Daybreak FGC is an exciting, dynamic charity, that has a reputation nationally and internationally, for providing the highest quality, in our specialised field of Family Group Conferences (FGCs).

A Family Group Conference is a meeting of the extended family and friends to make decisions and plans for resolving problems around a child, young person or vulnerable adult. This may involve, for instance, support for a lone parent, families struggling with alcohol or drug abuse, domestic violence, elder abuse, offending or potential offending behaviour of a young person, or problems with school attendance or behaviour.

Daybreak's passion is keeping families together, from children at risk of entering the care system to vulnerable adults facing a loss of independence.

Our innovative, entrepreneurial spirit ensures we are pioneers in the use of FGCs, a New Zealand model that brings families together to make decisions and resolve problems. Belief in the power of families is at the heart of everything that we do and we are always wanting to reach even more people with our work.

Currently with 10 staff, 2 offices, a bank of over 30 outworkers and 10 volunteers we deliver 8 Child Welfare programmes and 3 Vulnerable Adult programmes for local authorities across the UK. We are the only registered charity that focuses entirely on Family Group Conferences, so we have built up specialist knowledge, skills and experience in delivering FGC Meetings, and managing the process

This was clearly demonstrated by our independently evaluated Innovation Project. In 2015, Daybreak was awarded funding from the DfE Innovations fund to test the use of Family Group Conferencing for all families (child welfare) in receipt of the letter of pre-proceedings. Groups of trained, independent coordinators delivered FGCs to families in Southwark and Wiltshire to try to identify, safe, alternative family carers for children on the edge of care. The outcomes from these conferences were measured by researchers from UCL and compared with the outcomes in local authority areas where FGCs are not used in this way. The results were impressive!

We were fortunate that our initial work to use FGCs to address elder abuse was funded by Comic Relief. It was pioneering work in Hampshire, offering victims a way to address this issue whilst retaining control of the process and has helped paved the way to continue and grow our FGC work with vulnerable adults.

We are continuously looking at ways to continue with the high standard of FGC work we do, especially in these difficult financial times.