An umbrella term for voluntary, family-led decision-making forums in which a child’s family network has all the resources, adequate preparation, relevant information and a safe and appropriate environment to make a plan in response to concerns about a child’s safety and wellbeing, working alongside skilled professionals. At pre-proceedings stage, practitioners should consider the use of an independent coordinator and families should be offered “private family time”, unless there are safeguarding concerns which would mean this might be considered inappropriate or unsafe. The Department for Education does not prescribe a particular model for delivering family group decision-making. However, local partnerships should consider the strong evidence for the family group conference model. In both domestic and international studies, family group conferences have been shown to be highly effective in supporting families, improving decision-making processes and diverting children from care.