Extra support for child protection services

The government has announced an extra £18 million for local councils in England so they can rollout early intervention child protection reforms, which come part of Family Group Decision Making. This is an approach to involve extended family members in helping keep children at home rather than in care.

It was announced last year that funding for this has been doubled to £523 million compared to last year, with a further commitment to increase funding by at least £300 million over the next two years.

Plans are also in the progress of testing the NHS number as a unique identifier to help piece data together across health, schools, and police services to catch any concerns about children before they escalate.

These updates mark significant progress in delivering key measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which will give each child a unique number, ruling out Family Help reforms to deliver wraparound support, and improve information sharing between agencies through a new information sharing duty to make sure that when data needs to be shared for safeguarding reasons, it is.

Children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said: “Children in care told me in my Big Ambition survey they want the same things as other children: love, safety, and stability in their family life. It’s absolutely right that we prioritise supporting families earlier on when challenges arise, with the goal of keeping them together safely.

“I welcome this investment in caring for children and families but also in strengthening leadership locally, because my research has shown that decisions about children in care are too often driven by local capacity and resources, instead of what’s right for those children’s needs.

“The introduction of a unique ID for every child will help identify problems early on and prevent any child from becoming invisible to services, to robust and effective implementation will be essential, using evidence of what does and doesn’t work through this first pilot.”

Children and families minister Janet Daby said: “Time and time again we’re told how failing to share information and intervene early enough means vulnerable children fall through the cracks.

“These deep-rooted problems are symptomatic of a children’s social care system that has clearly been stretched to breaking point.

“We’re putting an end to sticking plaster solutions through our Plan for Change by investing even more focus and funding into preventative services and information sharing.”