Hertswood Arts College implement our Business Mentoring Programme

Teachers and SENCO staff at the Hertswood Arts College in Herts during training in our Solution Focused Business Mentor course March 2006. Businessmen and women were trained earlier in the day in this pilot programme following the success of the Young Mentor Programme implemented in 2005
London Borough of Merton Prevention and Intervention

The Managers and staff at London Borough of Merton hold an Information Day arranged to explain their Solution Focused work to colleagues following the Prevention & Intervention Training programme
Oxfordshire Council launch their Prevention & Intervention Team
Following the intensive training programme with a Team specifically recruited to lead the Service, Oxfordshire Council launched their P & I Service.
Oxfordshire Local Authority implement our Prevention & Intervention Programme as part of their Children & Services Plan to reduce the numbers of children and young people coming into the care system under Section 20.

The Oxford Prevention & Intervention Practitioners receiving their completion certificates from
Director of Social Services, Charles Waddicor
standing: Jennie Hamer, Sarah Hunt, Thelma Phillips, Helen Cox-Boulder, Tony Nanton, Maggie Brown, Graham Brice, Danielle Harris
seated: Anna Doffman, Patsy Law , Team Manager, Charles Waddicor, Director of Social Services, Eileen Murphy, Belinda Langston, Jackie Roberts
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council
Director of Social Services, Linda Warren, launches the first Solution Focused Residential Centre
Following the implementation of our Prevention & Intervention Programme training with Family Support staff at Dudley, the Authority commissioned our Solution Focused Residential Unit Programme for Parkes Street Residential Centre.
The ethos of our Solution Focused Residential Unit training is that young people respond better to raised expectations than warnings and sanctions. On the basis that mistrust is easier to betray than trust, young people are taught in real ways about justice, responsibility and respect for others.

Linda Warren, Director of Social Services, cuts the ribbon at Parkes Street Solution Focused Residential Centre, left to right - Eileen Murphy, Lorna McCrook, Manager of the Centre and Linda Warren.

Linda Warren, Lorna McCrook and the Parkes Street Team
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council implement the Prevention & Intervention training programme
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council implement our Prevention & Intervention training programme with their designated team. .


Top Left: Linda Warren, Director of Dudley Social Services, opens the Launch Day
Top Right: The Prevention and Intervention team at Dudley recieve their Completion Certificates from Pauline Sharratt - Assistant Director - Children & Famillies, Jane Prashar - Head of Services, Childrens Resources and John Donnelly - Service Manager, Family Support Services and Eileen Murphy.
Bottom Left: Clare Payne facilitating an experiential exercise from the P&I Anger Management Groupwork Programme with delegates.
Bottom Right: Emma Cole, faciliating an experiential exercise from the P&I Parenting the Teenager Groupwork Programme with delegates.
Tamil Welfare Group UK
Charanjit Kang from the Parenting Education & Support Forum, Staff and Members of the Tamil Welfare Group UK and Eileen Murphy at the close of training

The South London Tamil Welfare Group has a long history of community work going back more than 20 years. Tamils who settle in the UK, especially those who arrived after 1995 had experienced difficulties with parenting and they needed a different approach. They were cultural and communication conflicts between parents and children, relationship breakdowns, lack of awareness and knowledge of UK Law. Parents lacked confidence and their parenting styles were out of context in the UK. (Raji Chandirassegarane, SLTWG)
Eileen Murphy Consultants were identified by the Tamil Welfare Group UK which is their proposed new title as their partners in the development of their plan to provide Parenting Programmes to the Tamil Community.
The Consultancy provided training to the staff and Committee members of the Group over a period of 6 sessions in preparation for a specific team within the Group to implement the Consultancy's Parenting the 21st Century Child and Parenting the Teenager Groupwork Programmes direct with parents.
The training included:
- Parenting in the UK
- The Solution Focused Approach to working in partnership with parents
- Experiential exercises in the consultancy's parenting programmes
- The visuals of the Examine, Repair Move On Approach (Murphy '93)
- Child Law in the UK
- Facilitator Skills
The aim of the Tamil Welfare Group UK is to provide Parenting in the UK programmes to the Tamil Community and also to further develop the services they can offer Social Services and the Voluntary Sector in their liaison with the Tamil Community.
The Group aim to provide Parenting Groups in the wider community as their development plans are implemented and Eileen Murphy Consultants will remain involved to offer their support.
The photo above was taken at the last day of training which was carried out in London throughout June and July 2004.
Sadly, Saverimuthu Stanislaus MBE, Chair of the South London Tamil Welfare Group, died in February 2006. Mr Stanislaus was a kind and courteous man with whom it was a great pleasure to work with and learn from and his laughter and wisdom stays with all who met him.
South Yorkshire Mentoring

