Management Information Sheet

The Launch of Family Help pilot in Norfolk Children's Services

MI Sheet TypeInformation
MI Number:133/23
Publication Date:11/07/2023 10:00:00
LA Contact:Education Safeguarding Team (01603 223188)
Audience:Headteachers, Designated Safeguarding Leads

The Launch of Family Help pilot in Norfolk Children's Services

Sent on behalf of Kate Dexter, Assistant Director Family Help and High Needs

We are delighted to announce the launch of Norfolk County Council's Family Help Pilot - which will be tested in two of our existing localities: West and South. A DSL webinar about the Family Help pilot will be held in autumn term.

Family Help is an exciting innovation in how NCC operates to support vulnerable families and children. We are trialling the impact of larger multi-disciplinary teams, bringing together our key family facing teams (Family Assessment and Safeguarding Service (FAST), Family Support and some specialist roles from our Intensive and Specialist Support Service (ISSS). Through this approach we are greatly enhancing our "team around the child" model, supporting our practitioners to work collaboratively and removing the delays linked to moving families, children and young people around our system, referral processes and the like. We believe that this model will ensure that families can get the support they need at the right time, and will also allow practitioners to maintain the key relationships they have worked hard to build, even when additional support is being called in.

These new Family Help Teams comprise the key services we know our families rely on, but they will also have access to our existing call-in services so we can respond to more specialist needs when needed. As such, our families will be working with one team throughout their time open to the LA, with no step up or down and addressing challenges regarding traditional issues with consent.

To support these new teams, we have redesigned the structure of our services as well as the Manager roles within the pilot teams. Like practitioners, Managers will also work collaboratively in new partnerships, maintaining their baseline common skill set while developing specialisms in one of 4 key areas. This means that for the first time we will have dedicated specialist support to practitioners around Child Protection, Court Proceedings and in delivering Interventions to prevent escalation of cases, provide early intervention and support our families at the moment they are ready. We envisage that as a result practitioners will have the benefit of this expertise to enhance their own practice, enabling them to deliver the very best outcomes for children and families.

Our Family Help model is underpinned by relationship-based practice, teamwork and valuing the skills of all our practitioners to build a rich picture of what life is like for the families we are working with, and what interventions we can offer to help keep children safe and happy at home in line with our FLOURISH framework. Building on the success of our approach to Group Supervisions we are extending this partnership model by bringing teams of practitioners together and enabling them to work alongside each other much more fluidly. As such, we are working with the NSCP to provide clarity in respect of the different group supervision models experienced with you as our partners.

Our pilot will test this approach over a 6-9 month period seeking feedback from our practitioners, families and partners to test the impact of this new way of working. We will also be tracking progress against our key performance indicators. We believe this project will deliver:

  • A faster response to families who need our help
  • Better outcomes for children and families; and
  • Ensure our practitioners feel supported and valued at work.

We will be providing further details to those working alongside our teams to ensure that all know how to make contact with us, we will also be sharing key findings of this test and learn approach as we go.

Each locality will have 3 Family Help teams (FH1, 2 and 3) with Family Practitioners, Social Workers, Domestic Abuse practitioners, Intensive Specialist Support Workers and Home-Based Workers. Each team will have Network Coordinators to support the practitioners and managers in their work. They will continue to work closely with CADS where all contacts will continue to be assessed.

If you would like to know further information or have any questions, please contact the Heads of the two areas: