Issue - meetings

Children and Family Centres Service Review

Meeting: 11/04/2022 - Children & Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Item 5)

5 Children and Family Centres Service Review and Early Help Family Support Services pdf icon PDF 398 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

This item was introduced by Marina Kitchen and Jackie Kerby. At the Council meeting on 16March 2021, a motion was approved, that this Committee keep under review the Family Support Workers' service, as part of its on-going performance monitoring. In response to that motion a report was provided, setting out the current position and performance. Background was provided on the 2019 review of early help and the resultant formation of five

district/borough locality Early Help and Targeted Support Teams across Warwickshire. 

 

The Children and Family Centre (C&FC) Service was part of the County Council’s “stepped approach” to delivering support. Two providers were commissioned to deliver the service, being Barnardo’s and The Diocese of Coventry Multi-Academy Trust (St. Michael’s). There were 14 core sites.

 

The detail of the report included sections on:

 

  • Early Help and Targeted Support Staffing (including Family Support Workers).
  • Overview of service delivery, universal help, face to face consultations, targeted support and parenting offer.
  • Increasing knowledge, capacity, and capability of the network, including practitioner training, locality family support network meetings and network events for safeguarding leads.

·       Continual service development, with focusses around the family support waiting list, developing a dedicated work-flow consultation line and strengthening the knowledge base of family support workers.

  • The core elements of the C&FC service model and its performance.
  • Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on service delivery and the phased approach to recovery.
  • Performance up to December 2021, including the actions taken to increase performance by the commissioned providers and the service issues/challenges faced.

 

The Committee submitted questions and comments as follows:

  • The Chair requested that broader feedback was provided for members to include some that wasn’t as positive. Marina Kitchen agreed to do this, whilst advising that most feedback had been positive.
  • Councillor Gilbert suggested other questions to look at the ‘bigger picture’ of what may not currently be provided at centres and what else the centres could do if they had the resource. Marina Kitchen clarified that the narrative in the report was from families who had received one to one support for a specific issue via a home visit. A related discussion about such services being connected to the C&FCs.
  • Councillor Kerridge sought additional information about the categories used in distinguishing those attending courses, especially those who were ‘identified’. Jackie Kerby explained that this data set was complex with a lot of data extracted and she outlined each of the categories. Where the family was known, they were shown as identified. Councillor Kerridge noted that training was provided in schools and he asked if it was available through other services, such as church outreach workers. It was confirmed that the specific training offer reported was through schools. However other agencies had requested such training, and this was being considered currently. Reference also to pastoral support which was accessed by a number of agencies.
  • Councillor Kerridge spoke about the location of C&FCs and whether it was possible to see where people lived who were using them.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5