Who are the Family Assessment and Support Team (FAST) and what do they do?  

FAST are a team of Family Support Workers, Family Support Assistants and a Senior Practitioner (Social worker) who are based at the Family Support and Contact Centre on Coffee Hall.  

FAST can work with you and your family where:

• You might be struggling to care for the needs of your children and need help to understand how best to support and care for them
• Your children might be at risk of harm or abuse and you need help to keep them safe
• You might be having problems coping with your children's behavior and need support with developing effective parenting strategies
• You might have your own health and well-being needs or problems with substance misuse which impact on your parenting
• You might have financial and housing difficulties which are putting you and your family at risk of losing your home or struggling to maintain a safe home environment.
• You or your children may need direct support to understand how to increase the children’s safety and wellbeing  

Who requests FAST involvement?

FAST will become involved with your family/ children following a request from your child’s Social Worker for specific work to be completed with you and/or the children to address identified needs or concerns.

If a referral is accepted either a Family Support Worker or Family Support Assistant will be allocated to work with you and your family in a time limited way – this is usually for a period of 12 weeks but could be longer if required.

Your child’s social worker will usually introduce the worker to you and the children and discuss with you the support that is available.

FAST will work closely with other professionals and agencies involved with your family and will seek to work in partnership with you to improve family life and children’s overall wellbeing.

FAST will visit you at home at least weekly or more frequently if required and may also undertake work with children and parents in other settings such as school or children’s centers when needed.

Who do we work with?

FAST work with the families of children aged 0-17yrs who have an allocated social worker from Milton Keynes Children’s Social Care.

FAST can also work with you if you are expecting a baby and need support in preparing for the birth and care of your new child.

When will FAST be available to support you?

The Family Support Workers work seven days a week 9am-5pm with some availability for visits on evenings 5-9pm and at weekends and bank holidays.

They may if requested by the allocated social worker visit in the evenings or weekends if specific support is needed at those times or if there is a need to check that children are safe outside of usual office hours.

FAST have 2 Family Support Assistants who work morning and evening shifts between 8am and 8pm and who can offer practical support to parents with establishing morning and school routines or evening and bedtime routines as well as budgeting work.

How FAST Operate 

FAST will aim to make contact with you and your family with the social worker within one week of a worker being allocated.

We will always seek to work with you in an open and respectful manner. We will work collaboratively with you and also your allocated social worker and any other agencies involved. We will try and support you to develop your skills and strengths to reach your own solutions.

Sometimes we might need to share information about you and your family with other services and will always seek your permission first unless there is a need to share information without your consent to keep yourself or others safe.

What support is available?

FAST workers are trained to provide a range of evidence based interventions which will form part of a plan of work with yourself and/or your children.

This may be focused on general support around parenting, practical support in managing the home, routines and finances as well as managing challenging and disruptive behavior and exploring the impact of neglect and harm on children and how to address this and promote positive development of children.

FAST can also work with parents and children to build positive family relationships with the aim of supporting children to remain at home with their families.

FAST also offer individual and group  work  with both adults and children  to help  families  gain greater understanding of how to keep themselves and their children safe and free from harm and abuse as well as  education and awareness work around the risks of exploitation by others.

Contact details

Daytime Contact with FAST

Monday to Friday: 09:00 – 17:00hrs

Telephone: MK 01908 253232

Emergency Out-of-Hours contact

Emergency Social Work Team

Monday to Thursday 17:00-hrs until 09:00hrs next working day

Weekends: Friday 16:30 – 09:00 Monday

Bank Holidays 24hrs

Telephone: MK 01908 265545