Family Group Conference
Family Group Conferences (FGCs) originated in New Zealand. They were originally used to allow social work practice to work with and not against Maori values and culture. The Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 made them a central part of practice and services where serious decisions about children are to be made.
The Family Group Conference (or FGC) is where the whole whānau (family & extended family members) can help make decisions about the best way to support the family and take care of their child. It is a formal meeting in which the family and whanau of the child and professional practitioners closely work together to make a decision that best meet the needs of the child. The process has four main stages, which includes a meeting where professionals inform the family of the concerns they have, followed by private family time,where the family alone develop a plan that addresses the concerns that have been raised. The plan is then presented to the professionals who should support it if the concerns have been addressed and it does not put the child at risk. The meetings are facilitated and co-ordinated by people independent of casework decisions in the agency working with the family
FGCs are used in care and protection cases. They have also been described as the ‘lynch-pin’ of the New Zealand youth justice system.
Read more about Family Group Conference: Family Group Conferences Process, Family Group Conferences Worldwide
Famous quotes containing the words family, group and/or conference:
“A family in harmony will prosper in everything.”
—Chinese proverb.
“The boys think they can all be athletes, and the girls think they can all be singers. That’s the way to fame and success. ...as a group blacks must give up their illusions.”
—Kristin Hunter (b. 1931)
“Politics is still the man’s game. The women are allowed to do the chores, the dirty work, and now and then—but only occasionally—one is present at some secret conference or other. But it’s not the rule. They can go out and get the vote, if they can and will; they can collect money, they can be grateful for being permitted to work. But that is all.”
—Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876–1958)