Eileen Murphy (second, right) was the keynote speaker at the South Yorkshire Mentoring Network Project conference in Rotherham.
The project provides support and training to organisations involved in developing and improving mentoring schemes or programmes. Representatives and partners from voluntary and charity sectors, as well as local training providers, schools, colleges and businesses attended the event organised by career management and development company, Lifetime.
Pictured are guest speakers Richard Wafe, Lifetime. Val Jowell, Business & Education South Yorkshire. John Nicholls, Quality Consultant for the National Mentoring Network. Eileen Murphy, Eileen Murphy Consultants. Kate Atkinson, Excellent in Mentoring Project Co-ordinator based at Lifetime.
www.symentoring.org
Times Education Supplement article
Following our Solution Focused Training - Working to Prevent Disaffection & Exclusion programme with the East Lothian Inclusion Service, Scotland last year and again this year - the reduction in the exclusion rate compared to the rising number around the rest of Scotland resulted in the following article in the Times Education Supplement. See the full article by clicking on the following link.
Times Article
The Guardian Education Article
We were asked to provide an answer under the Ask the Expert slot for the Education Guardian about what to do with a pupil who has become isolated from the school culture. Our response was to hold a "What's Working?" meeting: see article by clicking the link below.
Pupil Exclusion
BBC Radio Interview on Parenting Matters
Eileen Murphy recently contributed to a debate about modern Parenting Skills on BBC Radio 5-Live. during the interview with John Pinnear (see visual below) she expressed a call for Parenting to be added to the National Curriculum. At one point, when voicing her support for legislation that would make the smacking of children illegal - a caller referred to her as a "60s Liberal". Eileen reminded the caller that she was but a child in the 60s and that she just had an old lady's voice!

Mentoring
The Solution Focused Mentor Programme covered by Community Care Magazine in September 2003

Our Solution Focused Mentor Programme was implemented by Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council in July - August 2003 as part of the Borough's Summer Reloaded programme - we trained 18 year old students to work directly with children and young people who attended the activities. We also provided weekly support and supervision sessions for them throughout the six week scheme.

Our training with the students was delivered in the same vein as professional training, just as it was with the peer Mentors for the Liverpool SPLASH project last year and the response is always that the students behave as professionals

Sally Gunnell and her colleagues, Walsall Councillor and Mentors at the close of the programme
To partner the programme we implemented a Parenting Programme direct with the parents of the children attending the programme
Magazine Coverage
Community Care covered our implementation of the Prevention & Intervention programme in Wolverhampton in 2000 as an approach which put families "back in the driving seat". Although much of the information is out of date, i.e. the P&I is now implemented in a much shorter period and our contact details have of course changed. However for a view of how staff and families responded to the approach following the training - please see the attached link direct to the Community Care article.
Community Care 1
Community Care 2
New Learning Method
We have had many enquiries about our teaching method - Lock, Store & Remember (TPF) for implementation with children and young people who have lost confidence in their learning abilities.
We are delighted at the response and are happy to discuss the approach and its applications either by telephone or email at
LSR@brief-therapy-uk.com
Our experience tells us that if a person achieves one small thing that they couldn't previously achieve - it allows for a watershed in their learning confidence. The LSR method breaks the negative belief that many children have about themselves once they experience failure and we all know that negative beliefs grow and festers at an incredible rate. We have always worked to break that pattern and start a new, positive one and the LSR gives us an actual tool to do so in real and practical ways.
Secure Unit Programme
Our Solution Focused Secure Unit programme has attracted a great deal of interest around the country and we are due to start the next programme in the next few months. If you would like details do please contact us direct.
An evaluation has been carried out in February 2003 of the impact the Solution Focused Secure Unit training has had on the staff and residents at Gladstone Secure Unit in Liverpool. If you are interested in seeing the evaluation report, please contact us by telephone or email us at:
secureunits@brief-therapy-uk.com
and we will send you a copy by email or in the post.
Click the link below to access the article from the Council People magazine
Solution Focused Secure Unit article
Youth Panel Training
The Consultancy has implemented their new YOUTH PANEL training with Sefton Youth Panel who are now using the training in their sessions, incorporating the language in their scripts. If you are interested in hearing more about this - email us at:
youthpanels@brief-therapy-uk.com
Brief Therapy Forum
Our new Brief Therapy Discussion Forum for those interested in the model and related issues is now growing in membership. Hopefully it will generate discussions and debates among all the visitors. The team will keep an overview and be among the many respondents - if you have any queries about the Forum do please email
forum@brief-therapy-uk.com
In the meantime, do email us direct if you have comments on your practice or you would like to ask us questions about our practice.