Intensive Family Preservation

The Intensive Family Preservation (IFP) program is based on a partnership between families, the Department of Communities and Justice, and Family Support Network, working to preserve the family structure and strengthen its functioning while keeping children safe. IFP provides intensive, in-home crisis intervention, practical assistance, counselling, and skill development to support children remaining in the care of their family, wherever this is a safe option.

The IFP service is designed to work with families in crisis, using a holistic approach to addressing families’ needs. An IFP service intervention consists of a period of twelve weeks of intensive casework and 24-hour on-call assistance, followed by a period of up to 6 months of multi-faceted and individually tailored casework and assistance.

Every family situation is different; the IFP program allows service providers’ flexibility to determine the types of services offered to children and their families, consistent with their individual needs. There is no cost to access this program. Families are referred to the program by the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) only.

The IFP service aims to:

• Keep children at home in a safe, stable and nurturing family environment
• Improve parenting capacity and family functioning
• Improve children’s wellbeing
• Prevent unnecessary placement in out-of-home care where this is consistent with the paramount concern of protecting the child from significant harm.