Swindon Family Safeguarding Model Sept 2019 LeeAnne Farach

Swindon Family Safeguarding Model Sept 2019 Lee-Anne Farach, Director of Childrens Social Work Lfarach@swindon. gov. uk Children, Families and Community Health 1

How will the programme work? • The Strengthening Families, Protecting Children (SFPC) programme will support up to twenty local authorities with high or rising demand for children’s social care. The programme aims to improve social work practice and decision making, support more children to remain safely at home with their families, and where appropriate, reduce the number of children entering care. • The programme will invest £ 84 m over five years from April 2019 to support local authorities to adapt and adopt one of three promising Innovation Programme projects developed by Leeds, Hertfordshire, and North Yorkshire. • The first adopter authorities will start implementing their preferred model in Autumn 2019. Staggered start dates for all other adopter authorities between April 2020 and September 2023. Decisions on which LAs will be part of the programme will be taken by September 2019. Children, Families and Community Health 2

Cont… • The evaluation of the programme will be led by the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care who will design and develop the methodology and evidence base for the evaluation. All authorities will be expected to take part in the evaluation, and yearly updates on the programme’s progress and learning and will share this with all local authorities. • Three authorities implementing one of the models from April 2019 to enable Df. E to test how best to deliver the programme and the evaluation. These ‘trailblazers’ meet the eligibility criteria and have demonstrated they have the conditions in place to both adopt and commit to the models. Children, Families and Community Health 3

What is the Family Safeguarding Model • The Family Safeguarding Model as designed by Hertfordshire County Council is a ‘whole system’ change approach for child protection. • The model creates multi-disciplinary, co-located teams that work together to tackle the ‘toxic trio’, which have been identified as issues that place children at risk of significant harm. • In this model there is a focus on engaging parents to change behaviour rather than threats to remove children for non-compliance. • This compliments the model of Restorative Practice (working with and not to) • There are therapeutic programmes for each professional group to follow, as well as group supervision, better sharing of information, decision making and accountability across professionals. that is currently being implemented in Swindon. Children, Families and Community Health 4

Who does the Family Safeguarding Model Impact Substance Misuse Domestic Abuse • The main purpose of implementing the Family Safeguarding Model in Swindon is to focus on a multi-agency approach for children and families who are at the highest level of risk of abuse and neglect. • The cohort of children and families that will be supported and worked with through the Model are those that are impacted by one or more of the ‘toxic trio’. Mental Health Children, Families and Community Health 5

Why are we Changing to the Family Safeguarding Model • Key Drivers for Change: • Expected Benefits over 3 years: • The need to provide services in conjunction with partners and commissioned providers in a holistic and multi-agency manner to improve outcomes for children. • To need to provide timely and early intervention for children and their families in order to improve their outcomes. • A more systemic approach in Children’s Social Care and Family Support services. • number of children who would otherwise be subject to care proceedings by 15%. • number of children on Child Protection Plans by 15%. • number of appointments parents do not attend with substance misuse and mental health services by 50%. • number of parents completing treatment programmes for the toxic trio by 50%. Children, Families and Community Health 6

How will the Family Safeguarding Model work • The Family Safeguarding Model (FSM) is first and foremost about promoting the safeguarding of children and their families. For Swindon this will be achieved through: • Shared skill sets and learning between services and partners in Swindon with transferable skills developed across multi-agency and multi-disciplinary workforces. • Building better relationships and use of resources with partner agencies to minimise duplication of effort across Children and Families Social Care providers. • Improving the targeting and response times of services to the most vulnerable, with improved prevention through family approach for all partners agencies. Children, Families and Community Health 7

Key Activity Population Data Comparator data (per 10 k pop under 18) Swindon Stat Neighbour National Average 3597 NA NA NA Referrals 898 183. 3 124. 8 138. 1 CIN 1045 213. 3 160. 3 185. 7 CP 260 53. 1 41. 6 45. 3 CLA 339 68. 5 62. 6 64 Contacts Apr – June 19 Swindon (No) As at 30/06/19 8