North Yorkshire Council

 

Executive

 

14^th July 2026

 

Families First Partnership Programme

 

Report of the Corporate Director – Children and Young People’s Service.

 

 

2.0    SUMMARY

 

2.1     The Families First Partnership Programme (FFPP) is the Government’s flagship reform of children’s social care and early help in response to the MacAllister Review of Children's Social Care (2022). Designed to improve outcomes for children and families through earlier intervention, stronger family networks, and more effective multi‑agency working. It represents a shift from fragmented, threshold‑driven services to a coordinated, whole‑family model of support that prioritises prevention, stability and keeping children safely within their families wherever possible.

2.2     The reforms bring together key system changes, including the introduction of multidisciplinary Family Help teams delivering consistent relational support, co‑located Multi‑Agency Child Protection teams enabling decisive and more proportionate decision‑making, and a strengthened focus on family group decision‑making to harness wider family networks. These are underpinned by system enablers such as improved data sharing, workforce development and integrated practice frameworks, reflecting a whole‑system transformation approach across local authorities, health, police, education and the voluntary sector.

2.3     Nationally, the programme is supported by significant, ring‑fenced grant investment focused on prevention and transformation, with funding explicitly intended to enable local areas to redesign services, increase workforce capacity and embed new models of practice.

2.4     The Council’s early help and social care services for children and families are well established with an embedded Strengths in Relationships practice model. Despite this, significant service redesign will be required to meet the requirements of the reforms and the associated changes to statutory guidance and legislation introduced through the Children’s Wellbeing and School Act 2026. Government require local authorities to have implemented the reforms by the end of March 2027 and Ofsted’s inspection framework has been changed to reflect the reforms.

  2.5    Dedicated grant funding is critical to delivering these reforms as it provides the capacity and flexibility required to reorganise services and shift practice from reactive, high‑cost statutory intervention to earlier, preventative support. The funding is specifically designed to:

• Enable transformation at pace: supporting time‑limited investment in workforce, system redesign and implementation of new delivery models that cannot be achieved within existing base budgets.
• Rebalance the system towards prevention: funding new and redesigned services that intervene earlier, reducing demand for costly late interventions such as residential care.
• Support integrated, multi‑agency delivery: enabling partners to work together through shared teams, aligned processes and joint accountability, which requires upfront investment to establish.
• Drive long‑term sustainability: with the expectation that effective early intervention and strengthened family networks will reduce future demand and create opportunities for reinvestment.

2.6       The grant funding to deliver the reforms is time‑limited; grant conditions require that the investment is targeted, outcomes‑focused and supports the transition to a sustainable new system. There is a clear expectation from Government that the shift to a preventative delivery model will release local authorities’ core budget from a reduction in children in care and high-cost reactive interventions. This approach is intended to support future financial sustainability and a planned exit strategy from the grant that aligns future service demand with the Council’s available resources.

           

3.0       BACKGROUND

 

            National         

 

3.1       The Families First Partnership Programme (FFPP) forms part of the Government’s wider reform agenda for children’s social care and early help, grounded in the ambition to improve outcomes for children and families and reduce the number of children in care through earlier intervention, better coordination of services, and stronger multi‑agency accountability.

 

3.2       The programme promotes a whole‑family, partnership‑based approach, bringing together local authorities, health bodies, education providers, the police, and the voluntary and community sector to simplify how families access support and to reduce fragmentation across services.

 

3.3       Key characteristics of the programme include:

 

·         A shift from episodic or threshold driven intervention towards consistent, relational support from a designated lead practitioner for families

·         Whole family working, designed to wrap multi-disciplinary support around families, removing the need for families to navigate referral pathways or move between services

·         Clear expectations around shared responsibility for vulnerable children and families across local systems.

·         Increased focus on prevention, early help and family stability, with the aim of reducing escalation into statutory social care.

·         Greater alignment between early help, child protection, family support, and safeguarding arrangements.

·         Decisive multi-agency child protection arrangements.

 

3.4       While delivery models are locally determined, the programme establishes a common national direction of travel, including expectations around leadership, workforce capability, service integration and outcomes.

 

3.5       The Families First Partnership Programme aligns with broader reforms and statutory duties, including:

 

·         The Children Act 1989 and subsequent safeguarding legislation.

·         The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026

·         Key statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children

·         The introduction of the Children’s Social Care National Framework

·         The emphasis on place‑based partnership working across public services.

·         National priorities to reduce demand pressure on statutory children’s social care.

·         Financial sustainability pressures across the local government sector.

 

Collectively, these drivers reinforce the requirement for local authorities to move away from siloed service delivery and towards integrated systems that keep children safe through decisive child protection and intervene earlier and more effectively.

 

Implications for Local Authorities

 

3.6       Local authorities are expected to act as system leaders, convening and coordinating partners around shared priorities and outcomes for families. This has implications for:

 

·         Strengthening multi‑agency safeguarding governance arrangements, including clarity of roles, responsibilities and decision‑making.

·         Ensuring alignment between political leadership, senior officers and partner organisations.

·         Maintaining robust oversight of risk, performance and service quality across partnership activity.

 

Local authorities remain ultimately accountable for statutory children’s social care functions, even where delivery is shared with partners.

 

3.7       The programme requires local authorities to review and, where necessary, redesign existing service models to ensure:

 

·         Seamless pathways between early help, family support and statutory interventions.

·         Clear access points and reduced duplication for families.

·         A stronger focus on strengths based, family led practice.

·         Whole family working through multi-disciplinary teams

·         An enhanced early help and preventative offer for families.

·         Decisive multi-agency child protection teams lead decisions and interventions which protect children from abuse and/or neglect.

 

3.8       Successful implementation relies on a workforce that is equipped to work collaboratively across organisational boundaries. This will require investment in workforce development – including new roles for the multi-disciplinary teams, shared training and common practice frameworks as well as consideration of leadership capacity at both strategic and operational levels.

 

3.9       The Families First approach places renewed emphasis on the role of partners, including the voluntary, community and faith sector, including how commissioning strategies support integration and prevention, rather than isolated services.

 

3.10     The aim of the programme is:

·         Improved outcomes for children and families through earlier, more coordinated support.

·         Reduced long term demand on statutory services, particularly a reduction of children in care.

·         Stronger, more resilient local partnerships.

·         Greater clarity and consistency for families navigating support services.

 

3.11     Funding will support the continued implementation of

 

·         Family Help - brings together targeted early help and statutory family support into a single, coherent offer for children, young people and their families. It is designed to intervene earlier, reduce escalation to child protection and care proceedings, and provide consistent, relationship‑based support across agencies. Delivered through a lead practitioner and whole-family working model, Family Help focuses on addressing parental difficulties, improving family functioning and building resilience, with clear thresholds and pathways aligned to safeguarding arrangements.

·         Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams (MACPT) - provides a strengthened, integrated response where children are at risk of significant harm. These teams bring social workers, police, health professionals and other safeguarding partners together in co‑located or highly coordinated arrangements to improve information sharing, joint decision‑making and timely action. The model aims to improve the quality and consistency of child protection practice, reduce duplication, and ensure children are better protected through shared accountability and expertise.

·         Support for family networks - focuses on strengthening the role of extended family and trusted adults in keeping children safe and well. Through approaches such as family group decision‑making, kinship assessments and practical support, FFPP seeks to help families mobilise their own resources before statutory intervention becomes necessary. This element recognises the protective value of strong family and community networks and aims to prevent unnecessary entry into care while promoting stable, family‑based solutions.

 

3.12     Figure 1: DfE’s vision for a reform system of help, support and protection (from Families First Partnership Programme Guide)

           

 

4.0       DETAILED PRESENTATION OF THE SUBSTANTIVE ISSUE

 

4.1       The local government policy statement, published on 20 November 2025, confirmed over £2.4 billion for FFPP over a three-year period (2026-2029) ringfenced for prevention aimed at strengthening partnerships’ ability to identify and respond to harms inside and outside the home, ensuring children and families receive support to stay safely together.

 

4.2       The grant headroom outlined in section 6 of this report indicates available grant of £2.2m in 2026-27 and 2027-28 and £1.4m in 2028-29. Any spending proposals will need to acknowledge the reduction of funding in 2028-29 and, on current information, funding will cease from April 2029. A clear exit strategy will be required which recognises the grant funding profile, the impact of local implementation of reforms on caseloads and activity levels, and whether the extent to which the reforms, alongside sufficiency proposals, have reduced, or are forecast to reduce, children in care and expensive placements. This paper proposes a spending plan for the first two years of the programme. It is intended to report to Executive in September 2027 to provide a progress update on the impact of the programme and outline an exit strategy for 2028-29 and beyond, taking into account the learning from the programme.

 

4.3       Proposals for the use of the FFPP grant headroom, and alignment with the national reform and Ofsted requirements have been considered.

 

4.4       The Families First grant is a ringfenced, time-limited fund provided to support the delivery of nationally mandated children’s social care reforms, including Family Help, multi-agency child protection and strengthened family network approaches. Funding must be used to drive system transformation and increased investment in early intervention and prevention, with clear expectations of robust governance, performance monitoring and delivery against national outcomes. As the grant is non-recurrent, it requires local authorities to ensure that investment reduces demand, improves sufficiency and delivers a sustainable service model that can be maintained within core funding beyond the life of the programme.

 

            The proposed increase in workforce capacity reflects the requirements of the national Families First Partnership Programme and associated grant conditions, which require local authorities and safeguarding partners to expand multidisciplinary Family Help and Multi-Agency Child Protection arrangements. The reforms are predicated on increasing access to specialist interventions, expertise and intensive support at an earlier stage to prevent escalation of need. This includes additional social work, safeguarding, education and family help capacity to provide timely intervention, strengthen family resilience and support children to remain safely within their family and community networks wherever possible. The additional staffing therefore represents transformation capacity required to bolster early intervention, shift the system to one of prevention and deliver nationally mandated reforms.

 

4.5       The planned investment is proposed to build capacity within the workforce now in preparation for service reorganisation and implementation of the reformed model. The additional posts are intended to enable more intensive and effective support for children and families, reduce caseload pressures, improve the quality of relational practice and increase access to specialist expertise. The intended outcome is improved outcomes for children, reduced escalation into statutory intervention and care, and a reduction in reliance on high-cost specialist provision. As demand reduces, resources can be redirected from reactive and specialist interventions to sustain Family Help and preventative services, supporting long-term financial sustainability.

 

            Table 1 sets out the planned investment in 2026-27 and 2027-28.

 

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

Table 1

 

           

 

4.6       The planned investment is proposed to build capacity within the workforce now in preparation for service reorganisation in the latter part of 2026 and implementation of a reformed delivery model by March 2027.

