Cabinet to consider approval of Families First Partnership Programme

Article date: April 14th 2025

Guided by new frameworks and strategies from the Department for Education (DfE) the programme is due to be rolled out this month (April 2025) and will bring about essential reforms designed to improve the lives of children and families across the borough.

A paper will go before St Helens Borough Council's Cabinet on Wednesday 23 April, seeking acceptance of a £1.28 million grant to help fund transformation activities in Early Help.

The programme will target several critical areas of reform:

• Family Help: Providing seamless, non-stigmatising support that focuses on early intervention and whole-family working. This includes the creation of multi-disciplinary Family Help teams and the introduction of a Family Help Lead Practitioner role.
• Multi-Agency Child Protection: Establishing Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams (MACPTs) to ensure decisive and integrated child protection efforts across agencies.
• Family Networks: Building a 'family-first' culture by integrating family group decision-making (FGDM) throughout the children's social care system.
• Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements: Strengthening the role of safeguarding partners and expanding the involvement of the education sector in safeguarding efforts.

 Councillor Nova Charlton, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said:

"The Families First Partnership Programme represents a major step forward in how we support children and families in St Helens. By focusing on early intervention, multi-agency collaboration, and family-centred care, we are not only meeting the national expectations but also ensuring that our local community's needs are at the heart of these reforms.

"Over the last year, we have built strong partnership foundations through our Family Hub programme which has put us in a great position ahead of time, and Families First would further develop support for a whole family offer - helping us as a council achieve our priority of ensuring children and young people have a positive start in life.

"This programme would make a real difference to the lives of children and young people in our borough."