To consider the submitted report on the above.

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services – Councillor Bye and the Divisional Director Children’s Services Transformation - Shaun Evans provided an overview of the submitted report on the Family First Programme, which was a programme of change in partnership with the Council, Health, Police, Education and the voluntary and community sector to focus on prevention rather than response.  This involved moving resources into early help rebranded as Family Help and the development of Youth Hubs aligned with the Family Hubs as part of the implementation of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that comes into effect in 2027.  There were ten pathfinder authorities who had all interpreted the reforms differently and implemented them differently over a two-year period which each receiving circa £5m.  The Council and our partners have 12 months to implement the changes with approximately £660k to implement as this was based on the children’s population of the area, which would be particularly challenging for Torbay.

Sadie Hall, Assistant Director for Women, Children and Young People, NHS Devon (Integrated Care Board – ICB), highlighted the challenges for the NHS due to large scale national changes e.g. NHS 10-year plan, neighbourhood working and realigning NHS to cover the same boundary as the Police i.e. Devon and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly.  The ICB was committed to Family First working with Torbay, Plymouth and Devon colleagues and looking at how this would work with the wider footprint and what elements would need to be shaped locally.  The secondment of a health post would give the best opportunity to share intelligence and work in partnership to codesign a way forward.  Multi-Agency Child Protection Team (MACPT) workshops had already been held in Plymouth to strengthen partnership working and ensure the localised element comes through.  Children remain a priority for the NHS.

Members noted the Family First approach looked at whole family thinking, having multidisciplinary systems in place to help the family including links with Adult Social Care, ensuring they receive the right service at the right time by the right practitioner.  The report identified 4 national workstreams and 5 local workstreams to take this work forward looking at needs across education and social care and how to make the best use of resources.  The Council had been successful in its bid for a Children’s Home and was looking to have potentially two, one for children with complex needs who would traditionally be placed out of area and one for 12-week assessments looking at reunification with the family where this was likely to happen.  The implementation of free school meals opt out would be a step towards addressing some of the poverty and deprivation, so that parents opt out rather than applying as it was known that the application process could be difficult for some parents – this initiative was as a result of a previous recommendation from the Children and Young People’s Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Board.  As Pupil Premium arises from free school meals, which was being rolled out to nurseries and early years settings, more funding would be available to support those settings.

It was noted that the Council had been proactive in preparation for the Family First approach as part of its redesign of Children’s Services with many of the structural changes due to be in place from 1 September 2025 to get the Family Help side up and running internally.  The impact on partners was acknowledged as this was a very different way of working, looking at training practitioners and helping them to be able to deliver on the help required.

Members asked questions in relation to the following:

·                software issues were identified, was there a solution;

·                it was expected to be implemented in 12 months (by March 2026) but it may be extended, what were the expectations; and

·                would funding be extended if the timescale was extended.

The following responses were provided:

·                there was an issue with the Liquid Logic software which 80% of local authorities were using, early help was in one module and the statutory elements were in another and they were unable to integrate.  The Council had a work around due to be implemented in September, but the Government had advised not to do any localised change as there would be a roll out of a full system nationally;

·                it was anticipated that the local workstreams would take more than 12 months to implement; and

·                the Government’s Spending Review referred to funding being agreed moving forward but not how much the fund would be.  There would be some funding, however, most of the funding identified replaced the Supported Families Funding rather than being new funding.

The Children and Young People’s Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Board noted the contents of the submitted report, the progress made and challenges going forward to implement the Family First Partnership Programme.