04: Wider enablers of change
Section 3 has identified five key system shifts that have the most potential to positively impact the number of children remaining with their families. However, these represent significant changes. Through the analysis and engagement conducted for this programme, several key enablers have been identified which, if implemented, will help achieve the shifts and maximise their benefits. Local level enablers 1. Commitment across local leaders, including
• The targeted allocation of system resource, across partners, to support individual families before or after a child enters care. • The design and commissioning of services such as multi-agency Family Help or Child Protection services – including how wider family support services can be best deployed to integrate with schools in a prioritised way and how multi-agency teams support the families of children in care. 4. Continuous improvement of the system’s ability to successfully engage families and gain consent for support. Practitioners and professionals across agencies (particularly adult support services) should receive training and guidance on how to work with families so that they positively engage with support where it’s needed. This should include the role of Family Group Decision Making and how this can help gain consent alongside other outcomes. Alongside this, data should be captured that enables the tracking of the success rate of gaining consent at practitioner, service, or agency levels. This should be reported in partnership forums as part of a continuous improvement culture around the system’s ability to gain consent. 5. Family Group Decision Making used as a practical means of facilitating the wider family network to support a family, potentially as an enabler of successfully gaining consent. This could be at any point in the social care pathway from the initial assessment, all the way through to the child being in care. Maximising the use of Family Group Decision Making will require consideration of the capacity constraints in using specialist co-ordinators or facilitators, and therefore should include models whereby these specialists are consultants or advisors to other professionals to maximise effectiveness and impact.
local councillors, to prioritise outcomes for children at risk of entering care or in the care system. This report demonstrates how support to vulnerable children and their families is a partnership endeavour. In the context of constrained public sector resources, a stated commitment should be made to prioritise resource, focus, and improvement efforts towards outcomes for children at risk of entering care or already in the care system. 2. Development of local financial mechanisms and incentives to promote proactive, early support to families of children at risk of entering care or in the care system. This report points to potential significant gross costs that can be avoided for local authorities because of fewer children needing to be in care. It also evidences the multi-agency nature of the shifts needed to deliver this outcome, and acknowledges the landscape of constrained resources across the public sector. Agreements between partners that appropriately enable and incentivise all agencies to promote the outcome of more children being cared for in their family network would help create the conditions needed to maximise the chances of these shifts happening. 3. Use of data to inform targeted support to families and prioritised service design, enabled by appropriate information governance arrangements, to support practitioners’ judgement and decision- making . Live and historic data should be collected, shared, and analysed across agencies, including neighbouring local authorities, to understand both the journeys of families whose children have entered the care system and individual families who could most benefit from support. This data can also be used to inform:
54
55
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs