1.3 Families First Partnership Programme and Delivery Expectations for Safeguarding Partners

1. Families First Partnership Programme

The Families First Partnership (FFP) Programme shifts focus towards intensive earlier help for families, more expert, focused multi-agency child protection practice and greater use of family networks. This ambition is in line with Working Together to Safeguard Children, which sets out how agencies, organisations, and individuals work together to provide help, support and protection – covering universal services and community based early help, through Family Help (including targeted early help and statutory services under section 17 of the Children Act 1989), and including action taken under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 to protect children from significant harm.

The Families First Programme Guide provides information to support statutory safeguarding partners with the implementation of children’s social care reforms, including:

• family help;
• multi-agency child protection reforms; and
• family group decision making and family network support packages.

The guidance includes:

• delivery expectations;
• how progress will be measured;
• areas for local flexibility;
• the support that is available.

It is for all statutory safeguarding partners and other relevant agencies, including education and childcare settings that work with children, young people and their families. This includes:

• senior and strategic leaders;
• senior and middle managers;
• those in direct practice.

Statutory safeguarding partners already have a joint and equal duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in their area. Local safeguarding partners and relevant agencies should come together to consider how they deliver their current services, where existing resources will be re-organised and used to deliver the reformed system and where there are gaps.

The Guide sets out that Family Help and multi-agency child protection reforms are wholly interdependent. It is critical that safeguarding partners implement them together as an integrated system. Together, they will drive a fundamental rebalancing of the whole system: enabling earlier, wraparound support for families and those who work with them; preventing escalation into crisis; enabling a clear, expert focus on children who need protection from significant harm; and reducing costly and unnecessary statutory intervention in family life where child protection is not needed.

2. Using Evidence and Delivering Evidence-based Interventions

The Department for Education has commissioned a Foundations Toolkit from Foundations – the What Works Centre for Children and Families, which includes:

• Foundations Guidebook – information about interventions that make a difference to children and families’ outcomes;
• Practice Guides – recommendations about how to put evidence-based support into action.

The Foundations Practice Guides provide evidence-based recommendations for those commissioning and delivering child and family support at the local level, and the Foundations Guidebook provides evidence-based examples of interventions that put these practices into action.

The Practice Guides set out high quality evidence about how best to achieve the outcomes set out in the Children’s Social Care National Framework and translates this into key principles and recommendations to support local leaders in strengthening family services. The Families First Programme Guide states that local partnerships should look to these Foundations Practice Guides as a key source for guidance on the latest evidence of ‘what works’ in Children’s Social Care.

See also Using Evidence and Delivering Evidence-based Interventions chapter.

3. Delivery Expectations

Chapter 2 of the Families First Programme Guide sets out government expectations for Family Help, multi-agency child protection, and engagement with family networks. The expectations set out in the chapter align with the government’s vision for transformation across Children’s Social Care and are expected to realise the four outcomes of the Children’s Social Care National Framework:

• Outcome 1: children, young people and families stay together and get the help they need;
• Outcome 2: children and young people are safe in and outside of their home;
• Outcome 3: children and young people are supported by their family network;
• Outcome 4: children in care and care leavers have stable, loving home.

Local areas should have completed the majority of transformation activity in year one of the programme (2025-26). In year two, safeguarding partners should be delivering new or updated services that meet the expectations set out in this guide and relevant statutory duties. The government expect policy expectations outlined in this chapter to be fully operational across all localities by the end of March 2027.

Expectations include that by March 2027 safeguarding partners should:

