Two pivotal reforms, DfE’s Child Protection and Family Support Reforms and the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, are reshaping how local authorities, families, and independent organisations like ACCA engage in children’s social care. These changes mark a concerted shift toward early, networked intervention and tighter oversight of safeguarding and placement practices.
Families First Partnership: A Reform Designed for Earlier Help
In April 2025, the Department for Education launched the Families First Partnership (FFP) programme, a core component of its child protection and family support reforms. With over £523.5 million of funding allocated for 2025–26, including £270 million in new funds, the FFP agenda aims to dismantle traditional divides between targeted early help and child-in-need provision. Local partnerships are now required to deliver intensive, multidisciplinary early help in a seamless, non-stigmatising way.
This integrated approach is intended to reduce the number of children entering care by offering support earlier and keeping families together safely.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: Putting Families at the Centre
Meanwhile, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, currently progressing through Parliament, establishes statutory requirements to support family-led decisions and strengthen safeguarding frameworks. Key elements include:
- Family Group Decision-Making gives families the legally mandated opportunity to propose care solutions before statutory intervention.
- Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams, formalising a new structure for social workers, police, education, and health professionals to collaborate on safeguarding.
- Unique Child Identifiers are to integrate information across agencies and prevent children from slipping through cracks.
- Legislative tools to regulate children’s home placements and end profiteering by providers.
Crucially, the Bill includes measures to tighten home-schooling exemptions for children under protection investigations, an issue highlighted in child safety tragedies such as the Sara Sharif case.
Risks and Concerns: Will Reforms Deliver or Dilute?
While these changes represent a proactive approach, key voices, such as Professor Eileen Munro and social work expert Ray Jones, have sounded alarms. Concerns include:
- The creation of separate child protection teams could weaken relationship-based social work by fragmenting case ownership.
- Mandatory child protection reporting may overstretch capacity and raise thresholds for support, undermining preventive work.
- The scale and rapidity of reform without sufficient piloting could outpace local workforce readiness.
What These Reforms Mean for ACCA and Practice
ACCA welcomes reform that emphasises early help, multidisciplinary working, and system integration. Our award-winning tools, like the 24/7 in the Home Programme, SNAP, and TOP, map directly onto the Families First Partnership model.
Supporting families in their home context, building trust, and generating actionable evidence that keeps children safely with their families when possible.
The requirement for multi-agency child protection teams aligns with our collaborative ethos. ACCA’s specialists regularly work as part of safeguarding panels or integrated service reviews, ensuring assessments are timely, rigorous, and informed by real-world relationships.
With new legislation comes renewed demand for timely and specialist assessments. Whether it’s parenting assessments or observations, ACCA stands ready to support statutory agencies with capacity, precision, and clinical insight.
Looking Ahead: A System Rebalanced Toward Prevention
These legislative reforms mark a turning point: moving the system from late intervention toward early, coordinated help. Local authorities continue to hold statutory responsibilities, but independent providers now play a critical, if complementary, role in evidence gathering, family support, and safeguarding.
Suppose your agency is beginning to implement Families First Partnerships or requires specialist input to support early help or child protection decisions. In that case, ACCA is here to deliver expert, audit-ready assessments when you need them.