Warwickshire County Council has been successful in its application to the Department for Education for Wave 2 of the Families First for Children Pathfinder Programme.
Warwickshire is one of the seven new areas to deliver the programme which aims to improve services to help more children stay with their families in safe and loving homes and protect vulnerable children from harm where needed.
The Pathfinder Programme vision is to rebalance children’s social care and avoid costly crisis intervention by offering more meaningful and effective early support. Working in partnership with the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board and Warwickshire Police, the County Council will establish new delivery models for family help, child protection, family networks and multi-agency safeguarding arrangements ahead of a national transformation. In particular they will create multi agency teams, which will be a great benefit to families and practitioners.
The programme will make sure targeted early help is available for families suffering domestic abuse, addiction, or poor mental health, to help them overcome adversity before issues escalate and children are put at risk of harm.
Where child protection is necessary, it will be carried out by social workers with greater expertise and experience, and the wider family will stay involved in decision-making.
Warwickshire County Council’s Executive Director for Children and Young People, Nigel Minns, said: “We want to ensure that all families in Warwickshire can access the right support, enabling our children and young people to thrive and giving them the best possible start in life. This is at the heart of our Child Friendly Warwickshire commitment.
“We are proud that Warwickshire has been chosen by the Department for Education to be a Pathfinder authority. It demonstrates how the service has developed itself to be a system leader in children's social care, and the progress and the potential have been recognised at the highest levels by our peers and by partner agencies.
“We are confident that the Pathfinder programme will make a real positive difference to our children and families.”
Families First for Children Pathfinder is a national test and learn initiative following the publication of the government response (Stable Homes, Built on Love) to the independent review of children’s social care by Josh McAllister. All local authorities are expected to implement the recommendations, with national roll out expected in 2025-2027. By becoming a pathfinder, the service is going to be at the forefront of these once in a lifetime reforms.
For more information, visit Families first for children (FFC) pathfinder programme and family networks pilot (FNP) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)