Families First Partnership Multi-Agency Workforce Development Strategy
Purpose
The purpose of the Families First Partnership Programme (FFPP) workforce development strategy is to ensure that all agencies within the family support and safeguarding system are collectively equipped to deliver the fundamental changes required by national children's social care reforms, creating a confident, skilled and integrated workforce capable of providing earlier, more effective and family-centred support.
The Families First Partnership (FFP) programme shifts focus towards intensive earlier help for families, more expert focused multi-agency child protection practice and greater use of family networks. This ambition is in line with Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026, which sets out how agencies, organisations, and individuals work together to provide help, support and protection - including universal services and community based early help, through Family Help (including targeted early help and statutory services under section 17 of the Children Act 1989), and action taken under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 to protect children from significant harm. Read the full Families First Partnership Programme guidance here: Families First Partnership programme - GOV.UK
This workforce strategy provides a structured framework through which partners can develop consistent capabilities, shared language and common approaches to identifying need, making decisions and working with family networks, ensuring that Family Help, multi-agency child protection teams (MACPT) and family group decision making can be successfully implemented in practice.
It also serves to embed learning from local and national safeguarding practice reviews into everyday work, strengthen leadership and supervision, and foster a culture of professional curiosity, collaboration and early intervention. Ultimately, the strategy exists to translate policy into practice by supporting the multiagency and multidisciplinary workforce to act earlier, work together more effectively and achieve measurable improvements in children’s safety, wellbeing and long-term outcomes.
Workforce vision
Coventry Family Valued is firmly established across the city as a restorative approach to working with children, young people and families. It is centred on empowering families to identify their own strengths, find solutions and make sustainable changes in their lives. At its core, Family Valued focuses on building strong, trusting relationships that enable positive outcomes for children and families. By strengthening these relationships, we can work collaboratively with families to improve children's wellbeing and experiences. Where children are at risk of harm, however, we will continue to take swift and decisive action to ensure their safety and protection.
To embed this approach consistently across the partnership, it is essential to understand and respond to the development needs of the multi-agency workforce. A key element of this strategy has been engagement with partners across the system to identify gaps in knowledge, explore opportunities for shared learning, and ensure consistent, collaborative messages are communicated and understood across all services.
Through this strategy, Coventry aims to develop a workforce that is confident, skilled and empowered to work effectively across agencies, delivering a seamless, child centred system of help, support and protection. Practitioners across all services will be equipped to recognise and respond to need at the earliest opportunity, particularly in relation to neglect and cumulative harm. They will build strong, respectful and trusting relationships with children, families and their wider networks, ensuring that support is coordinated, effective and focused on achieving the best possible outcomes.
The workforce will share a common language, consistent understanding of thresholds, and collective responsibility for outcomes, working as integrated teams around the family to provide the Right Help at the Right Time.
Leaders across the partnership will create a culture of learning, reflection and professional curiosity, supporting practitioners to challenge delay, work collaboratively and make confident, evidence-informed decisions.
Together, Coventry’s workforce continue to work in a preventative, relational and strengths-based approach, ensuring children are safer sooner, families are supported to make sustainable change, and services deliver consistent, high-quality outcomes for Coventry’s children and communities.
Governance
The Coventry Safeguarding Children Partnership (CSCP) holds a quarterly Implementation Sub-group meeting, bringing together representatives from partner agencies to oversee the implementation of safeguarding priorities, monitor progress against agreed objectives, and provide scrutiny and quality assurance of key workstreams, including multi-agency learning and development. This subgroup will govern the implementation of this strategy.
Evaluation
To ensure that learning from both local and national safeguarding reviews makes a meaningful difference to practice, we place a strong emphasis on evaluating our training and learning resources. This is particularly important as we continue to support the implementation of the Families First Partnership Programme, which aims to strengthen multi-agency working, promote earlier intervention, and improve outcomes for children, young people, and their families. Regular evaluation helps us understand whether training is equipping practitioners with the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to embed these reforms into day-to-day practice.
