Multi-family groups in schools

Anna Freud

What

About this course

Multi-family groups in schools are a systemic intervention that help children and young people with emotional and/or behavioural challenges, by bringing together multiple families and education staff into one group.

This e-learning training programme gives education staff the knowledge needed to set up and run their own multi-family group in their setting.

Multi-family groups were originally set up in schools in response to the need to provide accessible help for children and young people who are presenting with behavioural and/or emotional wellbeing difficulties at school.

The approach is one that brings parents/carers, children, teachers, psychologists, social workers or mental health professionals together to find new solutions so that the children can be helped to behave better, be happier or more settled and engage with teaching and learning opportunities in school.

This course is based on our many years’ experience of running multi-family groups in child and adolescent mental health services and in schools. The groups usually run once weekly for up to two hours with six to eight children and their parents or adult family member attending with them.

The online training programme

The training programme will equip participants with the skills and knowledge needed to set up and run their own multi-family group in school. Teaching is broken down into three separate units which are made up of film sequences, guided voiceover and associated reading material.

Reading materials and downloads are available for each part of the units with the full manual accessible in Unit 3. At the end of the training programme you will be able to download a completion certificate.

The programme includes videos showing how a family group works in practice. For this, we are extremely grateful to the children, their parents and the staff working at Downe Manor Primary School in the London Borough of Ealing who very kindly agreed to us filming their family group.