Council welcomes Government announcement of more funding for reform to protect children

The Royal Borough has welcomed the Government’s announcement to provide councils with additional funding to roll-out early intervention reforms to protect children.

Earlier this month, the Labour Government announced that an extra £18million will be spent on the roll-out of early intervention child protection reforms to councils across the country to prevent families from reaching crisis.

The reforms look to strengthen leadership and speed up delivery.

They include the roll-out of Family Group Decision Making, which is an approach to involve extended family members to help keep youngsters at home rather than in care.

The initiative also looks to provide ‘thousands’ more family help workers to provide support earlier for families experiencing challenges, including substance misuse or poor mental health.

The latest cash injection comes after funding had been doubled to £523million compared to last year, with a further commitment of at least £300million more over the next two years. 

Plans are also progressing to test the NHS number as a unique identifier for children to help detect any safeguarding concerns before they escalate. 

The identifier will provide a more ‘joined up and less piecemeal approach’ which ensures that frontline safeguarding professionals share concerns about a youngster ‘as early as possible’ to provide a ‘holistic picture of when they may be, or are at risk of harm, before it escalates’ further.

The latest updates will aid in the delivery of key measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which includes having a unique number for each child to 'join up systems and make sure no child falls through the cracks'.

The Royal Borough welcomed the Government’s commitments to early intervention and said it already delivers ‘a number of key priorities’.

A council spokesperson said: “We welcome the Government’s commitment to early intervention and the additional funding announced.

“We are already delivering a number of key priorities across the borough, including the introduction of Family Group Decision Making.

“We will continue to work closely with our partners to ensure any additional resources received will directly benefit children and families across the royal.”

Janet Daby, children and families minister, said: “Time and 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.”

Rachel de Souza, children’s commissioner, said: “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 becoming invisible to services, so robust and effective implementation will be essential, using evidence of what does and doesn’t work through this first pilot.”