Families First for Children Programme

Pathway to Support

Families First Partnership Monthly Update

Welcome to the first monthly Families First Partnership update for Telford and Wrekin. This newsletter brings together key updates from across the partnership, including progress, workforce developments, and what comes next as we continue to deliver system reform.

A critical purpose of this update is to provide a clear line of sight from governance through to practice. Content reflects priorities and direction from the Operational Board, ensuring partners understand not just what is happening but what is being actively driven across the system.

✅ Circles of Support resources now fully published

✅ Over 400 partners engaged in Families First Summit

✅ Recruitment live for MACPT roles

✅ Alfie Evans appointed as Health Lead (starts 1 July 2026)

✅ Single assessment development progressing

✅ Pathway Home Conference open for bookings

From the Operational Board

The Operational Board remains critical in ensuring pace, grip and shared accountability across the programme.

At the most recent meeting, the following priorities were reinforced:

MACPT Implementation: recruitment now live for LCPPs, Senior LCPP and MACPT Coordinator, with partners progressing workforce readiness.
Circles of Support: confirmed as a core expectation at key decision points across the system.
Family Help & Single Assessment: continued development to improve consistency and reduce duplication.
Workforce Development: progression of a partnership-wide Workforce Development Plan.
Next Phase of Delivery: alignment of activity in preparation for the Pathway Home Conference.

This governance is essential in ensuring there is a clear line of sight from strategy into delivery, with progress actively monitored and driven across partners.

Right Help at the Right Time - Pathway to Support Document

A Single Assessment pilot is underway across education (including schools) and social care, with consultation taking place to inform launch across health. Learning from the pilot will shape next steps. This shall aim to create more fluid system to a range of needs and harms, from targeted early help to multi-agency child protection. One assessment shall support families in not needing to repeat their story to multiple professionals.

The Pathway to Support document was launched on 9^th May 2026 and can be found in the tab above "Pathway to Support"

Circles of Support (FGDM)

Circles of Support should be offered early in a child’s journey, especially at key transition points, to prevent escalation. Families should will be supported to work alongside professionals, with plans that adapt over time. There are mandatory points where a Circle of Support must be offered.

As part of the expansion of FGDM, a dedicated email address has been launched for consultation and support:
[email protected].
Work is ongoing to develop a clear referral pathway to support consistent use across agencies.

Family Group Conferencing (FGC)

National evidence highlights the effectiveness of Family Group Conferencing in helping children remain safely within their families. Locally, there will be opportunities for partners to explore this evidence and understand how it will inform future practice in Telford and Wrekin. Find more information here: Family group conferencing: Following the evidence can keep children with their families – Foundations

Co‑production and Lived Experience

The partnership continues to value co‑production with the Dandelion Group, kinship carers and young people, including the Voices of the Child apprentices. Their lived experience plays a crucial role in shaping practice development and strengthening safeguarding arrangements across the system.

Together, these developments reflect a shared commitment to one seamless, family‑led system of support for children and families across Telford and Wrekin.

Reunification Policy - Our Pathway Home

Our Pathway Home Guidance sits within Telford and Wrekin’s wider Pathway to Support and should be

understood as part of a continuum of help and protection, rather than a stand-alone process. Children and

families may move between statutory care, safeguarding and family help, and pathway home planning must

ensure continuity of relationships, assessment and support across this pathway.

Single Assessment Pilot

As part of the Family Help workstream in Telford & Wrekin, we are developing a Single Assessment and Plan. This forms a key part of our Family First Partnership, helping to support clearer, more joined‑up practice across services and making it easier for practitioners to work together to improve outcomes for children and families.

The Single Assessment is already being piloted across a number of schools and settings, helping us to test what works well in practice and refine the approach based on real experiences.

Colleagues from across Assessment, Family Safeguarding, Locality Teams, Social Care Teams and Early Help have been working together to shape this, ensuring it is grounded in day‑to‑day practice. Alongside this, the assessment has been co‑produced with our Dandelion Group – a group of individuals who share their lived experience to help shape and improve services.

This work has focused on:

What assessments need to capture to tell the child and family’s story well
What genuinely adds value for practitioners and families
What supports strong, consistent outcomes

We have also drawn on learning from pathfinders and national developments, alongside what will work in the reality of practice here in Telford & Wrekin. Frontline experience remains central, with a strong focus on keeping the approach simple, meaningful and practical.

Key Priorities – Next Phase

Embed the single assessment model
Scale Circles of Support across all key points
Deliver MACPT implementation
Finalise Workforce Development Plan
Align policy and practice to Families First model

National Programme Updates

The Department for Education has published several national updates that shape the next phase of children’s social care reform, including Delivering the Children’s Social Care Reset, the Families First Partnership Programme Guide, the Children’s Social Care National Framework 2026, and updated Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026.

