Category: Families and children

Using the Outcomes Stars – from Practitioner to Trainer

Posted on by Emily Ellis

Farida Thomson is a Trainer and Implementation Lead at Triangle. She previously worked as a geography teacher and an Early Help Worker for a local authority in London, UK. 

Using the Family Star Plus and My Star in practice

I love this job as it enables me to merge all my passions together. It allows me to apply my previous experience using the Star in a practitioner’s capacity to create really meaningful training sessions.

The first thing that stood out to me when I first began using the Star is that it is a visual tool that’s simple for all to understand and engage with. Traditionally, we were used to working with assessments that contained reams and reams of paragraphs, or tick-box exercises that provided little value or insight. The outcome areas on the Star were relevant and made sense to us as practitioners and the families that we were supporting, and this helped us to get to know our clients and their world in a holistic way. The Journey of Change and the ability to have an open conversation using a strengths-based approach made it even more valuable.

How did I use the Outcomes Star in my practice?

We used it with all of our families. The Family Star Plus was used to capture the parental voice and My Star to the capture child’s voice. The Star was a part of our assessment process and would have to be completed in the first four weeks, with reviews held every 12 weeks. If families didn’t want to engage or stopped engaging, we used a worker-only Star; we did not use the retrospective Star option. 

What affect did the Outcomes Star have?

It gave our clients a voice. Many said that they felt like we cared about them as a whole person and not just the issue they were presenting with. Many people said it was the first time they were able to really speak about issues they had hidden as either no one wanted to hear about them. or they were not asked about them as it was not their presenting issue. I remember one client describing it as “freedom to talk about me without feeling judged”.

As I began completing more Stars with my families, I realised how versatile and user-friendly it was. I could literally make it bespoke to each person I was supporting while still working within a framework that would provide consistency.

Some of the best Stars I’ve completed have been in a Children’s Centre setting. This enabled me to take the parent/carer out of the chaos of their home environment and allow them to feel safe to have an open and honest conversation. I’ve completed Stars in coffee shops, sitting in a park or during a drive.

Getting it wrong/right…

Initially we didn’t use the Star in a conversational way and there were a lot of 10’s. This demonstrated to us that we needed to change our approach in how to discuss things with our clients. It reiterated the importance of using the User Guide and being able to get accurate readings, as many staff members had forgotten the User Guide existed. We had Star Champions who ran surgeries and gave in-house training on difficult areas or top tips on hot topics. We also evaluated the barriers that were preventing staff from completing the Star in an effective way. Staff reported that they found it a burden to do both Outcomes Star completion and the Initial Assessment. We then added the outcome areas to case notes so that there was not a repetition of work and all elements linked together.

We also began to share the Outcomes Star during Team Around the Family (TAF) meetings using an multi-disciplinary team approach so that no one agency was working in isolation. The additional support, guidance and making it fit with the existing systems and processes that we had made an immense difference in productivity and accuracy.

How can the Outcomes Star data can be used?

The data helped us to identify areas of strength and weakness and gaps in the service or local area. Housing was a key need in our local area as there were over 4,000 people on the temporary housing list, however we couldn’t provide our clients with accommodation. We could, however, help them to look at housing options both in the social and private sector and prepare them to bid. Once we were clear about our boundaries, it made our job easier and our clients’ expectations more realistic.

Another gap in both our service and external services was that there was a 16-week waiting list for clients to access counselling. We identified that without some coping strategies, our clients were unable to make changes in key areas such as putting in a routine. I then trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and shared my learning with my colleagues so that we could provide short-term support and fill that gap.

The strengths of our service demonstrated that we were making immense changes in areas of routine and boundaries, and the Star helped us to evidence the changes.

Why should you use the Outcomes Star?

The Star really is a great way to build a relationship, have open and honest conversations and empower the people that we are supporting. The Star is something that we do with our clients and not to them, and this approach itself enables them to make long-lasting changes in their lives.

Outcomes Stars in children’s social care settings

Posted on by Outcomes Star

We’ve been noticing an increase in enquiries about using the Star in children’s social care, which may reflect upcoming changes in the requirements for outcomes measurement and keywork in this sector.

The Department for Education’s recently consulted on a new children’s social care national framework and indicators dashboard, and we were pleased to contribute to this. We welcomed the move towards more person-centred and collaborative care planning and outcomes measurement – the aims set out in the framework being very well aligned with our own (see our Enabling help report). However, we fed back our hope that the final version will include a broader range of indicators and more practical guidance about how to achieve the aims, for example, collaborative assessments to build strong relationships.

