a therapeutic framework.
The diagnosis of disorders consistently suggested that there is something wrong with the victim or survivor, and largely ignored that there was something very wrong with the situation they were in and had to survive. Such labels can imply that there is no hope of recovery. It is our belief that, if we can support victims and survivors to make the insightful connections between experience and impact, they can understand that their responses were ‘normal’ given the challenging and difficult circumstances they faced. That they might not be mentally ill but suffering the impact of their traumatic experiences. If we can provide psychoeducation, those victims and survivors we support can learn to make these connections and thus find hope for recovery.
The UK’s leading relationships charity supporting people through abuse, crisis and relationship breakdown.
Safe, healthy and happy relationships are the bedrock of good emotional wellbeing. The relationship you build with yourself is just as important as the ones you build with other people.
Contact directly via telephone 0161 872 1100 or Email at enquiries@talklistenchange.org.uk
Stockport and District Mind works towards a society where anyone who experiences poor mental health is supported, empowered to reach their full potential and free from stigma and discrimination. The charity’s aims are to provide advice, advocacy, support and services to all people resident in the Stockport Metropolitan Borough and adjacent areas who are experiencing poor mental health, to enable and empower them to live with, manage and where possible recover from their condition. It will also support their family, friends, and carers. Together we are stronger. We believe that no one should face mental health problems alone.