 

 

            Exit Strategy

 

There is a need for an exit strategy, this is underpinned by a planned reduction in recurrent spend to align with the tapering and cessation of grant funding by April 2029. This will be achieved through a deliberate shift in placement sufficiency and demand management. There is currently a cohort of children placed in high-cost external provision outside North Yorkshire, with approximately half of those placements exceeding £500k per child, per annum and the remainder ranging between £800k and £1.5m. The service has a clear and deliverable strategy to safely step children down and return them to local provision at a lower cost, supported by investment in a sufficiency strategy to increase local homes for children.

 

4.7       In parallel, the programme’s focus on early help and family-led support aims to reduce the number of children entering care and the overall demand for statutory intervention. As demand reduces, resources can be redirected to sustain preventative and edge-of-care services within the existing funding envelope.

 

4.8       Together, these measures will reduce reliance on high-cost placements, lower overall expenditure, and create a sustainable service model that can be delivered within core funding beyond 2029, without continued reliance on grant funding.

 

5.0       IMPACT ON OTHER SERVICES/ORGANISATIONS

 

5.1       FFPP reforms will require stronger partnership working. Statutory safeguarding partners already share a statutory duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The local authority will need to work with colleagues in health, police, education providers, childcare settings and other agencies to meet the needs of their communities, including how reform will be delivered, resourced and designed to meet local context.

 

5.2       All safeguarding partners are expected to consider how existing resource can be reorganised and sustained to achieve reform goals in the long term. All partners are expected to be able to evidence delivery of reforms through quarterly monitoring data and delivery plans, signed off by lead safeguarding partners and submitted to the local authority.

 

6.0       FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

 

6.1       While the programme places strong emphasis on prevention and reducing future demand, in the short to medium term, the following aspects are required and are reported to DfE:

 

·         Upfront investment requirements - local planning of multi-agency child protection team and family help implementation approaches, service redesign, and strengthening systems and processes.

·         Delivery of programme outcomes, as measured by the four outcomes of the Children’s Social Care National Framework:

o   Outcome 1: children, young people and families stay together and get the help they need

o   Outcome 2: children and young people are supported by their family network

o   Outcome 3: children and young people are safe in and outside of their homes

o   Outcome 4: children in care and care leavers have stable, loving homes

 

6.2       In a joint letter (18 December 2025) from the Department for Education, Department of Health and Social Care, and Home Office, ministers indicated that additional funding “must add to – not displace – existing investment in prevention”. The grant conditions stipulate that:        “New investment into FFP is not designed to displace existing prevention funding (such as targeted early help and child in need services and any other non-statutory spending). FFP funding must be used alongside existing prevention spend to provide additional investment. Department for Education (DfE) will monitor this through asking local authorities to provide additional spend data through the quarterly FFP monitoring returns to ensure existing prevention spend is not displaced, and that overall spend is starting to rebalance the system.” The full grant conditions are outlined in Appendix A.

 

6.3       Funding is issued with conditions and grant expectations. FFPP is ringfenced for spend on prevention and allocated to local authorities through a new Children, Families and Youth Grant. The majority of the grant is expected to be used to fund new and updated services with full operational delivery of reformed services by March 2027.

 

6.4       North Yorkshire Early Help Service is already delivering a significant and demonstrable impact for children and families, improving outcomes while providing a cost-effective alternative to statutory intervention. In 2025/26, Early Help supported and closed 6,441 children, with only 757 children requiring escalations to social work services. This resulted in 5,684 children being successfully supported without the need for statutory intervention, evidencing a strong preventative service. This approach not only strengthens families and reduces escalation but also directly mitigates demand for high-cost care provision, reinforcing Early Help (Family Help) as both a values-led and financially sustainable model of support.

 

6.4       The Children, Families and Youth Grant consolidates former funding streams, including the 2025-26 Children and Families Grant, into one single consolidated grant including:

 

 

 

 

 

           

	2026-27 £	2027-28 £	2028-29 £
Families First Partnership Funding	5,292,395	5,292,395	4,520,227
Holiday Activities and Food Programme	1,514,320	1,440,800	1,440,800
Pupil Premium Plus Post-16	70,023	70,023	70,023
TOTAL	6,876,738	6,803,218	6,031,050

 

 

6.5       The Families First Partnership Programme comprises the following former and new grant funding streams:

           

	2026-27 £	2027-28 £	2028-29 £
Supporting Families	1,833,800	1,833,800	1,833,800
Prevention Grant	1,222,820	1,222,820	1,222,820
New FFPP funding	2,235,775	2,235,775	1,463,607
TOTAL	5,292,395	5,292,395	4,520,227

 

6.6       Whilst the Supporting Families (Children and Families Grant in 2025-26) and Prevention Grant have been established funding streams prior to 2026-27 and therefore, committed costs exist against those funding streams, the “New FFPP funding” represents £2.2m grant headroom in both 2026-27 and 2027-28 and grant headroom of £1.4m in 2028-29.

 

6.7       The FFPP funding allocation covers the period 2026 through 2029. The funding reduces in 2028-29 and there is an expectation from the Department for Education that as the intended impact of the FFPP reforms begin to emerge, that local authorities invest savings from a reduction in the number of children in care and associated costs into the continuation of FFPP delivery.

