Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of (a) the effectiveness of the team around the child approach in children’s services provision and (b) whether that approach should be the default for children’s social care providers.

We have not assessed the team around the child approach, however some models of help and protection have been evaluated by the Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme (CSCIP), which found that the use of multi-disciplinary skill sets in supporting children and families was a key feature of successful projects. The evaluation of Project Crewe demonstrated early promise through their use of family practitioners to lead multi-agency support under the supervision of a social worker. This model is being tested further by Coventry City Council under the CSCIP round three.

Statutory guidance, ‘Working together to safeguard children 2018’: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2, makes clear that when it comes to early help, children and families may benefit from co-ordinated support from local agencies, and it is right that organisations work together to assess the need for support, and provide targeted services that improve the outcomes for children.