Councils backed with over £500m to restore family services

More vulnerable children will be prevented from falling through the cracks as the Government restores vital family support services, delivering on its Plan for Change to give every child the best start in life. 

New guidance sets a clear expectation on all councils and their partners to reform family support services to enable earlier intervention and better protect children from harm.  

Key reforms include introducing a single ‘front door' to support services in every local area. This will make it clear to families struggling with complex needs such as mental health issues, disabilities and substance misuse, where and how they can access help. 

This could mean embracing digital services or bringing different teams and services into an existing setting, such as a Family Hub. Bringing help from health visitors, housing support teams and mental health specialists into one place, will make it clear to parents where to access help and improve join up with existing universal support. 

Thousands more family help leads will be matched with families to coordinate support and resources, taking responsibility for getting them the support they need to stop issues escalating. This will importantly end the frustrating experience of vulnerable families being passed from team to team, forced to tell their story time and time again.  

These radical reforms are all backed by over half a billion pounds for councils in 25/26 – double their allocation in previous years – rebuilding the vital support infrastructure needed to reduce the number of children going into care.  These changes are urgently needed, with eight in ten parents unable to access the services they need in their child's early years.  

The measures build on the landmark Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill to better support vulnerable children. Representing the single biggest piece of child protection legislation in a generation, the Bill paves the way for a unique child identifier, like an NHS number, a register of children not in school, and a requirement for every council to have multi-agency child safeguarding teams.

Minister for Children and Families, Janet Daby said: 

“For too long, vulnerable children and families have been left to struggle – battling fragmented services and receiving support when it's too late.  

“Backed by over £500m and delivering our Plan for Change, we're putting an end to this injustice and building back crumbling family support services, to keep children safe and enable more families to achieve and thrive together. 

“Whether seeking help with supporting a child's development or for substance misuse, families can feel assured that they will get the right help at the right stage, as this government delivers the real change that matters to families.” 

The government inherited a broken system, with children and families facing poor outcomes and barriers to opportunity. 

While spending on services for families at crisis point - which local authorities have a legal duty to provide - has skyrocketed by £4 billion since 2013, investment in early preventative support which isn't statutory has plummeted by £900m. 

At the same time, those known to children's services are seven times more likely to face permanent exclusion from school and care-experienced young people making up around a quarter of the adult prison population. 

Minister for Children and Families, Janet Daby, visited a children's centre in Redbridge to hear about the implementation of reforms so far.

One parent said:

“I want to be the best father I can be for my children, but I was struggling to parent and build meaningful bonds.

“I self-referred myself after finding out about the services online. The team facilitated a plan for me, which included attending a parenting programme to learn more parenting skills and understand how I can improve my relationship with my children. So far, it's taught me a lot and had a really positive impact on my family.”

Reflecting on their experience, another local parent said:

“After being referred by our school, my family was matched with a coordinator to support challenges with my children's disabilities. I was facing a lot of red tape and struggling to navigate the system. After providing us with a whole-family plan, my coordinator has made this much smoother and really helped to bridge our relationship with the school. They've also made sure I have access to support for lots of other challenges, including mentoring and housing.

“I was hitting lots of walls trying to get help, but the service has really transformed by experience – I wish I'd known about this sooner so I could have referred myself.”

These reforms will driver greater collaboration between agencies, bringing together professionals with different expertise and backgrounds to ensure children don't fall through the cracks.  

From the point parents are expecting a baby, support services such as parenting skills, domestic abuse counselling and financial advice will be wrapped around the family, with the needs of the whole family considered throughout their journey.  

Anna Feuchtwang, Chief Executive Officer at the National Children's Bureau, said:

“The Families First Partnership Programme has enormous potential to provide earlier support and better address the needs of children within their family networks.

“With further investment in preventative services, shared workforce development and stability, these reforms present a huge opportunity to reorient child and family services towards enabling and supporting wellbeing.

“It is critical that roll out is informed by the ongoing evidence from the FFC pathfinders and that all children, including those with disabilities, are able to benefit.”

~ENDS~

NOTES TO EDITORS

 The full guidance can be found at Gov.uk.