Integrated Family Support Service (IFSS) Benchmark and Evaluation

Descriptions

The Integrated Family Support Service is being introduced in Wales to reform and invigorate health and social services delivery for vulnerable children and their families in Wales. The emphasis of the service is to ensure an integrated approach to the delivery of family focused services leading to improved outcomes for families and most importantly improved outcomes for children in need and children at risk.The service is being introduced in three pioneer sites that shall act as demonstrator sites within which the service model shall be tested to inform the development of the business case for roll out throughout Wales.At the heart of the IFSS model is the delivery of an integrated approach which:•Strengthens the link between children and adult services•Provides a focus on developing skills among the variety of practioners engaged in direct work with families with complex needs and providing supportive supervision•Uses Evidence based interventions•Facilitates wider systems change and break down interagency barriers•Improves the quality of service experience and outcomes for children and their families.Whilst the model is new it builds on current good practice introducing a cultural and organisational shift in the way health, social care and third sector services work with families in which the parents misuse substances, have complex needs and in which children present with high level of need and/or risk.The purpose of this evaluation is to develop an in-depth understanding of the impact that IFSS has had on: 1)practice and multi disciplinary agency working 2)the provision and outcomes of integrated family care for families where there is parental substance misuse alongside an increased risk to the child3)the wider service systemPotential contractors expressing interest in this work need to demonstrate experience of undertaking evaluations of complex interventions, incorporating process, outcome and economic evaluation.The Welsh Assembly Government, on behalf of the Welsh Ministers, will be conducting this procurement exercise through the etenderwales portal: https://etenderwales.bravosolution.co.uk Tender documents and other information must be downloaded from and returned through this portal. If you require any further assistance the BravoSolution helpdesk is available on:Email: help@bravosolution.co.uk Phone: 0800 011 2470/ Fax: 020 7080 0480Full information in accessing the portal is found in Section VI.3.