A short history of Daybreak
As we turn 25 years old this year, in this blog, we take a look back at a short history of Daybreak.
“Daybreak” is the translation of the Maori words “Puao Te Ata Tu” and was chosen by Daybreak’s founder Marilyn Taylor as the name for the new charity. This is the title of the seminal report (1986) in New Zealand, which led to the establishment of Family Group Conferences (FGCs) as the principal way of addressing serious child abuse issues and youth offending across the country.
Having sought and gained permission from the Maori community to use the name, Daybreak Family Group Conferences was born. Delivery began on 1st January 2000 with a 12-month contract with Hampshire Children’s Services to provide an FGC programme across the county. Phil Taverner is appointed the first chair of the Board of Trustees, which is comprised mainly of family members.
By the end of the 12 months, the magic formula of FGCs has proved its success by empowering extended families to make good decisions for their own children, within the context of high-quality information, private family time, and enabling the voice of the child to be heard. The plans made by the families have led to a significant reduction in admission rates of children into care. The contract was extended, with the county agreeing to pay Marilyn’s salary from the start of the new financial year in April 2001.
The early years continued with a succession of new contracts and the subsequent rapid growth of Daybreak. In 2001, we won the contract for the first programme in the country providing FGCs to address domestic abuse and violence. This we called the Dove Project, and it was funded by a consortium of local authorities and Hampshire Constabulary. We ensured that the survivor was central to the process and that when children were in the family, this was always recognised as a child abuse issue that had to be addressed in the plan. Our project provided a template for others to follow. With Marilyn now working full time, and the organisation starting to take over most of the ground floor of her home it was time to move to new premises.
Within 10 years we were providing FGC programmes across much of southern England and into some of the London Boroughs, as well as developing training programmes for coordinators, managers and volunteers across much of the country. We nurtured contacts in Europe and the USA, with participation in conferences and by providing FGC training.
One of our early successes was in Brighton, where a local taxi driver hired for the day advised Marilyn of the social needs of various council estates around the city. His information was crucial to our application. Another person believing in Daybreak.
In 2006 Daybreak pioneered the use of FGCs to address elder abuse, gaining funding from Comic Relief. We used a broad definition of elder abuse, encompassing financial, sexual and emotional abuse as well as the more familiar physical abuse. It was very successful in enabling safe plans to be made in some situations that had remained impervious to more traditional ways of tackling the issue. Older people with mental capacity have the right to refuse to engage with social workers trying to help. They often want to maintain their valued, if potentially dangerous, relationship with a family member who may be abusing them. But our FGCs had such a measurable success in promoting safety that when this funding period expired, we were funded by Hampshire Adult Services.
Our FGC Coordinator training gained official external accreditation in 2010 with the Open College Network, and we gained Investors in People status in the same year. This last reflected our belief in our people, enabling staff, coordinators, trustees and volunteers to grow and develop as we try to apply the same principles of empowerment and participation throughout our organisation.
In 2011 we succeeded in gaining central Government funding from the Transition Fund, which we used to enhance our infrastructure and increase our organisational efficiency. This placed us in a good position to go forward. We were delighted when in 2013 we started a long-term association with the University of Potsdam, including providing training on FGCs, and welcoming students from the University to join us for a while as part of their social work degree. International friendships were formed and nurtured.
In 2014, we took a group of young people to London to meet Edward Timpson, the Minister for Children and Families. He was so impressed with the personal stories related by the children about their FGC experience that he encouraged us to apply to the Innovation Fund for resources to develop FGCs in a new context. Our application was successful and in 2015 we began pioneering the use of FGCs with children on the brink of care. In the same year we opened a London office near the Thames in Southwark, enabling us to be much closer to our developing programmes in the capital and to our coordinators in the city.
An early appointment was of an impressive FGC coordinator, Richard Chalmers, who joined Daybreak as a programme manager and when Marilyn retired in 2017 Richard stepped into the role. There followed a period of financial difficulty that meant that the Deputy CEO role was not replaced. Daybreak’s financial position was such that there was a real possibility that the charity would fold.
Fortunately, an independent evaluation of our Innovation-funded programme showed very promising results and in 2019 Daybreak was commissioned to support the expansion of the initiative to more than 20 local authority areas. This funding enabled us to build our reserves and put Daybreak on a more stable financial footing.
Daybreak had always been a pioneer of FGCs in this country, enjoying a mixed economy of funding from local authorities and various charities and foundations. However, by 2022 funding was limited to contracts with seven local authorities and limited opportunity with the then structure to develop new services, build partnerships, or generate different revenue streams. The Board of Trustees decided to invest some of their reserves in recruiting not only a new CEO, Debbie Burns, but also a Chief Operations Officer, Karen Brown, when Richard retired that year.
A new 5-year strategy has been developed in early 2023 and the team are very excited about its launch. The strategy sets out some key aims and objectives for the next five years. Diversification of funding streams, rebuilding our training offer, building partnerships, developing new services and expanding the use of FGCs into new areas are key to ensuring Daybreak grows and develops sustainably to have an impact now and in the future.
Daybreak continues to hold firmly to its founding principles of empowering people to make safe plans by ensuring they have high-quality information, good support, and a strong voice. All this underpinned by high-quality training and support for our team. We believe from experience that plans are most successful when they are owned and implemented by those to whom they refer, and not imposed from above by others. We believe that this is the way to continue to be relevant and successful.
Want to support Daybreak in its next 25 years? Explore our 25-for-25 fundraising campaign, and follow along on our celebrations.