Together, these publications reinforce the national direction of travel: earlier help for families, stronger multi-agency child protection, better support for family networks, and a continued focus on stable, trusted relationships for children and young people.

The reforms set clear expectations for local partners, including the development of Family Help, Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams, Family Group Decision Making and improved information sharing. This aligns closely with the work already underway locally through the Families First Partnership Programme.

Further consultation is also underway on improving help and child protection, including proposed updates to Working Together, the National Framework and future Multi-Agency Child Protection Team regulations.

Reunification Policy Our Pathway Home

Families First Introduction

The Families First Partnership (FFP) Programme is a UK government guidance aimed at reforming children’s social care by creating a more joined-up, family-focused system of support.

The FFP Programme helps local safeguarding partners (like social care, health, and police) work together to deliver early, targeted support to families through:

Family Help services
Multi-agency child protection
Family Group Decision Making

Its goal is to ensure families get the right help at the right time, keeping children safe and improving long-term outcomes.

National reviews have driven a commitment to reform, with Families First acting as the delivery programme to embed these changes locally. It aims to create a more responsive, relational, and preventative system—one that reflects the values of Telford & Wrekin’s Family First Approach.

The Government has published guidance about how the Families First Programme should be taken forward by Local Authorities including some minimum expectations.

Key Expectations

Required:

Establish multi-disciplinary Family Help teams, merging family support workers and social workers.
Introduce the new multi-agency Family Help Lead Practitioner (FHLP) role and publish a shared practice framework.
Publish a refreshed threshold document.

Recommended:

Introduce a single assessment and workflow.
Co-locate professionals from different services (e.g., health, education, youth services) to provide holistic support.
Extend proportionate access to case management systems for all partners working with families, particularly those who will take the lead practitioner role

Required:

Create the new Lead Child Protection Practitioner (LCPP) role.
MACPT’s include Police, Health, Education professionals.
Provide information, advice and support to parents and carers in child protection.

Recommended:

Use shared decision-making tools and joint supervision to improve consistency.
Co-locate MACPTs where possible to enhance collaboration.
Develop local protocols for escalation and de-escalation between Family Help and MACPT.

Recommended:

Train practitioners in restorative and relational approaches to facilitate FLDM.
Develop local FLDM coordinators or facilitators to ensure consistency and quality.
Use FLDM to support kinship care planning and reduce the need for care proceedings.

Required:

Safeguarding partners to ensure that education and child care settings are relevant agencies by default, ensuring their views are represented at strategic and operational levels in safeguarding arrangements.

N.B Additional expectation from Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill may include: to make provision to use the Single Unique Identifier.

To support the successful delivery of the Families First Partnership (FFP) Programme, we have established a delivery structure:

A dedicated Project Team comprising leads for data, programme management, practice lead, and finance. This team is responsible for overseeing the coordination, monitoring, and operational delivery of the programme.
A Multi-Agency Strategic Board, bringing together leads and key partners from each of the four workstreams.
Workstream groups will focus on the specific strands.
A project plan is monitored by the project group with oversight from the Strategic Board, and governance groups.
A tiered approach to codesign with families including a co-production group, utilising existing groups and voice forums and seeking wider and under represented voice through a range of engagement methods such as surveys and 1-1 conversations.

This structure supports clear accountability, cross-agency collaboration, and a focused approach to delivering meaningful and sustainable change for children and families.

The guidance is clear that 2025-2026 should be focused on transformation and developing local plans. The Department for Education (DfE) have emphasised that there is flexibility in terms of how and when local authorities implement the guidance, and that they are not expecting a one size fits all model to be implemented on a certain date.

Over the next six months the project team will be working closely with professionals, partner agencies and families to codesign our future offer through a range of engagement events with a regular updates to keep everyone informed of progress.

As part of our ongoing work within the Families First Partnership Programme, we are focusing on several key priorities to ensure successful implementation and long-term impact within Telford & Wrekin. We are identifying recruitment needs early, recognising that getting the right staff in place can be a lengthy process. We’re also working to secure strong multi-agency and elected member support by actively engaging with our partners. Dedicated project management is in place to drive progress, and we’re involving the third sector as a vital resource in delivering support. Staff engagement is a priority; we’re committed to open dialogue, reassurance, and clear communication throughout the change process. Through events, workshops, briefings, and co-production, we’re ensuring that staff and partners are informed and involved. Above all, we’re developing a clear, structured plan; while making sure we retain and build on what already works well.