Dorset, Lincolnshire and Wolverhampton are the first 3 areas to
be chosen today to deliver the Families First for Children
programme. They will test new ways to reform every part of the
children’s social care system, helping children to stay with
their families in safe and loving homes, whilst protecting
vulnerable children where needed.
The programme aims to ensure early help and intervention is
available for families with challenges such as addiction,
domestic abuse or poor mental health, to help them overcome
adversity and stay together where possible, and to identify when
to intervene to protect a vulnerable child when needed.
Separately, Brighton and Hove, Sunderland, Gateshead, Telford and
Wrekin, Staffordshire, Hartlepool and Hammersmith and Fulham have
been chosen to deliver Family Network pilots to find
transformative ways to involve wider family members in supporting
parents so that children can stay at home with their families.
The programmes, which are the cornerstone of the government’s
ambitious and wide-ranging children’s social care
implementation strategy, Stable Homes, Built on Love, will
transform the current system, focusing on more early support for
families, reducing the need for crisis response at a later stage.
Funded by £45 million collectively, the 2 programmes will help
develop the best practice models for the entire children’s social
care system that can then be rolled out across the country.
Stable Homes, Built on Love responds to recommendations made in
the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, led by Josh
MacAlister, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s review
into the tragic deaths of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson,
and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) review. The
findings revealed the current care system is often fragmented,
siloed, and struggling to meet the needs of children and families
across England.
The areas will work to deliver support to families based on three
principles:
- Delivering family help through local multi-disciplinary teams
working with partners to provide welcoming and effective support,
tailored to the needs of children and families;
- Where child protection is necessary, it is carried out by
social workers with greater expertise and experience, and time to
dedicate to the family and child;
- Greater use of family networks, involving the wider family in
decision-making and with them being the first port of call if the
child does have to leave the family home.
Brighton and Hove, Sunderland, Gateshead and Telford and Wrekin
will start their Family Network pilots this month (July), and
Staffordshire, Hartlepool and Hammersmith and Fulham will start
in spring 2024.
Local authorities are also encouraged to apply to set up regional
care co-operatives, another element of reform first announced in
Stable Homes, Built on Love.
Children, Families and Wellbeing Minister, , said:
We committed earlier this year to deliver wide-ranging reforms
that put strong relationships at the heart of the children’s
social care system, to make sure children in care receive the
same love and stability as everyone else.
Today, we take a step closer to achieving just that, thanks to
the ambition these areas are showing for the life chances of
their most vulnerable children.
The programme they are running will inform future reform across
England to give every child the best possible chance to grow up
in their family, delivering on the Prime Minister’s ambition to
support families across the country.
Regional Care Co-operatives will plan, commission, and deliver
children’s social care placements and are part of a broader
package of measures to transform the care placement market.
Further measures include: responding to the Competition and
Markets Authority recommendations to provide national
forecasting, procurement and market shaping support; supporting
local areas to increase sufficiency of placements; introducing a
financial oversight regime; and reforming care standards.
To achieve this long-term vision, the Regional Care Co-operatives
pathfinders will enable a test and learn approach to find the
most effective way of implementing this reform, doing so in
conjunction with local government and the children’s social care
sector.
Children who grow up in loving, stable homes tend to have better
outcomes, which is why the proposals put relationships at the
heart of the care system.
