Agenda item

The committee is provided with an update to the Children’s Select Committee on progress of the Families and Children's Transformation (FACT) programme.

A report was submitted to the Committee on 17th April 2018 which outlined the rebranding of the Children’s Service Integration Project into the Families and Children’s Transformation (FACT) programme and set out the activity that would be progressed through projects within the programme.

Included in this agenda is a report which provides an update on the programme to progress service developments across the partnership.

Members are asked to comment on the progress of the FACT programme as detailed in the report.

The Committee considered a report by the Director, Family & Children’s Services which provided an update on progress of the Families & Children’s Transformation (FACT) programme.

Members were reminded that at its meeting on 17 April 2018, the Committee received a report outlining the rebranding of the Children’s Service Integration Project into the Families & Children’s Transformation (FACT) programme and set out the activity that would be progressed through projects within the programme.  The report before this meeting provided an update on the programme to progress service developments across the partnership that would support the programme to be driven by the following five key principles:-

·         Help when you need it

We will intervene earlier; providing support early to prevent families’ difficulties escalating and in doing so improve outcomes and reduce demand for higher tier services

·         We are Better Together

We will simplify and integrate processes and improve multi-agency integrated working and collaboration and in doing so reduce spend by eradicating duplication.

·         More time to be with Families

We will maximise the time our staff can spend with families and in doing so improve the child’s experience of support.

·         Investing in our Staff

We will ensure we are an effective confident workforce with an effective practice framework.

·         Resilient communities with Equity of Opportunity

We want to ensure all our children and young people reach their full potential by having high aspirations for, and creating opportunities with, those who are disadvantaged through poverty or vulnerability. We want to support families in overcoming difficulties and being able to care for their children and each other.

It was noted that the FACT programme was being overseen by a multi-agency Board, comprising key partner agencies, which in turn reported to the Health & Wellbeing Board.

It was also noted that the FACT programme consisted of eight workstreams covering all aspects of a child and family’s need for help and support.

The Chairman stressed the need for joined up working with Adult Services and it was reported that a new Case Management System (CMS) would bring together multiple IT systems across early years, education, early help, SEND and safeguarding into one system, so that all information on families, children and young people was shared in one place.  Furthermore, this new CMS system would enable users to input, read and retrieve information relevant to the child and family they were working with and would provide a holistic view of the child and family to help with good decision making. 

One of these workstreams was to support young people to live in their families and communities. This workstream was developing a number of projects to take a whole family approach, identifying causes of need and then using the support of relevant professionals and the voluntary sector to meet the needs of the family until stability was reached.  

A wraparound multi-disciplinary approach was also supporting projects such as the No Wrong Door proposal which was implementing a service delivery model to divert adolescents from being taken into care by providing a multi-agency approach to targeted support including the provision of residential care if required. Members requested that they be provided with more information about this, possibly by including this subject in a pre-meeting briefing.

Resolved:

To note the update on the Family and Children's Transformation programme.