News and Updates in Solution Focused Therapy - Solution Focused Brief Therapy UK

Recent News

Dudley Officers target Youth Crime

Inspector Dowen (far left) pictured above with Eileen Murphy with the AEY trained Officers.

The Consultancy are delighted to update on the partnership work we are doing with an Early Intervention Programme started by Inspector Chris Dowen, West Midlands Constabularly in May 2007 - a new and innovative scheme aimed at reducing youth crime in the area. This programme has been developed over the last two and a half years with local schools, housing managers and community renewal officers and the Consultancy were commissioned to train 20 Officers in our AEY (Affecting Early Years) Programme © Eileen Murphy Consultants & Associates to prepare them for their work on this scheme.

The scheme is split into 4 elements

• Early identification of potential offenders through Schools and other partners

• Training and Development of Police employees in our AEY (Affecting Early Years) Programme

• Positive activities for young people including
o Sport and physical activity
o Art & Drama
o Activities involving older communities to understand each other more

• Targeting those who have committed crimes and are on bail or any court order

In the last two and a half years the scheme has, along with other initiatives have led to the following reductions in crime across the Dudley Sector area, which covers, Wrens Nest, Priory, Milking Bank, Russells Hall, Scotts Green, Dudley Town Centre, Castlegate, Kates Hill and Sledmere areas.

1009 less crimes
198 less Serious Acquisitive Crimes (Robberies, Burglaries and Vehicle Crime)
201 less Criminal Damage crimes

(Crime figures April 2008 to December 2009)

Insp Dowen reported: “The aim of the Early Intervention programme is to start identifying and working with young people when they first come to our attention, which could be through reports from partners/members of the public, encountering them on the street or through them being arrested to name but a few. We trained 20 of our staff in a different way of working the “Affecting Early Years” which teaches them to work with young people to identify ways that they can keep themselves out of trouble. To date we have had a number of successes through the work we have done with the local schools, housing managers and neighbourhood renewal managers which has resulted in a large reduction in crime across our area”.

New public course open for January 2010

Our new public course A Solution Focused Approach to Working with Children, Young People & Families 19th January 2010 at Goodenough College, Central London.

The course includes:

- New ways of utilizing Solution Focused Brief Therapy

- The Physical Scaling Map: new resource from the Examine, Repair & Move On Approach (Murphy '93)

- Creating small changes in attitude & built environment to stimulate behavioural change

- The Placebo Effect - ethical "placebo strategies" for use with young people

To book a place - email info@brief-therapy-uk.com or Telephone 0208 542 9310 or print off a booking form from the Public & Inhouse Training Page.

http://www.brief-therapy-uk.com/docs/title/training_events

New Father's Programme launched by the Consultancy

The Consultancy launch our new programme for Fathers in September 2009 - accessible as an inhouse course for staff working with Fathers:

How to engage fathers using Solution Focused Motivational Interviewing

Parental involvement in a child’s schooling for a child between 7 and 16 is more powerful force than family background, size of family and parental education
Feinstein,L & Symons, J (1999) ATTAINMENT IN Secondary School, Oxford Economic Papers,51

In particular, a father’s interest in a child’s schooling is strongly linked to educational outcomes for the child.
Hobcraft (1998) Childhood Experience and the risk of social exclusion in adulthood. CASE Briefing Nov. 1998

The programme focuses on Fathers as parents and how to:

•Support Fathers to be actively involved in their children’s day-day life
•Support fathers to re-engage their links and contact with their children
•Support fathers to build effective relationship with their children
•Support fathers to effectively co-parent their children with their ex partner amicably
•Engage fathers in their children’s learning practical ideas

Affecting Early Years Programme - West Midlands Police

We were commissioned by West Midlands Police to implement our new Affecting Early Years (AEY) Programme with West Midlands Police Officers and the Community Support teams. Eileen Murphy devised this specialist programme for early intervention work with young people who are at risk of exclusion and offending behaviour.

West Midlands Police Officers during training
This new programme equip officers with a positive, strengths based approach in their work to divert young people who are at risk of offending or who are causing high level disruption. Inspector Chris Dowen, pictured with the trained team, is very committed to the programme and updates will be reported as the work gets underway.

Rochdale P & I Team receive their certificates following P&I Training

Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council, Specialist Children In Care Team and colleagues from the Childrens Centre receive their Certificates from Director of Children & Families, Steve Garner, following their training in the Consultancy's 12 day training programme the Prevention & Intervention Programme. Rochdale MBC is the latest of eighteen local authorities to use the approach as part of their front line resource for strengthening families and safeguarding children.

This new initiative, supported by the Children’s Workforce Development Council, is committed to improving care planning and outcomes for young people living in three residential children’s homes. The team will also work intensively with young people aged 11+ at risk of entry into care and their families as well as those being rehabilitated with their families following a period spent in care.

Steve deShazer Placement implemented for Public Courses

Steve deShazer Placement implemented for Public Courses

We are pleased to announce that we have implemented a Donated Placement scheme at all our public courses in memory of Steve deShazer, co-founder, along with Insoo Kim Berg, of the Solution Focused Brief Therapy Model.

