Early Help Service: Redesign Proposals

Please watch our Early Help Service: Redesign consultation video

Overview

The Early Help service is an important part of our work to support children and families in West Sussex.

Early Help staff work with children and families who are facing any number of challenging circumstances and help ensure every child has a safe environment in which to thrive.

Traditionally, this service has been delivered at centres across West Sussex.

However, during the pandemic, these centres have been mostly closed and our staff have found new ways of reaching out to families who need our help.

At the same time, demands on the services have been increasing so there is a real need to look more closely at our ways of working to ensure we can maintain our commitment to providing Early Help support as effectively as possible.

Proposals

West Sussex County Council is proposing a series of changes to the Early Help service including to:

• Maintain Early Help services from 11 of our 43 Children & Family centre buildings; at least one centre in each district and borough of West Sussex

• Increase the support and focused response to vulnerable children.

• Ensure families have access to the most appropriate support, including closer working with schools.

• Protect a full-time drop-in service for young people in each district and borough by merging our 12 Find It Out (youth) Centres with our 11 Children and Family Centres.

• Stop providing group work. For example, stay and play groups where parents can engage in play sessions with their children, thus focusing our attention where we know we make the biggest different, going out to support the most vulnerable children and families in the communities.

The proposed changes will deliver savings already identified in the council's financial plan.

We are already in discussions with health and other organisations who operate what are called ‘universal services’ from our Children & Family Centres, such as maternity and parent groups, to consider the impact of the proposals. In some cases, partner organisations might be able to continue to work from the buildings. We will be reviewing partner feedback and any ideas for alternative arrangements of these services as part of our proposed consultation.

Progress

A report was discussed by the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Committee on 7 January 2021 and you can read the minutes and recommendations.

The Early Help redesign proposal and recommendations were discussed at a Cabinet meeting on 23 February 2021.

It was agreed that a thorough 10-week public consultation should be conducted to look further into the impact and possibilities of these proposals.

Next steps

You have a chance to comment on these proposals (survey below) as part of a 10-week consultation, which started on 8 March 2021, and ends Monday 17 May 2021 (at midnight).

We are promoting these details widely with the general public, children young people and families who use out current centres, alongside our partners and minority groups.

Decision outcome

The results of the consultation are due to be heard at the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Committee on 30 June 2021 and will also be shared here. A decision is then due later in July 2021.

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