Information for parents and families can be found on our accessing support or child protection pages. This page is aimed at professionals and agencies, although parents and families may find this detailed information useful.
What is Supporting Families?
Supporting Families is a nationally funded government programme which requires Local Authorities to support and track families with multiple identified needs. In Cambridgeshire we have a target to work successfully with 1032 families in 2024/25 . We will ensure that all these families make progress against their identified needs. Using our whole family approach, we ensure that progress made is ‘significant and sustained.’
The national programme requires Local Authorities to embed whole family working within all public services and encourage this with partner agencies. This is to prevent needs escalating and reduce demand on services.
How are families identified for the Supporting Families Programme, and how would I know if they were already part of the programme?
To be included in the programme families must have identified needs in three of the following categories:
- Getting a good education
- Good early years development
- Improved mental and physical health
- Promoting recovery and reducing harm from substance use
- Improved family relationships
- Children safe from abuse and exploitation
- Crime prevention and tackling crime
- Safe from domestic abuse
- Secure housing
- Financial stability
There must be an assessment covering all family members, a coordinated plan across the agencies involved and an identified Lead Professional.
The Supporting Families Team reviews the information provided in an Early Help Assessment (EHA) to make a decision as to whether the family meets Supporting Families criteria. The Supporting Families team will also include some families where additional needs have been identified later in the intervention.
Who is the Lead Professional what records do they keep?
EHM (Liquidlogic) contains a record of who the Lead Professional is for each family. This is a crucial part of the Early Help Strategy. It ensures professionals are able to find out whether a family already has a Lead Professional and thereby avoiding duplication.
Lead Professionals with the appropriate access are able to update EHM (Liquidlogic) directly.
Supporting Families Fund
The Supporting Families fund is in place to support the whole family approach. It is to meet the needs of families where outcomes cannot be met in any other way. Funding may be available to support meeting outcomes within Family Support Plans whether or not Cambridgeshire County Council staff are part of the team around the family.
Supporting Families - information on GOV.UK
