Agenda item

To receive a presentation from Simon Thomas (FACT Lead) on the FACT Pilot.

The Area Board received a presentation from Simon Thomas (FACT Partnership Lead) about the FACT Pilot. The presentation covered the following points:

·       It was outlined that the project was on behalf of the Wiltshire Families and Children’s Transformation (FACT) Partnership and that Wiltshire Council was a key supporter.

·       The project has the aim of being inclusive to bring together shareholders to maximise the value and benefits to the system of support offered to families and children.

·       The current situation for the FACT Partnership was outlined, with the key areas of demand that collectively concerned the partners as well as practice and system issues identified. Further examples of these issues were provided in the form of feedback that had been collected from families.

·       It was highlighted that 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. The importance of working together to prevent needs from arising in the first place was stressed as well as building resilience through available resources.

·       It was outlined that across Wiltshire the project would deliver a clear unifying brand for Family Help, an online database of services and community resources via the Wiltshire Together platform, a co-ordinated whole system workforce development offer and a consistency to core approaches across the Early Help workforce.

·       A pilot is set to take place in Warminster and Westbury to test the following benefits:

o   Wrapping services and groups around local clusters and communities

o   Local case consultation

o   A more flexible and responsive practice model

o   Local community of practice

o   Working with sibling groups across phases

o   Local training and sharing

o   Local “voice” activity

• It was stated that currently the project is at an early stage and that though the Partnership has developed these ideas, it hasn’t developed what it would look like on the ground, therefore local conversations are needed.

Following the presentation there was time for the following questions and points to be raised but not limited to:

• It was suggested that the idea of people working together across service areas had been attempted before and generally success depended on the personal commitment of the officers involved.
• It was questioned how success would be measured with the pilot, to which it was clarified that the Partnership would be working with Oxford Brookes University for independent evaluation and reflection. In addition, local data sets would be used including school attendance and anti-social behaviour incidents.
• It was suggested that there was a lot of barriers within the project that might lead to a lack of success, to which it was stated that the project would have strong strategic support and a strong governance structure in FACT. Organisation representatives included Lucy Townsend (Corporate Director People), the Police and Crime Commissioner, Chief Constable, and an Integrated Care Board Senior representative.
• It was stated that the Area Board would be very happy to be kept up to date with the progress of the project as well as receiving regular reports and attending a future Area Board meeting.
• It was identified that the Laverton could potentially be a building to use for the launch of the project and that the Area Board members would like to attend.
• Examples of the benefit of partnership working and building relationships with young people between organisations to provide wrap around support were stressed.
• It was noted that there are a lot of community organisations in Westbury and therefore a local coordinator would help to assist with the mapping process.

It was suggested that if any local organisations or individuals wanted to get in touch about partaking in the project that they should get in touch with Graeme Morrison (Email: graeme.morrison@wiltshire.gov.uk), who could then pass on to Simon Thomas and his team.