The two-year Family Investment Model (FIM) trial has reached its half-way point, with Member for Dubbo Troy Grant confident it can be something that gets rolled out across the state in time.

The FIM works by bringing government agencies under the one roof to improve the way support is delivered to families who are in crisis.

A police civilian analyst has also been used to give access to sensitive information that can be used to help.

“It’s important to note this trial is voluntary, and all of the families have joined the program in a bid to change their lives and give their children a better future,” Mr Grant said.

“We’ve seen situations where one family has seen their children return to going to school, another where a client had spent a significant part of his life in custody and the longest period of time he hasn’t been in custody has been while he’s been involved with the program.”

FIM manager Narelle Jeffrey said the work being done by her team is having a major impact in Dubbo, while a similar trial in Kempsey is also showing positive signs

“The team are exceptionally dedicated. We want to see different outcomes for families here.

“Many of these families have had long term exposure to the criminal justice system, the child protection system and other government agencies.

“They don’t want to see their children perhaps mirror some of their behaviour, so we work to develop skills to be able to improve whole-of-family outcomes while also working on individual goals to support their own development and address adverse lifestyle issues.”

Western Region police commander Geoff McKechnie said his organisation was only too keen to be part of the PIM trial.

“We’ve noticed the disconnect and lack of coordination of services, particularly around disadvantaged families in this part of state, and when the model was put to us we were keen to get behind it,” he said.

“Since that time we’ve supported the program by supplying a number of civilian intelligence analysts so that the people working in that office have access to our systems, information and intelligence holdings, so we can assist other agencies to bring a coordinated respose around people.

“These are people who may or may not be offending currently but strategically by impacting on people and their children, and their wider families, we think the benefits down the track are going to be absolutely immense.”

The Family Investment Model trial will finish at the end of August 2018.