Initial Climate Change Impact Assessment (Form created August 2021)

The intention of this document is to help the council to gain an initial understanding of the impact of a project or decision on the environment. This document should be completed in consultation with the supporting guidance. Dependent on this initial assessment you may need to go on to complete a full Climate Change Impact Assessment. The final document will be published as part of the decision-making process.

If you have any additional queries, which are not covered by the guidance please email climatechange@northyorks.gov.uk

Title of proposal	Families First Partnership Programme
Brief description of proposal	The Families First Partnership Programme is the Government’s major reform of children’s social care and early help, designed to rebalance the system from crisis intervention towards prevention, early support and family-led solutions. It brings together Early Help and Child in Need services into an integrated Family Help model, strengthens multi-agency child protection through co-located teams, and places greater emphasis on Family Group Decision Making to harness the strengths of family networks. Underpinned by relational practice, evidence-based interventions and stronger partnership working across social care, health, police, education and the voluntary sector, the programme aims to provide the right help at the right time, improve outcomes for children and families, and safely reduce the number of children entering care by supporting more children to remain within their families and communities wherever possible. These reforms require Children’s Services to realign and deliver the requirements set against the programme.
Directorate	CYPS
Service area	Childrens Services
Lead officer	Mel Hutchinson
Names and roles of other people involved in carrying out the impact assessment	N/A

The chart below contains the main environmental factors to consider in your initial assessment – choose the appropriate option from the drop-down list for each one.

Remember to think about the following;

· Travel

· Construction

· Data storage

· Use of buildings

· Change of land use

· Opportunities for recycling and reuse

Environmental factor to consider	For the council	For the county	Overall
Greenhouse gas emissions	Increases emissions	Increases emissions	Increases emissions
Waste	No effect on waste	No effect on waste	No effect on waste
Water use	No effect on water usage	No effect on water usage	No effect on water usage
Pollution (air, land, water, noise, light)	No effect on pollution	No effect on pollution	No effect on pollution
Resilience to adverse weather/climate events (flooding, drought etc)	No effect on resilience	No effect on resilience	No effect on resilience
Ecological effects (biodiversity, loss of habitat etc)	No effect on ecology	No effect on ecology	No effect on ecology
Heritage and landscape	No effect on heritage and landscape	No effect on heritage and landscape	No effect on heritage and landscape

If any of these factors are likely to result in a negative or positive environmental impact then a full climate change impact assessment will be required. It is important that we capture information about both positive and negative impacts to aid the council in calculating its carbon footprint and environmental impact.

Decision (Please tick one option)	Full CCIA not relevant or proportionate:	x	Continue to full CCIA:
Reason for decision	Increasing the number of posts within Children Services will increase travel however, if the reforms reduces the number of children in care this will mean that workers are not travelling outside of North Yorkshire visiting children across the country.
Signed (Assistant Director or equivalent)	Mel Hutchinson
Date	06.07.2026