Families

In most cases where children or young people are involved with offending behaviour, engagement with the family at some level will be essential. Minimum standards in engaging with families where a child has offended include the following effective strategies for engaging families in planning and supervision:

• putting families at ease and taking care not to overwhelm them;
• making sure they get all the information they need to be informed partners with a meaningful role;
• taking time to explain technical data, complicated situations, or the political environment in which a decision has to be made;
• orienting family members to their roles and responsibilities;
• presenting written materials to family members in advance (when possible), in their primary language, without jargon;
• identifying shared goals and focusing on these while recognising that agreement on everything is not likely or even desirable;
• evaluating progress together;
• keeping communication open, honest and consistent;
• sharing decision making and working to find win-win resolutions to problems encountered during the process;
• recruiting a diverse team of family members, training and supporting those who are willing to become engaged (Osher and Huff, 2006).

However more structured approaches to work with families may be necessary when family functioning is a significant contributory factor in the child’s behaviour. Research suggests that two broad categories of family-based interventions are associated with effective outcomes with young people involved with offending: parent training and structured family work (Whyte 2008).