Agenda item

Simon Thomas (FACT Programme Lead) will present an update on the Families and Children’s Transformation Programme (FACT) to the Forum – particularly

Wiltshire’s multi-agency Family Help arrangements.

Simon Thomas (FACT Programme Lead) gave an update to the Forum on the FACT programme - in particular the Wiltshire multi-agency Family Help arrangements and highlighted the following:

• That the current picture showed that the key areas of demand related to: SEND, ASD pathway, children and young people’s behaviour (at home and school), emotional well-being, gaps and social mobility;

• Whilst partners agreed that there was much in the way of good practice, there were also practice/system issues identified: Insufficient lead professionals, inconsistent holistic whole family practice, an unclear early help offer, limited flexibility in how/when/where to access support, a degree of a lack of family confidence in some services and a lack of coherence between ‘youth offer’ and early help;

• The feedback from families was shared and the programme had identified that there was an opportunity to work together and improve the way the system works.  The Family Help initiative would seek to ensure Wiltshire’s multi-agency Family Help arrangements enable children, young people and families to access the right help at the right time through a co-ordinated approach to prevention and early intervention through:

·       a co-ordinated approach at a whole population/universal level to prevent needs from arising and to build resilience across all residents

·       a robust multi-agency approach to spotting any additional needs at the earliest point and providing effective joined-up support that prevents the needs from escalating further

• They had committed to a programme of work so that there was a clear unifying brand for Family Help with a single online database of all services, community resources and activities.  There would be a co-ordinated whole system workforce development offer to ensure that there was a consistency of core approaches across the Early Help workforce;

• It was planned to pilot these approaches to start in Warminster and Westbury who will also develop and test the benefits of:

-       Wrapping a dedicated group of identified Early Help services and  community groups around a cluster of schools/settings; embedding them in the communities they serve;

-       Establishing a local contact point for Early Help requests for support and case discussion whereby the responses make best use of local resources including the voluntary and community sector;

-       More flexible working practice with core workers delivering intervention in the place, way and time that achieves best impact e.g. home, school, online, group, breakfast time, evening;

-       A locally led inclusive and welcoming local community of practice for Early Help – responding to local needs, identifying and sharing learning and good practice, engaging in reflective dialogue related to the pilot activity, promoting and delivering agreed culture and practice change activity;

-       Securing strong transition with a focus on pupils that need it most and joining up where siblings span multiple schools;

-       Specialist input on key themes including mental health, ASD, parental conflict and challenging behaviour – delivered locally and taking account of the local context;

-       Local consultation mechanisms to ensure that we understand the needs and lived experience of children and families in Warminster and Westbury;

• This would be a two year pilot for Warminster and Westbury but they would not wait two years before they started to share the findings.  There would be a Steering Group in the two towns for all key stakeholders and also a Wiltshire wide Steering Group.

Resolved:

That Schools Forum note the update on the FACT programme.