The themes of hearing the voices of people being supported, tailoring support and building trusting relationships were also very prominent in the Department for Education ‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations including Quality Standards’ for looked after children and care leavers aged 16 and 17, which was published in March. Since all providers now have to register with Ofsted and indicate how they will comply with the regulations, we have been working on a guidance document to explain how the Outcomes Star can help with this and how specific versions map across to the principles and quality standards.

Download the How To here.  Contact us for more information or to share any learnings about using the Star in these settings.

Why relational services matter

Posted on by Donna

Joy MacKeith shares her thoughts after the inaugural Towards Relational Public Services (TRePubS) Conference

How do you deliver public services that are relational – services that recognise and respond to the unique needs and circumstances of each individual?  That was the topic of the conference ‘Towards Relational Public Services’ that I have just had the pleasure to participate in. 

Sam Game and I gave a workshop which explored how the Outcomes Star helps to make ‘Enabling Help’ a reality in practice.  Working in a relational way is one of the six core principles of Enabling Help, Triangle’s blueprint for effective services.

Sam, who leads the implementation of the Parent and Baby Star in Health Visiting services in Warwickshire, described how using the Star has helped them work in a more relational, collaborative and strengths-based way.  Parents have responded incredibly well.  They are much clearer about the health visitor’s role and they love the way that Star helps them see what is going well as well as where they have needs.  And it isn’t just the parents.  It has also helped commissioners to understand and value the service.

Our workshop was one of more than 40 sessions which took place over two days at Newcastle Business School – part of Northumbria University. 

For me the highlight was Mark Smith’s presentation on service transformation work in Gateshead.  He described how they have implemented an approach to working with people with complex needs in which there are only two rules: ‘do no harm’ and ‘stay legal’.  In this ‘liberated method’ case workers have a low caseload and there are no limits on how long they can work with someone or what kind of support can be provided.  And case workers have budgets and the discretion to spend money to help solve pressing problems. 

What I loved about this approach was that the bureaucracy was stripped out, giving workers the chance to do simple things that could make a big difference and avert much greater problems down the line.

Mark is part of a growing movement of managers, practitioners and academics who are challenging the orthodoxies of New Public Management (sometimes described as the 3 Ms – Markets, Metrics and Management). They are making the case that outcomes emerge from many interacting factors and therefore cannot be ‘delivered’ or dictated.  In this complex environment, learning rather than prescription and control is the most effective management strategy.  And it makes more sense for commissioners to take a relational approach and to hold service providers accountable for learning rather than targets.  This new approach is called Human Learning Systems.

Toby Lowe, Visiting Professor of Public Management and the Centre for Public Impact closed the conference with a call to action – for all of us who want to see services that are more relational, responsive and effective to come together and work with a coalition of the willing to create a paradigm shift in public management.  It is an exciting vision, and one that I think the Outcomes Star, a tool with flexible, relational working at its core, can play a role in realising.

Joy MacKeith, Co-creator of Outcomes Star

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Watch Joy’s conversation with Toby Lowe about the synergies between Enabling Help and Human Learning Systems 

Find out more about Enabling Help here 

Find out more about Human Learning Systems here

 

 

Guidance on how to use the new edition of the Family Star Plus within the Supporting Families Programme (2022-25)

Posted on by Donna

All local authorities delivering Supporting Families must have an approved Outcome Plan setting out their family level outcomes against headline objectives set out in the programme guidance.

Since the start of the supporting families programme (formerly called the ‘Troubled families programme’), many local authorities have been using the Family Star Plus as part of evidencing outcomes within their approved Outcomes Plans.

This Family Star Plus was developed specifically to be aligned with the programme’s objectives, and the new Supporting Families outcomes framework was taken into account when creating the recently published 2nd edition of this version of the Star.  

We have produced guidance to show how the Family Star Plus (2nd edition) fits well with the requirements set out in the ‘Supporting Families Outcomes Framework 2022-25’:

The new framework identifies ‘Practitioner and/or self-assessment’ and ‘Validated outcome measures’ as part of the evidence within all of the headline areas, and the Outcomes Star, while collaboratively completed, fits within this category. The validation of the Family Star Plus as an outcomes measure, including evidence of ‘inter-rater reliability’ and ‘predictive validity’ is reported in a recent peer-reviewed journal article (Good & MacKeith, 2021). 

You can download our guidance on how to use the Family Star Plus (2nd Ed.) within the new Supporting Families framework here.

Please contact our Research Analyst, Dr Anna Good (anna@triangleconsulting.co.uk) if you would like to find out more.

