Child and Parent Support (Caps)
Category: Working with Children & Young People who Offend
The Child and Parent Support (Caps) early intervention programme provides intensive support services to families whose children are at risk of anti-social and offending behaviour.
“I have learnt lots of things at Caps like keeping myself safe, how to be angry in a good way and that no one else controls my behaviour - just me.” Quote from a child attending Caps Caps, NIACRO’s early intervention programme for 8 – 13-year-olds at risk of offending, has been running since 2004, first in the Southern area and since 2007 in Belfast. Internal and external evaluations during that period showed positive outcomes for the children and families taking part in the project. Drawing on the positive results from Caps, the Early Intervention Programme (EIP), funded by the DHSSPS, was established in 2008 to help children coming into contact with the criminal justice system. This integrated strategy now provides a service across Northern Ireland; other agencies involved in the strategy include Extern and Action for Children. The children on the Caps programme face many challenges and difficulties. A great number have difficulties in school; they may be on the Child Protection Register, have some level of ADHD behaviour; and/or be known to police when they start on the programme. Caps intervenes at an early stage where children are at risk of offending and creates work programmes based on their individual and family needs. Along with the child and their family, programmes often include group work run by Caps such as social education and parenting programmes and participation in our family activities scheme. Once a programme has been agreed with the young person and their family, they meet with a Caps worker once a week to carry out the agreed work. Caps works! An evaluation of the EIP has recently been completed. The independent evaluators met with the young people, their parents and referral agencies and found that outcomes for the majority of children completing the programme are extremely positive. They also found that the programme is very cost-effective compared to keeping a child in care or custody. Why does it work? The evaluators asked the children, their parents, and referral agents what they felt about the programme, and all praised the work of the staff – agreeing that “their commitment and approach were the main reasons for their successful engagement with the families”. The range of skills and experience of staff also means that the young people can be helped in the most effective way. Another important success factor was that the programme supports not just the child but their parents and in some cases other members of the family. Many of the people interviewed felt that involving the child only would not have had “an impact of the same quality and strength”. Taking an all-round approach to the situation also increased the EIP’s effectiveness – assessing the individual’s needs and putting together a plan of action which everyone involved buys into. You can download the full evaluation report by clicking on the link on the right of this page. If you’d like to learn more about Caps, contact Rachel or Kelly whose emails are also shown below. |
Contact Details Belfast Armagh | User Experiences
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