To ask the Minister of Health to detail any actions, timescales and measurable outcomes that have been agreed under the Reform of Children’s Social Care Services Programme to strengthen early intervention and family support services as an alternative to increased child protection activity and rising numbers of children in care.

Together for Families is a new approach to supporting families that has been developed under, and is a key priority for, the Children’s Social Care Services Reform Programme. The model has been designed to address recommendations made by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care Services, in particular the need to provide more early and practical support to families to address what Professor Jones, who led on the Review, termed as a ‘skew towards child protection activity’.

The new model is a significant undertaking and preparations for its implementation are ongoing and extensive. Detail on the design of the core elements to the model is currently being finalised along with workplans setting out the key delivery milestones and associated timescales. Overall, the model is intended to deliver improved outcomes for children and families, to enable them to stay together and prevent some children being taken into state care and to enable some children to return to their families.

Together for Families will be underpinned by a robust evaluation framework which will be integral to the Programme to implement the model and will be informed by the collection and analysis of data supported by a dedicated data analyst. Further information on the detail of Together for Families will be made available on the Department of Health’s dedicated Together for Families webpage.