Bucks County Council is looking at the way it provides services for children, young people and families. As ever, this appears to be driven by the need to reduce costs.
It is carrying out a public consultation and the opportunity to contribute has been extended to Monday 16th October.
Available online here the consultation seeks feedback on a new way of supporting children and families earlier to prevent them needing more intensive help from social care and education services in the future.
The consultation which launched on 14 July 2017 has been running for seven weeks and has received over 1900 responses to date.
Following a mid-point review of responses the council has added further information on the current services included, as well as how these might change and what the proposed new service could look like.
The consultation outlines proposals for a new approach to helping children and families, to ensure small problems don't get bigger and too difficult to manage. From money worries, parenting tips, behavioural issues right through to support with mental health and domestic abuse – the proposal is to work with families to tackle all of their problems at the same time.
This will mean changes to existing early help services that the council deliver or commission. These are:
- Bucks Family Information Service
- Children's centres
- Advice and support for young people through Connexions (Adviza)
- Early Help coordinators
- Families First
- Family Resilience
- Support for children who have lived with Domestic Violence
- Support for parents through Barnardo's
- Young carers support
- Youth Services
A new Early Help service would replace all of these existing services, bringing them together to create one service with teams of family workers based in the local community. This will mean they can reach out to these families to work with them at home or in places they are most comfortable. This could be a local community venue, their school or a coffee shop.
Find out more about the proposal for a new Early Help service for Buckinghamshire children and families and have your say here.
If you have already responded but now wish to add more, please complete the survey again. Responses already sent in will still be included. The consultation will now close on Monday 16th October to allow as much time as possible for responses.
