JAMMA UMOJA
Families United
Who We Are
Jamma Umoja means "families in union" in Swahili. Established in 1996, Jamma offers social work services to families across the UK. With two residential family-care centres, Jamma aims to provide an independent range of services for children and their families to give the best opportunities for children to remain with their parents if it is in the child's best interests.
Jamma offers a range of bespoke parenting assessments within a multidisciplinary team, assessments and interventions are tailored to meet the needs of the service users (child & parent)
Having worked within the family courts for over 26 years and pioneering the viability assessments, Jamma now offers a range of assessment models to improve the outcomes for children and families. We pride ourselves on the relationships we establish with children and families placed with us.
Jamma provides a range of groups and interventions designed to improve parenting capacity including PAMS Assessments, The Freedom Programme, Viability Assessments, Pre-Placement Risk Assessments, Mindfulness & Wellbeing Group, Men’s Group, Baby Groups including Rhyme Time, Baby Sensory and Messy Play, Baby Massage and Parent Pamper Sessions
Assessments
Supervised Contacts
These are included in our standard assessment, we also offer supervised contact as an external additional service
Risk Assessments
We conduct thorough risk assessments at pre-placement and throughout the assessment process, these are regularly updated. We also offer independent risk assessments as an additional service.
6 Week Assessments
These provide a prognostic view as to the likely outcome of the assessment. At the six week stage we provide a recommendation and prognosis report. 6 week assessments can be tailored to the needs of the family and extended if required.
12 Week Parenting Assessments
This is our standard package of assessment which are usually set out at the planning stage:
2 week
6 week
10 week recommendation
12 week conclusion
16 Week Assessments
Jamma Umoja conduct 16-week assessments, in line with the with the Department of Health’s good practice guidelines, Working with Parents with a Learning Disability (DoH, 2007, updated 2021). 16-week assessments are recommended when we are conducting a PAMS or Parent Assess assessment, to ensure we are working within best practice guidelines for all families with disabilities and other additional needs.
Reverse Assessments
These assessments are designed to support families in the community to either reintegrate or keep families together with extra support and required intervention. We often tailor these assessments to support in complex and difficult family set ups. These assessments are commissioned when a residential assessment is not deemed suitable, but the risks and needs remain high.
Parent Assess
Jamma Umoja undertake Parent Assess assessments. Parent Assess is a framework developed in 2016 for assessing parents who have learning disabilities and other additional needs within childcare proceedings. It addresses both the practical and emotional aspects of parenting and seeks to identify both the strengths and concerns.
Community Assessments
These vary in timescales depending on the instruction. We provide community assessments all over the UK and when required overseas. Community assessments generally include observations of contacts, home visits and focused sessions with regular reviews and final or prognosis reports.
PAMS Assessments
‘Parent Assessment Manual’ assessments are also known as PAMS assessments and include an assessment of:
child care and development
behaviour management
independent living skills
safety and hygiene
parents’ health
relationships and support
the impact of the environment and community on parenting.
An important part of the assessment is parental participation in groups. The group dynamic offers an additional assessment tool in addition to individual work and enables information to be imparted to establish the parents capacity to understand and process information shared within the group.
Programmes & Interventions
Freedom Programme for Men and Women
A women only group and a men only group which is a mandatory part of the assessment, using group intervention. This group looks to raise self-esteem, the impact of domestic violence on children and adult victims and is a 'safe space' for families to talk about their experiences and feelings. This programme is also available as an outreach service for external service users.
Mindfulness & Wellbeing
A safe and reflective space for parents to speak openly about how they are feeling about the assessments. They can share experiences and talk about their feelings. Topics include adult attachment and how we create patterns of interaction with others based on earlier experiences. Looking at how it impacts them as individuals and as parents.
Men's Support Group
This group looks at fatherhood, masculinity, the changing role of a man in society and how that impacts on how they see themselves as well as their relationships with parents and partners.
Baby Sensory, Baby Massage, Messy Play & Rhyme Time
We run a child focused play group for all families to attend, this group aids as a teaching and fun social setting, promoting positive play, interactive stimulation and bonding between babies / children and parents.
Parents Social Activities
Aims to give residents a shared space to feel nurture. Activities include breakfast club, coffee morning, pamper sessions, movie nights and pilates
Nutrition: Eating as a Family
Support is given to residents to gain an understanding of nutrition, meal planning, appropriate meals for children at different ages eg. weaning food, toddler food and how to manage healthy eating for parents and children on a low budget when out in the community
Mental Health Support/ Risk Assessments
Our mental health nurse will sit in with the parents and complete a mental state examination and conduct a personalised mental health risk assessment. This will help us identify the parents’ mental health needs and ways we can support them. Throughout the parenting assessment, parents will receive ongoing mental health keywork sessions, individual and group mental health workshops, as well as referrals/ signposting (psychology, GP, substance misuse etc). Our mental health nurse will also complete medication audits as well as liaise with our local GP practice for any medical reviews if needed.
EYF- Child Development, Bonding, Attachment
Jamma Umoja have members of staff with a background in children’s early years foundations and carry out a variety of child focused activities promoting the bonding and attachment between babies’ children and parents. Focusing on early years development and education. We run regular groups such as circle time, story time, sensory music time.
Online Tapestry
Jamma Umoja have an online tapestry to promote communication between parents and staff, of their child’s journey through placement. Each parent has a log in and can access details about their child’s week and are able to add their own observations and pictures within the online journal. Tapestry documents milestones, activities and achievements for the child and parent weekly This also promotes life story work for all babies and children placed at Jamma Umoja. It is free to access for all families
Student Placements, The Future of Social Work.
W are proud to offer student placements to various universities across the country in the case of social workers, (first, second and final year, BA and master's level). We have also offered shadowing placements and NHS midwife and mental health practitoner placements. We take great care in ensuring that students at Jamma Umoja are given direct learning opportunities, and support in their social work or other social care studies and future careers. We hold weekly student groups to promote learning and support the social work and social care industry in training the next generation of workers.
Post Natal Recovery Physical Wellbeing Support
We recognise the importance of post-partum recovery and the impact this has upon anyone who has given birth. At Jamma Umoja we provide post-natal recovery sessions including support with pelvic floor, core strength and alignment as well as mental and physical wellbeing. These sessions are run by our qualified post-natal fitness trainer and facilitated with the input of our mental health nurse.
Stand Alone Services
We provide a wide range of standalone services, including risk assessments, supervised contacts (in our designated contact centre), domestic abuse work, welfare checks, we also offer the Freedom Programme free of charge to families awaiting assessment or post assessment.
Contact Jamma Umoja
Have a chat with our referrals officer today to discuss availability
020 8639 4500