57: What's next for children's social care in England? A practical perspective

NSPCC Learning Podcast

This is the second in a two-part series looking at the future of children’s social care in England. Listen to the first episode, an interview with Josh MacAlister, here.
Earlier this year, the UK government published its vision for the reform of children's social care in England: Stable homes built on love.
The strategy sets out a number of proposals to family support and early help services, including the rollout of new multi-disciplinary family help teams to provide earlier support to families so they don't reach crisis point.
In this podcast episode three experts from the NSPCC consider what the government’s proposals might look like in practice.
The discussion covered:

• the planned reforms to family support and early help services
• what new multi-disciplinary family help teams might look like
• the benefits and challenges of taking a family-first approach to social care
• the importance of developing meaningful relationships with families and considering lived experience
• changes to social care workforce roles, including the introduction of a new lead child protection practitioner role
• barriers to implementing reform, and how they might affect the day-to-day work of social care professionals.

You can read this episode’s transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.
💬 About the speakers

Matt Forde is Partnerships and Development Director at the NSPCC, for services across the UK that work in partnership with communities and professionals. These include place-based projects and specialist partnerships for the most vulnerable children and families. Matt joined the NSPCC from local authority children’s services in 2010 as National Head for Scotland and took up his current role in 2020.
Rachael Holdcroft is a Strategic Services Manager overseeing the delivery of the Together for Childhood project in Stoke on Trent; a 10 year project which focuses on preventing Child Sexual Abuse. Rachael has been in this role with the NSPCC for 18 months following a 20 year career working with children and families in Local Authorities and the Private Sector.
Eavan Mckay is a Senior Policy and Public Affairs Officer at the NSPCC. Prior to joining the NSPCC, Eavan worked in education, first as an English teacher, then as a middle leader in schools with curriculum and safeguarding responsibilities, then at the education charity The Literacy Pirates where she led education intervention and engagement programmes for children. Eavan has also held Policy and Public Affairs Officer roles at JDRF and London Councils.
📚 Related resources

> Early help and early intervention

> Why language matters: what is meant by 'early help'

> News: The government's plans to reform children's social care in England

> Government plans to reform children's social care England: CASPAR briefing (2023)

> The independent review of children's social care final report: CASPAR briefing (2022)

> The case for change: independent review of children's social care in England: CASPAR briefing (2021)
Intro/outro music is Lights by Sappheiros