1. That the expansion of the Surrey Family Support Programme, to include around 1000 families each year between 2015 and 2020, be approved.
2. To agree to work towards the Government’s expanded Troubled Families programme target, with immediate effect.
3. To increase the number of families eligible to join the programme through the criteria set out in the Families Outcomes Plan, attached at Annex 1 to the submitted report.
Reasons for Decisions:
In light of the very good local performance on the first phase of the national Troubled Families Programme, the Council was invited by the Government to be an Early Starter for the new expanded Programme. As part of this, the Council has received additional funding of £651,000 this year with a requirement that an additional 549 families are brought into the local Programme by April 2015. This new funding is to be invested in the staff providing intensive support services to the targeted families. Key to beginning the new Programme is implementing new eligibility criteria on which we are required to consult on with local partners.
In agreeing to the above recommendations, Cabinet will replace the eligibility criteria it agreed for the original Programme in March 2013 with a new set of criteria that will expand the Programme to cover a wider set of families.
Further work is underway to develop agreements with partners over the delivery model of the new service arrangements and these will form part of Surrey participation in the Public Services Transformation Network. The details of these arrangements will be reported to Cabinet in May, once they are concluded. However, in order to begin the new Programme now, a decision is required over the new Outcomes Plan to bring new families into the Programme.
[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Children and Education Select Committee]