Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to help support local authorities to provide family-help models of multi-agency interventions outside of her Department's pilot projects.

Alongside the £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinders, the department will support all local authorities to take steps to move closer to our vision for Family Help. We will do this by building a skilled and effective family help workforce. By 2024 the department will publish a Knowledge and Skills Statement for Family Help workers. This will be an important part of valuing and building confidence in Family Help workers, which will set out a common framework of the skills and knowledge required to do the job.

The department will hold a consultation in spring 2023 to determine whether there should be broader range of family practitioners who can work as ‘case holders’ for vulnerable children and their families. This will enable the right people with the right skills to help provide families and children currently supported under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 with the best possible support.

The department is working closely with other government departments including the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on the Supporting Families programme to continue delivering positive outcomes for all children and families. The 2021 Budget announced around a 40% cash-terms uplift in funding for the programme, taking total planned investment to £695 million over the 2021 Spending Review. Together we will continue to share best practice, facilitate peer support between areas, and place a greater focus on achieving the reform vision in both policy and delivery work with authorities.

The department is supporting the Department of Work and Pensions to improve social workers' ability to use forms of welfare support to help families facing material deprivation.