The Committee received a report presenting an overview of the new Community Matters initiative which has been established to provide early help for children, young people and families in Wirral. 

‘Earlyhelp’ means taking action to support a child, young person or their family as soon as a problem emerges. It can be required at any stage in a child's life and applies to any problem or need that the family can't deal with alone. Early help can lead to better outcomes for children, prevent problems escalating or overwhelming families, create social mobility and support communities to thrive.

Community Matters sought to create the right conditions for community-based early help to thrive, including:

·  the revitalising of the voluntary, community and faith sector by creating a vibrant and visible network of providers;

·  the Provision of support to children and families which is straight-forward and effective, easy to engage with and not constrained by overwhelming processes; and

·  the engaging of all stakeholders in the process of developing a long-term approach to early help which is sustainable, responsive to need, proactive in delivery, and is owned by communities.

The development of the early help offer was outlined in the submitted report and contracts had been let for the provision of Community Matters services as follows - 

·  Co-ordination of early help - Revitalising the voluntary, community and faith sector by creating a vibrant and visible network of providers through publishing the early help offer; re-launching the Link Forum; hosting quarterly networking events; triaging requests for service and signposting children and families to support; allocating families to early help support providers for casework support; and maintaining information systems, recording all early help activity and casework;

·  Delivery of early help support - Providing support to children and families which is straight-forward and effective, easy to engage with and not constrained by overwhelming processes.  To work with 120 families annually, ensuring each family has a lead worker, an early help assessment, an early help plan and a recorded outcome and closure summary.  A further contract would be award with effect from 1 April 2019 to provide a whole family mental health and wellbeing service.

·  Development of early help - Engaging all stakeholders in the process of developing a long-term approach to early help which is sustainable, responsive to need, proactive in delivery, and owned by communities, involving Stakeholder engagement, capacity building, evaluation, collective impact modelling, and the launching a new model by 1 April 2021.

In noting the increase in activity by the community and voluntary sector, it was queried how it could be assured that a group of people with an important need were not missing out on necessary referrals.  The Committee was advised that a manager post had been established for oversight, that the early help hub accessed the liquid logic system, and that all organisations were doing rigorous data collection.  A communications strategy had been developed that would seek to ensure that all necessary agencies were aware of the new and developing arrangements.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the report be noted;

(2)  the Community Matters initiative be supported.