Thinking family, acting family: A case study of 'the whole family' approach

A‘whole family’ approach to family difficulties has been praised and recommended as the most helpful involvement that can be adopted by child welfare and protection agencies, yet this is more honoured in theory than in practice. More often than not, in children and families work, child protection takes precedence. This paper derives from research that set out to identify what families experience as challenges, the importance of agreeing ‘the problem’ and to what extent ‘problems’ or ‘challenges’ were resolved by a whole family approach. We identify what helped to resolve problems from the parents’ perspectives. We learn that practical, emotional and connecting support is important, as is the value base, flexibility, responsivity and relational style of practitioners in helping both individual family members and families as whole to move beyond complex sets of interplaying factors that inhibit a resilient family life. We also point to varying definitions of ‘referring problem’.