A family-centred approach: what is it?

A family-centred approach involves working in partnership with families to better understand their circumstances and to decide on strategies that will suit them and their children.

A family-centred approach has some basic principles:

• Support works best when you understand each family’s individual goals, expectations, values and everyday life.
• Parents know their children and their family best, so it’s best to work collaboratively with parents.
• All families have strengths, and we learn and grow best when we use our strengths.
• Children do well when their parents and families are also doing well and can get support for their wellbeing.
• Parents can benefit from informal support from extended family, friends and communities. They can also benefit from formal support services

This approach is an effective way to improve outcomes for families and children. And it works across a wide range of human services.

Why a family-centred approach is important for children

Children learn and develop best through everyday play and interactions with parents, carers and families. When you help families build skills, knowledge and confidence for these interactions, you also help to create the best environment for children’s health, development and wellbeing.

Also, parents know and understand their children best. With a family-centred approach, you can draw on parents’ knowledge and expertise and use it to develop the best supports and services for children.

Children are central to a family-centred approach. If you keep children in focus when making decisions about their lives, and you work in partnership with them and their families, you’re safeguarding and promoting their interests, safety and wellbeing.

Using a family-centred approach

You can use a family-centred approach in the way you work with families overall, the way you support children, and the way you support parents and carers. Here are ideas.

Your work with families

• Help parents learn how to connect with their children by being in the moment, spending quality time and building trust. This can build secure and loving family relationships, which help children develop well.
• Give families information about sleep, nutrition and safety for children.
• Be sensitive and responsive to diverse families, including socioeconomically diverse families, culturally and linguistically diverse families, LGBTIQ+ families, blended families and co-parenting families. This might mean offering services that are available in different languages, are free to use and so on.
• Base services on what families and children want and need. The best way to learn this is to ask. For example, if a parent says that they want to learn how to make the most of play with their child, you can suggest services with plenty of parent-child interaction.
• Be flexible in how you provide services, thinking about what’s most useful to each individual family. For example, some families might like face-to-face support, and others might prefer online support.
• Work with families to build a network of informal or community supports and resources. For example, if you connect new parents with a new parents group, they might need less formal support.
• Build your connections with other mainstream and specialist child and family services so you know where to point families.

Your support for children

• Use children’s strengths and interests to support their health, development and wellbeing.
• Involve children in decisions that affect them, if appropriate.
• Talk and listen to children. For example, talk to children about their goals, interests and needs.
• Adjust your support and interactions with children according to children’s ages, developmental stages and abilities.

Your support for parents

• Always be respectful when working with parents. Children will learn from your interactions.
• Be reliable, and follow through with your commitments to parents. For example, if you say you’ll phone or visit at a certain time, make sure you do.
• Try not to make assumptions about what parents ‘need to know’. Talk with parents about their goals and the sort of information they’re looking for.
• Listen to parents carefully when they ask questions. Acknowledge that parents can feel anxious when they don’t know something, especially if it relates to their child’s health or wellbeing.
• Provide support without judging. For example, instead of saying ‘You shouldn’t yell at Tommy when he doesn’t listen’, you could say ‘I understand that you’re tired and this can make it hard to be patient. Let’s look at how we can help Tommy respond’.
• If there’s a crisis, accept and respect parents who are confused or emotional. A crisis can happen to anybody. And it might help to give parents a few minutes to calm their thoughts. One way to do this is by offering to get the parent a glass of water.

raisingchildren.net.au has a comprehensive range of articles, videos and other content on children’s relationships, health, safety, nutrition, learning, development, play, sleep and more. You can use these resources to give parents and carers knowledge and suggestions for helping their children to grow and thrive.