 

6.8       The Families First Partnership Programme should be viewed as a strategic invest-to-transform programme. The time-limited grant provides local authorities with the opportunity to make upfront investment in workforce capacity, service redesign, multi-agency integration and family network support that would not be achievable through existing budgets alone. The expectation is that this transformation investment generates downstream savings through reductions in children entering care, lower demand for high-cost statutory interventions, improved placement sufficiency and greater use of family-based solutions such as kinship care and fostering. These savings can then be reinvested to sustain Family Help and preventative services, creating a virtuous cycle of improved outcomes, reduced demand and greater financial resilience

 

6.9       Spending will be monitored by DfE through quarterly returns and structured engagement. Where areas do not demonstrate expected progress, DfE will provide an enhanced level of support and challenge to enable effective implementation of reformed services and improved outcomes for children and families. Where local authorities are found not to be adhering to grant conditions, MHCLG will consider whether there has been a failure to meet the Best Value duty. Local authorities may also receive support via DfEs Children’s Social Care (CSC) Improvement and Intervention programme, including CSC Improvements Teams and Expert Advisers.

 

6.10     Through its Inspecting Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) statutory framework Ofsted has already made changes and confirmed that it will take account of the implementation and impact of the reforms when inspecting, while still evaluating the experiences and progress of children. It is anticipated that Ofsted will consult during 2026 on wider reforms to the ILACS framework to wholly align with the government’s reform programme for implementation in April 2027.

 

 

7.0       LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

 

7.1       The Families First Partnership Programme is the mechanism for supporting local authorities to achieve the new statutory requirements and sits squarely alongside legislation and statutory guidance including:

·         Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026: statutory guidance

·         Children’s social care: national framework

·         Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026

·         Children Act 1989 – duties relating to Children in Need (s17) and Child Protection and significant harm (s47)

·         Children Act 2004 – duty to co-operate to improve outcomes for children (s10) and, make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children (s11)

 

7.2       FFPP is framed as supporting safeguarding partners to discharge these duties differently and more effectively through:

·         Family help as a continuum of statutory early help and CIN

·         Multi-agency child protection arrangements

·         Stronger use of family networks

 

7.3       The Ofsted Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) framework was updated in March 2026 to reflect the expectations of the FFPP, new legislation and changes to statutory guidance.

 

 

8.0       EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS

 

8.1       An equalities screening form has been completed. A full equalities impact assessment was not considered proportionate at this point as the additional investment should not result in any adverse implications. However, it will be appropriate to review equalities implications through pilot approaches and the formal progress review and exit planning arrangements.

 

9.0       CLIMATE CHANGE IMPLICATIONS

 

9.1       A climate change screening form has been completed.

 

10.0     PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

 

10.1     Practitioners across early help and children’s social care provide the intensive direct work and interventions with children and families that facilitate actions and change to keep children safe and address the difficulties families are experiencing. To achieve successful performance, practitioners require sufficient capacity to work relationally and intensively with families. 

National guidance for children’s social care does not set a fixed or maximum caseload number for social workers. Instead, it emphasises that caseloads must be manageable, safe and proportionate for the complexity of work, with professional judgement used locally to determine appropriate levels.

            While no formal cap exists, national datasets provide context through benchmarking. The average caseload across England is typically around 15–16 children per social worker, although this varies by area, service type and complexity of need. For example, social workers supporting children through child protection and edge-of-care interventions should work with fewer children to reflect the intensity and complexity of the work required with the family to secure positive outcomes.

     The key national expectation is therefore not a number, but a standard of practice:

• Caseloads must enable effective, relational practice, allowing social workers sufficient time to build relationships, undertake quality assessments and respond to risk.
• Workload decisions should reflect complexity, risk and experience, rather than simply the volume of children.
• Managers are responsible for active caseload management, including allocation, oversight and preventing overload at individual and team level.
• Newly qualified social workers should have reduced caseloads, particularly in their first two years of practice, in line with early career expectations.

10.2   The national policy direction (including the Children’s Social Care National Framework) reinforces that social work is a complex, high‑risk profession requiring time for purposeful practice, and therefore workload must be structured to support quality decision‑making, reflective supervision and positive outcomes for children and families.

10.3 Whilst the proposed increase in workforce capacity will increase the Council’s establishment during the period of reform, it should be recognised that this reflects the requirements of the national Families First Partnership Programme and associated grant conditions, which require local authorities and safeguarding partners to invest in additional multidisciplinary capacity, specialist expertise and Family Help provision. The proposals contained within this report are limited to the available grant headroom and represent the investment considered necessary to deliver the reforms and support implementation by March 2027.

National and Regional average social worker caseloads demonstrate a reducing trend over the last five years. Conversely, North Yorkshire Council’s caseloads have increased, moving from a position of being below the regional and national caseload averages in 2020/2021 to being significantly above since 2023:

		2025	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020
England		15.2	15.4	16.0	16.6	16.3	16.3
Yorkshire and The Humber	Yorkshire and The Humber	15.9	15.8	16.5	17.0	16.9	16.9
	North Yorkshire Council	18.2	18.5	18.8	16.7	15.4	15.7

 

 

 

10.4     In North Yorkshire there is variability across teams with particular pressure in FAST and Permanence teams. The current average caseloads are:

 

·         23 children for experienced social workers

·         20 children for newly qualified social workers

·         18 children for practitioners training to be social workers

 

10.5     These remain above optimal levels and reflect sustained demand pressures over recent years. Despite ongoing management of performance, caseload trends have remained elevated, limiting capacity for high-quality, relational practice. The proposed additional provision will support delivery of the Families First Programme by building capacity and reducing overall caseloads in readiness for implementation of the reforms, enabling more effective intervention with children and families and improving outcomes. This investment is critical to stabilising the workforce, reducing persistent demand and transitioning to a more sustainable, prevention-led model of service delivery.