Family Stars new editions April 2023: Our development from 2010 to today

Posted on by Outcomes Star

Triangle developed the first Family Star in 2010, in collaboration with Camden Council in London as part of their innovative focus on outcome measurement. It was the 4th Outcomes Star Triangle developed and brought its own engaging challenges. In particular, the Family Star was to be completed with a parent, but the beneficiary was their child or children.

Whilst keeping a clear focus on the intended outcome – that children could thrive – the Star needed to recognise that, where parents face challenges in their lives, those needed to be addressed for their own well-being as well as to benefit their children.

Parents with lived experience helped to shape the Family Stars, based on the process of change they had gone through with support from the service.

Soon after the original Family Star was published, the government in England and Wales announced significant new investment in supporting vulnerable families – initially called the Troubled Families Initiative. This initiative included a focus on understanding and measuring outcomes for families, and the Star was perfect as a tool for doing that – or almost. To align even better with the framework, it needed more focus on parents, particularly on the parent’s own well-being and on helping parents into work, where appropriate.

In response, Triangle collaborated with Leicestershire County Council to create the Family Star Plus in 2012. This has since become one of the most widely used of the family of Outcomes Stars, particularly by local authorities in England.

Triangle then worked with collaborators in Scotland to produce materials which mapped the Family Star to SHANARRI, the Scottish Government outcomes framework for children and families.

Since these early Family Stars, Triangle has developed many more versions for children and families. My Star for children is widely used to give the voice of the child alongside the Family Star Plus or Family Star. There is also the lighter touch Family Star Early Years and then the Family Star (relationships), for use where the main focus is on the relationship between parents, including with mediation and looking after the child’s well-being in family breakdown. Triangle also developed more Stars for children and young people – preview versions of all of these and more are available to download from the website.

Triangle is committed to keeping the suite of Outcomes Stars up to date – we invest part of the Star Licence fee in this – and have a robust process for reviewing existing Stars and creating new editions. We used this to review the Family Stars in 2021-2022, as described in our previous blog and detailed in a development summary that will be published with the new editions in April. The result is new editions that are more person centred, accessible and trauma informed.

If you are a current user of the Family Star or Family Star Plus (practitioner or manager), please register to attend the launch webinar event.
If you can’t participate on the day, please register anyway, as we will share the recording and all new resources with you. you.

Stay updated
You can subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates directly to your inbox, so there is no need to keep checking for new blogs.

 

Triangle to launch new editions of the Family Star Plus and Family Star, April 2023

Posted on by Donna

We are delighted to announce we have now finalised the new editions of the Family Star Plus and Family Star.

In April 2023, these new editions will be replacing the current editions on the Star Online.

What has changed?

The new editions have the same outcome areas and Journey of Change. The changes are to the language and resources to:

For example:

  • The top of the Journey of Change is now ‘managing well’
  • 8 is more clearly the end point for families with extra needs
  • The Star areas names are more client-centred e.g. How I feel, My children’s learning and Our family routine
  • Wording changes avoid any suggestion of blame or triggers for people, while keeping the essential clarity needed between stages

What people say about the new edition?

“We all feel that it is a significant improvement”.

“More family-focused and trauma-informed”.

“The language is more client-focused and strengths-based”.

“The wording is more friendly and positive”.

“This version will get better buy-in with the families we work with”.

“The visual scaling for parents uses appropriate language, and is concise and easy to understand”.

What next?

  • You will notice some changes to the wording when completing stars on Star Online or using the PDF documents 
  • If you use the Family Stars in your own software, we will provide what you need to update to the new edition
  • Update any internal documents with the new names of the outcome areas and Journey of change stages
  • The data is comparable with the current editions – we will advise on small differences – so there will be no interruption in your reporting
  • There is no need for additional training, though do consider a refreshing, to make sure you get the most from the Star.

Fit with the Supporting Families Outcomes Framework 2022-25

Since the start of the Supporting Families Programme, many local authorities have been using the Family Star Plus to evidence their outcomes. This new edition coincided with the publication of the  and we took this new framework into account when creating this new edition.

We are finalising a mapping document to show how the Family Star Plus (2nd Edition) is uniquely placed to evidence many of the family needs identified in the programme guidance. This will be published in Feb 2023.

Why did we do this review?

As a social enterprise, Triangle commits to investing part of the Star licence in keeping the suite of Stars under review and up to date. We keep abreast of changes in sectors and keep learning alongside our collaborators. We have a rolling program of reviews and new editions and are prioritising earlier, widely used versions, such as the Family Stars.

