Agenda item

To consider the progress made in delivering the Families First Programme. 

47.1           Attention was drawn to the report of the Environmental and Housing Services Group Manager, circulated at Pages No. 23-27, which provided Members with an update on the Gloucestershire Families First Programme.  Members were asked to consider the progress made in delivering the programme.

47.2           The Committee received a presentation from the Council’s Community Development Officer, Adrian Goode, the Families First Plus Programme Manager, Eugene O’Kane, and the Gloucestershire Families First Plus Team Manager, Emma Trigwell, during which the following key points were raised:

·      Recap – Families First was the local name for the national Troubled Families Programme; a three year programme (2012-2015) aimed at turning around the lives of an estimated 120,000 troubled families in the country; overseen by the Department of Communities and Local Government; agreed that Gloucestershire would work with 900 families over the three years (90 for Tewkesbury Borough).

·      Original Criteria – An adult on out of work benefit, children not attending school, and/or family members involved in crime and anti-social behaviour; high costs to the public purse.

·      Aim of the Programme – To get children back into school, reduce youth crime and anti-social behaviour, put adults on a path back to work and bring down the amount spent on them by public services; over time, to change the way services were delivered – re-designing them for the longer term i.e. a key single worker identified to work with a particular family and make links to other agencies rather than several different agencies being involved.

·      Progress to Date – As of February 2015, over 900 families were engaged by intensive key workers, commissioned services or existing agencies; 100% of families had achieved outcomes: 825 had achieved the crime/education result, 75 had achieved the employment result and 59 had achieved the progress to work result; as a high performing area Gloucestershire had entered into the expanded programme early.

·      Evaluation: Family Situation on Exit – Educating, employment and training: improvements in school exclusions, school behavioural problems, attendance at alternative provision (when not in mainstream education) and adults in employment; Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour: improvements in youth offending, Police call-outs, families involved in domestic abuse incidents; Health: improvements in adult mental health and young people using alcohol/drugs; 85% of families said that they had made progress since being involved in Families First.

·      Expanded Troubled Families Programme – Five year programme from 2015/16 – funding for first year; additional 3,000 families in Gloucestershire (approximately 10% in Tewkesbury Borough); getting to a much wider group of families with multiple problems; greater flexibility to decide which families to work with but must prioritise highest need; payment by results based on ‘sustained and significant progress’; local authorities to produce a ‘Troubled Families Outcomes Plan’ against which to measure progress.

·      Criteria for the Expanded Programme – Parents and children involved in crime and anti-social behaviour; children not attending school; children who need help; adults out of work or at risk of financial exclusion and young people at risk of worklessness; families affected by domestic violence and abuse; and parents and children with a range of health problems.

·      What is Early Help? – “Providing early help is more effective in promoting the welfare of children than reacting later.  Early help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child’s life, from the foundation years through to the teenage years” – Working Together to Safeguard Children, DfE, March 2015.

·      Working in Tewkesbury – Locality Managers Group: health, education, Police, probation, Council services, housing, mental health, domestic abuse, substance misuse, Department of Work and Pensions, voluntary and community sector representation; Early Help Hub Allocations – Advice Information Support and Targeted Support (family support, community support).

·      Tewkesbury Families First Plus Team – Team Manager, Emma Trigwell; Assistant Team Manager, Rachel Shore-Nye; Community Social Worker, Isobel Neason; Early Help Coordinators, Theresa Brown and Karen James; Family Support Workers, Hannah Oakshott, Lucy Holford, Susan Hatch and Kevan Constantine; Social Work Student, Stephanie Hunt; Administrator Support, Susan Pope.

·      The Role of Families First Plus Teams – Support the coordination and development of local partnerships; coordinate all requests for additional support on behalf of the partnership; provide advice, guidance and support through Community Social Workers and Early Help Coordinators; provide targeted support – a range of family support interventions including whole family intensive work, parenting groups, specific interventions linked to an assessment of need.

47.3           The Gloucestershire Families First Plus Team Manager explained that, in Tewkesbury Borough, the co-location of various services had enabled good relationships to be formed during the Families First Programme which had resulted in a new approach being taken to requests for assistance.  Whereas requests had previously been made directly to the various teams, they now came in via the Early Help Hub and the core management group met on a fortnightly basis to assess the requests and match families with the right type of service to meet their need.  This had removed the bureaucracy and prevented delays for the families as there was only one set of paperwork and one assessment form to complete.  The Gloucestershire Families First Plus Programme Manager advised that this approach was now being rolled out around Gloucestershire.

47.4           A Member queried whether the 90 families who had participated in the initial Families First Programme had been located in one particular area or whether they had been spread across the Borough.  The Gloucestershire Families First Plus Team Manager indicated that the Team did spend a lot of time in certain areas but the families were widespread across the Borough and those in rural areas had very different needs to those in urban areas.  There were spikes in particular problems, for instance, work was currently being done with a number of adults with very entrenched mental health issues and a lot of time was being spent supporting parents around domestic abuse as the next generation entered into violent relationships.  It was noted that Gloucestershire Homeseeker enabled residents to choose where they wanted to live rather than properties being allocated to certain individuals based on certain criteria.  The Team often worked with several properties in one street as people tended to speak to their neighbours about the support they were getting which encouraged them to make requests for assistance.

47.5           In response to a query regarding youth authorities, the Gloucestershire Families First Plus Programme Manager advised that the Team did work with organisations such as Young Gloucestershire, however, by that stage the child would already have been identified as being at risk and the role of Families First Plus was to work with them before they got to that stage.  A Member questioned whether there were enough people in the Team to be able to work with the amount of families required for the second phase of the programme, which had increased substantially since the first phase.  The Gloucestershire Families First Plus Programme Manager indicated that it would not be possible to do that within the Team which was why the Government was keen to point out that this should not be thought of as a separate project but rather as embedding different ways of working in order to intervene at an earlier stage.

47.6           A Member was very impressed with the programme and he was particularly pleased to see how the processes had been streamlined in order to produce results more quickly.  The Chairman echoed these sentiments and felt that incorporating the changes into ‘business as usual’ was the most sensible way forward, particularly when it was not clear how funding would be provided in future.  He thanked the team for their presentation and asked that congratulations be passed on to everyone involved in the programme on behalf of the Committee.  It was subsequently

RESOLVED          That the progress made in delivering the Gloucestershire Families First Plus Programme be NOTED.