More than £12m to be spent on making a 'child-friendly Warwickshire'

More than £12m is to be spent on creating a ‘child-friendly Warwickshire’ with the investment going into the county council’s children and family services.
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Assistant director for people John Coleman outlined parts of the programme at a virtual meeting of the children and young people overview and scrutiny committee held this week.

He explained: “We will be investing £12m over the next three years as part of a 24-month programme. This is a large programme that links with the DfE [Department for Education] strengthening families, protecting children programme with Warwickshire being one of the local authorities to be chosen.”

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The scheme is based on a successful one set up in Leeds and although the current coronavirus pandemic had delayed the launch, Mr Coleman said officers were now working hard to get things back on track.

He added: “We are calling it the ‘child-friendly Warwickshire’ programme and essentially it has 29 elements to it.”

Some of these expand on things already being done by the county council but the £12.008m, £4.614m of which is earmarked for the current financial year, will lead to a number of new posts being created.

In a report to councillors, Mr Coleman explained that the investment should ultimately lead to future savings of nearly £3.5m for the county council.

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He outlined: “The investment will create savings predominantly by helping the service to manage demand for children's social care.

“This will be completed through the increase in early help, through the new culture of restorative practice and increased whole family support which will keep children within their families and reduce the need for children to become looked after.

"When children do come into care increased support to parents, family members caring for children and increased support for care leavers will enable children to achieve permanency sooner.”

Nearly one-third of the money has come from the DfE with the remainder being provided by the council’s own children transformation fund agreed by councillors in February 2019 and 2020.