Funding for specialist family work can come from a number of different sources and for each individual family, the apportionment of costs to each source may be different. The following provides an overview of funding sources and costs which may be covered by:

Primary Care Trusts

Where a parent is diagnosed with a mental illness or personality disorder, and where local services are not equipped, either to deal with the severity of disturbance or with a requirement that parents be treated together with their children, the Primary Care Trust can be approached to fund the assessment and/or treatment of the parent(s), and the children where the latter have specified mental health problems.

Local Authorities

Charged with safeguarding children and the provision of services designed to enable a child, where at all possible, to remain with its family, Local Authorities may fund that part of a specialist family intervention, which is deemed to fall within these responsibilities, as defined by the Children Act 1989.

Private Funding

Any of the services provided by the Cassel Hospital Families Service may be requested and paid for privately.

The Role of the Courts

As the law stands currently, a family court can order the assessment of a child in its family under Section 38(6) of the Children Act 1989. Such an order will include a ruling on who should fund the assessment. The court has powers to order a local authority to fund an assessment, but these do not, at present, extend to compelling health funding.