Agenda item
Complex Families Review
A presentation providing an overview of the Complex Families Project which is being developed by the council and partner agencies will be delivered to the committee by Fiona Ledden (Director of Legal and Procurement) and Joanna McCormick (Partnerships Co-ordinator). The aim of the project is to pilot multi agency early intervention with a cohort of families in the borough.
Minutes:
Joanna McCormick (Partnerships Co-ordinator) and Fiona Ledden (Director of Legal and Procurement) delivered a presentation to the committee on the Complex Families Project. This project was being developed by the council and partner agencies and aimed to pilot multi-agency early intervention with a cohort of families in the borough. The project would have one management structure, which would facilitate better joint working. Intervention would be co-ordinated via key workers and with reference to individual family plans which would be developed in collaboration with families. Key workers would be required to have specialist knowledge in certain areas which would ensure that there would be a range of knowledge and experience available within the team. This model would bring the necessary professionals around the individual and families as and when needed and would reduce duplication of work.
Fiona Ledden explained that she was sponsoring this project, which entailed providing support to the project in its progress through the one-council programme. This project reflected the amalgamation of several key initiatives being driven forward by central government. It was intended that the positive results of the project would be evident through a reduced impact on the criminal justice system and social care services.
Joanna McCormick further explained that an analysis of child poverty in Brent had indicated that 34.1% of families struggle to meet the basic necessities of life. Parents were disadvantaged by various factors including employability, child care costs and house prices. Changes to benefit entitlement would further disadvantage certain families; in particular lone parents and families with two or more children were at greater risk of this. Central government had estimated that over 1000 families would lose an average of £83 per week in Brent and a further 8,000 would experience reductions just from the cap on Housing Benefit. The project would work with families as a whole and aimed to tackle poverty not ‘troubled families’. Challenges for the project included the national economic context, unemployment and the effective coordination of different central government department initiatives.
Several queries were raised by members in the subsequent discussion. The Chair sought details of how families were identified for this project and Councillor Matthews queried how hard to reach families would be engaged. The Chair and Ms J Cooper (Observer) also sought details regarding the funding arrangements for the project. Councillor Matthews further queried whether support via the project was maintained in the longer term.
In response to members’ questions, Joanna McCormick advised that a risk based assessment would be conducted following the receipt of a referral which could be made by a range of services. 150 families were being identified so far with central government seeking a larger number of families to be supported by each authority through its troubled families programme over the next 3 years. Criteria had been established which set the parameters for the cohort of families with whom the project aimed to engage and attempts would be made to identify hard to reach families that might meet this criteria.
With regard to funding and resources, Joanna McCormick advised that existing resources from the council and from across partner agencies would be redirected to support the project’s new way of providing multi-agency input to families. In addition, discussions were on-going with central government to clarify its funding approach of payment by results. This approach envisaged the setting of targets and where those targets were met the provision of funds by central government. If targets were exceeded, additional funds would be provided. The means by which results were to be measured was yet to be agreed. The council was particularly interested in measures relating to employment, education, health, deprivation and whether children were subject to Child Protection Plans. Within the current pilot project, work had been conducted with families over the period of a year but final details would be clarified in discussions with central government. Similar pilot projects elsewhere had set timeframes of between 9 and 18 months and had achieved a cost avoidance per family of between £15k and £18k.
Ms Elsie Points enquired whether services offered by voluntary agencies would be included within the multi-agency approach offered by the project. Joanna McCormick confirmed that work was taking place with voluntary agencies such as Addaction and it was intended that this would be expanded.
Councillor Cheese commented on the difficulties faced by lone parent families and particularly noted the barriers to employment and the significance of the impact of the changes to benefit entitlement. Joanna McCormick advised that child care costs were also a significant challenge for lone parent’s seeking employment. Councillor Cheese noted that he had presented his concerns to the Children and Families minister regarding the adverse impact that rent capping would have on children, which through families being forced to move out of certain areas would include disruption to children’s education.
RESOLVED:
(i) That the report be noted
(ii) That an update on the project be presented to a future meeting of the committee.