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The government has announced an extra £18 million for councils in England to speed up reforms to children’s social care, aiming to identify and address problems earlier to protect vulnerable children from harm.
The funding, part of the Plan for Change, will help roll out early intervention measures designed to prevent families from reaching crisis point. These include thousands more family help workers, a national rollout of Family Group Decision Making to keep children safely within their extended families, and stronger local leadership to ensure reforms are delivered quickly and effectively.
The new investment builds on a doubling of funding for family support this year to £523 million, with a further commitment of at least £300 million over the next two years.
A major element of the reforms is testing the NHS number as a unique identifier for children, enabling better information sharing between health services, schools, police, and local authorities to spot safeguarding risks sooner. A live pilot between Wigan Council and NHS England is assessing how well the system can connect data and create a more joined-up safeguarding response.
Children and Families Minister Janet Daby said:
“Time and again we’re told how failing to share information and intervene early enough means vulnerable children fall through the cracks.
We’re putting an end to sticking plaster solutions through our Plan for Change by investing even more focus and funding into preventative services and information sharing.”
Minister of State for Local Government Jim McMahon OBE added:
“Through our Plan for Change we are getting councils back on their feet… reforming children’s social care to tackle problems at their root and give every child the best start in life.”
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza welcomed the measures, highlighting the importance of early support and effective leadership:
“Children in care told me… they want the same things as other children: love, safety and stability in their family life. It’s absolutely right that we prioritise supporting families earlier on… The introduction of a unique ID for every child will help identify problems early on and prevent any child becoming invisible to services.”
The reforms support measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, including:
A unique identifier for every child to prevent them “falling through the cracks”
Stronger duties on agencies to share safeguarding information
Nationwide rollout of Family Help reforms
Family Group Decision Making in every local authority
Best practice multi-agency safeguarding panels in every council
The government is also expanding Best Start Family Hubs across all local authorities, aiming to support 500,000 more children by offering accessible, wraparound help for parents and carers.
