Ballyowen Meadows Family Unit - Children Acts Advisory Board

CHILDREN ACTS ADVISORY BOARD
Award for services to Children and
Young People
19th February 2009
Presenters:
Deirdre McCormack
Sinead McDonagh
 Traveller
Families Care was established in
1975. It provided a range of innovative
services to the Travelling Community, e.g.
Outreach support, Children’s Residential etc.
 There
o
o
o
o
are four main sectors to the
organisation:
Community Support
Shared Rearing
Derralossary House
Ballyowen Meadows
Established in 1975
Derralossary
House
Ballyowen
Meadows
Community
Support
Shared Rearing

In 1997 TFC consulted with a number of services including
Health Board, County Council, Local and National Traveller
organisations in relation to providing a specific service for
Traveller Families in need of statutory intervention.

In 1998 it was agreed by both statutory and non-statutory
services to use Ballyowen Meadows as a residential
Traveller Families Assessment unit with particular emphasis
on the full involvement of both the immediate and
extended family

As such Ballyowen Meadows provides an unique
environment in which traditional child protection can be
combined with innovative and holistic therapeutic methods
of child protection

This type of placement promotes awareness of
the importance of family in the lives of children
even when the family dysfunction is a direct
cause of child protection concerns

As the placement in Ballyowen Meadows involves
both immediate and extended family the
approach has also been preventative, enabling
both service users and service providers to
address serious child protection issues while
supporting and maintaining family connections.
This approach goes along way to maintaining one
of the core values of Traveller culture - family
 We
take referrals from Area 5 (S.W.A.H.B.)
 All of the referrals come from H.S.E Social
Workers.
 Referrals are primarily due to child
protection, neglect or abuse.
 In recent years there has been an increase in
referrals due to drug addiction involving one
or both of the parents.
 The
purpose of Ballyowen is to address
serious child protection concerns within the
family setting.
 Our aim is to work with the family in a
holistic manner within the structured
environment to achieve the best outcomes
for the family unit.
 We aim to assess the strength’s and
vulnerabilities of the family to prevent
primary breakdown.
 Empower
parents to meet the needs of their
children.
 Empower parents to take ownership of their
own actions and responsibilities.
 In consultation with all relevant services we
address the issues that have led them into
crisis situations.
 In conjunction with relevant services we
hope to enable the family to grow and
develop the necessary life skills and coping
mechanisms to allow them to return to the
community as a family group.
 Our
assessment is based on the Darlington
Family Assessment System in conjunction
with the principles of the Marte Meo
observation method.
 The assessment is carried out over a six week
period and looks at the issues in relation to:
 Whole family functioning
 Child centred issues
 Parent centred issues
 Parent child interaction
 Ballyowen
Meadows is based in Clondalkin,
on substantial grounds that can safely
facilitate four projects at one time. The
main unit is a large single storey house with
an open plan design which can sleep 8
children along with both parents.
 Our grounds consists of a play area, family
sensory room, children special room,
homework and computer area, gym, art
room, enclosed courtyard, large outside
garden area and an enclosed wooden
playground
 The
annex is a self contained flat adjacent to
the unit suitable for smaller families for
short periods.
 Referral process is the same as for the main
unit.
 Over the years we have had seven separate
families residing in this smaller unit.
 The
bays is an innovative project consisting
of kitchen, toilet bathroom area with hard
standing sites which allow for mobile homes
to be pulled in and fully facilitated.
 There has been two occasions in the past
where mobile homes have been pulled into
these site to enable us to work with separate
families there.
 We
have undertaken a new project in
conjunction with South Dublin County
Council, in which a custom built house has
been placed on our grounds to cater for the
needs of a Traveller family.
 This project started in May 2008 and is still in
its pilot phase.
 We
not only address the needs of the family
as a whole, we also look at each individuals
needs.
 The needs of the individuals may include:
 Physical developments,
 Psychological milestones,
 Emotional security,
 Behavioural issues,
 Attachment and bonding issues.
 Over
the last ten years we have had 12
separate families living in the main unit and
7 families residing in the annex.
 On two occasions two mobile homes have
been placed in the bays and separate
projects have been run there.
 In all we have had 63 children ranging in age
from birth to 19-20 years.

0-4 yrs – 20 children
(12 girls, 8 boys

5-9 yrs – 16 children
(3 girls, 13 boys)

10-13 yrs – 15
children (8 girls, 7
boys)

14-20 yrs – 12
children (8 girls, 4
boys)

Out of 63 young
people to date

28 returned home

20 went into foster
care

2 went to residential
care

5 didn’t engage

4 are still being
worked with
We ask the social workers be involved in biweekly meetings
 A monthly professionals meeting is also held
where all services involved with the family meet
to discuss the families progress to date.
 This whole system approach keeps us all focused
on the needs of the family both in the short and
long term
 It also helps to provide a co-ordinated and multidisciplinary approach in identifying the roles and
responsibilities of the various agencies in
ensuring an effective and quality service delivery

 We
would like to thank you for taking the
time to hear our presentation.
 For further information please take a
handout from our display area.
 Any questions you may have please feel free
to ask.