• bring together targeted early help and child in need support and services into a single offer of Family Help, with alternatively qualified family help practitioners and social workers working together across a broad continuum of need;
• in line with Working Together to Safeguard Children, reflect this single category of Family Help in a refreshed threshold document. This should show the range of needs for all children that will be supported – with an emphasis on fluidity and prioritising family experience, as opposed to gatekeeping between prior targeted early help and children in need thresholds;
• have children and families receiving support through a Family Help Lead Practitioner, with supervision and oversight arrangements established to enable Family Help Lead Practitioners to lead help and support for families across the continuum of need;
• have Family Help Lead Practitioners bringing in additional support from wider multi-disciplinary practitioners/agencies as part of Team around the Family;
• develop a multi-agency workforce development plan outlining the training, knowledge and skill levels for the Family Help workforce including the Family Head Lead Practitioner role;
• publish updated local protocols for assessments and support, setting out:
  • who can act as a Family Help Lead Practitioner across the continuum of need including Family Help Lead Practitioners not employed by the local authority;
  • the skills, knowledge, experience, and competence required for Family Help Lead Practitioners;
  • the governance arrangements to support effective decision-making, including roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities, and how these will respond to risk; and
• have a shared practice framework across agencies, that covers the end-to-end system of help, support and protection, in line with the National Framework for Children’s Social Care outcomes and the requirements of Working Together to Safeguard Children;
• implement multi-disciplinary teams that feature co-working between a range of professionals, including alternatively qualified practitioners, social workers and other specialists. Areas should refer to population needs assessments to determine the different agencies, services and practitioners that should be part of their multidisciplinary teams. Examples might include:
• • independent domestic abuse support and services;
  • victim support, including wider sexual abuse support;
  • criminal exploitation;
  • serious violence;
  • police;
  • prison and probation;
  • youth justice;
  • youth work;
  • substance misuse;
  • children and adult mental health;
  • public health;
  • adult social care;
  • health visiting;
  • maternity, sexual health and school nursing;
  • SEND – including the Designated Social Care Officer Role, as encouraged in Working Together;
  • parental conflict;
  • well evidenced parenting programmes (including professionals with parenting support expertise);
  • school attendance support teams;
  • employment advisors to support parents who are out of work;
  • homelessness and housing;
• consider how to effectively join up Family Help with existing SEND services, to improve access to support for children with special educational needs, and disabilities;
• Family Help assessments should be operational by March 2027 and should:
  • be tailored to the level of need identified within a family, including adapting appropriately for children with SEND and disabled children and their families, taking into account previous interventions and wider contextual factors including for example where a parent is imprisoned;
  • consider the needs of the whole-family and ensure child, young person and family voice is captured – whilst being clear the needs of the child are paramount;
  • adhere to the maximum timelines for child in need assessments set out in Working Together;
  • coordinate with other assessments that are ongoing (such as an Education, Health and Care assessment, a Prevention and Diversion Assessment, or a section 47 enquiry), or if previously completed (e.g. in early help), practitioners should use assessments to build a complete picture of the child and their family; and
  • be led by the practitioner most suited to building a picture of the family’s needs. It is for local partnerships to determine appropriate oversight and sign off arrangements.
• Family Help plans should be operational by March 2027 and:
  • provide clear, measurable outcomes for the child or young person and set expectations for families, with reviewable actions to track progress;
  • specify the agencies and practitioners involved, the services available, and how success will be measured. Regular reviews should assess whether progress has been made to meet the child or young person’s needs;
  • where applicable, incorporate or align with child protection conferences, plans and outcomes, which should also adhere to the expectations above; and
  • consider how family networks can be best supported to improve the child’s outcomes, including through financial support as part of family network support packages;
• have an operational integrated front door, where contacts and referrals can be triaged to the right level of service; this should include families being connected to universal and community services and direct links to Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams as required. Local partnerships operating Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH) should review/explore how their functions might align more strongly with other places where families might come into contact with services, to create a single, integrated front door;
• consider the range of practitioners and agencies that could be brought into the integrated front door – this could include for example education, police, health, domestic abuse services, housing and youth workers; and
• ensure front door practitioners are experienced and skilled in triaging children to the right part of the system, including Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams where there are concerns about actual or likely significant harm, inside and outside the home and online;
• implement digital solutions such as a service directory, social media and also roles such as community connectors and service access points which provide accessible opportunities for families to understand and access support; and
• as much as is practical, local partnerships should embed a relationship-based approach to practice at the front door, where families and practitioners can have a conversation about the help they need;
• have (an) operational Multi-Agency Child Protection Team(s) leading on child protection decision making and functions across their local authority area(s). Multi-Agency Child Protection Team police and health provision can be delivered across multiple local authority footprints if safeguarding partners agree and are satisfied the Multi-Agency Child Protection Team can operate effectively;
• have appointed and trained a minimum, dedicated Multi-Agency Child Protection Team membership of appropriately qualified, skilled and experienced social worker Lead Child Protection Practitioners, police representatives, healthcare professional/s and persons with education experience;
• have identified additional practitioners to respond to local need and harm profiles (for example child and adult psychologists, probation, domestic abuse, mental health, substance misuse, contextual safeguarding, child sexual abuse and exploitation, child criminal exploitation, modern slavery and human trafficking specialists);
• have agreed, allocated and transparently set out shared, equitable and sustainable multi-agency resourcing arrangements for their Multi-Agency Child Protection Team(s);
• have enabled physical Multi-Agency Child Protection Team co-location wherever possible. This is shown to improve multi-agency information-sharing and decision-making;
• have developed, agreed and implemented a shared Multi-Agency Child Protection Team practice framework including decision-making, accountability, quality assurance, governance, monitoring, training and individual and group supervision arrangements; and
• have established or expanded an information, advice and support (which can include representation or advocacy) offer for all parents and carers involved in child protection activity.