With the agreement of the board members at the Solution Focused Brief Therapy Association in USA, this scheme will be offered at all of our Public Courses beginning with our October and November courses this year.

This is in addition to our personal Michael John Murphy Bursary. Please apply by email info@brief-therapy-uk.com and an application form will be sent to you electronically. Our public courses for 2009 will be announced as they are arranged.

Mentoring as part of new government strategy to prevent radicalisation

A strategy for local authorities, schools, community groups and police was launched on 3rd June 2008 as the Government aims to work in partnership with communities to challenge and expose the ideology that sanctions and encourages, indiscriminate violence.

Eileen Murphy Consultants & Associates are working with BUILD, a Community Development Project in Leicester as part of this remit.

The BUILD Mentors following their training with Eileen Murphy in Leicester.

Reducing Teenage Pregnancies in Southwark

staff receive their Completion Certificates from Chief Executive, Annie Sheppard, following the Helping Young People Achieve their Potential training

The London Borough of Southwark, until recently, had the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe - they are reducing this number by 15% according to recent statistics. This improvement is to due to the concentrated efforts of Southwark council and NHS primary care trust staff, not least the Southwark Sex & Relationship Education Team (SSRE).

To build on this, Eileen Murphy Consultants & Associates were commissioned to work with the SSRE Team staff along with education staff from across Southwark on our specialist programme Helping Young People Achieve their Potential. This eight day course covered one to one work and groupwork with young people in order to break negative patterns of low self image; under achievement within education and to help young people set themselves goals and targets that were in keeping with who they are as individuals in order to help them reach their potential.

The attendees of this course included staff from St Saviours and St Olaves Primary School, Harris East Dulwich School, Notre Dame School, St Thomas the Apostle College and Harris Bermondsey School. This eight-day course helped staff become fully immersed in this approach and on the final day, participants responded on how they would use this training in their work

“This is fresh, something new for me and an effective way to move forward with any young person, no matter how difficult their situation.”

“This training does not add to your workload but only allows you to think differently about how to approach a situation with a young person. I hope to use this with some of my students who I feel will benefit from this.”

“Trying to implement change requires this strategy – it should be mandatory for all workers.”

Supported Volunteering for Young People

Our latest mentoring project is being implemented for PALS and Voluntary Services, St. Martin's Hospital, Littlebourne Road, Canterbury, Kent

Supported Volunteering for Young People, developed at St Martin's Hospital, aims to support and encourage young people (aged over 16 years) who have experienced social exclusion through mental ill health. The project finds vocational or 'just for fun' volunteering placements in the community depending on the client's specific skills and interests.

Volunteering can be a daunting prospect, and clients may require a little extra support whilst at their placement, so the project recruits volunteer mentors, from all backgrounds and of any age, to provide essential one-to-one guidance. Each volunteer mentor attends the Eileen Murphy Consultants' Solution Focused Mentoring Programme.

Catherine Herbert, the Co-ordinator of the Project at Martin's Hospital gives feedback to date "The support provided by the volunteer mentors is invaluable and integral to the success of this project, and mentors have seen increased levels of confidence, communication and independent thinking in their mentees. Recent project evaluation provided by the East Kent base, attests that "our clients have made new friends and contacts, improved their work prospects, increased their sense of worth in a community context, and perhaps most importantly, have felt 'listened to' and supported by their mentors. In return, clients have given hundreds of hours of voluntary work to their local community, businesses and organisations, many of which have been able to provide services that would not have been economically viable without voluntary workers".

If you live in the East Kent area and are interested in finding out more about becoming a volunteer mentor, or would like any further information about the project, please call Karly Vickers on Tel: 01227 812020 Or email volunteer.info@yahoo.co.uk for more information. If you would like more information on the Solution Focused Mentor training programme contact Eileen Murphy Consultants on Tel 0208 542 9310 or by email: info@brief-therapy-uk.com .

Brief Therapy Forum

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Achieving Change DVD Now Available

DVD now available from Eileen Murphy Consultants.

The DVD includes

1. Excerpts from Eileen Murphy’s training session with helpful reminders of some of the techniques used
2. Family session
3. 1:1 session
4. What’s Better? sessions
5. Question & Answer Session

And costs £80.00 plus VAT.

Click here for more information

Sandwell Family Solutions

Sandwell Family Solutions Team undertake the Prevention & Intervention Training programme.
The Team, led by Terry Braithwaite, receiving their completion certificates from Eileen Murphy at the close of training in May 2007

Michael John Murphy Bursary

This 2008 receipient of the Michael John Murphy Bursary is CREST Waltham Forest Mental Health Befriending Service

Crest provides one to one volunteer support to befriend people who experience significant and lasting mental and emotional ill health, compounded by isolation and loneliness. Currently, CREST is working in partnership with Qalb Asian Mental Health Services to develop a befriending service for the Asian community in Waltham Forest. Since 2004, CREST has administered The Sunshine Club, an out-of-hours drop-in for people with mental health problems.

For further details of how to apply for the Bursary for 2009 - please click the link to find out more.
Michael John Murphy Bursary

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 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