Join our webinar for more information  

Sara, Star Development Director, will be hosting a webinar on Zoom on Tuesday 25 April at 10am (UK time.)  Register HERE – register even if you can’t attend and we will send you the recording.

Stay updated 

You can subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates directly to your inbox, so there is no need to keep checking for new blogs.

*****

Related items

Psychometric factsheets and reports | Triangle (outcomesstar.org.uk)

New GIRFEC mapping guidance for Scottish organisations and practitioners using My Star (Scotland)

Posted on by Donna

My Star aligns with Scottish Government’s ‘Getting it right for every child’ approach

In November 2022, Triangle published new GIRFEC mapping guidance for licensed Outcomes Star users of My Star (Scotland).

The My Star (Scotland) guidance for workers covers how to use Star data to report against the eight indicators of well-being (often referred to as SHANARRI). It can be found within the Star Online system via the following link to the resources section: Resources – Triangle (staronline.org.uk) and clicking into the ‘Additional Star Resources – Scotland’. There you will find the following documents:

  • My Star Guidance for Workers (Scotland)
  • My Star Chart (Scotland)
  • My Star Flashcards (Scotland)

Within this section, similar guidance is also available for the Family Star (Scotland) and the Family Star (Early Years) (Scotland).

History

Wellbeing sits at the heart of the Scottish GIRFEC approach to provide tailored support and help for children, young people and their parents.

To help ensure everyone (children, young people, parents, and the services that support them) has a common understanding of what wellbeing and the GIRFEC principles mean, practitioners and organisations are asked to consider each of the eight SHANARRI well-being wheel indicators when working together to address individual issues.

The approach considers children’s well-being to be rights-based, strengths-based, holistic and adaptable enough to take into account the stage of development and the complexity of each child or young person’s individual life circumstances. It provides a consistent framework and shared language for promoting, supporting and safeguarding the well-being of children and young people.

SHANARRI Indicators

  • Safe
  • Healthy
  • Achieving
  • Nurtured
  • Active
  • Respected
  • Responsible
  • Included

My Star (Scotland) was developed in 2015.  At that time the GIRFEC framework and the associated SHANARRI indicators were in their infancy. Consequently, although many of the outcome areas of My Star directly related to the eight SHANARRI well-being indicators, these were not automatically included or referred to within the My Star (Scotland) resources. 

In 2022, during Outcomes Star training sessions facilitated by Licensed Trainers with North Lanarkshire Council, involving staff from education, children & family services, feedback suggested benefit in creating bespoke guidance which, whilst not changing the content or data obtained from using My Star, directly linked the outcome areas of My Star with the eight SHANARRI well-being indicators.

Staff from these services aim to support children and their families to thrive within their families, school and the local community. It was felt there would be distinct benefits for staff having clear correlation guidance between the child or young person’s circumstances, the interventions supporting them and how this meets the GIRFEC framework.

The development of the mapping guidance was a collaborative process involving managers and staff from North Lanarkshire Council and Triangle.

After several months of work, My Star/ SHANARRI mapping guidance was agreed, and the supporting materials were produced.  These resources were then circulated to all organisations in Scotland using the My Star for further feedback and comment.

Following a subsequent feedback review, the resources were finalised and published in November 2022. 

If you are a Star Online user, these documents can be associated with your service by your Account Lead, who will give you access to the materials required. Alternatively, if you are not a Star Online user, your Account Lead will have individual access to the system and can save these documents to your own internal systems for distribution and use.

It is hoped that the guidance and associated materials will be of benefit to all organisations in Scotland using My Star and will assist both at an operational level in providing support to the child, young person and their families, but also at a service level, whereby services are easily able to link their delivery of services to the well-being indicators outlined by the Scottish Government.

Background information

My Star for children was originally developed in 2013 in collaboration with Family Action, Action for Children, Westminster Council and Coram.  In 2015, Triangle developed My Star (Scotland) in collaboration with Fife Council and input from Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Further information

If you would like further information about My Star or the Outcomes Star, please email us at info@triangleconsulting.co.uk

Stay updated

You can subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates directly to your inbox, so there is no need to keep checking for new blogs.

*****

Related items

The Family Star Plus within the Supporting Families Programme (2022-25)

Posted on by Donna

All local authorities delivering Supporting Families must have an approved Outcome Plan setting out their indicators of eligibility with associated family level outcomes against headline objectives set out in the programme guidance.

Since the start of the supporting families programme (formerly called the ‘Troubled families programme’), many local authorities have been using the Family Star Plus as part of evidencing outcomes within their approved Outcomes Plans. This version of the Star was developed specifically to be aligned with the programme’s objectives.

