Provision of an Integrated Family Support Service

Newport City Council established the Family Support Service (FSS) in partnership with Barnardos in 2011 with both financially contributing to the delivery of the service.

The primary focus of the service is to provide support to children ‘on the edge’ of care and their families by offering trauma informed and evidence-based services to reduce family breakdown and admissions into the care system.

The Council has retendered the service twice with the successful partner having to contribute financially to operate the service. On the last occasion in 2017. Barnardos was the only supplier that submitted an offer against the ITT. Monmouthshire County Council was also included. The current contract is due to expire 31 March 2025.

A speculative notice was issued and although 2 providers did express an interest, after understanding the service requirement advised that they would not be able to tender.

This VEAT is to inform the market of Newport City Council’s including Monmouthshire County Council's intention to direct award a contract to Barnardos for a 5-year period with a possible extension of 5 years extended on an annual basis subject to review. The contract will commence on 1 April 2025.

The Council’s financial contribution to the service for the five year period is GBP2,520,000.00 (GBP504.000.00 per annum) and Barnardos will contribute a minimum of GBP1,000,000.00 (GBP200.000.00 per annum) There is also a grant of GBP290,000.00 (GBP145.000.00 per annum) but this will cease from April 2028. The total value of GBP4,000,000.00 includes Monmouthshire County Council as well.

This VEAT is to inform the market of Newport City Council’s intention to direct award a contract to Barnardos to partner the Council in the delivery of the Family Support Service.

The contract will be for a 5-year period with a possible extension of 5 years extended on an annual basis subject to review. The contract will commence on 1 April 2025.

The partnership has sought to achieve 5 broad aims which together are intended to safely reduce the number of children entering care in Newport, which are:

• To safely reduce the number of children in care, in proceedings, or on the Child Protection Register.
• Bridging the gap between universal and specialist service provision to prevent the need for more intensive interventions
• Reducing specific risk factors for individual families (by increasing child and family resilience)
• Support children and young families to take part in decision making within Family Support Services
• To ensure a while family approach is taken by working with parents, carers and family members as well as the child and/or young person.

The IFSS Family Support Service service includes specialist interventions including

• Rapid Response – providing an enhanced, immediate, intensive offer of support to young people and families where there is a significant risk that adolescents may be immediately admitted to care without this intervention. This includes:
• Specialist intervention workers based within the Safeguarding Hub and able to immediately respond to referrals coming into Social Services where adolescents face immediate admission into care due to family placement breakdown.
• Developing a dedicated pathway for Rapid Response families to ensure that a longer term intervention is provided to promote family stability and reduce the risk of the situation escalating once the service steps down.
• A dedicated specialist Family Group Conference practitioner to promote family stability by supporting families and community partners to develop their own family plans.
• Domestic Abuse interventions – recognising that domestic abuse is a primary factor in most cases where children are being seriously considered for care admission.
• Importantly, the whole family approach is fundamental to the safeguarding of children therefore we will bring in specific engagement mechanisms for father’s. The father's worker will link closely to our pre-existing Baby and Me/pre-birth team providing intensive, trauma informed support to new and expectant fathers known to this service. In addition, the father's worker will deliver specialist, one-to-one and group-based sessions with fathers where there are concerns in respect domestic abuse.
• Placement Support – recognising the significant complexity associated with supporting family situations where parents/carers are struggling to cope with meeting the needs of their children.
• Disability support – specially trained staff will provide support to promote parents/carers ability to manage independently, reducing the risk of placements breaking down.
• SGO Support – dedicated support to SGO carers to promote their ability care for and support the children in their care.
• Therapeutic Team - the develop of a dedicated therapeutic team to provide longer term intensive support for the most complex families.

One of the key benefits of Partnership is that it has provided innovative solutions and has improved outcomes for children and young people which has resulted in effective support for families.

Since the inception of the partnership in 2011 the number of children looked after per 10,000 of population by Newport has remained below the Welsh national average, having been above average prior to the partnership, i.e. average number of children looked after, in 2023, was 116 per year; Newport Children Looked after figure was 103 – data provided Stats Wales and published in Newport Barnardo’s Strategic Partnership Evaluation (June 2024)