Foreword
From the Lead Member for Children's Services
I am pleased to present the refreshed Early Help Strategy 2023-2025 which marks the second phase of our Early Help journey. We have made excellent progress over the last three years in delivering a robust Early Help Offer, which is built around a solid foundation of the Early Help Partnership and our 8 Family Hubs.
As we move forward with the refreshed Early Help Strategy there will be an even stronger emphasis on building the Early Help Partnership in order to help more families earlier, and in supporting families to access the right help at the right time with the right people, to help build their resilience.
We will build on the success of the Supporting Families Programme with a greater ambition to meet and support more families with earlier help for the whole family. We will also build upon our successful Family Hubs, as a trailblazer for the national Family Hub and Start for Life Programme. We are proud that Coventry leads the practice of Family Hubs, but we are ambition to be even better and to enhance and expand the Family Hub offer (in the building, through our communities and through the virtual offer) to ensure a more comprehensive offer to all families.
The One Coventry Plan (2022-2030) prioritises improving outcomes and tackling inequalities in our communities. The Early Help strategy describes how we collectively deliver this for our children, young people, and their families. There is still a lot of work to do to achieve our goals, this strategy sets out our ambitious plan to build and develop Early Help services within our city even further.
Our recent good Ofsted inspection shows that we have much to be proud of in Coventry. Through the delivery of this strategy partners will work together to provide a comprehensive Early Help Offer to children, young people and their families in order to achieve our collective vision.
Whilst it remains a challenging environment in public services, we continue to maximise opportunities for innovation and creativity.
I want to thank our partners, our staff and our young people who have helped to shape this strategy and all those that plan and deliver services. Your hard work is appreciated– let’s make Coventry the best city in the UK for all our children, young people, and their families, to live and grow up in.
Councillor Pat Seaman, Lead Member for Children's Services
From the Director of Children's Services
After a fantastic achievement of being judged “good” by Ofsted in 2022, we are now driven to achieve outstanding for our children. Ofsted inspectors highlighted that ‘Children and families benefit from an extensive and well-developed early help offer’. This evidences how far we have come as an Early Help Partnership and is a result of the commitment of colleagues across the city to support children and families to achieve their best outcomes.
However, it is important that we continue to recognise the ongoing impact that the pandemic has had on the children and families such as missed educational opportunities, social isolation and challenges to mental health. The pandemic however demonstrated that our partnership is strong, and the children and families continued to receive the right help at the right time.
Our strategy is ambitious. It represents a commitment from all key organisations in Coventry to continue to develop an Early Help offer which puts children and their families first and strives to create a joint response to emerging needs. Our resources are used collectively to help families overcome their challenges and be the best they can be. As we begin our next journey, we will embrace the new Family Hub framework and the Start for Life programme, aimed at supporting children for the first 1001 days of their life.
This Early Help Strategy shows our commitment to ensure that Early Help in Coventry is continuously enabling good outcomes for the children, young people and their families. This strategy has been informed by the consultation activity which was undertaken by the partnership. We will continue to drive improvements to ensure children and young people receive help and support that makes a difference to their lives and allows families to be empowered.
I am committed to the Early Help Partnership and our goal of achieving good outcomes for children, young people and families. I am proud of our achievements to date and believe together we can make Coventry the best city for children, young people and their families to live, grow and work.
John Gregg, Director of Children's Services