 

10.6     National and regional benchmark data demonstrates that North Yorkshire’s average caseloads remain above both national and regional averages. The primary purpose of the additional workforce investment is to create the capacity required for intensive, relationship-based interventions with children and families, supporting enhanced preventative impact and effective delivery of the national reforms through reduced practitioner caseloads. Lower caseloads enable practitioners to spend more time undertaking direct work, engaging wider family networks, providing timely support and implementing evidence-informed interventions that address difficulties before they escalate. This increases the likelihood of children remaining safely within their families and communities, reducing the need for child protection escalation, care proceedings and entry into care. In turn, fewer children requiring care placements generates both cashable savings and significant cost avoidance, particularly through reduced expenditure on external residential placements and other high-cost provision. The grant investment therefore supports both improved outcomes for children and long-term financial sustainability through prevention-led demand reduction and will be deployed in those areas experiencing the greatest demand pressures and where the reforms are expected to have the greatest impact.

 

 

11.0     RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS

 

11.1     Key risks include:

 

·         Insufficient partner engagement or buyin.

·         Capacity constraints within the local authority or partner organisations.

·         Challenges in evidencing impact within required timescales.

·         Misalignment between national expectations and local delivery realities.

·         Grant funding profile reduces in 2028-29 and potentially ceases from April 2029.

 

 

12.0     HUMAN RESOURCES IMPLICATIONS

 

12.1     This is an already difficult market to recruit in, so in the short-term agency resource may be required to fill some of the posts, in particular Social Workers. Also, in most cases permanent contracts will need to be offered as fixed term contracts will not attract quality candidates.

 

12.2     As already indicated this is temporary funding over a three-year period so an exit plan will need to be agreed by July 2027 for implementation in September 2027, allowing for consultation with any affected post holders, contractual notice to be given and due HR policies followed. Some of this may be resolved by natural attrition and turnover.

 

12.3     A contingency fund will need to be reserved to pay for redundancy and pension costs if appropriate.

 

12.4     The type and number of posts maybe reviewed early next year as it is expected that due to the suite of national reforms, in particular; Families First, Best Start in Life, Regional Care Cooperatives and the Council’s Sufficiency Project that the overall structure within Children and Families will need to be reviewed and will be subject to the HR reorganisation and Redundancy policy.

 

12.5     Because of the above factors it is also requested that funding be set aside to increase capacity over the duration of this programme within the CYPS HR and Resourcing team.

 

12.6     It is also advised that Unison is briefed on a regular basis as this programme progresses, enabling awareness and the ability to address their members concerns as and when they arise.

 

 

13.0     CONCLUSIONS

 

13.1     The Families First Partnership Programme represents a significant shift in the way support for children and families is designed and delivered. For local authorities, it reinforces their strategic leadership role while requiring changes to governance, service models, workforce arrangements and partnership working.

 

13.2     Successful implementation will depend on sustained commitment, strong relationships with partners, and a clear focus on outcomes for children, young people and families.

 

13.3     The proposals outlined in this report represent planned investment in order to plan, deliver and embed the reforms.

 

14.0     REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

 

14.1     Delivering FFPP in line with national guidance and grant conditions ensures that funding drives a consistent, evidence based model of reform across children’s services. The guidance sets clear expectations for system change and outcomes, while the ringfenced grant requires demonstrable delivery of these reforms.

 

14.2     This alignment strengthens accountability, enables effective monitoring, and supports joined up multi agency delivery, ensuring a seamless system of help, support and protection for children and families.

 

14.3     Ultimately, it ensures that investment leads to measurable impact—improving early help, reducing escalation, and enabling more children to remain safely within their families.

 

15.0

RECOMMENDATIONS

i) To approve the spending plan set out in Section 4 of this report.   ii) To approve delegation to the Corporate Director – Children and Young People’s Service in conjunction with the Corporate Director – Resources, to make further spending decisions within the available grant headroom in order to meet the aims and objectives of the Families First Partnership Programme and alignment with new legislation, statutory guidance and Ofsted requirements.   iii) To receive a further report in September 2027 setting out progress and plans for 2028-29 and subsequent financial years including appropriate exit and financial sustainability plans.

 

            APPENDICES:

 

            Appendix A – Children, Families and Youth Grant - Grant conditions

            Appendix B – Equalities impact assessment

            Appendix C – Climate change impact assessment

 

 

BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS:

 

 

 

El Mayhew

Corporate Director – Children and Young People’s Service

County Hall

Northallerton

 

 

Report Author – Mel Hutchinson, Assistant Director Children and Families

Presenter of Report – as above

 

 

Note: Members are invited to contact the author in advance of the meeting with any detailed queries or questions.

