Supporting Families Programme - Print version

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Introduction

Supporting Families launched in March 2021 and builds on the previous Troubled Families programme. Its focus is on building the resilience of vulnerable families, and on driving system change so that every area has joined up, efficient local services which are able to identify families in need and provide the right support at the right time.

The Supporting Families Programme Changes 2022 and beyond [https://youtu.be/TVq_gqkSMMw] - Video recording of Coventry's Presentation

Supporting Families will continue to focus on providing targeted interventions for families with complex interconnected problems. These problems include unemployment and financial instability, poor school attendance, mental and physical health problems, involvement in crime and antisocial behaviour, domestic abuse and poor family relationships, children who are at risk of abuse and exploitation, substance misuse and insecure housing. The four key principles of Supporting Families remain early intervention, whole family working, multi-agency working and measuring outcomes and data

The vision is to ensure that those families who need support get it at the right point, in the right way, as early as possible. Great things happen when families build on their strengths, call on their support networks and tackle their problems head-on and early on. Children, parents and carers are most able to build resilience with services at their side who know them well and can offer trusted guidance.

At its heart, the national programme then and now, is about locally delivered early help for families, led by the keyworkers and local partners who know their areas and families best.

At a local level

Coventry is fully committed to Supporting Families and has embedded the principles of the programme into all aspects of practice and policy across Children’s Services. Working with children and families adopting a strengths-based approach to whole family working, ensuring families receive the right help at the right time and that children and families are encouraged and empowered to become more resilient is at the heart of everything we do.

Coventry has a clear focus on achieving outcomes for children and families that are sustainable into the future, embedded on a foundation of strong supportive connections and stretching aspirations based on the Supporting Families headline criteria. 

 Read each headline criteria to find out more about it and how you can support families with that need:

  1. Getting a good education  [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/file/40556/headline-1]
  2. Good early years development  [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/file/40557/headline-2]
  3. Improved mental and physical health  [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/file/40558/headline-3]
  4. Promoting recovery and reducing harm from substance misuse  [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/file/40559/headline-4]
  5. Improve family relations  [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/file/40560/headline-5]
  6. Child safe from abuse and exploitation  [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/file/40561/headline-6]
  7. Crime prevention and tackling crime  [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/file/40562/headline-7]
  8. Safe from domestic abuse [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/file/40563/headline-8]
  9. Secure housing [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/file/40564/headline-9]
  10. Financial stability [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/file/40565/headline-10]

Do you need to know more about the Supporting Families Programme and what it means for you and your work? A recorded presentation with Nicola Martin-Jones; Performance & Improvement Manager for Coventry City Council’s Help & Protection Children’s Services is now available to help you navigate the programme and learn more about the headline criteria and outcomes that children and families should be achieving as part of our work.

It is recommended that this recording be part of new staff induction and then act as a refresher moving forward.

How to start and complete the Supporting Families Outcome Plan (SFOP)

If you have any questions about the Supporting Families Programme, please email either:

Further information about Early Help in Coventry [http://www.coventry.gov.uk/earlyhelp].

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