Agenda item

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

Recommendations

That Cabinet:-

1.    Endorse the Early Help Strategy: Family Help in Rotherham 2024-2029.

2.    Approves the Local Authority involvement in the development and implementation of the Strategy Delivery Plan with the oversight and delivery of progress by the Early Help Partnership Group (EHPG) and the Improving Lives Select Commission (ILSC). 

Consideration was given to the report which set out the Early Help Strategy: Family Help in Rotherham 2024-2029. The Strategy had been developed in response to revised government guidance, including the Department for Education (DfE) new edition ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children December 2023’. The statutory guidance outlined what organisations and agencies must and should do to help, protect and promote the welfare of all children and young people.

The Strategy, included as Appendix 1 to the report, described three phases of support for children and families and concluded with how children, families and other key stakeholders would work together to deliver the vision over the next five years.

Paragraphs 1.1 and 1.2 of the report detailed the key achievements of the previous Early Help Strategy 2016-2019. Paragraph 2.1 explained how learning gained from the delivery of the Supporting Families Programme and the Family Hibs and Start for Life Programme had identified the need to build on the good co-operation that was in place across the partnership. The learning also improved how services shared information and worked together to provide holistic support for families.

One of the three phases of the Strategy that would support children and families was Universal and Community Family Help. This included the Baby Pack Scheme; developing a SEND activity hub in the town centre; additional help for under five year olds; enhancing the Voluntary, Community and Faith Services sector’s ability to deliver services and additional capacity to develop work with partners at the Front Door to improve the effectiveness of initial contact with families.

The second of the three phases was Focused Family Help. This would provide help where families were not managing to effect positive change and they require enhanced, more focused and/or specialist support. The third phase was Specialist Family Help. Specialist services to children and their families would be provided where children and young people needed a high level of support or could be experiencing or likely to suffer significant harm in circumstances where improvements had not been achieved through universal and community family help, or focused family help. Paragraph 2.7 set out the five year Delivery Plan that had been developed.

It was proposed the Delivery Plan would be overseen by the Early Help Partnership Group with scrutiny from the Improving Lives Select Commission (ILSC).

This report had been considered by the Overview and Scrutiny

Management Board as part of the pre-decision scrutiny process. The

Board fully supported the recommendations. They had asked that data be provided relating to the number households with children in a revised version of the strategy. This ask had been accepted by the Cabinet Member.

Resolved:-

That Cabinet:-

1.    Endorse the Early Help Strategy: Family Help in Rotherham 2024-2029.

2.    Approves the Local Authority involvement in the development and implementation of the Strategy Delivery Plan with the oversight and delivery of progress by the Early Help Partnership Group (EHPG) and the Improving Lives Select Commission (ILSC).

3.    That consideration be given to the inclusion of data relating to the number households with children in a revised version of the strategy.