Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director of Children and Young People’s Services.

Recommendations:

That Cabinet:

1.    Notes the progress made in year one of the Early Help Strategy: Family Help in Rotherham 2024 – 2029 Delivery Plan.

2.    Notes the minimum expectations detailed in The Families First Partnership Programme: Initial guidance document issued in December 2024.

3.    Are provided with a further update, and refreshed action plan in autumn 2025, once future government guidance is received. 

Consideration was given to the report which provided an update on the progress made in year 1 of the Early Help Strategy: Family Help in Rotherham 2024-2029. The Strategy was developed in response to legislative change. Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 (Working Together) gave every

practitioner working in a multi-agency system clarity about what was required of them individually and how they needed to work in multi-agency partnerships to deliver effective services, support and help to children and their families.

The Strategy described three areas of support for children and families.

These were Universal and Community Family Help; Focused Family Help; and Specialist Family Help. In line with the new government direction, the Council had adopted the use of the term ‘Family Help’ as reflected in the Strategy. Going forward, unless referring to documents named under the previous naming configuration, Family Help would be the used term.

A five-year Delivery Plan accompanied the Strategy as a roadmap to

achieving the three areas of support for children, young people and families. Phase 1 (2024/25) was titled “Design” and the objectives included:

• Consult with children, young people and families on new ways of working.
• Identify and consult with stakeholders (wider Local Authority, Police, Health etc.)
• Consider the new ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ Framework 2023 and incorporate any required changes for Rotherham (P2.)
• Develop a roadmap - child’s journey across the Family Help system.
• Review and update Early Help Systems Guide (July 2024.)
• Budget and HR integration for relevant agencies.
  
  

Significant progress had been achieved against Phase 1 in year one of the

five-year Delivery Plan and progress updates against each of the design

objectives were included in the report.

In November 2024, the Government published ‘Keeping Children Safe,

Helping Families Thrive’. This policy statement set out the Government’s

ambitious approach to rebalancing the children’s social care system toward

earlier intervention through Family Help and strengthened multi-agency child protection - alongside other efforts to support children to live with kinship

carers or in fostering families and fix the broken care market. The Families First Partnership Programme: Initial guidance document (which would be followed by published guidance in spring 2025) was the first step in confirming

the expectations for the national reforms. The guidance was intended to support Local Authorities and partners to start developing plans for April 2025

and beyond. The expectation for the next year was that Local Authorities and

partners will focus primarily on transformation. A number of considerations were encourages as detailed in paragraph 1.13 of the report.

During the meeting the establishment of a single assessment tool, called a Family Assessment of Need (FAN), was highlighted. This would be used across a child’s journey and would be built on as the needs of the family changed. It would be accessed and jointly overseen by all agencies working with the family and would mean families only had to detail their circumstances once.

As Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Councillor Cusworth stated that she was very pleased with the progress in the first year of the Strategy.

Resolved:

That Cabinet:

1. Note the progress made in year one of the Early Help Strategy: Family Help in Rotherham 2024 – 2029 Delivery Plan.

2. Note the minimum expectations detailed in The Families First Partnership Programme: Initial guidance document issued in December 2024.
   
   
3. Are provided with a further update, and refreshed action plan in autumn 2025, once future government guidance is received.