Warrington C Change

C-Change is a structured, evidence based approach to assessing parental capacity to change in situations where the parenting is likely to be causing harm to their children.  It was developed at the University if Bristol and Interface are the national training provider for the C-Change approach.

Warrington were keen to improve the quality of analysis within their assessments and develop clearer evidence of changes that parents were attempting to make.

We really enjoyed our time in Warrington, providing two 2-day training sessions (June and November 2017) and 2 follow up days (March and June 2018). The follow-up days provided a refresher of the C-Change approach, gave practitioners an opportunity to reflect on how they had used the C-Change approach in practice since receiving the 2-day training and introduced ideas on sustaining change and exploring the role of practitioners in supporting the change process.

In total we trained approximately 45 practitioners from children and families social work teams across the borough. It was brilliant to have a mix of practitioners in the training room including CP chairs, representatives from the learning and development team, team managers in the groups and social workers.  The wealth of experience and enthusiasm led to lively discussions, opportunities for the sharing of practice and identifying new ways forward for families currently being worked with.

Practitioners commented that they liked the C-Change approach as it is an evidence-based approach, helps indicate measurable change and involves parents in goal setting, so helping parents to understand what changes are needed.  They felt that using C-Change within assessments would provide greater information to assist with the analysis and clearer decision making for children to avoid drift.

The broad range of learners has meant that since the training, Warrington have been able to make changes to their supervision arrangements, Child Protection plans and Child Protection Conferences encouraging open discussion and exploration of a parent’s capacity for change.

Feedback from learners included:

• I will use this approach in considering all future decisions.  It will be a key part of my social workers toolkit.

• Assessments will hopefully be much more specific and detailed in terms of progress or no progress.  It offers a different level of detail to what we have been doing within the authority. I think this will support improvements in analysis
• It will give credence to decision making.
• 95% said they would recommend the training to a colleague.

• It gives a clear model that can be utilised in assessments and will evidence parental change
• Will be beneficial in tailoring support being provided 
• The tools provided will enable me to work with service users to complete a time measurable and user-friendly goal that will not set the service user up to fail.
• It will make me think about the risks to the child, seek their view and balance against parental capacity

100% said they intended to use the approach within the 3 months after the training.