Family Group Conferences (FGCs) originated in New Zealand. They were originally used to allow social work practice to work with and not against Maori values and culture.[1] The Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 made them a central part of practice and services where serious decisions about children are to be made.
The Family Group Conference (or FGC) is where the whole whānau (family & extended family members) can help make decisions about the best way to support the family and take care of their child[2]. It is a formal meeting in which the family and whanau of the child and professional practitioners closely work together to make a decision that best meet the needs of the child. The process has four main stages, which includes a meeting where professionals inform the family of the concerns they have, followed by private family time,where the family alone develop a plan that addresses the concerns that have been raised. The plan is then presented to the professionals who should support it if the concerns have been addressed and it does not put the child at risk. The meetings are facilitated and co-ordinated by people independent of casework decisions in the agency working with the family
FGCs are used in care and protection cases. They have also been described as the ‘lynch-pin’ of the New Zealand youth justice system.[3]
FGCs are used in many countries.[4] In the United States, they are known as Family Guided Decision Making. In the Netherlands and Flanders, they are known as Eigen Kracht Conferenties (Own Power Conferences).
In 2007 Germany has introduced Family Group Conferences for juveniles in Elmshorn, Schleswig-Holstein, called Gemeinschaftskonferenzen (GMK). These GMKs are organized by the Verein für Jugendhilfe Pinneberg e.V., and the Crime Prevention Council of Elmshorn. The conferences are being evaluated by Prof. Otmar Hagemann from the University of Applied Sciences, Kiel.[5] [6] A progress report can be downloaded in german language at: http://www.fh-kiel.de/index.php?id=4675