 

PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT IF ANY REPORTS / APPENDICES INCLUDE SIGNATURES THESE MUST BE REMOVED / DELETED PRIOR TO SENDING REPORTS / APPENDICES TO DEMOCRATIC SERVICES.  Appendices should include an Equality Impact Assessment and a Climate Impact Assessment where appropriate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

APPENDIX A – CHILDREN, FAMILIES AND YOUTH GRANT – GRANT CONDITIONS

 

Families First Partnership

Use of the Funding

1. The Families First Partnership (FFP) programme funding is ringfenced for direct investment into the national implementation of Family Help, multi-agency child protection teams and support for family networks. This will support local authorities to rebalance spending away from accommodating children in care and increase spend on prevention, creating a virtuous circle and moving funding to a more sustainable footing.

2. New investment into FFP is not designed to displace existing prevention funding (such as targeted early help and child in need services and any other non-statutory spending). FFP funding must be used alongside existing prevention spend to provide additional investment. Department for Education (DfE) will monitor this through asking local authorities to provide additional spend data through the quarterly FFP monitoring returns to ensure existing prevention spend is not displaced, and that overall spend is starting to rebalance the system.

3. Adherence to the FFP grant conditions and prioritising prevention is crucial to local government sustainability. Where government becomes aware that an authority is not adhering to FFP grant conditions, MHCLG and DfE will facilitate engagement with that authority to obtain assurance. Where there is evidence that failure to adhere to grant conditions has had a negative impact on children’s services, and that this is a result of systemic weakness in leadership, governance and culture, MHCLG will consider whether there has been a failure to meet the Best Value duty. DfE may also engage with authorities through its improvement and interventions programme.

4. The FFP programme aligns with the government’s vision for transformation across children’s social care (CSC) and is expected to realise the four outcomes of the Children’s Social Care National Framework:

·         Outcome 1: children, young people and families stay together and get the help they need

·         Outcome 2: children and young people are supported by their family network

·         Outcome 3: children and young people are safe in and outside of their homes

·         Outcome 4: children in care and care leavers have stable, loving homes

 

5. Effective prevention through Family Help, multi-agency child protection teams and support for family networks will be fundamental to reducing the number of children entering care and increasing the number of children living safely with their families. Where care is needed, family networks should be further drawn in, to consider how they can offer practical short term or longer term support, through informal arrangements or through more formal kinship routes. Beyond that every effort should be made to place a child in a family setting through effective use of foster care, using residential only in exceptional cases when it is deemed to offer the most appropriate support for the child. Local authorities should consider how to use their fostering offer as part of their broader prevention working, including through new approaches. The expected reduction in residential placements through focused prevention and improved use of kinship and fostering, will generate better outcomes and further savings for reinvestment.

6. FFP funding is intended to support local areas to build on local planning undertaken in year one of the programme (2025-26) to fund remaining transformation activity. However, DfE expects the majority of the grant to fund delivery of new and updated services, as set out in local delivery plans, using the best available evidence including Practice Guides.

7. Together with safeguarding partners, all local authorities will complete remaining transformation activity and begin or continue delivery of new services in 2026-27 (year two of the programme) with the expectation of fully operational services by March 2027 across all localities, ahead of year three.

8. Local authorities should apply funding to continue to deliver services that meet the policy principles set out in the FFP programme guide and are delivered in line with relevant statutory guidance, including Working Together to Safeguard Children and the National Framework, to:

·         Strengthen their Family Help offer in collaboration with safeguarding partners, by bringing together local services under a combined, multi-disciplinary practice team and seamless offer. This means ensuring join up between the non-statutory (targeted early help) and statutory components of Family Help (Section 17 of Children Act 1989) to wrap support around the family at the earliest opportunity, streamline re-assessment points and ensure consistency of relationships by establishing the role of the Family Help Lead Practitioner. Priority must be given to offering help that is well evidenced to achieve change for families using Practice Guides where they exist.

·         Work with safeguarding partners to deliver multi-agency child protection reform, including through establishing multi-agency child protection teams, with embedded social worker Lead Child Protection Practitioners, health, police and education practitioners and other agencies according to local needs.

·         Incorporate systemic use of family group decision-making and family network support packages to make greater use of family networks. Where it is in the best interests of the child, local partnerships should ensure that the offer of family group decision-making is made as early as possible and repeat the offer as a child’s needs and the support they receive changes.

 

9. The above includes compliance with the measures set out in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill^{[footnote 2]}:

·         offer a family group decision-making meeting at the pre-proceedings stage, where that is in the child’s best interests

·         safeguarding partners to establish multi-agency child protection teams

 

10. Funding can also be used to complete transformation such as:

·         Increase leadership capacity across the partnership to engage with reforms, in addition to funding core transformation posts to bolster project and programme management expertise.

·         Actively engage a diverse range of children and families, including those with experience of child protection and the care system.

·         Use their Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements (MASA) to discuss and agree their approach. DfE expects local authorities to work with health and police (as Lead and Delegated Safeguarding Partners) and other key partners to further strengthen multi-agency working to support families and protect children. Local authorities can use this funding to support other local partners to deliver transformation and/or implementation activity for these reforms.

·         The selected Kinship Zone local authorities will receive significant investment the Kinship Zone grant agreement to provide financial allowances to kinship carers – this offsets any funding those local authorities already spend on their existing kinship allowance offer. The Kinship Zone local authorities are encouraged to spend some of this grant funding to deliver family network support packages in their local areas.

 

Delivery expectations

11. Current preventative services should continue until local authorities can implement new services. This should ensure a continuation of targeted, whole family support to help children and families overcome challenges at the earliest opportunity.

