Social Care Reforms
The Government is proposing a major reset of the children’s social care system. The aim is to offer every child the best start in life with safety, security, and opportunities to achieve and thrive. The Social Care Reforms (Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive, DfE November 2024) introduce a whole-system, child-centred approach to how we deliver services to children and families; minimising points of transfer for families in a more seamless system of help and protection, which prioritises family-led, relationship-based support and solutions.
This means over the next 12 to 18 months, Barnet Children's Social Care will undergo significant change in how we operate and deliver services to local children and families. Key components of this reform include building on the strengths of existing universal and community based early help delivery models, to create a Family Help service, with practitioners and social workers in the same team working to a single assessment and plan.
In addition, Child Protection reform will be introduced by establishing local Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams (MACPTs). These multi-disciplinary teams will include a minimum of social care, police, health and education professionals undertaking statutory child protection investigations and interventions, offering a local and accessible centre of expertise. A focus on family group decision-making will also be embedded.
Further information can be found by reading the government statement Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive, DfE, November 2024 ( see below)
Barnet specific information upon the Families First Programme can be found here:
To support all of the above we recommend multi agency safeguarding professionals to read:
Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive - a Government vision for children's social care https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67375fe5ed0fc07b53499a42/Keeping_Children_Safe__Helping_Families_Thrive_.pdf
Families First Partnership Guidance - a toolkit for implementing the new Families First Programmes
Learning from regional Families First Pathfinders
Reform of Children's Social Care in England