Innovation and the Local Family OfferBy Innovation Unit

There is an increasing appetite for innovation in children’s services

• Innovation and learning partner on the Dfe Children’s social care innovation programme

• Service and system design with local authorities such as Derbyshire, Buckinghamshire, Rochdale and York

• Innovation partner on DWP’s local family offer programme

The Local Family Offer programme was designed to improve the quality of couple or coparenting relationships

•12 local authorities across the country: Newcastle; Croydon; Gateshead; Essex; Hertfordshire; Luton; Westminster; Manchester; Blackpool; Blackburn and Darwin; Dorset; Lambeth

•Supported to develop a local family offer that is focused on improving the quality of couple/coparenting relationships with a view to improving outcomes for children

Local authorities on the programme were supported to use evidence to design new ways of supporting families

Innovation has never been more important for children and families

• More kids in care and on child protection plans than at any other time in the last 21 years

• Stubbornly poor health outcomes and school readiness in our most disadvantaged communities

• 28% of children living in poverty

Nor for the system that supports them

• Increasingly complicated funding environment

• Increasingly stretched frontline with unsustainable caseloads

• Increasing pressure to do more with less

Innovation demands that you challenge yourself at a number of levels

Purpose – Why are you doing the work?

People – Who is doing the work, and who are they doing it with?

Practice – What is the work?

What would it mean to challenge our purpose?

• We know that we should we be tackling the underlying causes of abuse and neglect as well as the symptoms

• But should we be promoting protective factors and building upon strengths as well as managing risk and responding to crisis?

• Should we be working in partnership with families to help them achieve their aspirations as well as supporting them when things go wrong?

What would it mean to challenge who drives change in a child’s life?

• Could we think beyond the existing workforce?

• We know that we should be drawing upon all of those professionals who play an active role in a family’s life (for example universal services including teachers and schools, health professionals and the police)?

• But what role should those closest to the child play or the broader community play (parents, extended family, foster carers or carers, friends, social networks or community institutions)?

What would it mean to challenge who we work with?

• We know that we shouid be working with both parents, and the child.

• But should we also be working with couples and coparents as well as the broader family unit?

• Should we be building the resilience of whole communities by working directly with social and support networks?

What would it mean to challenge our practice?

• Should we be growing the capability of parents and caregivers?

• Should we be prioritising high quality relationships?

This points to an emergent innovation ecosystem in children’s services

Jonny MillinsonSenior Project Lead

jonny.mallinson@innovationunit.org

www.innovationunit.org

+44 (0) 20 7250 8098

@innovation_unit

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