We are currently putting together guidance to show how the Family Star Plus fits the increased list of headline outcomes in the ‘Supporting Families Outcomes Framework 2022-25’, which will be in effect from 3 October 2022:

The new framework identifies ‘practitioner assessments and contacts’ or ‘Practitioner and/or self-assessment’ as valid data sources as part of the evidence within all of the ten headline outcomes, and the Outcomes Star, while collaboratively completed, fits within this category. 

‘Validated outcome measures’ are also suggested as evidence for meeting some outcomes. The validation of the Family Star Plus as an outcomes measure, including evidence of ‘inter-rater reliability’ and ‘predictive validity’ is reported in a recent peer-reviewed journal article (Good & MacKeith, 2021). 

We will publish the 2nd Edition of the Family Star Plus shortly as well as guidance on how to use the Family Star Plus (2nd Ed.) within the new Supporting Families framework.

Please contact our Research Analyst, Dr Anna Good (anna@triangleconsulting.co.uk) if you would like to find out more.

Family Star Plus – draft edition 2 now ready for feedback

Posted on by Outcomes Star

Tell us what you think

A year ago, we launched our review of the Family Stars with a comprehensive call to all users to find out what they thought. We now have a draft new edition of the Family Star Plus out for consultation. We will finalise it in the autumn, apply the learning to the other Family Stars and publish new, improved editions in spring 2023.

Our commitment to the suite of Stars

As a social enterprise, Triangle invests part of the Star licence in keeping the suite of Stars under review and up to date. We stay abreast of changes in sectors and keep learning alongside our collaborators. After 20 years, almost 50 Stars and over 60 research studies, we’ve learnt a lot. And much has changed and continues to change. In reviewing the Family Stars, we set out to address some aspects of the language and better reflect the increasingly challenging external environment, with more families experiencing poverty.

Language changes in Edition 2

We wanted the new editions to be even more strengths-based, trauma-informed, conversational and accessible. We addressed specific wording issues that users of the Stars raised, such as replacing ‘effective parenting’ at the top of the scale with ‘self-reliance’, the point at which families no longer need the service to ensure their children can thrive. We have better worded the scales to avoid any suggestion of blame or triggers for people while keeping the essential clarity needed between stages.

Fit with the Supporting Families outcomes framework 2022-2025

The original Family Star dates back to 2010. We later published the Family Star Plus in response to the UK government’s Supporting Families initiative (originally ‘Troubled Families’) and mapped the Family Star to the Scottish government outcomes framework. We have already mapped Edition 2 to the new Supporting Families outcomes framework and added references to some Star scales to clarify the fit while staying relevant to the diverse and international users of this Star.

The new editions keep the same outcome areas and Journey of Change. They will replace the current editions in 2023 without any impact on your reporting or training – though it may be an excellent opportunity to consider refreshing how you use the Star to ensure you get the most from it.

We are inviting Family Star users to review the draft new edition and tell us what you think.

Please contact: dawn@triangleconsulting.co.uk

We’re reviewing the Family Stars

Posted on by Donna

Tell us what you think

The Family Star Plus is the most widely used of a growing constellation of Stars for children and families, including the original Family Star and the Family Star (Early Years). Since publishing them, Triangle has developed many more Stars, spanning diverse needs from cradle to grave. We got better at it and learned a lot. Much changed in the world, including the needs of families identified as at risk or presenting for support. It is now time to review these Stars.

What do you want us to change? What do you like and want us to keep?

Part of our role is to keep in touch with developments in the sectors served by the Stars, learning alongside the people who use them. We keep them under review, investing part of the Star licence in making tweaks or new editions. We create new resources to help people reap the benefits of using them well – engaging clients and getting reliable outcomes information. It’s a dynamic process that relies on you telling us what you think and us listening and responding.  

Now we want to hear about what is needed to be sensitive to changing client groups and needs in children and family services, or to be even more strengths-based, trauma informed, conversational and accessible, for example. We particularly want to hear from you if you have suggestions about any of the Family Stars:

  • Family Star Plus
  • Family Star
  • Family Star (Early Years)

 

The Family Star (Relationships) is more recent, so not part of this review, but check it out if you work with families where the main need is around conflict between parents. And do tell us if you use and have feedback on other Stars.

Tell us what you think about the Family Stars – what works and what to change.

Sara Burns leads on the development the Stars. Email with your feedback and suggestions or to arrange a call: sara@triangleconsulting.co.uk.