At the end of every training session facilitated by the CSCP, participants are invited to complete an evaluation form via Microsoft Forms. A link to the evaluation is shared during the session and again alongside participants' certificates to encourage feedback from as many attendees as possible. The evaluation process enables participants to reflect on the relevance and quality of the training, whether the learning objectives have been met, and how the learning will influence their work with children and families. Where supporting resources, guidance documents, toolkits, or practice materials are provided, feedback is also sought on their usefulness, accessibility, and practical application.
The CSCP Training Officer reviews and analyses all evaluation responses to identify strengths, emerging themes, learning needs, and opportunities for improvement. Feedback plays a vital role in shaping future training, refining resources, and ensuring that learning opportunities remain responsive to both local priorities and national developments, including the ongoing Families First reforms.
Evaluation findings help us assess how effectively key messages are being understood and implemented across the workforce, and whether practitioners feel better equipped to work in a strengths-based, collaborative, and family-centred way. These findings are also collated and reflected within the Coventry Safeguarding Children’s Partnership yearly report, providing safeguarding partners with an overview of training activity, participation, impact, and key areas for development.
The report supports strategic planning and helps demonstrate how the training programme contributes to workforce development and improved outcomes for children, young people, and families.
Training and development
As the Families First approach continues to evolve, particularly through the implementation of the Families First Partnership Programme, it is important that learning opportunities are accessible, flexible, and responsive to the needs of the multi-agency workforce. The CSCP is committed to promoting a culture of continuous learning by providing a range of training and development opportunities that can be shared across partner agencies.
While traditional face-to-face and virtual training sessions remain an important part of the learning offer, the CSCP recognises that practitioners have different learning styles, responsibilities, and availability. To maximise accessibility and engagement, learning can be delivered through a variety of methods, including live webinars, multi agency workshops, lunch-and-learn sessions, practitioner forums, briefing events, reflective learning sessions, and communities of practice.
The development and use of learning resources also play a key role in supporting workforce development. Resources such as guidance documents, practice briefings, learning summaries, toolkits, checklists, infographics, and one-minute guides can provide practitioners with easily accessible information to support and reinforce learning. These resources can be shared across the CSCP through established communication channels, helping to ensure that key messages reach a wider audience and can be accessed at a time that suits individual practitioners.
The CSCP will also seek opportunities to share learning arising from local child safeguarding practice reviews, audits, national reviews, and emerging themes through a variety of formats. This may include podcasts, recorded presentations, thematic briefings, newsletters, workshops, and learning events. By using a blended approach to learning and development, the CSCP can reach a broader audience, encourage greater engagement, and support the consistent implementation of safeguarding practice across agencies.
Training Structure
| Learning Tier | Typical Roles | Core Training | Refresher Requirement | Additional Learning Opportunities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness and Understanding | Staff and volunteers who may meet children, young people, parents, or carers but do not have direct safeguarding responsibilities. |
|
Every 2 years |
|
| Building Practice Skills | Teachers, housing officers, youth workers, health staff, community staff, family support workers. |
|
Every 2 years with regular updates |
|
| Applying Practice | Experienced practitioners with regular family help and safeguarding responsibilities. |
|
Every 2 years with regular updates |
|
| Advanced and Specialist Practice | Specialist safeguarding practitioners, designated safeguarding leads, social workers, health professionals, police officers, and subject matter experts. |
|
Every 2 years with annual updates |
|
| Leading Practice | Team Managers, Service Managers, Designated Safeguarding Leads, Heads of Service, Partnership Leads, and senior leaders. |
|
Ongoing |
|
To support different learning styles and workforce needs, development opportunities may be delivered through:
- face-to-face training
- virtual instructor-led sessions
- multi-agency workshops
- pre-recorded webinars
- e-learning modules
- practitioner forums
- lunch-and-learn sessions
- podcasts and recorded presentations
- practice briefings and learning summaries
- 7-minute briefings
- toolkits and guidance documents
- reflective learning and supervision discussions
- partnership learning events and conferences
This framework supports a culture of continuous learning, enabling practitioners and leaders to access development opportunities appropriate to their role while embedding the collaborative, family-centred principles of the Families First Partnership Programme.