12. New and expanded service delivery must be underpinned by:

·         The National Framework’s outcomes and enablers, which are foundational to good practice in children’s social care. Leaders and practitioners should be led by high quality evidence of ‘what works’ to achieve the outcomes set out in the National Framework. This includes the use of Practice Guides. Please see the FFP programme guide for further details.

·         Data systems that enable and advance reforms, by facilitating effective data collection and information sharing across agencies. As part of the transformation, the FFP reforms may, therefore, require significant changes to case management systems (CMS). DfE has engaged with CMS suppliers, pathfinders, and specialists to create technical guidance to support initial system changes needed to support FFP reforms.

 

13. In 2026-27, Families First for Children (FFC) Pathfinder areas must align their local delivery with the FFP national programme guide and to the timetable set out in paragraph 7 above and support the ongoing FFC evaluation.

Reporting and accountability

14. Local authorities must demonstrate how they are delivering all aspects of the reforms with their safeguarding partners, via programme reporting.

15. DfE will monitor implementation in 2026-27 and, where necessary, provide a more enhanced level of support and challenge to those areas that do not demonstrate expected levels of delivery progress. Recipients must engage with DfE on matters related to delivery progress and their expected trajectory each quarter.

16. Local authorities must participate in all mandatory programme data collections and reporting requirements:

a. FFP quarterly programme monitoring data collection began in Q2 of 2025-26 with initial metrics and guidance set out in the programme reporting guidance document. There may be some small amendments to the collection including the addition of multi-agency focused metrics and capturing the experience of children and families, to enable a fuller picture of programme progress. It is expected that this data collection will continue until March 2028.

b. Spend data through the quarterly FFP monitoring returns to ensure existing prevention spend is not displaced, and to monitor an expected shift from spending on care to spending on Family Help. Government will also monitor spend through the Local Outcomes Framework in due course.

c. Reports on FFP delivery plan progress, which in turn should be developed with, and agreed by, their local safeguarding partnership.

17. DfE encourages local authorities to participate in the voluntary targeted early help data collection (TEHADC). TEHADC is a key part of the FFP data strategy which will enable DfE to monitor and evaluate the reforms. The collection and each data item in it are voluntary, however DfE will be working towards making the data collection mandatory in future. The first collection period will be 1 April 2026, and run until 31 July 2026.

18. Local authorities may also be offered the opportunity to work with DfE to test and evaluate innovative fostering practices, linked to prevention. Local authorities should co-operate with DfE as far as possible.

Holidays Activities and Food

Use of the Funding

19. The Holiday Activities and Food programme (HAF) funding is ringfenced for local authorities to make free places at holiday clubs available in the Easter 2026, Summer 2026 and Christmas 2026 holidays to children in their local authority who meet the eligibility as set out in HAF programme guidance; and build capacity to deliver a sufficient and sustainable school aged childcare system.

20. Local authorities must have due regard to related guidance issued by DfE, including for Holiday Activities and Food Programme and School Age Childcare: Local Authority Capacity Funding.

Delivery of HAF

21. Local authorities must fund HAF provision across the core periods of Easter, summer & Christmas and have some discretion to go further to deliver in half terms, as set out in guidance. Local authorities have flexibility about how they spend this grant and deliver this provision to best serve the needs of the children and families in their areas, but provision should remain in line with the eligibility, core offer and framework of standards set out in our programme guidance. Further information for local authorities is available on gov.uk: Holiday Activities and Food Programme.

22. All provision funded by the local authority through the HAF programme must meet the framework of standards, including quality assurance, as outlined in the programme guidance.

23. Local authorities are expected to use no more than 7.5% of their HAF funding allocation to cover the administration costs of the local coordination for the HAF programme, as set out in the programme guidance. DfE has agreed to give further flexibility in exceptional cases and relevant LAs have been notified. This total figure can be found in the column titled ‘Of which: expected HAF programme and admin spend’ Holiday activities and food and local authority capacity support: 2026 financial year allocations - GOV.UK. This means that 92.5% of expenditure is expected to be spent on the provision of free holiday club places for eligible children. DfE recognises that administration costs may represent a higher proportion of expenditure for smaller local authorities and have notified smaller authorities in writing of the maximum they are expected to spend on local administration costs. These costs are expected to be separate to the local authority capacity funding, and this is broken down separately.

24. Local authorities are expected to use no more than 15% of their HAF funding allocation, once the LA Capacity spend amount has been deducted from their total allocation, to provide free or subsidised places for school-aged children who do not meet the eligibility criteria but who the local authority believe could benefit from HAF provision. Local authorities should ensure that these places are aligned to their local priorities. Local authorities must have in place a nominated HAF coordinator who takes responsibility within the local authority for the strategic oversight and delivery of the HAF programme in line with the expectations set out in HAF guidance including on mapping demand, commissioning, quality assurance and partnership working. The level of resource in the local authority should be proportionate to the level of funding received. Each HAF coordinator must engage with the support offer provided by DfE as set out in the “Support for local authorities” section of the HAF guidance. The HAF coordinator should work closely with the local authorities nominated school-age childcare lead (where different) to maximise efficiencies and join-up between different types of holiday provision.

25. Local authorities must produce and maintain a central register of all the providers they fund through their HAF programme and make this available to DfE upon request. This register should include the venue name, address, contact details and named key contacts along with an overview of the dates, times and the nature of activities during holiday periods. The register should be provided to DfE by 30th June 2026 (HAF 2026-27).

