In spite of policies advocating the involvement of families in the care of mental health service users in the UK, there are few examples of initiatives to develop staff confidence and skills in partnership working. This article describes a whole team training initiative and family liaison service to promote family inclusive working on in‐patient wards for older people in Somerset, UK. A three‐day staff‐training programme is described and training outcomes are reported. Staff report a substantial increase in confidence and family meetings held. A pre‐and post‐ training case note audit shows increased consideration of the needs of families. To further increase face to face meetings with families a family liaison service has been established, whereby a staff member with systemic family therapy training joins ward staff to hold family meetings as part of the assessment/admission process. Evaluation of this service has shown it to be effective with positive feedback from families and staff.

This study sought to understand how the experience of family interventions (FI) for psychosis helped family members to develop their thinking about their attachment experiences and the attributions made about a relative, and how these discussions helped to inform their understanding about problem-maintaining cycles, that is, the interactional way in which difficulties could be maintained. Ten individuals who had attended an FI service participated in a semi-structured interview. The transcript analysis used interpretative phenomenological analysis. The analysis yielded four themes: a supportive therapeutic relationship and safe therapeutic space; understanding patterns of relating and identifying when family interactions become unhelpful; making sense of psychosis and developing a sense of agency. The FI was experienced as helpful in bringing about changes in the way family members construed each other and psychosis, and this influenced patterns of relating.Practitioner points • A safe therapeutic space for both client and family can help them discuss sensitive issues, restore emotional connections and reach better understandings of psychosis. • Exploring family relational experiences, attachment and attributions can be helpful in gaining understanding of how problems in psychosis are maintained. • Family intervention can help families identify helpful versus unhelpful interactions and make positive changes. a Clinical Psychologist, Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Foundation House,

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the University of Exeter Family Interventions (FIs) training programme for the South West region which was commissioned as part of the NHS England Access and Waiting Times standards (A&WTS) initiative for early psychosis. This programme (10 taught days and 6 months of supervised practice) is designed to maximise implementation in practice. Design/methodology/approach The programme introduces students to a flexible, widely applicable FI approach which integrates cognitive behavioural/psycho-educational and systemic approaches. It refreshes and develops CBT-based psycho-social intervention skills, so that clinicians feel confident to use them in family sessions and integrate these with foundation level family therapy skills. The approach facilitates engagement, and it is designed so that every session is a “mini intervention”. This enables clinicians to offer standard NICE-concordant FI or a briefer intervention if this is sufficient to meet the particular needs of a family. Findings This paper provides details of the regional training programme and evaluates the first four training courses delivered to nine early intervention in psychosis teams. It considers how a combination of training a critical mass of staff in each service, ongoing supervision, regional events to maintain skills and motivation to deliver FI, and the national and regional auditing of FI as part of the A&WTS all contribute to clinical implementation. Originality/value The unique design of this programme maximises implementation in practice by virtue of its widely applicable integrated FI approach, the focus on ongoing skills development and by embedding it within regional and local service support structures.

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