The Department for Education’s Families First for Children Pathfinder (FFCP) programme is designed to test ways to reform the children’s social care system.
It aims to help children stay with their families in safe and loving homes, while protecting vulnerable children where needed and ensuring that families receive the right support at the right time, and that they are supported by the right professional.
Wolverhampton – one of three local authorities chosen to take part in the first phase of the pathfinder – is working to give support to families based on three principles.
The first is 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.
Then, where child protection is necessary, ensuring it is carried out by social workers with the required expertise, experience and time to dedicate to the family and child.
The third principle is making greater use of family networks, involving the wider family in decision-making, with them being the first port of call if a child has to leave the family home.
There is also enhanced engagement with extended family members and friends to build long-term resilience, with a genuine focus on family-led planning.
Seven more councils joined the pathfinder in the second phase last year, and funding for the programme has now been extended for a further 12 months.
One of our top priorities as a council is to ensure our children and young people get the best possible start in life, so we are very pleased to be a part of this important piece of work.
The FFCP programme aims to help children and families facing challenges by giving them the right help at the right time, by ensuring early support, family help and intervention is available to help them overcome adversity and stay together where possible.
We are sharing our learning through regular meetings with the Department for Education and policy leads from across government departments, as well as presenting at national public learning events and conferences.
The Government’s new Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which began its journey through Parliament in December, shows a clear commitment to rolling out social care reform nationally; findings from the pathfinder will be used to help shape these reforms.
This means that, thanks to our involvement with the pathfinder, we – and the children and families we support – will be able to directly influence the national rollout of reforms to children’s social care.
We will continue to monitor the impact of the reforms locally, with a clear focus on getting direct feedback from families.
Early impacts seen so far include a reduction in repeat referrals to social care, improved quality of child protection planning, and positive feedback from frontline staff across the partnership about feeling upskilled and open to testing out the new model.
It is vital to build on the work undertaken, continuing our strengthened partnership working alongside ensuring effective changes continue in areas such as workforce development and recruitment.
We must ensure that these improvements are sustainable, so that families’ experiences of services continue to be as positive and effective as possible.