Capacity funding for School Aged Childcare

26. As part of the HAF allocation, the government is providing local authorities with £12.9 million of additional funding in the 2026 to 2027 financial year to support their capacity to deliver a sufficient and sustainable School Age Childcare system. Local authorities must have in place a nominated school-age childcare lead with responsibility within the local authority for  strategic oversight of the local school aged childcare market  - including driving supply and increasing awareness of local provision - so that provision of school aged childcare in their local area meets the needs of parents and carers, and children, consistent with their legal duty under Childcare Act 2006 to secure sufficient childcare. School-age childcare leads should designate appropriate proportions of their time to the activities set out in supporting guidance which local authorities must have due regard to, including supporting schools in preparing for and establishing free breakfast clubs and maximising the sufficiency and sustainability of existing and new SAC provision. The grant recipient must engage with the DfE’s sufficiency support offer as appropriate.

27. Where there is evidence that local authorities have not met expectations associated with HAF administration costs and Local Authority Capacity funding, DfE will engage with local authorities to understand why and seek to address this.

UK Government Branding

28. The grant recipient shall always during and following the end of the Funding Period:

a. comply with requirements of the Branding Manual in relation to the Funded Activities found at HM Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Branding Manual Funded by UK Government first published by the Cabinet Office in November 2022, including any subsequent updates from time to time.

b. comply with requests from DfE to use and / or cease use of the Funded by UK Government logo on demand;

c. adhere to the UK Government Branding Policy Guidance available at 2022-06-01-UKG-Branding-Grants-Policy-Guidance-v1.0.pdf (civilservice.gov.uk)

Payment and reporting arrangements

29. By 1 May 2027 local authorities must provide DfE with a Statement of Expenditure and Certificate of Grant Usage which details the cost of the HAF programme, and total Local Authority Capacity expenditure, confirmed by the nominated responsible officer.

30. In advance of each holiday delivery period, DfE will inform local authorities of the date for the submission of HAF data returns and will provide them with a template for the submission. The template will also set out what information and data the grant recipient is required to report on with core elements set out in the programme guidance.

31. Local authorities must ensure that the data and information it collects, and the data and information collected by the holiday clubs it funds, will be collected in strict adherence to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

32. Local authorities must provide an annual report on their HAF programme to DfE by 30th June 2027 and will be published on their HAF website or webpages. Further detail is set out in the “Annual Report” section of the programme guidance.

33. Local authorities will work with DfE and with any support organisation appointed to work on behalf of DfE in relation to the monitoring and delivery of the HAF Programme.

34. Local authorities must have a HAF website or dedicated pages on local authorities’ websites for their HAF programme in line with the programme guidance.

Data collection

35. Local authorities must comply with the collection of data that DfE requires and is set out in the accompanying HAF programme guidance.

36. Local authorities must provide school-age childcare data and evidence to DfE as required, in line with expectations set out in the accompanying school-age childcare guidance. This will include, but is not limited to, the Wraparound Childcare data collection process.

37. Local authorities must comply with requests from DfE to undertake additional data collection during the grant recipient’s.

38. DfE may publish data on participation and expenditure, including breakdowns of this data at local authority level.

Records

39. Local authorities must maintain reliable, accessible and up to date accounting records with an adequate audit trail for all expenditure funded by grant monies under this Determination.

40. Local authorities and any person acting on behalf of the grant recipient must allow:

a. the Comptroller and Auditor General or appointed representatives, or

b. the Secretary of State for Education or appointed representatives, free access at all reasonable times to all documents (including computerised documents and data) and other information as are connected to the grant payable under this Determination, or to the purposes for which grant was used.

41. The documents, data and information referred to in these conditions are such which the Secretary of State for Education or the Comptroller and Auditor General may reasonably require for the purposes of ‘spot checking’ administrative costs or significant amounts paid under the Scheme or a financial audit of any department or other public body or for carrying out examinations into the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which any department or other public body has used its resources. Local authorities must provide such further explanations as are reasonably required for these purposes. These conditions do not constitute a requirement for the examination, certification or inspection of the accounts of the grant recipient by the Comptroller and Auditor General under section 6(3) of the National Audit Act 1983. The Secretary of State for Education and Comptroller and Auditor General will seek access in a measured manner to minimise any burden on the grant recipient and will avoid duplication of effort by seeking and sharing information with local auditors.

Financial procedures and reporting

42. Local authorities must maintain a sound system of internal financial controls. If the grant recipient has any grounds for suspecting financial irregularity in the use of any grant paid under this Determination, it must notify DfE immediately, explain what steps are being taken to investigate the suspicion and keep DfE informed about the progress of the investigation. For these purposes “financial irregularity” includes fraud or other impropriety, mismanagement, and the use of grant for purposes other than those for which it was provided.

Breach of Conditions and withholding future funding

43. If the grant recipient fails to comply with any of these conditions, or if any overpayment is made under this grant, or any amount is paid in error, the Minister  may reduce, suspend or withhold grant payments or require the repayment of the whole or any part of the grant monies paid, as may be determined by the Minister (in consultation with the Secretary of State for Education) and notified in writing to the recipient authority. Such sum as has been notified will immediately become repayable to the Minister who may offset the sum against any future amount due to the recipient authority from central government.

44. Local authorities will be notified of any identified underspend of funding which will be repayable to the Minister.

45. This fund can only be utilised for the period 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027.