Agenda item

RESOLVED:

1.    That the proposed Early Help Strategy and development of the place-based Local Family Partnership model across Surrey be agreed.

2.    To delegate to the Assistant Director, Commissioning and Prevention, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Children, decision making on any minor changes to the Early Help Strategy arising from discussions at the Early Help Transformation Board and Children and Young People’s Partnership.

3.    That the specific high-level Early Help commitments for Surrey County Council set out below, be endorsed:

·         Transform SCC services through integration with others at a local level;

·         Coordinate partners at county and local levels to implement the Early Help Strategy;

·         Identify children who need Early Help through the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub and provide case management and coordination (with others) for children and families with multiple needs;

·         Commission local, place-based preventative services with our partners; and

·         Maintain a robust joint-understanding with partners of the needs of children and families in Surrey and the impact of Early Help.

Reasons for Decisions

The proposed new Early Help Strategy and system model, with Local Family Partnerships at its heart, will put children first, ensuring they receive the integrated Early Help they need, as soon as it is required. In this model, as partner and Council services are increasingly having to focus on families with higher levels of need, an integrated offer will be developed with other community partners taking an increasing role in meeting the more common and less acute needs. The new strategy will enable us to respond to the challenges of reduced public funding and increased demand by more effectively aligning Council resources with those of partners. This will support the longer-term financial sustainability of the Council and partners, as well as improving outcomes for children.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Children and Education Select Committee]

The Cabinet Member for Children introduced the report which described the vision of partners in Surrey being: Children First and that they should be ‘Seen, Safe and Heard’. There was a need to achieve this at a time when Surrey County Council was facing unprecedented funding pressures from rising demand and reductions in central government funding. Early Help, which means providing support as soon as a problem emerges to prevent issues escalating, at any point in a child’s life from early years through to teenage years, had a pivotal role to play in this.

She explained that given the challenging context, to achieve that vision there was a need to work with partners to transform Surrey’s Early Help system, through new integrated approaches to delivering and commissioning services. The Early Help Strategy 2018-22 was a clear call to action for all Surrey partners to work together to ensure Surrey’s children received the right help at the right time, increasing their resilience and ensuring they had safe, nurturing relationships that enabled them to thrive and build the skills they needed for adulthood.

Although Surrey was an affluent county and many children achieved good outcomes, there remained some children who faced significant disadvantage and did less well. The Council’s financial challenge, which demanded £9.7 million savings from Early Help by 2020, presented a real opportunity to re-focus resources on these children who were in greatest need. Through this bold, joint-approach, set out in our Early Help Strategy, the Council could turn-around rising demand for statutory services across public agencies and achieve a sustainable future for Surrey.

Members were informed that this was a draft strategy which would be final once signed off by the Early Help Transformation Programme Board and District/Borough Early Help Advisory Boards. 

It was noted that Table 1 under paragraph 33 of the report should indicate the figures as thousands of pounds (£000’s).

RESOLVED:

1.    That the proposed Early Help Strategy and development of the place-based Local Family Partnership model across Surrey be agreed.

2.    To delegate to the Assistant Director, Commissioning and Prevention, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Children, decision making on any minor changes to the Early Help Strategy arising from discussions at the Early Help Transformation Board and Children and Young People’s Partnership.

3.    That the specific high-level Early Help commitments for Surrey County Council set out below, be endorsed:

·         Transform SCC services through integration with others at a local level;

·         Coordinate partners at county and local levels to implement the Early Help Strategy;

·         Identify children who need Early Help through the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub and provide case management and coordination (with others) for children and families with multiple needs;

·         Commission local, place-based preventative services with our partners; and

·         Maintain a robust joint-understanding with partners of the needs of children and families in Surrey and the impact of Early Help.

Reasons for Decisions

The proposed new Early Help Strategy and system model, with Local Family Partnerships at its heart, will put children first, ensuring they receive the integrated Early Help they need, as soon as it is required. In this model, as partner and Council services are increasingly having to focus on families with higher levels of need, an integrated offer will be developed with other community partners taking an increasing role in meeting the more common and less acute needs. The new strategy will enable us to respond to the challenges of reduced public funding and increased demand by more effectively aligning Council resources with those of partners. This will support the longer-term financial sustainability of the Council and partners, as well as improving outcomes for children.