Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential (a) merits and (b) financial savings of increasing investment in support for parents following the removal of a child from their care to prevent repeat removals.

This government is committed to whole-system reform of children’s social care to give hundreds of thousands of children and young people the start in life they deserve. We recognise that there is a strong evidence base for early intervention and whole family working to support families with multiple issues before they reach crisis point, to stay together and thrive. This is at the heart of our reform agenda to rebalance the children’s social care system toward earlier intervention, which is aimed at improving families’ lives today, their outcomes in the future, and reducing costs to public services.

Central to this ambition is testing a new model of Family Help which builds on best practice from well-evidenced programmes such as Supporting Families and Pause, which feature whole-family working and lead practitioners providing dedicated support to prevent re-referrals.

The independent evaluation of the Supporting Families programme showed improved outcomes and positive returns on investment where every £1 spent on the programme delivered £2.28 of benefits. It also found a reduction of one third in the likelihood of children going into care two years after joining the programme, as well as reduced youth and adult crime, reduced domestic abuse, reduced benefits claims, reduced substance misuse, improved mental health, improved school attendance and reduced exclusions (evaluated between 2015 and 2020).

Through the Families First for Children Pathfinder and Family network pilot the government is testing the implementation of intensive whole-family support in 10 pathfinder local authorities, where multi-disciplinary teams are providing targeted support to help families overcome challenges at the earliest opportunity.

These local authorities are also making greater use of family networks, involving them in decision-making at an earlier stage, and providing practical and financial support via family network support packages to help keep children safe at home. The pathfinder is being independently evaluated. Early evaluation findings are expected in spring 2025.