Inside parenting programmes: case studies of family group conferencing.

A qualitative case study approach was taken to evaluate three areas of early intervention Family Group Conferencing (FGC): the preparation procedure; the young people?s understanding of FGC and finally, the consistency of outcomes. Participants consisted of four families and two practitioners who had taken part in an inner-city early intervention project. Findings indicated that the preparation procedure contained some gaps. The children generally appeared to understand why FGC was necessary. The families developed some dependence on the project worker despite indications that some of the practitioners were more stigmatising of the families than may have been predicted.