Agenda item

The Director of Children’s Social Work and Early Help submits a report to update on the Families First Partnership (FFP) programme and the pilot launched in South Leicester.

The Director of Children’s Social Work and Early Help submitted a report to update on the Families First Partnership (FFP) programme and the pilot launched in South Leicester.

Cllr Pantling introduced the item noting that a good start had been made. The Head of Service for Family Help and the Disabled Children’s Service highlighted points from the presentation attached to the agenda. Key points to note where as follows:

• The Family Help programme was a move to merge the teams within the service area. The consolidation was planned to be in place by June 2026.
• The Family Help pilot was based in the South Cluster of the city. Feedback had included the need for a key focus on internal relationship building, and the importance of training and development.
• There had been a significant increase in referrals since the pilot commenced and more joint visits had taken place.
• A smoother pathway had been developed where prevention work was required.
• Consultancy support had helped to strengthen the focus on partnership engagement.
• Regarding next steps, the pilot would continue and it was hoped that the remaining clusters would be rolled out by spring 2026. Co-production included the Shadow Boards and the Practitioner’s Forum.
• The Mult-agency Child Protection team was due be rolled out by March 2027, an LLR model would be developed. A strong foundation was already in place.
• There was an established network of meetings for the Family Group Decision Making programme and expansion into other areas of work would ensue, with a focus on embedding Cyber Safety.

In response to member and Young People’s Council (YPC) member questions and discussions, the following was noted:

• The Family Hubs offered support via an open-door approach and also signposted to relevant organisations. The hubs were generally well known to the communities and were advertised on the website.
• The branding was evolving and would consist of two clear offers for families:

• Best Start For Life – early years activity.
• Family Health – wider social work and family support
• A new website was in development, buildings could be multi-use and would have clear signage, further consideration would be given as part of the re-branding.
• Consent forms were in place and a one assessment, one plan strategy was being formulated.
• Mapping work for all of the clusters was still work in progress and was hoped to be rolled out by early summer.
• Partnership work with schools and youth provision would be strengthened as a key link for young people to access services. A report on the results of the Young People’s Survey could come back to scrutiny. 
• The teams merger would support the Schools White Paper 2026, with consideration given to how schools relate to the centres.
• There was a concerted move away from bureaucracy lead work with a focus on direct work with families.
• Processes and workflow for case triaging would be considered as part of the pilot.
• It was mandatory for multi-agency child protection teams to consist of a mix of professionals, with child protection cases allocated to qualified Social Workers, while looked-after children were managed separately.
• There was a strong emphasis on recruiting Social Workers, Central Government had awarded an uplift for this purpose.
• Key learning from the pilot included the need to strengthen relationships within the teams and gain insights into joint allocation processes.
• Buildings such as Halford House would remain in use for other children’s services.
• Family group conferencing was reinstated and strengthened under the Family Group Decision Making model, with mandatory participation and allocated resources. Police, health, and education partners were required by government mandate to be involved, with existing resources reconfigured to ensure the model became fully operational by 2027.

AGREED:

1)    That the report be noted.

2)    That comments made by members of this commission to be taken into account.

3)    For the results of the Young People’s survey to come back to Scrutiny.