Funding for preventive services doubled to over half a billion pounds to drive restoration in family and parenting support across every English council
In a significant move to protect vulnerable children and support struggling families, the government has unveiled a comprehensive plan to restore and enhance family support services across the country.
The new measures aim to prevent vulnerable children from falling through the cracks by ensuring earlier intervention and better protection from harm. The government’s plan includes several key reforms designed to streamline and improve support services for families in need. Each local area will introduce a single point of access for support services, making it easier for families struggling with complex issues such as mental health, disabilities, and substance misuse to find and access help. This could involve integrating digital services or consolidating different teams and services into a central hub, such as a family centre.
Thousands of family help leads will be assigned to families to coordinate support and resources, ensuring that families receive the help they need without being passed from one team to another.
This will significantly reduce the frustration experienced by vulnerable families who often have to repeat their stories multiple times. The government is backing these reforms with over half a billion pounds for councils in 2025/2026, doubling their allocation from previous years. This investment will help rebuild the vital support infrastructure needed to reduce the number of children entering care.
These reforms come at a critical time, with eight in ten parents currently unable to access the services they need during their child’s early years. The government inherited a fragmented system that has seen a significant increase in spending on crisis-point services while early preventative support has plummeted.
The measures build on the landmark Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which includes provisions for a unique child identifier, a register of children not in school, and a requirement for every council to have multi-agency child safeguarding teams. This represents the most significant piece of child protection legislation in a generation.
Minister for Children and Families, Janet Daby, emphasised the importance of these reforms: “For too long, vulnerable children and families have been left to struggle – battling fragmented services and receiving support when it’s too late. Backed by over £500m and delivering our Plan for Change, we’re putting an end to this injustice and building back crumbling family support services, to keep children safe and enable more families to achieve and thrive together.”
Parents who have benefited from early support services shared their positive experiences. One father said, “I want to be the best father I can be for my children, but I was struggling to parent and build meaningful bonds. The team facilitated a plan for me, which included attending a parenting programme to learn more skills and improve my relationship with my children. It’s had a really positive impact on my family.”
Another parent added, “After being referred by our school, my family was matched with a coordinator to support challenges with my children’s disabilities. The coordinator has made the process much smoother and really helped to bridge our relationship with the school. They’ve also ensured I have access to support for other challenges, including mentoring and housing.”
Chief Executive Officer at the National Children’s Bureau, Anna Feuchtwang, praised the reforms: “The Families First Partnership Programme has enormous potential to provide earlier support and better address the needs of children within their family networks. With further investment in preventative services, shared workforce development, and stability, these reforms present a huge opportunity to reorient child and family services towards enabling and supporting wellbeing.”
The government’s commitment to these reforms marks a significant step towards creating a more cohesive and effective support system for vulnerable children and families, ensuring that they receive the help they need at the right time.
